Doing Homework on Vaccines this Back-to-School Season? Here are 10 Ways to Separate Fact from Fiction. Los Angeles Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association (BLLA) successfully closed its 2017 Annual Stay Boutique Leadership Conference held at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center last week. Over 230 attendees and 56 speakers came together to dissect the boutique and lifestyle industries and divulge into the boutique movement, by redefining what the industry means and where it is heading in 2018. At the forefront of this movement, BLLA is redefining what hospitality is by further merging the fashion, lifestyle, wellness, design, and food and beverage industries. "At this year's leadership conference, we joined together an eclectic line-up of presenters from every area of the hospitality sector, that showed us what it means to be boutique," says BLLA Founder & CEO, Frances Kiradjian. "BLLA has become the industry's go-to source to educate, provide and inspire the world of boutique and we're so excited to have created a community that brings all these sectors together to create the new and enhanced boutique movement." At the helm of this movement is mother-daughter duo, BLLA CEO & Founder, Frances Kiradjian and Vice President, Ariela Kiradjian, who continue to collaborate with the best in the industry to create a world-renowned platform and association to inspire all things boutique. "Boutique is not just a hotel, it's an experience and any industry can join the community" says Ariela, on how the boutique sector has become much more than just a hotel. BLLA is redefining what boutique hospitality means, being at the forefront of taking the industry and integrating it into other sectors like fashion, design, wellness, lifestyle and food & beverage. This year's conference also announced BLLA's Stay Boutique platform, the world's first and only direct booking site for boutique and lifestyle hotels, and a platform for boutique inspiration. The conference addressed and examined the success and challenges of the industry, defined today's luxury traveler and consumer, and strategically assessed how to meet their needs. "Positive disruption is about having the courage to celebrate the intent of the action", said keynoter Bill Walshe, CEO of Viceroy Hotel Group, who spoke on the ideologies of the industry, and the importance of providing a cultural journey to retain consumer loyalty. Founder and CEO Sam Nazarian of sbe, discussed the topic of staying relative in the sector, explaining "it's about more than the design and gimmicksYou have to have culinary and hospitality expertise to make these unique." CEO Sue Walter of The Hospital Club dove into the rise of member clubs and providing exclusive services. The group represented and spoke to the new wave of boutique and lifestyle hospitality, including Co-Founder Rosie O'Neill of Sugarfina, Co-Founder John Terzian of H.Wood Group, CEO Jonas Tahlin of Absolut Elyx, Principle David Fishbein of Runyon Group. The conference also announced this year's BLLA awards, acknowledging the best of 2017 for the following categories: BOUTIQUE HOTEL The Woodmark Hotel & Still Spa, Kirkland, Washington The Woodmark Hotel & Still Spa, Kirkland, Washington LIFESTYLE HOTEL the ART, a hotel, Denver, Colorado the ART, a hotel, Denver, Colorado BRANDED BOUTIQUE HOTEL Hotel Beaux Arts Miami, Autograph Collection, Miami, Florida Hotel Beaux Arts Miami, Autograph Collection, Miami, Florida BRANDED LIFESTYLE HOTEL Hotel LeVeque, Autograph Collection, Columbus, Ohio Hotel LeVeque, Autograph Collection, Columbus, Ohio SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER Roza Sinaysky, Tel Aviv, Israel , Roza Sinaysky, Tel Aviv, Israel , BOUTIQUE INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT Jamie Beck for Ann Street Studios Jamie Beck for Ann Street Studios BOUTIQUE HOTELIER Brendan Gresham, Charlestowne Hotels Brendan Gresham, Charlestowne Hotels BOUTIQUE HOTEL RESTAURANT Casa Amate at Andaz Mayakoba Riviera Maya, Mexico Casa Amate at Andaz Mayakoba Riviera Maya, Mexico BOUTQIUE RETAILER Tuft & Needle, Phoenix, Arizona Tuft & Needle, Phoenix, Arizona BOUTIQUE LOUNGE Poppy, West Hollywood, California Poppy, West Hollywood, California BOUTIQUE WELLNESS FACILITY Basecamp at the Whitney Peak Hotel, Reno, Nevada Basecamp at the Whitney Peak Hotel, Reno, Nevada BOUTIQUE THINKER John Terzian, H.Wood Group, Nightlife Entrepreneur John Terzian, H.Wood Group, Nightlife Entrepreneur BOUTIQUE RESTAURANT RUKA Restobar, Boston, Massachusetts RUKA Restobar, Boston, Massachusetts BOUTIQUE COMMUNITY CONNECTOR Casea Collins-Wright, Honolulu, Hawaii - Director of Experience at The Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club Casea Collins-Wright, Honolulu, Hawaii - Director of Experience at The Surfjack Hotel & Swim Club BOUTIQUE COLLABORATOR The High Line Hotel, New York The High Line Hotel, New York BOUTIQUE BRANDING STRATEGY Absolut Elyx, New York Absolut Elyx, New York BOUTIQUE SOCIAL CLUB The Hospital Club, London, U.K. The Hospital Club, London, U.K. BOUTIQUE DESIGNER Patrick Sutton, Baltimore, Maryland (for the Sagamore Pendry Hotel) About the Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association ( BLLA ) The world's most innovative and progressive organization dedicated to the luxury independent boutique lodging and lifestyle industries. The association connects the world's most dynamic executives with cutting edge business and operational insight. BLLA's membership benefits allow access to the world's leading minds in the space through events, research and education. Our mission is to provide leadership and opportunities for global recognition and connections to the world's best hotels, vendors and manufacturers. All resulting in strategic interactions and access to information that helps people and organizations thrive. Join the movement that BLLA gave birth to in 2009 and become a part of something that is truly unique, exciting and inspirational. For more information visit www.blla.org and www.stayboutiquemedia.com. Ariana Squillacciotti J Public Relations 212 924 3600 BLLA EyeforTravels latest consumer research has some interesting findings, not least that travellers seem to prefer the online travel agent experience The findings of EyeforTravels latest Chinese Travel Consumer Report 2017-2018, which surveyed over 2,000 consumers, are bad news for the direct booking charge. According to the report 77.5% of web bookings are made through an online travel agent website, rising to 81.2% for app bookings. Only 17.6% of travellers booked direct through a website, and 12.9% used the airline app. So, despite pressure from the Chinese government on airlines to drive more direct bookings, the majority of digital bookings in China are still made through OTAs! The dominance of OTAs in China is in marked contrast to Western markets where airlines have been able to hold their market share or in some cases grow it. According to Alex Hadwick, EyeforTravel Head of Research, this outlines the unique dynamics at play in China, where smartphones and apps play a much larger role in the travel booking process. The report found a similar pattern for accommodation bookings, with seven out of 10 Chinese travel consumers booking through OTAs versus around one in 10 using a hotels website or apps. Going forward, there are two main challenges. OTA concentration: There are just a handful of OTAs in China, with Ctrip, Qunar and Meituan-Dianping being the main ones. Ctrip and Qunar are particularly popular with app users, a growing segment of the market. Price sensitivity: Price is a major issue for Chinese travellers with more than nine in 10 turning to price comparison sites during research. Accommodation trends Meanwhile, on the accommodation front, the report notes that Tujia is primed for growth as the biggest player in the Chinese home rental market, with around 450,000 properties nationwide. It offers Airbnb type accommodation, but with services uniquely tailored to the needs of Asian tourists, which the company CEO has said are very different to those of Western tourists. In a widely quoted example, founder Melissa Yang has said that Chinese tourists wouldnt want to have to take out the trash. Towards the end of last year, Tuija strengthened its position by acquiring the home-sharing businesses of both Qunar and Ctrip. Earlier in the year, it had bought rival short-term rental platform Mayi and established a partnership with Ctrip as well as HomeAway. Further proving that the push is to dominate Asia-Pacific rather than just China, it has also signed agreements with Japans homeshare portal Rakuten Lifull Stay. Want to read more? Sign up for EyeforTravel On Demand to access the full report, which includes: A survey of more than 2,000 Chinese travel consumers. Economic analysis and projections for the Chinese economy. Summaries and outlooks for Chinese domestic and outbound travel. Consumer booking, research, and trip spending behaviours. Lead times for flight, accommodation and tours and activities. Geographic and demographic breakdowns. Over 50 figures, tables and charts profiling the Chinese travel consumer. This article originally appeared on EyeForTravel. Hotel Equities and F&F, LLC broke ground recently on a new-build Staybridge Suites by IHG at 4901 Griffin Road in Davie, Florida. Construction is underway for the hotel with completion expected in late 2018. Hotel Equities serves as the management company for the property. Amin and Ramzan Gulamali, Principals with F&F, LLC, the owners and developers of the hotel, welcomed special guests to the event. "We at F&F, LLC seek strategic partnerships that advance our mission to provide nothing less than excellent hospitality to our patrons," said Amin Gulamali, Principal with F&F, LLC. "Thus, our work with Hotel Equities, a management firm that has experience in operations and sales, is intentional. We know that our alliance will ensure the hotel's success." "As we continue to expand our Florida portfolio, it is important to ensure that we partner with the right owners and brands," said Joe Reardon, Sr. Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for Hotel Equities. "We are excited to work with this dynamic ownership group and their three new hotel assets in the Florida market. The location in Davie offers extended stay demand from a dynamic mix of businesses, events and attractions that will bring guests to our hotel year-round. Our award-winning guest service and management expertise will deliver value to our owners and guests alike. Dignitaries attending the groundbreaking event included the Honorable Judy Paul, Mayor of the Town of Davie; Caryl Hattan, Town of Davie Council Member and Zahra Hayat, president of the Ismali Council for Florida. Christina Khan, Director of Sales for the Residence Inn by Marriott Miami Beach/Surfside, FL, represented Hotel Equities. Hotel Equities (HE) is an Atlanta-based full-service hotel ownership, management and development firm operating more than 100 hotels throughout North America. Frederick W. Cerrone, CHA, serves as Founder and Chairman. Brad Rahinsky serves as President and Chief Executive Officer. If the radio industry and other forms of traditional music consumption media werent worried before, they probably should start to tremble a little bit with this news. According to Forbes, Americans set a new record for music streaming last week, racking up a 8.3 billion streams in the span of just one week. Its a new record for the country, as per stats published by Neilsen, and is also a further indicator that streaming services, for better or for worse, are the principal way enthusiasts of hip-hop or any other genre of music are engaging with their favorite artists or songs. In fact, those numbers could be astronomically larger too, since YouTube views were not taken into account during the collection period, nor was any use of a service like Pandora (which, to be fair, functions more as a radio platform). The Forbes report makes the rough estimate that, based on the figure generated by the Neilsen research, every American wouldve listened to at least 25 songs during that week-long period but, of course, logic dictates that this statement would be largely incorrect based on subscription numbers. Alongside Spotify boasting 140 million paid subscribers at last count and Apple Music having just crossed 30 million, the number of additional users arent known (i.e. free Spotify account holders), but even with that in mind, there are a large group of Americans who are clearly consuming hundreds, if not thousands, of songs every week. Its not hard to see how this new record of 8.3 billion streams in one week could easily be broken before the end of the year, perhaps even several times over. The overall outlook is even more impressive, based on third quarter numbers that Forbes obtained as well. According to that data, Americans have already recorded 287 billion on-demand streams up this point in the calendar year. Just like the other model, video streams were not counted in this sum, but when they are added, the total looks more like 442 billion. With physical album sales continuing to dwindle down to near-nothingness and the radio industry quickly seeming like an archaic entity, streaming has moved into focus as the de facto method of music consumption in the United States. Theres no going back either. Streaming On Sunday, Giants star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. had his season ended when he broke his ankle on a 4th quarter play against the Los Angeles Chargers. Having been carted off the field with tears rolling down his face, things didnt look good for the star wide receiver moving forward. On Monday, the team announced that they had placed Beckham on injured reserve, and confirmed that the star WR would indeed under go surgery on his fractured ankle. Wasting no time, OBJ went under the knife late Monday night and later reassured fans that hell be back better than ever, or so he says on his IG post Tuesday morning. While laid up recovering in the hospital bed Tuesday, it turns out the Giants wide receiver had one of his close friends stop by for some moral support, and that being Drake. The Toronto superstar took time out of his day and paid a visit by Odells bedside in the hospital, posting a pic on Instagram and leaving the caption Had to come visit brobounce back like 13 @obj (my 13 is backwards but its still bless). The bromance between and Drake & OBJ has been an ongoing thing over the past couple years. From touring together overseas to OBJ actually living at Drakes house over the Summer in Calabasas, the two superstars have built an unbreakable bond that stems deeper than their respective skills. To see his whole story and then to finally be able to meet him, a guy like that whose mindset is very similar to mine, OBJ said about Drake in an interview last year. Like I said, he wants to be the greatest. He wants to put out the best song every single time. I understand where hes at. Check out Drizzys IG post (below), and look out for some new music to surface hopefully sooner than later. In fact, fellow Giants safety Landon Collins shared an unreleased song on his IG a few weeks ago and Drake was recently spotted cooking up in the studio. So all signs are pointing that new music is on the way. Stay tuned. Drake Its no secret that 2017 has been a big year for the genre of hip-hop in general. It officially surpassed rock as the most popular subdivision of music in the United States and, based on the amount of songs that most Americans are consuming on a weekly basis, theres a lot of rap records being played these days. On top of that, many big artists released strong albums over the course of this calendar year. From Kendrick Lamars DAMN. to Jay-Zs 4:44 to French Montanas Jungle Rules, there were many watershed moments to be had by some of the most admired emcees in the world. However, according to the RIAA, there is only one man whos managed to get two 2017 albums certified Gold at minimum: his name is Future. The Mask Off rapper has accomplished a rare feat in the music industry, after seeing his record HNDRXX get a Gold plaque for moving the sales plus streaming equivalent to 500,000 units. This further boosts his credibility with show business pundits, with his self-titled FUTURE album already having been classified Platinum by the RIAA, due in large part to the strength of the aforementioned hit single. Both records, when looked at together as a larger body of work, total nearly 40 tracks and run right around two hours and thirty minutes in length. Its a lot of music and the fact that fans have continued to stand by it is a testament to Futures emergence as one of raps biggest stars. In more recent music news, the Atlanta native recently teamed up with Tory Lanez to craft the track Real Thing, a song that will likely be making an appearance on Lanezs forthcoming album titled Memories Dont Die. There are several things that we want to see from the Canadians follow-up to I Told You, which include a certified club banger and perhaps a collaboration with a fellow Toronto native (Drake anyone?). Check that list out here. While youre at it, make sure you check out our picks for the Top 35 Future songs of all time, which you can find here. Future Just call him the late-night snack sleuth. J. Cole is more famous for his rhymes than for his ice cream controversies, but in a recent video clip that made its way onto social media, the script was flipped. While in some sort of general store located on the border of Germany and Switzerland, Cole noticed a wrapper on a particular brand of frozen dessert that would raise the eyebrows of most people (especially any PR personnel) in the room. What the f**k is going on? asked the rapper, while holding a Nogger bar up to the camera. There is no typo, thats exactly how its spelled. The product is made by GB Glace, Swedens largest marker of ice cream products. That company is owned by the mega-conglomerate Unilever, which makes it hard to believe that this kind of barely-there logic passes as a standardized name thats on store shelves everywhere. Apparently, this isnt the first time GB Glace has courted controversy with this particular subdivision of their ice cream empire. In 2005, they landed in hot water after introduced a new kind of ice cream bar called Nogger Black. Using a black licorice coating instead of the usual milk chocolate one, you can see why many were incensed when the incident first occurred. Even worse? The typeface for the Nogger Black name was in 90s-style graffiti. Cue the facepalming. Slate criticized the product at the time, a point of view that J. Cole clearly shares, as he seems genuinely taken aback in the video. The rapper comments on how the Germans think they slick, but such a transgression couldnt escape the eagle eyes of the 4 Your Eyez Only artist. Fun fact: Cole was actually born in Germany, at a U.S. military base. His mother later relocated him and the rest of his family to North Carolina after his father left them. Theres no telling if the rapper was old enough to register any memories of similarly-named ice cream bars when he was a kid, but theres no doubt hell remember which bar not to buy when hes next in Germany. J. Cole We learned that Harvey Weinstein got fired from his big film production company, The Weinstein Company, after sexual assault allegations surfaced, stemming from years back, involving high-profile celebs such as Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, among others. We now learn that Jay-Z allegedly has some interest in getting in on the film industry even more by taking Harveys place. According to TMZ, Jay and his private investors that consist of a billionaire and famous movie producer are thinking of purchasing Harveys 23% interest in the company. Jay is already familiar with the production team since he and Harvey are executive producers on The Kalief Browder Story a six-episode documentary that chronicles the life of Kalief Browder, a Bronx high school student who was jailed for three years for a crime he did not commit. Jay is also said to have a Trayvon Martin miniseries in the works. The Holy Grail rapper is apparently still looking to have a successful, working relationship with the company and would like to do so by having stakes. Former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, have come forward with a statement about the allegations against Harvey saying they are disgusted by the reports. The full statement reads: Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein. Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status. We should celebrate the courage of women who have come forward to tell these painful stories. And we all need to build a culture including by empowering our girls and teaching our boys decency and respect so we can make such behavior less prevalent in the future. Harvey was a frequent guest at The White House and has raised and donated over a million dollars in funds for Democrats of the House dating back to Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton, who was a beneficiary of Harveys fundraising benefits, also broke her silence on the allegations saying, The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated, Hillary said in a statement. Their courage and support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior. Jay-z Last month, Jordan Brand gave a sneak preview of their annual Holiday Collection. Today, we have official images as well as release info for the upcoming lineup of Air Jordans, including the Bordeaux Air Jordan 12, Golden Harvest Air Jordan 1 Flyknit, the two Air Jordan 11s and much more. This Holiday season Jordan Brand will continue to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the Air Jordan 13 and explore new colorways, materials and make-ups of the Air Jordan 1, Air Jordan 6 and Air Jordan 12, though many sneakerheads are most looking forward to the release of the Win Like 82 and Win Like 96 Air Jordan 11s. The UNC-inspired Win Like 82 AJ11 will be hitting retailers one month from now on November 11th, while the all-red Win Like 96 colorway is set to drop on December 9th. Both kicks will be releasing in sizes for the whole family, and will be accompanied by similarly styled versions of the Air Jordan 32. Jordan Brand will also be releasing two brand new Air Jordan 12s including the aforementioned suede Bordeaux colorway, which draws on inspiration from Frances rich winemaking tradition, and a Dark Grey rendition which swaps the leather upper for suede and nods to the original Taxi colorway by featuring gold lace eyelets. On December 21st, the black and green Altitude Air Jordan 13 will be making its return to retailers for the first time since it debuted in 2005, and it will feature the all-leather OG construction. Rounding out Jordan Brands Holiday preview is the Golden Harvest and Elemental Gold lineup which includes Wheat renditions of the Air Jordan 1, Air Jordan 6 and Air Jordan 13. Each of these kicks feature soft suede materials and monochromatic color schemes, with the only form of contrast appearing in white on the Air Jordan 6. Take a look at Jordan Brands 2017 Holiday Collection release details below. Click here for more details. Air Jordans Last Friday night, many of hip-hops biggest names made their way down to Miami, Florida for the taping of the 2017 BET Hip-Hop Awards Show, which was hosted by DJ Khaled. Tonight (Oct. 10), we got to see what went down as the show is finally being aired on television at the moment. Thankfully, many of those big-named artists werent just there in attendance, but they also took their talents to the stage to perform some of the years biggest hits. Performers at this years event included a mix of old school & new school rappers with Cardi B, DJ Khaled, Migos, Rick Ross, Trick Daddy, Trina, Flo Rita, T-Pain, Playboi Carti & more. DJ Khaled kicked off the show with a lit performance of his 2007 hit single Im So Hood, bringing out special guest Trick Daddy, T-Pain, Rick Ross & Plies for their respective verses. Then, Migos came together on stage for a performance of Scotty 2 Hotty. Later, we saw Playboi Carti perform his hit records WokeUpLikeThis & Magnolia, and Gucci Mane took over Club Liv to perform his hits Curve & I Get The Bag. In addition, Yo Gotti took the stage to perform his smash Rake It Up, before Cardi B closed the evening out with a performance of her smash hit Bodak Yellow. For the annual I am hip-hop award, this years recipient was Miami rap legend Uncle Luke. In the 80s, Luke played an integral role in the famed hip-hop group, 2 Live Crew, before seguing into a successful solo career. Lukes edgy and provocative lyrics earned him a place as the Godfather of Southern Hip-Hop. If you missed any of the performances Tuesday night, then hit the links (below) and let us know who stole the show with the best performance? (Well be updating the footage as they become available, stay tuned.) Performance 1: DJ Khaled Im So Hood feat. Rick Ross, Plies, T-Pain & Trick Daddy Performance 2: Migos Scotty 2 Hotty Performance 3: Playboi Carti Woke Up Like This & Magnolia Performance 4: Yo Gotti Rake It Up Performance 5: Cardi B Bodak Yellow 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards By now, most of you are aware that the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards were aired Tuesday night where Eminem stole the show with his attacks at President Donald Trump. Aside from Em though, this years cyphers saw the likes of Fat Joe, Denzel Curry, Tee Grizzley, 6LACK, Belly, Cyhi The Prince, J.I.D & more all blessing the mic with some bars backed with DJ Premier on the boards. But before all that aired Tuesday night, BET decided to release their Instabooth segment over the weekend, which served as a precursor to Tuesday nights cyphers. With Big Tigger playing host, over a dozen artists stopped up the mic to lay down some rhymes, including DJ Khaled (and his son Asahd), Millyz, Dave East, Bre-Z, A$AP Ferg, T-Pain, Tammy Rivera, Waka Flocka, Michael Dapaah, Jasmin Brown, Vince Swann, Tristen Winger, Mysonne, Cozz, Tee Grizzley, XXXtentacion, Zoey Dollaz, YFN Lucci, and Diddys son, King Combs. While pretty much everyone brought the heat, it was Dave East, ASAP Ferg & XXXTentacion who arguably shined the most in this 10-minute freestyle segment. Claim you want me, thats something that you just gotta prove/Lotta jewels, Gucci uniforms like its private school/Crazy me wearing these red bottoms, been throwing em out the blue/Young rich nigga, probably find me where Stella got her groove, Dave East spits. Meanwhile XXX, who was wearing a black & white mask, spits the following Rap quitter, never for the sack, nigga/ Who blizzards this rap, bigger than men of a pack/ Grin to the top of the gat, grip, and Im busting up white niggas/ Tarter or plaque, nigga? What do you choose?/ Simply irrelevant, mhm, cynical, evident/ Please, wrestling evidence, keys/ Moving when definite Soul goes for the President/ Bleed red for the government, hes If youre fan of lyrical bars & freestyle, then this is something you will definitely appreciate. Check out the 10-minute freestyle session (below) and let us know which rapper brought the most heat? If you happened to have missed the actual cyphers from last night, be sure to do yourself the favor and revisit them right here. BET Instabooth On a recent taping of The Wendy Williams Show, where the latest gossip and celebrity drama is discussed (more recently the rape allegations surrounding Nelly) Wendy said an insensitive comment that a lot of people did not take to. When discussing the woman who is suing Nelly, Wendy said: If she did not put herself in that situation, this wouldnt have happened. Young lady, youve got to stay out of tour buses. The talk show host began her Tuesday show with a public apology, where she began her emotional response with a picture of herself from when she was 13-years-old, talking about men that she would encounter since she looked much older than she was. She details how she understands how some men can be blunt. All Im saying regarding young women is, I apologize if my message was met with callousness, she said emotionally. But, what I meant to say is, young ladies, we should be able to go wherever we want to go, but we always have to know where the exits are, we always have to have our 20 dollar bill just in case, and we have to be aware, thats all I was saying. I apologize. Wendy adds how she sits on stage alone and doesnt have someone to bounce her comments off of like the ladies over at The View. Nelly is being accused of rape that is said to have taken place on his tour bus in Washington. Nellys attorney, Scott Rosenblum, issued a statement following the allegations that read: Nelly is the victim of a completely fabricated allegation. Our initial investigation, clearly establishes, this allegation is devoid of credibility and is motivated by greed and vindictiveness. I am confident, once this scurrilous accusation is thoroughly investigated, there will be no charges. Nelly is prepared to address and pursue all legal avenues to redress any damage caused by this clearly false allegation. The victims attorney, Karen Koehler, issued a response after Nelly was accused of bullying and intimidating the victim. It is morally reprehensible for an accused person and his bully lawyer to issue derogatory and defamatory statements against a young alleged rape victim, Koehler said in the letter. It is also criminal in the State of Washington when those vicious attacks are issued in the form of threats. Wendy Williams In addition to supply growth, STR analysts note that a decline in events in the market compared with September 2016 might have weighed on Dubais performance for the month. For example last year, Dubai hosted the biennial International Congress of the International Society of Blood Transfusion. STRs preliminary September 2017 data for Dubai, United Arab Emirates, indicates performance declines consistent with significant supply growth. Based on daily data from September, Dubai reported the following in year-over-year comparisons: Supply: +5.6% Demand: +0.6% Occupancy: -4.7% to 76.6% Average daily rate (ADR): -10.6% to AED497.67 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): -14.8% to AED381.20 In addition to supply growth, STR analysts note that a decline in events in the market compared with September 2016 might have weighed on Dubais performance for the month. For example last year, Dubai hosted the biennial International Congress of the International Society of Blood Transfusion. Additionally, residents experienced a shorter vacation period this year, as the Eid Al Adha holiday shifted from 11-18 September in 2016 to 31 August to 3 September in 2017. STR will release full September 2017 results later this month. STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 10 countries around the world with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and an international headquarters in London, England. For more information, please visit str.com. Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest all industry news and trends. Subscribe 2022 Hospitality Trends 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 View Results Rats Can Bop Their Heads to Music in Rhythm Just Like Humans, Finds Study Image: Wallpaper Srinagar, Oct 11 (IBNS): Two militants and as many army men were killed in a fierce encounter at Hajin area of north Kashmir's Bandipora district on Wednesday. According to sources, army's 13 RR and SOG launched a cordon-and-search at Rakh-e- Hajin village on Tuesday night, following inputs about the presence of some LeT militants in the area. Jammu and Kashmir DGP SP Vaid tweeted, "Encounter in Rakh e Hajin Bandipore . Information about LET terrorists." Hailing the soldiers, Vaid said in an ensuing tweet, "Salute to officers &a Jawans of SF & J&K Police. Great going." As the joint team of forces intensified the searches on wee hours, the hiding militants opened fired, triggering a fierce gunfight between the two sides. In the ensuing encounter, so far, two militants have been killed and their identity are being ascertained. According to an official, six soldiers had sustained serious bullet wounds and were immediately moved to a military hospital for treatment. However, two among the six soldiers were declared brought dead by the doctors on arrival, the officer said. According to reports, the operation is still on. (Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri) Image: wallpaper New Delhi, Oct 11 (IBNS): The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval for a Memorandum of Understanding between India and Belarus for cooperation in the field of Vocational Education and Training (VET). The MoU was signed on Sept 12 during the State visit of Alexander Lukashenko, President of Belarus to India. This is for the first time MoU for cooperation in area of vocational education, training and skill development has been signed with Eurasian country. Belarus has a large concentration of industries, mainly into manufacturing and heavy industries, which draw their strength from available skilled manpower and a highly developed skill training system. The transfer of knowledge of their skilling methodology will immensely help in our initiatives like "Make in India" and "Skill India". This MoU would pave the way for systematic transfer of their expertise and knowhow in skilling the manpower specially in manufacturing sector. Cooperation between two countries in identified areas would be implemented through establishing institutional partnerships between Republican Institute for Vocational Education" (RIPO) , an apex institution for development of Belarusian vocational education system and Directorate General of Training for transfer of technology in VET delivery & its sustainability. Cooperation with Sectoral VET/ Centres of Excellence of Belarus is proposed for Research and Development in the skilling ecosystem. New Delhi, Oct 11 (IBNS): The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) with Capital Markets Authority (CMA), Kuwait for mutual co-operation and technical assistance. The MoU is likely to promote further development of economic links and cooperation between the two regulators, and aims at creating conditions for an effective development of securities markets in the two countries. It would also contribute towards strengthening the information sharing framework between the two. It is expected to add value to overseas mutual cooperation and regulation activities of SEBI and CMA, Kuwait. New York, Oct 11(Just Earth News): To help African, Caribbean and Pacific countries stop unsustainable wildlife hunting, conserve natural heritage and strengthen people's livelihoods and food security, the United Nations agriculture agency launched on Tuesday a a45 million multi-partner initiative. Funded by the European Commission, the seven-year Sustainable Wildlife Management programme will be led by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to contribute to conserving and sustainably using wildlife in forests, savannas and wetlands by regulating hunting, strengthening indigenous and rural communities' management capacities and increasing the supply of sustainably produced meat products and farmed fish. Wildlife has ecological, social and economic value. It is important for rural development, land-use planning, food supply, tourism, scientific research and cultural heritage, said FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva speaking at on Tuesday's launch. This programme will protect wildlife species, conserve biodiversity, and maintain the essential ecological roles of wildlife. It will also help to secure the stocks and ecosystems services that are essential to the livelihoods of the poorest communities on the planet, he added. Countries participating in the project include Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guyana, Madagascar, Mali, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Congo, Senegal, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Hunting and fishing in the targeted countries is often unsustainable affecting wild animal populations in forests and savannas causing what FAO calls a wildmeat crisis. For example, the programme estimates that in the Congo Basin some 4.6 million metric tonnes of wildmeat are consumed annually, an equivalent of approximately half of the beef produced in the European Union. According to FAO, if hunting wildlife for food is not reduced to sustainable levels, not only will biodiversity be lost, but also countless numbers of families whose livelihoods depend on natural resources will suffer soaring levels of food insecurity and debilitating child malnutrition. The programme will work closely with national authorities to provide rural communities with alternative protein sources such as chicken, livestock or farmed fish. Doing so will help deter hunting of endangered species, support recovery of their populations and reduce food safety risks that can be associated with the consumption of wild meat. In places where livestock production is limited or imported meat unavailable or unaffordable, people will continue relying on wild animals to feed their families. However, measures like recognizing people's customary tenure rights may encourage more wildlife conservation on their land, avoiding unnecessary hunting. In large urban areas, where wild meat is sold and consumed more as a luxury item, restrictions on wild meat consumption need to be put in place. The initiative also focuses on creating jobs in the farming sector, empowering women and securing indigenous rights to access the natural resources their livelihoods and cultures depend upon. The programme contributes to several targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to food security, sustainable land management and biodiversity conservation, specifically supporting SDG15, this year's review of which notes that poaching and trafficking of wildlife remain serious concerns. Photo: Andrea Turkalo Source: www.justearthnews.com New York, Oct 11(Just Earth News): Three weeks since category 5 Hurricane Maria ripped through Dominica, the scope of the damage remains daunting, with islanders in dire need of water, electricity, food and supplies, the United Nations migration agency reported on Tuesday as it continued to carry out an array of activities as part of the response. Noting that an estimated 23 per cent of the small Caribbean nations homes have been flattened, Jean Philippe Antolin, head of response operations in the Caribbean for the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said: Those houses do not exist anymore. They have either been blown into the sea or totally scattered in pieces across the island. In addition, some 39 per cent of the houses have sustained severe damage, and a further 28 per cent have been affected to some degree said IOM, underscoring that the numbers reflect the painful human situations in the shelters where more than 2,000 Dominicans are still living, while the rest are staying with relatives and friends. A mother and her children took cover in a local school just before the hurricane hit, and are still living in one of the classrooms with another family. My home just vanished into thin air. Nothing, nothing left to remember from it. Everything is gone, she told IOM. The agency has responded through promoting an array of activities, including supply delivery, coordination of shelter management, and pipelining international donations. IOM has released $100,000 to scale up shelter response, and an additional $350,000 has been secured from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). Many Dominicans are still returning to their homes to salvage their belongings and clear debris during the day, but sleep in shelters or with host families. Photo: UNICEF/Moreno Gonzalez Source: www.justearthnews.com New York, Oct 11(Just Earth News): The Security Council on Tuesday endorsed the United Nationsa action plan to resume an inclusive political process in Libya. In a Presidential Statement, the 15-member body strongly urged all Libyans to work together in a spirit of compromise and to engage constructively in the inclusive political process set out in the UN action plan, which was presented at a high-level event in New York on 20 September 2017. Regarding the measures set out in the action plan, the statement said that the Council looks forward to further sequential implementation of the plan, ahead of the holding of parliamentary and presidential elections within a year. The Council also reaffirmed that the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA), which was signed in December 2015, remains the only viable framework to end the Libyan political crisis, and that any attempt by Libyan parties to undermine the Libyan-led, UN-facilitated political process is unacceptable. Welcoming recent efforts to strengthen an inclusive political dialogue among all Libyans, including important efforts by Libyas neighbours, international partners and regional organizations, the Council stressed that all such initiatives should be consolidated under the leadership of the UN. In that regard, the Council emphasised the imperative for all Member States to support the primacy of the UN mediation in Libya. UN Photo/Loey Felipe (file) Source: www.justearthnews.com New York, Oct 11(Just Earth News): The United Nations Security Council has called on the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to investigate into, and bring to justice those behind Mondayas attack on a peacekeeping mission base in North Kivu that resulted in the deaths of two ablue helmets.a In a press statement on Tuesday, the 15-member Council strongly condemned the attack, carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), in which 18 peacekeepers were also injured. The members condemned in the strongest terms all attacks and provocations against the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [known by its French acronym, MONUSCO] by armed groups, added the statement. They also urged all armed groups in the country to lay down their weapons and underscored that attacks against peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law. Further in the statement, Security Council members also expressed their deepest condolences and sympathy to the families of the peacekeepers killed, as well as to the Government of Tanzania where the peacekeepers were from and wished the injured peacekeepers a speedy recovery. The members also reiterated their full support for MONUSCO and expressed their deep appreciation to MONUSCOs troop- and police-contributing countries. Photo: MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti Source: www.justearthnews.com Washington, Oct 11 (IBNS): Addressing a gathering at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, said it is important to retain female politicians than merely recruiting them, media reports said. Trudeau, at the summit held in Washington, said the Canadian government has proposed to include a chapter on gender in the revised edition of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Explaining the plan, the Canadian PM said: "It means recognizing that trade has different impacts on women that it does on men. The summit was also attended by US president Donald Trump's daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump, who was also found to be in a lighter mood with the Canadian prime minister at the summit. Addressing a gathering where several high school girls were present, Trudeau said the female students must have the tenacity to carry on their fight even though their male classmates do not have to. The women summit at the US capital was not entirely about female issues, as US president Donald Trump, too had a chance to come up in the interactive session with Trudeau. Trudeau, who is on his second visit to the US, seemed to be polite about Trump despite Canada's repeated collision with the US due to the NAFTA negotiations. The Canadian PM, with the US president's daughter Ivanka in the crowd listening to him, said his approach towards reaching out to Trump remains the same like any other global leader. Though they differ on a number of issues, still "look for areas of agreement", Trudeau said. "I have conversations with the president every few weeks on a number of things," Trudeau said. Canada is presently negotiating with the US regarding the NAFTA, an agreement which came into force from January 1994 by Canada, Mexico and United States creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. For last one and a half years, US President Trump criticised the agreement and also hinted to take some serious steps being in the administration or at least send some ultimatums. Both Canada and the US differs in the climate change. The US has already announced their withdrawal from the Paris Climate and the process of coming out from it is underway. On the other hand, Canada wants a new NAFTA with a reference to the global climate issues and make necessary steps to tackle them. In the negotitations, Canada is working for a better labour and environmental provisions. Both Canada and the US are in favour of making an environment agreement in the new NAFTA instead of designing a separate deal. The two nations also want to make certain provisions to prevent NAFTA nations from violating the rules for the sake of drawing investments. However, in the last month, Premier Kathleen Wynne threatened the US of imposing similar trade barriers if the US continues with their 'Buy American' policy. The policy is favoured by the US President Donald Trump. The US is trying to include the 'Buy American' policy in the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement ) also, though the Canadian government said they are resisting the pressure. (Reporting by Souvik Ghosh) The state of Kansas is trying to keep the Quapaw Tribe from expanding its casino with a last-ditch appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court The Downstream Casino Resort is unique in that it sits on land in three states: Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. But gaming has been restricted to the Oklahoma portion because that was the only portion in trust when the facility opened in 2008. The picture changed when the Kansas portion was placed in trust in 2012. Subsequently, the top legal officer at the National Indian Gaming Commission issued an opinion saying the property could be used for gaming activities. The state responded by suing the NIGC, arguing that the opinion was unlawful. That's where the matter quickly ended -- the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the opinion could not be challenged because it's merely "advisory" in nature and is not considered a "final agency action." In a petition filed with the Supreme Court on September 25, the state argues that the 10th Circuit got it wrong. The opinion gives the tribe the "legal assurance it needed to expand its casino to Kansas" so it should be considered a final action, the brief reads. "Without the NIGC legal opinion, the uncertainty regarding whether the Kansas land is eligible for gaming would have precluded the tribe from expanding its gaming operations to the Kansas land," the state argues. An aerial view of the Downstream Casino Resort. Gaming activities occur on trust land on the Oklahoma side of the border and a parking lot can be seen on the Kansas side. Another portion of the facility, not seen here, extends into Missouri. Image: Google Earth Despite the assurances claimed in the brief, the expansion at Downstream has not taken hold since the project was announced nearly three years ago . The state has refused to negotiate a Class III gaming compact, a necessary step before the tribe can offer slot machines and similar offerings that are already legal in the Oklahoma portion of the casino. The tribe sued the state in hopes of forcing negotiations but had to drop the case when the state asserted its sovereign immunity . Ironically, the state had named tribal officials as defendants in the NIGC case, arguing that sovereign immunity doesn't apply to their actions. And even though the NIGC's legal opinion is not considered a "final agency action" in the eyes of the 10th Circuit, it is rather noteworthy. It appears to be the first time in the history of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act that a tribe could engage in gaming on land that was part of its "last recognized reservation." Generally, IGRA bars gaming on lands acquired after 1988. But the Kansas parcel falls within the so-called "Quapaw Strip" so it meets an exception in Section 20 of the law, the NIGC's legal office said in the opinion. Like most other tribes, the Quapaws were forced to give up most of their lands in the late 1800s. Shifts in federal law and policy now encourage the restoration of tribal homelands, along with acquisition and consolidation of lands that were previously in tribal ownership. The Kansas portion at Downstream totals about 124 acres and is being used as a parking lot and support area for the casino. The tribe has envisioned a 40,000 square-foot, two-story addition to the facility that would accommodate Class III games and other amenities. The Department of Justice has until October 30 to respond to the state's petition, according to Docket No. 17-463 . The state will be able to file one more reply before the Supreme Court debates whether to hear the case. Only a small percentage of petitions are granted by the court. The case is Kansas v. National Indian Gaming Commission 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Decision: Kansas v. Zinke (June 27, 2017) Relevant Documents: NIGC Indian Land Opinion For 'Quapaw Strip' in Kansas (November 2014) Join the Conversation Related Stories Cryptocurrencies try to stabilize; more upside in risk-on enviroment Wavetraders - 1 hour ago Crypto market found some support after US CPI release last week and looks like there is room for more gains after the recent three-wave (a)-(b)-(c) pullback. S&P500 (ES) Retests Key 4K Level Tradable Patterns - Mon Nov 14, 11:24PM CST The S&P500 (ESZ22) is consolidating for a 3rd straight day after Thursdays massive 5% plus bounce, hesitating as it bumps up against the 61.8% Fib retrace of the August to October slide and the psychologically... ESZ22 : 3,996.00 (+0.76%) SPY : 395.12 (-0.85%) SPXS : 20.63 (+2.53%) SPXU : 15.64 (+2.42%) SPXL : 69.54 (-2.59%) There have been angry exchanges in the Dail today over the budget and Brexit. During proceedings the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was accused of suppressing a report on the dire effects of Brexit. The report on the challenges of an open border post-Brexit came from the Revenue Commissioners and was leaked last week. Speaking earlier this week on the report, Fianna Fail's Brexit spokesperson, Stephen Donnelly, said: "The Revenue Commissioners report outlines clearly the task facing Ireland in terms of Brexit, and on the basis of this report, its very hard to come to any other conclusion that we are heading for a hard border." Mr Varadkar said the report was from 2015 and hed only seen it in the last week. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, who has been accused of being disorderly in the Dail today, said he believed the government had deliberately withheld information and that the public had a right to know what was in the report. "Do you not think traders, the 91,000 companies need to know this kind of stuff? Do you not think the general public need to know it? They do need to know this." The Taoiseach, however, said the Government would not be preparing for something they are trying to prevent. "Is Fianna Fail actually arguing now that we should start training up border guards? That we should start getting dogs ready? That we should start checking out sites for border posts?" "Of course we're doing desktop studies as to what may happen, but we're not going to do what Fianna Fail seems to be suggesting, which is actually start preparing for something we are trying to prevent. " On budgetary matters Richard Boyd Barrett made an accusation that the social houses announced in yesterday's budget had previously been revealed. "The defences against homelessness are collapsing, and against that background you offer nothing new, except a hoax, pretending you're giving something new when it's already been announced," said the People Before Profit TD. "Do you honestly think that's acceptable faced with this housing emergency?" Leo Varadkar cited increased spending on homelessness and the 750 million to get Ireland building with the new agency Home Building Finance Ireland as huge new initiatives in response to Mr Boyd Barrett's question. In Paschal Donohoe's budget speech yesterday, an extra 500m for direct building programme was announced that will see 3,000 additional new build social houses by 2021. Mr Varadkar also said that announcing things prior to the budget speech is "the normal course of events." Asia Thai Junta Sets Firm Date for Election After Many False Starts Myanmars military Chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing (L) shakes hands with Thailands Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha at Government House in Bangkok, Thailand in August. / Reuters BANGKOK, Thailand Thailand will hold a general election in November 2018, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Tuesday, the most precise date he has given yet for the vote since taking power in a 2014 military coup. Prayuth, head of the ruling junta, said the exact date would be announced in June 2018. The junta has announced election dates at least two times in the past, only to push them back later, citing concerns such as changes to the constitution and security issues. Around June we will announce the date for the next election, Prayuth told reporters at Bangkoks Government House. In November we will have an election. Former army chief Prayuth, who led the May 2014 coup widely criticized by Western nations, said it was necessary to end a decade of political turbulence and root out corruption. In April, King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed into law a military-backed constitution that kickstarts the process for an election the junta has promised will restore democracy. The new charter provides for a proportional voting system likely to reduce the influence of major political parties, which critics say aims to strengthen the role of the military. Analysts expect political activities to resume slowly after the funeral of King Bhumibol Adulyadej this month ends a year of mourning for a monarch many Thais saw as a father figure. Prayuth wants to delay the election but he knows that after the kings cremation, there will be pressure for an election, said Kan Yuenyong of the Siam Intelligence Unit think tank. This announcement for the election in November next year will act to reduce that pressure, because if not, there could be chances for protests, he told Reuters. Thailands main stock index rose 0.7 percent after the news, having opened Tuesday down 0.3 percent. Good For Country The government has faced increasing pressure to lift a ban on political activities levied soon after the coup. Prayuth will consider lifting the ban at an appropriate time, he told reporters, without giving details. The junta had initially promised an election in 2015, after seizing power from the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksins governments, or those backed by him, have won every election since 2001, partly because of their overwhelming popularity with politically-powerful rural voters. But the Shinawatras made enemies, including those among the military-backed establishment who accused Thaksin and his allies of corruption. Thaksin was ousted in 2006 and lives abroad in self-imposed exile. Yingluck followed suit in August, when she fledThailand ahead of the verdict in a criminal case. Some politicians expressed skepticism over the election date. It isnt really believable, because they have changed it many times, said Chaturon Chaisang, a member of Thaksins Puea Thai Party. Ong-art Klampaiboon, deputy leader of the Democrat Party, Puea Thais biggest competitor, welcomed the news. The election date creates clarity, Ong-art said. This should be good for the country and the people. Burma NCA Non-Signatories to Attend Ceasefire Anniversary Ceremony KNU Chairman General Mutu Sae Poe and RCSS Chairman General Yawd Serk at the urgent meeting of NCA signatories in Thailand's Chiang Mai. / Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy NAYPYITAW The Myanmar government opened the door for non-signatories of the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) to attend an event to mark the two-year anniversary of the signing of the accord by some of Myanmars ethnic armed groups. The government accepted on Tuesday a proposal by the eight NCA signatories to allow the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC)a group of seven ethnic armed groups based in northern Myanmar led by the United Wa State Army (UWSA)and another ethnic bloc the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) to join the event. This followed an urgent meeting of the Peace Process Steering Team (PPST) representing the eight NCA signatoriesincluding the Karen National Union (KNU), the Chin National Front (CNF) and the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP)on the peace process and the NCA anniversary in Thailands Chiang Mai on Monday and Tuesday. After separate meeting with government representatives in Naypyitaw on Tuesday, PPST spokesperson Khun Myint Tun told reporters: Our delegation led by patron Col Khun Okkar and the government delegation concluded discussions in Naypyitaw this morning. At the meeting we proposed inviting the Northern Alliance [FPNCC] and the UNFC [to the anniversary]. And the government accepted our proposal. Eight ethnic armed groups and the U Thein Sein government signed the NCA on Oct. 15, 2015. The government has planned a national-level event in the administrative capital to mark the anniversary. According to NCA-signatory sources, delegates of NCA non-signatories are likely to hold separate peace talks with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar Army Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, if they attend the NCA anniversary event. Eight NCA signatories will each send an 11-member delegation to the event and KNU chairman Gen Mutu Sae Poe is set to address the ceremony and reaffirm the KNUs dedication to the governments NCA path to internal peace. The eight ethnic armed groups that signed the NCA are: the KNU, the CNF, the APL, the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army (Peace Council) (KNU/KNLA PC), the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), and the Pa-O National Liberation Organization (PNLO). The FPNCC comprises of UWSA, Kachin Independence Army (KIA), National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA), Shan State Progressive Party (SSPP), Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA), and Arakan Army (AA). The Myanmar Army has repeatedly said it would not hold peace talks with the MNDAA, TNLA and AA because they came to existence only after emergence of a democratic government, in contrast to other long-established ethnic armed groups. The UNFC is comprised of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), Lahu Democratic Union (LDU) and Arakan National Council (ANC). Burma US State Dept Senior Officials meet Rohingya lobbyists and INGOs Wakar Uddin, chairman and director general of the Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU), pictured with Deputy Assistant Secretary for Southeast Asia W. Patrick Murphy. / Wakar Uddin / Facebook YANGON US Department of State officials, representatives of Rohingya organizations, and US-based international groups have discussed the need for an indiscriminate UN-administered safe zone in northern Rakhine State as well as the cessation of violence and solutions to the regions humanitarian crisis. One of the meetings attendees, Wakar Uddin, posted two pictures and a summary of the meeting on Facebook. Wakar Uddin is chairman and director general of the Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU), an umbrella organization representing dozens of self-identifying Rohingya groups. International Campaign for the Rohingya (ICR), also one of the participants, posted on Facebook its representatives had met with US officials, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for Southeast Asia W. Patrick Murphy, and discussed sanctioning Burmese army leaders and business interests. ICR stated that Murphy, who visited northern Rakhine in late September, was working with other agencies to address the Rakhine crisis and that he said in terms of sanctions everything is under consideration. According to Wakar Uddins post, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Scott Busby, also attended the one and a half hour meeting at the state department in Washington, along with Simon Billenness of International Campaign for the Rohingya, John Knaus of National Endowment for Democracy, Khedidja Ouheb of Zakat Foundation, Kathryn Striffolino of Save the Children, and Ronnate Asirwatham of American Jewish World Service. Based on Wakar Uddins list of attendees, there was no representation from organizations in other parts of Myanmar society. The meeting covered a range of issues, including the repatriation process of more than 500,000 Muslims and a smaller number of Hindus who fled an army crackdown in northern Rakhine State after militant group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked 30 police outposts on Aug. 25. Ways in which the US government is encouraging its Myanmar counterpart to stop the violence from security forces and locals in Rakhine against Muslims were shared during the meeting, wrote Wakar Uddin. The implementation of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annans recommendations in Rakhine and public security issues were also discussed. Wakar Uddin previously met with Murphy and other US officials following militant attacks on police outposts in the region on Oct. 25. Born in Rakhines troubled Maungdaw Township, Wakar Uddin graduated from Ye Zin Agricultural University (YAU) based in what became Myanmars capital Naypyitaw and left Myanmar for the United States in 1970, where he earned a PhD and currently works as a professor at Pennsylvania State University. Wakar Uddin is also chairman and founder of the Burmese Rohingya Association of North America (BRANA). His other organization, the ARU, was established after a conference for the self-identifying Rohingya at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) headquarters in Saudi Arabia in May, 2011 in order to achieve rights for the community in Rakhine. Communal riots between Arakanese Buddhists and self-identifying Rohingya Muslims rocked the state the following year. ARUs mission statement notes it was formed on the agreed principles of an indivisible Arakan State within the territorial integrity of the Union of Myanmar, through seeking peaceful co-existence, democracy and human rights, and federalism. ARU seeks a political solution to the issues faced by the Rohingya ethnic minority, according to its statement, using a term for the community strongly opposed by most in Myanmar. It does this, the statement reads, in order to reclaim citizenships and restore political, social, economic, cultural, educational and human rights. Wakar Uddin has been close to international organizations over the past years, as well as high-profile western bureaucrats and diplomats. He has posted photos online posing with former Secretary of State John Kerry, former US ambassador Derek Mitchell, W. Patrick Murphy, the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) leaders, UN human rights special rapporteur Yanghee Lee, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the State Department of Norway. He has posted descriptions of his activities on Twitter and Facebook, and also attended the UN General Assembly held earlier this year. Whenever Wakar Uddin speaks to the media, he never hesitates to use controversial words such as genocide and ethnic cleansing to describe the actions of the Myanmar Army in Rakhine. He uses the terms ethnic minority Rohingya and even sometimes indigenous people in an attempt to shape the Rohingya as an ethnic minority of Myanmar on the international stage. He urged the UN, OIC and other super-power countries to intervene when it came to the self-identifying Rohingya crisis. During an interview with Al Jazeera on Sep 10, two weeks after militant attacks in northern Rakhine, Wakar Uddin said the Muslim world should come forward, with strength, to speak out about the self-identifying Rohingya crisis and urged the establishment of a strong coalition from the international community, including western countries. The Security Council should be a force to consider demilitarization in northern Rakhine State and send a UN peacekeeping force like Lebanon, like Africa. And OIC countries just like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, and they should ask China and Russia not to block [the vote to intervene in Myanmar at UN security council]. Wakar Uddin was unavailable for comment at the time of this report. Commentary Rakhine State Conflict Exasperates Faltering Peace Process Attendees of the Union Peace Conferencealso being heralded as the 21st Century Panglong Conferencepictured on the events opening day in Naypyidaw. / J Paing / The Irrawaddy Myanmar has been attempting to bring about peace in the country for almost six years now, with the Union government convincing only eight of Myanmars 21 ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) to sign its landmark nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA). On Sunday, the government and NCA signatories will celebrate the two-year anniversary of the signing of the accord in the countrys capital Naypyitaw. The governments peace commissioners have said they are attempting to achieve peace with all EAOs including members of alliancesnamely the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) and the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee (FPNCC). The government, however, does not recognize the latter as a bloc and would rather meet each of the seven FPNCC groups separately. Earlier this year, the State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said she hopes 2017 can be designated as a year of peace, as her party the National League for Democracy (NLD) has marked national reconciliation and peace as a priority. Not long after she uttered the words, peace observers and advocates said her imaginations of peace were sure to failthey described the peace process as languid, with both formal and informal negotiations stalling. Two possible reasons for stalling progress: The Myanmar Armys reluctance to hold national-level political dialoguesa key step in NCA signingin either Shan or Rakhine states due to unsuitable venues and lack of security respectively. And the militarys reluctance to accept three EAOsthe Arakan Army (AA), Kokangs Myanmar National Democratic Alliance (MNDAA) and the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA). In addition to these hurdles, conflict in Rakhine State that began in August added delays to already faltering peace talks between the government and EAOs. Violence flared when recently-established Muslim militant group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked 30 police and military outposts in northern Rakhine Statekilling 12 members of the security forces. Ensuing military clearance operations have brought waves of international criticism over the treatment of Muslim minority the self-identifying Rohingyaof whom more than 500,000 have fled to Bangladesh bringing with them reports of rape, torture, extra-judicial killing and destruction of property by government forces. Self-identifying Rohingya continue to leave at a rate of thousands a day despite some Muslim communities remaining intact. State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyiwho also leads the countrys peace processhas had to focus on the Rakhine State situation, including the implementation of recommendations by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. In line with one of the recommendations, the government has said it will register repatriated Muslim refugees from Bangladesh through the national citizenship verification process. As this situation unfolds, ARSA appears to have positioned itself alongside Myanmars other EAOs. Some ethnic armed group leaders have denounced ARSAs violence while the humanitarian catastrophe of the self-identifying Rohingya has grabbed the worlds attention. ARSA announced a unilateral ceasefire for one month to allow humanitarian assistance, which ended on Monday. The group offered peace talks with the government on Sunday, which were rejected on the grounds that they did not negotiate with terrorists. In a statement dated Oct. 7, ARSA said: If at any stage, the Burmese Government is inclined to peace, then ARSA will welcome that inclination and reciprocate. Defense Minister Lt-Gen Sein Win reiterated the governments stance of non-negotiation in comments to The Irrawaddy. Harn Yawnghwe, who has been involved in Myanmars peace process since its inception and is director of the Euro-Burma Office, told The Irrawaddy this week that even if the government does not want to it should hold talks with ARSA. For me, I think through armed conflict it is hard to find solutions, while negotiations can help reduce tensions, he said. As Myanmars peace talks with EAOs stall, it is interesting to see which groups see ARSA as a potential partner in negotiating peace with the Union government. Shan, Karen, PaO, Mon, and Arakanese ethnic leaders The Irrawaddy spoke to rejected ARSA as an ethnic armed groupclaiming leaders were raised in Pakistan and that the groups intentions deviate from other EAOs fight for ethnic equality, autonomy, self-determination, and federalism. Some leaders The Irrawaddy spoke to agreed with the governments argument that the self-identifying Rohingya are not indigenous to Myanmar and therefore have no basis for claiming territory. Self-identifying Rohingya should be given citizenship in line with the governments national verification process, all ethnic leaders The Irrawaddy spoke to agreed. Many ethnic leaders, however, refused to comment officially on the issuewith the excuse of not knowing the full details of Rakhine State affairs. KNU vice chairman Padoh Saw Kwe Htoo Win said the EAO had been sharing views on Rakhine affairs within their peace process steering team (PPST) but said as the Rakhine state affair is a sensitive issue, we are very careful [not to publicize our stance]. But ethnic leaders both on and off the record reasoned that as Rohingya are not listed as an ethnicity of Myanmar and they did not know ARSA leaders, it would be hard for them to accept the armed groups call. Chairman of NCA-signatory the Arakan Liberation Party U Khine Soe Naing Aung said there had been many groups in history attempting to represent Rohingya, but they were rejected as the group is not a nationality of Myanmar. He said Rakhine State affairs affect the whole of Myanmar and he believes the NLD government should work to provide citizenship, neutralized citizenship or associate citizenship to Muslims in Rakhine State. Chairman of PaO Nationalities Liberation Organization Khun Myint Tun echoed the view that Rakhine State affairs must be viewed as a Union affair in which all are concerned in finding a solution. He said the problems in Rakhine State were rooted long before independent Myanmar: So we have to accept that there are inhabitants who have been living in the area since the [British] colonial times and who have migrated from neighboring Bangladesh over time. We need to see [the situation] fairly and work out for better solutions. Also many [EAOs] wouldnt publicize their views on either support or denouncing the ARSA to avoid the international pressure, Khine Soe Naing Aung said. Its not surprising that ethnic armed leaders refused to agree with the government or militarys line on Rakhine State publiclyvirtually all ethnic armed groups have suffered from the Tatmadaws oppression in one way or another over the past six or seven decades. DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is a common technology for bringing high-bandwidth (broadband) information to homes and small businesses over standard (copper) telephone lines. DSL comes in many different flavours, such asand. The most common forms of DSL in the UK, ADSL (Asymmetric DSL) and ADSL2+, splits a single telephone line into separate voice and data channels, allowing you to make a phone call while surfing the Internet at the same time. ADSL offers speeds of up to 8Mbps (Megabits per second) downstream and 448Kbps upstream (832Kbps on business lines). The technology is cheap, fast and easy to install (doesn't require an engineer) and reasonably reliable, although performance can suffer due to ISP congestion, distance from the local exchange (shorter lines are faster but anything over 6.5km is usually slow), poor home wiring and interference from other electrical devices. Each connection is fixed to a specific telephone line. The latest ADSL2+ (ITU G.992.5) technology is capable of pushing download speeds at up to 24Mbps and uploads at up to 1.4Mbps, it also supports port bonding (linking several lines together for faster speeds) and has an improved range over ADSL. Both ADSL and ADSL2+ are "best efforts" broadband services, which means that bandwidth is shared between many users and can be highly variable - especially over long distances and at off-peak times (i.e. busy afternoons will slow the performance). The following graph shows what impact distance can have on speeds. Users of these services should learn to understand common router statistics, which can help in diagnosing line problems. Figures for the following items will change depending on your line condition (e.g. expect them to be worse during thunderstorms that will cause extra interference): ADSL/ADSL2+ Router Terms and Statistics * Line Profile / Sync Speed This is the speed (usually in Kbps) at which your router connects to the local telephone exchange. The actual performance of your line will usually be around 20% less than this, possibly even lower due to ISP-side limits or environmental factors (e.g. interference from Christmas tree lights, microwaves and AC adaptors). * Line Attenuation (dB) High attenuation usually means you live further from your local exchange, thus lower is better (e.g. an attenuation of 60dB might give you a best speed of around 2Mbps). * SNR / Signal to Noise Ratio (dB) A high SNR usually means that faster speeds are possible and upgrading to a faster connection will often cause the SNR to drop. SNR can be improved by installing a special filtered faceplate on the line, such as BT's iPlate (Broadband Accelerator) device (not to be confused with Splitters / MicroFilters). * SNR Margin (dB) Related to the SNR above, an SNR Margin is a measure of the difference between your current SNR and the SNR that is required to keep a reliable connection speed. SNR Margins tend to range from around 6db to 12db, with higher being better. The figure will fluctuate during the day, especially at peak times. Note that significant fluctuations (e.g. going from 8db to 4db) may cause connection problems. It is sometimes possible to tweak this figure and keep it higher, depending on what make of router you have. Using your homes mastersocket for the broadband router is also helpful. Elsewhere some businesses still use(SDSL) technology, which is similar to HDSL via a single twisted-pair wire and can carry 1.544Mbps (U.S. and Canada) or 2.048Mbps (Europe) in each direction on a duplex line (the speed is the same in both directions). In addition, those looking for information on VDSL and VDSL2 (FTTC) services should look under oursection above as this is somewhat of a mixed technology. Furthermore BT has also introduced a special long-reach style of DSL called Broadband Enabling Technology (BET), which is based off Symmetric Hi-Speed Digital Subscriber Line (SHDSL). This is designed to deliver speeds of up to 2Mbps into rural areas that can reside up to 12km away from their local telephone exchange, where normal DSL services would fail. But this method is extremely expensive (costing up to 1,094 +vat to install), poorly supported by ISPs and requires two phone lines (twisted pairs) to achieve the best performance. Shippit powers delivery for "hundreds of retailers across Australia sending tens of thousands of deliveries every single month", and with volumes growing 50% every month, they ship it good. Shipping. It can be the bane of our 21st century lives, because with online shopping powering so much of today's commerce, no-one wants packages to go missing, or end up delivered late no one wants to end up in Ship Creek, do they? So, with Shippit having built its business on the very modern-day philosophy of "happy shipping", it would warm the cockles of every consumer's heart to know Shippit are "determined to put an end to the anxiety faced by online shoppers and the frustration endured by growing online retailers". I mean, in the old days, you had Peter picking a peck of picked peppers, but in today's world, you want Peter packing his pick of proper packages so Simon successfully sends your shopping via Shippit. Of course, Peter and Simon are but fictional characters in this situation, but play along, we get to have more fun at the end of this article. Now, it's clear that, since 2015, Shippit has come a long, long way. Not only has it since done a deal with Australia Post, giving Shippit "access to over 11,000 delivery vehicles Australia-wide making it one of Australias largest delivery platforms". Other snippets of Shippit success include a major deal with Harvey Norman last year, and just last month, a big deal with Big Commerce. All of that came from those humble 2015 beginnings, where Shippit originally worked with but a handful of fashion and homeware boutiques in Sydneys Surry Hills. That has now morphed into powering the delivery for "thousands of retailers across Australia, servicing hundreds of thousands of deliveries each month". Shippits software and delivery services are also ship-shape, and "are trusted by retailers of all sizes and formats and is seeing an increasing demand from international retailers". As you'd expect, Shippit's software has to be up to the task to manage all of this, and "seamlessly connects retailers to leading logistics carriers, selecting the best carrier for every shipment and allows shoppers to track deliveries in real time". And, not only did Shippit secure that aforementioned milestone partnership with Australia Post in March 2016, it is also "a trusted partner of CouriersPlease, Fastway, TNT, DHL, Bonds Express and many others". The company even secured a solid A$2.2 million in Series A funding back in May this year, which is driving the companys expansion into APAC within the next 12 months and scale its growth. Clearly, the South East Asian market "presents a lucrative opportunity for the business as one of the world's fastest-growing regions for e-commerce revenue, poised to be worth US$25 billion by 2020 (according to Frost and Sullivan)", so it's clear why Shippit would like to ship its business model into the region and help ensure its own smooth delivery. So, on top of ALL of that, Shippit currently services over 750 merchants including Sephora, Topshop, Thankyou, Pet Circle, and ships over 250,000 parcels via its platform each month and it surely makes us all reading wonder we all didn't have the smarts to come up with this kind of company!! Here's Shippit's corporate video the article and more continues below. So, with all the recent retailer worry about Amazon coming in and supposedly stealing all their business, I asked Shippit's co-founder and director, Robert Hango-Zada, about his thoughts on Amazon's impending arrival. Hango-Zada said: "We're are excited by the announcement of Amazon's impending entry as logistics players and retailers alike will now have no choice but to focus on customer centricity or perish. "The thousands of retailers we work with already understand the importance of the customer experience during the delivery process. We are helping our retailers lower costs and save time, thereby enabling them to compete more effectively with larger players. "Amazon will be operating with a cost base not seen by any other retailer before and its important that Aussie retailers, particularly those with brick and mortar stores, start making changes now to compete effectively upon their arrival. It's a great sign for Aussie consumers and for boosting local online sales. "It remains to be seen however whether Australia will follow in the steps of the US where 52% of all product searches now start on Amazon (beating Google) or Canada where it has made a decent but conservative impact "It's evident that when it comes to cost-effective delivery solutions, SMBs in the Australian market are under-served which puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Higher delivery costs, sourcing and storage costs also mean that the cost base of a small, local player is going to be astronomical compared to Amazon and this is where there is significant opportunity to improve. "Amazon should take note of the Australian consumer sentiment which is different to that of the UK. Or the US. We are a market more similar to Canada and in that space Amazon's market share has not quite dominated (sales at about $2.4bn CAD as of last year, total retail market in Canada is about $25bn). "That sentiment means duopolies are more common and whilst there will be significant disruption Aussies will undoubtedly back a local player alongside Amazon. I think businesses like the Catch Group, Kogan, PetCircle and Booktopia have had a head start in building robust and efficient supply chains and they would be best placed to stand up to the entry of Amazon." Asked about Shippit's competitors, including Temando (which I had written about at the time) Hango-Zada replied: "Logistics is a hotly contested space as there's a huge market opportunity, locally and globally. "Retailers have a proliferation in choice across logistics and fulfilment platforms, third party logistics providers and solutions offered directly by carriers. Temando's done a great job educating the market on the benefit of multi-carrier shipping capabilities, but now the market has evolved. "Whilst there are several shipping platforms emerging to automate the process of generating shipping labels, we believe that the long unaddressed issue of who owns the delivery experience requires a robust solution that better enables retailers. Online shoppers undoubtedly hold retailers responsible for their delivery experience a philosophy which Shippit embraces. Our focus is to empower retailers to take charge of the delivery process like never before." So, with Shippit's mission to "kill the anxiety and overhead caused by the 'Sorry We Missed You' calling card", here's why the company says retailers should care: "Many business owners underestimate the impact of the last mile which can negatively affect customer loyalty unfortunately, the accountability of a good delivery sits outside of their control as couriers don't have the same passion and care that a business owner may have. "From the online retailer side, by streamlining the booking, tracking and delivery management process, it ensures business owners can focus less on logistics and complaints (customers calling the store and asking where their package is) and more on business development and operations. Shippits delivery management system integrates automation, flexibility and communication for retailers which leads to better shipping experiences for retailers and their customers. "From the recipients point of view, the service will allow them to track their package with a unique hyperlink, and be updated in real-time through email and SMS notifications to enhance their overall experience. They are also encouraged to provide feedback and ratings for their delivery." Here are some interesting statistics about Shippit and the market that its playing in: The latest market research report from IBISWorld revealed that postal services in Australia had a revenue of $7 billion this is a huge market in Australia Bad shipping experiences are bad for business, according to Shippit: Forty-eight percent of deliveries will fail first go. It takes 20 minutes for a retailer to resolve a delivery complaint. Sixty-six percent of customers won't buy from the retailer again because of this experience. Seventy-eight percent will then tell their friends to not buy from the retailer. Ninety-two percent of all online purchases in Australia are fulfilled by standard mail or standard courier delivery services (Attitudes towards online shopping and knowledge about shopping online securely. NSW Fair Trading, 2012). Also, Shippit's "The Real Hustle" campaign is here. So, now it's time to have some fun. Here's my rendition of "Shippit Good" with apologies to Shippit and Devo. Lyrics below this embedded video, you'll have more fun if you open the video in a separate browser and read the lyrics below as Devo sing: Track that ship Get the packing slip Picked off a rack Ship your momma's pack When an order comes along You must ship it Before the post sits out too long You must ship it When orders are going strong You must ship it Now ship it Into shape Ship it up Get straight Go forward Move ahead Try now to track it It's not too late To ship it Ship it good With a good time turn around You must ship it You will never live it down Unless you ship it No one gets their goods Until you've shipped it I say ship it Ship it good I say ship it Ship it good Track that ship Get the packing slip Picked off a rack Ship your momma's pack When an order comes along You must ship it Before the post sits out too long You must ship it When orders are going strong You must ship it! Now ship it Into shape Ship it up Get straight Go forward Move ahead Try now to track it It's not too late Now ship it Into shape Ship it up Get straight Go forward Move ahead Try now to track it It's not too late To ship it Ship it good! Tempus which bills itself as a clean-tech start-up says its technology is a demand-side management platform that lets customers use flexible load in their own assets and building management systems. Tempus says the technology uses AI and smart algorithms to control and optimise when these flexible assets use energy, reducing costs, aligning with abundant renewables and increasing grid stability. According to Tempus, this radical shift in how electricity is consumed, the first of its kind by a large electricity retailer, aims to reduce the cost of electricity for customers and take advantage of the abundant renewable resources available in South Australia. Founder and chief executive Sara Bell said, South Australia is an ideal place for Tempus to pilot our technology and we thank the South Australian Government for its support. There are natural synergies in our endeavours to deliver a secure, reliable, affordable and clean power for the future, and the potential role of our technology to help customers take charge of their energy consumption. Tempus Energy is delighted to be partnering with a forward-thinking energy company like Origin. We are looking forward to helping them explore the benefits and challenges of new flexible energy demand solutions and how this can contribute towards the transition to a lower carbon, stable energy system that can deliver tangible benefits to customers. New markets have new challenges and Tempus Energy can help customers take advantage of renewables and use flexibility to take advantage of market volatility, bringing customers cheaper bills and ensure a more reliable energy system. Origin executive general manager future energy, Tony Lucas, said: Demand-side management is one of the technologies we believe could be part of the future energy mix that helps to maintain affordability and security of energy for our customers. Were excited to get our trial with Tempus Energy underway in South Australia so we can better understand the benefits and the customer proposition. Bell says Tempus provides a software platform that connects a customers flexible assets to a retailers energy trading team, and flexes the customers consumption based on predicted pool prices, and the technology learns from data available in any modern BMS, battery storage device and other flexible assets. This optimisation is used to ensure lowest price and lowest carbon emissions, bringing together energy market forecasts and customer consumption predictions to make sure the right asset is doing the right thing at the right time. The growth of zero marginal cost renewable generation has created conditions of oversupply and will eventually create undersupply when enough loss-making fossil fuel generation is retired. This over- and under-supply creates the pricing dynamic that enables innovation to flourish. Energy only markets, where they exist in the world, can function because high prices have created the investment case for fast response gas fired generation. Price risk during high demand/low supply events is mitigated by making the electrons in fast response gas fired generation. The same market conditions will create the investment case for a flexible demand-side and battery storage." National Australia Bank's business online banking service, NAB Connect, appears to be back on the air after having been offline most of the day on Wednesday. The service functioned intermittently during the day for some customers, but the majority had no access. The bank is yet to post any indication of the state of its services. Whats worse is when it comes back online and you are halfway through an overseas payment. Then it craps itself again Bruno Mignone (@bruns999) October 11, 2017 Both its Facebook and Twitter accounts only sport an apology from about eight hours ago at the time of writing (9.25pm AEST), saying: "Were aware that our business customers are having trouble logging into NAB Connect. Were sorry about this and were working to fix it ASAP." The last media release in the bank's online archive dates back to 10 October. Hurry up, I have a business full of employees hoping for their wages in their accounts.... tadem (@Tadem2Tadem) October 11, 2017 Three hours ago, the bank tweeted that payment cut-off times had been extended to 7:30pm and any NAB Connect payments lodged today had been processed. Many customers expressed frustration on Twitter that they were unable to get payroll processed in time due to the outage. So no wages for me. Doubt you hold up your own employees wages? Maybe investment in more infrastructure u do make enough $ from us suckers Michael Rankin (@mjranko) October 11, 2017 The bank suffered outages to its online services in January. And in December, an outage left customers unable to use both phone and online banking services. The Australian Centre for Robotic Vision is undertaking robotic research aimed at developing new applications and technologies it says will revolutionise the health sector. From the use of robotic systems in MRIS and mammograms detecting melanomas and cancer to the introduction of a futuristic scan that detects morbidity, the centre headquartered at the Queensland Univerity of Technology is undertaking what it describes as ground-breaking research in the medical space, and leading the way in robotic research globally. The Australian Centre for Robotic Visions Gustavo Carneiro, a computer scientist at the University of Adelaide, specialises in machine learning, particularly relating to robotics, and in recent years has been focused on developing algorithms and robotic systems to be used in the medical field, particularly breast cancer diagnoses. Carneiro recently created a deep learning algorithm with more than 500 images to help detect and classify masses in mammograms. Breast cancer is one of the major diseases affecting the lives of women across the globe. The analyses of breast masses from mammograms represents an important task in diagnoses which currently is predominantly a manual process subjective to the assessment of a clinical expert. We are pleased to be undertaking world leading research into how robotics can help improve the accuracy, accessibility and cost of this process, says Carneiro. And Carneiro and his team have also recently published a deep learning algorithm to detect morbidity. The system looks at elderly patients chest CT scans that dont reveal anything outwardly unhealthy. Using the algorithm the scan can detect, with nearly 70% accuracy, if the patient will survive in the next five years. Carneiro says Australias ageing population has significant costs and challenges and there is a range of benefits that stem from using robotics in the heath sector. By 2050 a quarter of Australias population will be over 65 and this has significant economic costs and productivity challenges. With reliable low cost robotics, we can dramatically reduce the cost and increase efficiency and accessibility of healthcare. Robots and algorithms are going to play a large diagnostic role in clinics in the future. Research in radiology, in particular, has a range of advantages for the health industry and population. We are seeing that using robotic technology to assess results of MRIs and mammograms will drastically reduce the amount of follow-up scans, thus saving valuable time and money for both patients and the health sector. Australia and the rest of the APJ region are leading the way in some aspects of IoT, Dell EMC APJ commercial president Amit Midha has told iTWire. One example is smart cities. Asia is clearly leading the way, with 50 smart cities in China, 63 in India, and even some in Vietnam, he said. Seoul and Tokyo are big in this category, and Singapore is "setting standards". And a Japanese company is leading the application of IoT technologies to vehicles, Midha noted. More generally, 28% of the world's IoT implementations are within the region. One unnamed customer in Australia wants Dell to help it build infrastructure capable of handling data at the rate of 12 petabytes per second, he said. Another Australian customer is investigating the future of air traffic control systems in an environment that is no longer concerned with conventional aircraft flying between airports, but includes large numbers of drones, supersonic aircraft, and perhaps even SpaceX rockets. This would require a major rethink, probably involving the extensive use of sensors and a federated approach. "This definitely resonates with customers in Asia," Midha observed. "You have to put humans at the top", apply technology to solve previously intractable problems, and create new technologies to support human progress. "In some cases, relevant data is already available, but we have not worked out how it can be used. In others, the technology has now reached the state where some ideas that have been around for decades can finally be put into practice." In 20 years time there will probably be 10,000 times as much data as there is today, and technology needs to keep pace with that growth rate. Midha believes Dell can achieve that, especially as it is looking at the big picture rather than focusing on individual aspects. "This is where our strategy is highly differentiated," he told iTWire, with all the companies in the Dell Technologies family pulling together. Disclosure: the writer attended Dell's IoT Day in New York as a guest of the company. It would have been an interesting exercise to count the number of times that Dan Tehan, the Minister assisting the Prime Minister on Cyber Security, used the word "cyber" during his speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday, while releasing the annual threat report crafted by the Australian Cyber Security Centre. By my count, it was at least 20, with the last one being about "cyber terrorism". Asked about this particular cyber malaise by the press club's Sabra Lane later, Tehan floundered a bit and then resorted to bureaucratese to avoid saying anything that meant anything. He read his thankfully prepared speech with a poker face, evidently trying to make it look as though hackers were waiting outside the doors of the venue to attack him if he so much as broke into a smile. Tehan's mission appeared to be the same as the rest of his government colleagues: hype up the fear factor as much as possible so the government can control things and improve its chances of re-election. Probably towards this end, parts of thewhich could bring about big headlines a compromise of a small defence contractor by some Chinese attackers was made to look like the sky falling in was leaked to selective media outlets, who duly obliged with the hype that the government wanted. That only one medium-level hack was seen in the last year in a country which lives and breathes via Microsoft software is a remarkable occurrence. But the hype was not shared by the men and women who wrote the ACSC report, which was, as usual, a remarkably sober 60-page affair, with little or no sensation. There was not a great deal of note in the report, but given that many people may be put off by the subject, one had to cover it as widely as possible, if only to encourage the ACSC to continue on the same sensible path. One was reminded to some extent of Cris "SpaceRogue" Thomas, formerly of the L0pht Heavy Industries hacking collective and now a researcher with Tenable Network Security, who blew the claims of many sky-high with a 19-minute presentation at ShmooCon, an annual convention for hackers held on the east coast of the US, in January. The ACSC staff could, understandably, not be as jocular and dismissive as Thomas, given that they are all government employees. But they did a good job with the reporting, the writing and the graphics. The difference is that, unlike the plethora of reports from myriad security firms that one wades through, there is little marketing in the report. And that is always a good thing. Just one suggestion: they could omit that picture of Tehan from the report. If he is going to be the face of cyber security in this country, Australia will indeed have a big problem. Former Experian senior executive Suzanne Steele has been appointed Adobe managing director for Australia and New Zealand. Steele, who was ANZ managing director for Experian, will join Adobe in late November, reporting to Paul Robson, president of Adobe Asia Pacific. Steeles appointment follows the decision by Chris Skelton, current managing director for Adobe ANZ, to leave. Our ANZ business has enjoyed significant growth and maturity under Chris leadership, and has a committed team in place focused on expanding our market leadership as well as delivering the best experiences for our customers. We are thankful to Chris for his significant contributions and wish him all the best, Robson said. Steele has 25-plus years experience in leading management teams across data, software and analytics businesses in North America, the UK and Singapore, including senior roles at Visa Europe, CACI London and Morgan Stanley. Robson said: Adobe ANZ is at the forefront of a market where no industry is immune from digital disruption. We are focused on supporting our customers to deliver exceptional experiences, and excited by the opportunities to expand our market position and take our business to new levels. Suzanne brings extensive experience to our committed team; she is a customer-centric leader who understands the importance of client relationships to competitive differentiation and growth. The federal government has issued a draft of a bill that, if passed, would allow it to insist that private companies in the power, water, and ports sectors take action to remediate a significant national-security risk. Available for comment until 10 November, the Security of Critical Infrastructure Bill aims to give the government more power to deal with "national security risks of espionage, sabotage and coercion arising from foreign involvement in Australias critical infrastructure, with minimal regulatory impact and maintaining Australias open investment policy". Concern that the increasing foreign investment in the country could lead to control over strategic assets slipping away has been voiced by all sides of politics and also from the public space. Two years ago, former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage said he was stunned at the sale of Darwin Port to a Chinese-owned firm. Defence officials are also said to have expressed disquiet at the deal. And in June, the defence departmentits data from the Sydney data centre Global Switch after Chinese investment in the parent company of the data centre. "Most critical infrastructure in Australia is either privately owned and operated, or run on a commercial basis by government. A disruption to critical infrastructure assets could have a range of serious implications for business, government and the community," the government said in an explanatory note to the draft bill. It said that the focus of the Critical Infrastructure Centre, launched in January, was on the risks posed by espionage, sabotage and coercion. The bill will regulate "approximately 100 assets in the highest-risk sectors of ports, electricity and water. If any of these assets were disrupted, they would have a significant impact on Australias economic interests and services for large populations". Written comments on the draft can be sent to the Attorney-Generals Department at enquiries@CICentre.gov.au or by mail to: Critical Infrastructure Centre, 3-5 National Cct, Barton ACT 2913, Australia. Russian government sources appear to have gained access to the source code of Kaspersky's anti-virus software, if a report that Moscow was using the program to look for classified US government documents is to be believed. A report in The Wall Street Journal claimed that the program had been modified into a tool for espionage and used to search for terms like "top secret". Well-known British security researcher Kevin Beaumont expressed scepticism about this claim, saying, "There's so much b***shit in the briefings being given to press. AV uploading every document with term "top secret" would fry networks." There's so much bullshit in the briefings being given to press. AV uploading every document with term "top secret" would fry networks. https://t.co/tu171QCwG8 Kevin Beaumont ? (@GossiTheDog) 11 October 2017 Anti-virus programs are installed mostly on machines running Windows. They have access to the entire system and, during routine scans, often upload suspicious files to virus databases for further analysis. The report appeared the same day that the German federal cyber agency BSIit had no evidence to back an earlier claim by the same newspaper that Russian hackers had used Kaspersky software to spy on US authorities. "The Federal Office for Security in Information Technology does not currently have any knowledge that the process took place as described in the media report. The BSI is in contact with the American partner authorities," the agency said in a statement. "A warning from the BSI before the use of Kaspersky products is currently not provided, since the BSI has no evidence of a malfunction of the company or weak points in the software." Wednesday's WSJ report quoted "a former US official with knowledge of information gleaned in 2015 about how the software was used to search for American secrets" as saying: "There is no way, based on what the software was doing, that Kaspersky couldnt have known about this." A report in The Washington Post on Tuesday claimed that Israeli government information security professionals had found NSA hacking tools in Kaspersky Lab's system when it gained access to the company's servers in 2014. And The New York Times claimed that Russian Government employees had used Kaspersky's anti-virus software to search for the code names of US intelligence programmes, while Israeli intelligence officials looked on. The spate of stories about Kaspersky Lab have come in the wake of claims that Russia influenced the direction of the US presidential election in 2016. These allegations have been mounting since Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in November last year. Some observers say Kaspersky Lab has become collateral damage in the stoush between the US and Russian Governments. ACCAN chief executive Teresa Corbin has cast doubt on the fairness to consumers of proposed changes to the national broadband network Special Access Undertaking, the SAU. The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network chief told a Melbourne conference on Wednesday she believed the SAU regulatory regime now being proposed to be in place next 23 years was unfair for consumers. Corbins intervention follows comments on Monday by the competition regulator, the ACCC, that it wants an industry-led outcome on the variations to the SAU, rather than regulatory imposition. ACCC chairman Rod Sims announced the commission had put off making a decision on NBN Cos proposed variation to its SAU until the company has undertaken further consultation with customers on its pricing model for the NBN. He also noted the ACCC was aware NBN Co was already consulting its customers telecommunications companies that pay to access the NBN network on potential alternatives to the current pricing model. But Corbin says the proposed charge of $150 for consumers who are unable to self-install, for missed appointments or late cancellation of appointments, may affect some vulnerable consumers. We are also concerned about the removal of requirements to make rollout information available to the public. Access to this information is useful to many organisations and consumers. NBN Co submitted a revised SAU variation in June to incorporate fibre-to-the-node, fibre-to-the-basement and hybrid fibre coaxial technologies (multi-technology mix services) into the SAU, to reflect the current NBN model, and effectively extending the current SAU pricing arrangements to these MTM services. Corbin also showcased ACCANs consumer resources aimed at helping consumers in the switchover to the NBN including "5 things you need to know about NBN". Reddit Email 58 Shares By Jessica Purkiss | ( The Bureau of Investigative Journalism) | Frank Gus Biggio arrived in Nawa, a district in Afghanistans embattled Helmand province, in the summer of 2009. Then, he recalled, it was a violent, lawless, ungoverned place, like an apocalyptic scene out of a movie. The battle to secure the district was tough four Marines were killed during Biggios deployment as a Marine Reservist, including his friend, Bill Cahir. We had worked hard, I had lost my team chief, a good friend, he said. But by the time his battalion had left seven months later, Biggio says the Taliban were gone and normal life seemed to be resuming for its residents. Nawa quickly became one of the most celebrated successes in the US counterinsurgency campaign. In the following years, Biggio watched as district after district fell to the Taliban. He hoped fervently that Nawa would buck the trend. But as the Talibans advance strengthened, with the US troop withdrawal in 2014, its downfall seemed on the cards. In October 2016, Taliban fighters overran Nawa. Why it happened has been the subject of a Bureau investigation. We have uncovered systemic corruption that demonstrates that the Afghan forces holding the front line were significantly undermanned, their numbers falsely inflated with so-called ghost soldiers or security force personnel that existed only on paper. The Taliban were finally dislodged in July 2017 after a major offensive by Afghan forces, backed by US air strikes, but Nawa remains vulnerable. I would like to see places like Nawa thriving economically and politically today, says Biggio sadly. Asking whether the sacrifice was worth it or not would be easier to answer then. Memorial for Bill Cahir who died in Nawa By Sgt William Greeson via Frank "Gus" Biggio "Only the Afghan government can solve it, and they have yet to demonstrate the willingness to do so" The rise and fall of Nawa is, however, not a standalone case. Across Afghanistan, the Taliban has profited from the endemic corruption and mismanagement that plagues the Afghan forces. President Donald Trump has signalled that yet more troops will be sent to Afghanistan to prop up places like Nawa. But without addressing these issues, any gains made by sending additional US troops will likely be fragile. This was the Achilles heel of the 2009-2011 surge and continues to undermine efforts for a successful outcome, says Christopher Kolenda, former US military commander in Afghanistan turned analyst. 140,000 international troops could not solve that problem. 3,500 more American troops now cannot do so, either. Only the Afghan government can solve it, and they have yet to demonstrate the willingness to do so, Kolenda adds. A panoramic view of a market in Nawa Via Frank "Gus" Biggio Fading hopes for Nawa When the US Marines took over from the British in 2009, Nawa was in a bad way. Heavy fighting and a sustained Taliban presence had left the once-bustling district centre an empty wasteland. Within a few months of the Marine mission, however, American troops could walk around the centre without body armour. Many shops had reopened and the open-air Friday bazaar resumed trading. Soon experts from the State Department and the US governments aid agency were turning up in the district with plans for long-term reconstruction and development projects. Money was being pumped into Nawa, in part to lure low-level insurgents away from the Taliban. Commander Matt Baker talking to his Marines Via Matt Baker "Nawa city was an example of what could be." The turnaround in Nawa caught the attention of General David H Petraeus, the then top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan. He featured Nawa in a PowerPoint presentation to senior members of President Obamas national security team participating in evaluating the war at the time. It was proof the counter-insurgency strategy was working and he wanted them to know about it. As another Marine put it, Nawa city was an example of what could be. For Marines serving in Nawa, this was a source of pride. We worked hard on being Nawas Marine battalion, says Matt Baker, the commander of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, back in 2009. He recalls an incident where rumours had surfaced Marines had desecrated a Quran in the neighbouring district. Fearing tensions would reach Nawa, he arranged a meeting with the elders. However, he said, they already knew and had assured their neighbours that their Marines would not do such a thing. It was a wonderful compliment, says Baker. Shura, or tribal meeting, in Nawa Corporal James Purschwitz, via Frank "Gus" Biggio "His death was the beginning of the end for Nawa." The gains, however, were fragile. Crime reportedly rose after the Taliban left. The Marines feel safe, but the ordinary people in Nawa do not, Khawanin, the headmaster of the main school in the district, told the Washington Post in 2010. Security deteriorated further when the US troop presence began to gradually decrease. In 2015, Haji Abdul Manaf, the district governor, the lynchpin of stability in Nawa, was gunned down on his way to Kandahar. His death was the beginning of the end for Nawa, says Biggio. Governor Abdul Manaf cutting a ribbon to mark the official opening of a new clinic in Nawa US Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Cesar N. Contreras Nawa was deliberately left to be overrun by the Taliban When the Taliban offensive started in earnest in late 2016, it was brief. Insurgents had been inching closer and Helmands districts were falling like dominoes. It is hard to say what would have happened to Nawa if it had had proper defences. But it had been left with a large gap. According to local council members and a source within the Afghan administration, the district had only half the roughly 700 policemen it was supposed to have. Nawa was deliberately left to be overrun by the Taliban, said one furious Nawa elder. Another critic of what happened in Nawa, Atuallah Afghan, a member of Helmands Provincial Council, explained the problem to the Bureau. The Afghan government allocates a set number of police to defend each area. The number of police allocated to each district in Helmand is held in the police headquarters in Lashkar Gah, Atuallah said. Nawa was supposed to have 700 officers. All districts receive central government budget to cover salaries of front-line forces. In many areas in Afghanistan, some of this budget disappears and the actual number of officers tasked with holding back the Taliban is much lower than the number actually allotted. This issue, known as ghost soldiers, was particularly extreme in Nawa. Atuallah and others concerned about the problem last year would ring up local officials to ask them how many men they had at their nearby checkpoints. In this way they were able to estimate the number of police actually deployed in Nawa; they put the figure at around 300 men. The salaries of the other 400 were ending up somewhere else. Three other well-placed sources also told the Bureau that Nawa only had between 300-400 police officers on the eve of its fall. Atuallah said he complained about the ghost soldier problem in Helmand to government officials before the Taliban push on Nawa began. No one did anything about it, he said. This is hardly surprising, given how deep-seated the problem of corruption is. Local elders described a network of connections to the Bureau, which they explained protected those siphoning off the salaries at the time. These kind of problems are not unique to Nawa ghost soldiers are a problem throughout Afghanistan. This is in part facilitated by the high rate of casualties in the the Afghan security forces they were being killed at a rate of 130 a week at the beginning of 2017. Often the names of the dead, as well as defectors, are not taken off lists of personnel, allowing for their pay cheques to continue to be remitted. An image of an Afghan soldier in Helmand province, Afghanistan via Shutterstock He offered up some startling figures around half of the 26,000 personnel did not exist physically However, in Helmand, which has an unfortunate combination of high US military spending and powerful tribal networks, the problem of corruption has been particularly acute historically. Abdul Jabar Qahraman was appointed operational commander for all of Helmand in January 2016, and resigned in spring 2017. He described to the Bureau what the ghost soldier phenomenon looked like on the ground. In one district, he said, there were ten checkpoints, and 25 people had been allocated to each one, meaning there should have been 250 men in total. When he paid a visit, he only saw 96 men. Out of them 54 had AK47s and the rest were unarmed. Most of the others, he said, were unfit to work. He told the Bureau that he went to the very top with the problem, speaking to the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani. I put this on the Presidents table and told him if there are 50 opponents attacking this checkpoint, how can you defend it? Qahraman said, explaining his frustration with the general mismanagement. You know why I resigned from my post in Helmand? I couldnt stand it anymore. In a statement last year, Helmands then police chief confirmed Qahramans estimate of the scale of the problem. He offered up some startling figures around half of the 26,000 personnel assigned to the province did not exist physically. Their salaries, he said, were ending up in personal accounts. There have been efforts to tackle the issue in a wide-reaching manner. President Ashraf Ghani established an anti-corruption court to hold those once believed to be above the law to account. In Helmand, the US military put in over $100m last year to rebuild the Afghan armys 215th Corps, bogged down by mismanagement and corruption. These initiatives have seen some success, especially in Helmand. But the roadblocks they have encountered illustrate the depth of the problem they are tackling. The general appointed to rebuild and reform the 215th Corps was himself arrested in March 2017, accused of misusing food money meant to supply his soldiers, among other things. A previous police chief of Helmand, who had also been appointed as a reformer, was reported at the same time to be under investigation after allegedly being fired for selling the positions of district chiefs of police in the province. Complex payment processing systems involving biometrics are being rolled out in an effort to tackle the issue of ghost personnel. However, even the people implementing them admit they will not eradicate the problem. Camp Base Jaker, where Biggio and Baker were stationed Via Frank "Gus" Biggio Keeping Nawa out of Taliban hands "We fear that because of this issue once again our district might fall into Taliban hands" Nine months after it fell, Afghan security forces launched a massive offensive, Operation Maiwand Four, to win Nawa back. They were supported by coalition drones, air strikes from F-16s and attacks by Apache AH-64 helicopter gunships. After two days, they had recaptured the district centre. Reddit Email 326 Shares By Benjamin Ward | (Human Rights Watch) | Jailed Human Rights Defenders Could Face up to 15 Years in Prison If it were a television script, any sensible producer would reject it as too far-fetched. Ten human rights defenders met on a small island in Istanbul for a training session on July 5. Yet instead of a regular work meeting, an Istanbul prosecutor has made the preposterous accusation that the group was in fact colluding with three terrorist organizations several of which are sworn enemies of one another and their true purpose was to foment chaos in the country through mass protests. Human rights defenders detained by police in Istanbul on July 5, 2017. From bottom left: Nalan Erkem; Nejat Tastan; Ilknur Ustun, Idil Eser, Ozlem Dalkran, Gunal Kursun. The accusations may sound laughable, but the implications for human rights work in Turkey are deadly serious. Eight of the 10 defenders detained on the island, including Amnestys Turkey director, Idil Eser and its founder Ozlem Dalkran, German national Peter Steudtner and Swedish national Ali Gharavi, remain in pretrial detention. Two were released on police bail but still face similar charges. The chair of the Amnesty Turkey, Taner Klc, was detained a month before the police raid on the meeting and stands trial in a separate case later this month for having an encryption app on his phone a charge he denies which supposedly links him to the group the government accuses of last years attempted military coup. He is now also accused of being involved in the alleged conspiracy with the 10. We dont know if a court will accept the indictment, which was leaked to the Turkish media this weekend before the detainees lawyers even saw it. But even a superficial examination of the allegations confirms they are unfounded, contradictory, and politically motivated. By way of evidence, the prosecutor cites random material gathered from the defenders phones and laptops: Amnesty campaign material, a few random phone calls with people who are also the subject of ongoing criminal proceedings, notes from a political meeting, a grant application, a map showing language groups across the Middle East and Asia, some minor money transfers for unspectacular sums. All this is seemingly evidence that the activists were hatching a plan to sow chaos across Turkey. The truth is that these human rights defenders are being prosecuted not for an elaborate conspiracy, but to silence them and make their work impossible. They should be freed immediately, and the politically motivated charges against them dropped. Reddit 1 Email 72 Shares By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | The debate over whether Donald Trump or Rex Tillerson has the higher IQ, provoked by a Trump tweet that he now says was a joke, actually raises a serious question. Why would someone deliberately sabotage our air, water and climate? The science needed for understanding that some gases are heat-trapping isnt very complicated and Im confident that schoolchildren can grasp it easily and even do some basic confirmatory experiments. So if Trump and EPA head Scott Pruitt are unable to understand the evil they are doing, is it because they lack basic intelligence? Or is the problem moral? Or is it just groupthink? I mean, this is the year when hurricanes wrecked the Caribbean because of increased water temperature. Even as Pruitt moved to abolish Obama-era regulations on coal plantsthe most polluting of all energy sources and argued for an end to tax breaks for wind and solar installations, scientists were reporting that putting floating wind farms in the north Atlantic could power the entire earth. The authors of the new paper point out that on land, if you put a lot of wind turbines in one place, they begin interfering with one another and limiting the amount energy that can be extracted. But they found that if you made floating wind farms in the north Atlantic, the winds are so high and constant that you would not run into the problem. As Informed Comment pointed out last year, Scotland has set up several floating wind turbines some 25 miles offshore. Putting them out in the middle of the north Atlantic would be far more difficult, of course. Here is a BBC update on the Scotland project: Worlds first floating offshore wind farm in Scotland.- BBC News Every day there are technical breakthroughs in wind and solar power at the level of basic science. It will take some years to turn them into practical technology. In the meantime the terra-sabotage of Trump and his oil-drenched cronies will worsen the quality of life for millions of human beings, perhaps billions if we project out. Me, I dont think it has anything to do with IQ, which is a suspicious measure to begin with (there are lots of kinds of intelligence and individuals dont typically excel in more than one or two. I think it is just greed, pure and simple. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arizona Mining Inc. (TSX:AZ) (Arizona Mining or the Company) announces the results of five exploration holes from the current drill program focused on expansion of the Taylor Sulfide Zone (TS) and Taylor Deeps Zone (TDS) located on its 100%-owned Hermosa Project in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The drill holes highlighted in this release are successful step out exploration and infill drill holes highlighting the continued potential for resource growth and increased grades separate from the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) (see Press Release dated April 3, 2017). In addition to its expanded exploration program with 15 rigs targeting 328,000 feet (100,000 metres) of drilling in 2017 compared to 6 rigs targeting 184,000 feet (56,000 metres) of drilling earlier this year the Company has been focused in the past several months on various activities associated with its ongoing Feasibility Study. This work includes hydrology drilling that has demonstrated ample water availability, condemnation drilling for the proposed tailings storage facility on its private land, and additional drilling for metallurgical test work. Figure 1. Drill Hole Location Map Figure 2. Plan View of Taylor Deeps with ZnEq Grade Contour Figure 2. Plan View of Taylor Deeps with ZnEq Grade Contour The drill results continue to significantly expand and infill both the Taylor Sulfide and Taylor Deeps Zones and indicate overall higher zinc, lead and silver grades than the average grade of the PEA, said Chief Operating Officer Don Taylor. It is clear that our expanded drill program continues to not only add size to the ultimate deposit, but more importantly it is delineating higher grade material that should benefit the economics of the project. We continue to focus on the southeastern extension of the Taylor Deeps Zone where the mineralization has increased zinc, lead and silver grades and is also coming closer to the surface. This area has the potential to significantly improve the early development plan for the mine. HDS-478 is an angle drill hole (azimuth 80 degrees; -75 degrees inclination) located in the northeast corner of the Hardshell claim block (see Figures 1, 2 and 3). The drill hole successfully targeted the eastern extension of the mineralization encountered in previously reported drill hole HDS-435 (for results, see Press Release dated April 20, 2017). HDS-478 intersected two significant mineralized horizons in the Taylor Sulfide Zone with a cumulative thickness of 25 feet (for individual intervals see Table I). Notably, drilling also intersected a significant thickness of high grade zinc-lead-silver mineralization in the Taylor Deeps Zone further east than any previous drilling in this area. The results of HDS-478 extend the Taylor Deeps mineralization approximately 220 feet east of that intersected in HDS-435 and approximately 1,800 feet east of the PEA resource outline. Most notable of the results from HDS-478 are: 5 feet assaying 23.0% zinc; 16.9% lead; and 30.0 ounces per ton (opt) silver (TS) 20 feet assaying 15.6% zinc; 11.3% lead; and 15.9 opt silver (TS) 25 feet assaying 13.1% zinc; 6.9% lead; and 5.3 opt silver (TDS) HDS-473 is a vertical infill hole located on the Trench claim block, 800 feet west of the PEA resource outline (see Figures 1, 2 and 3). The hole targeted the Taylor Deeps Zone between previously released drill holes HDS-436 and HDS-453. HDS-473 intersected several veins in the overlying volcanics and two mineralized horizons in the Taylor Deeps Zone. The upper mineralized horizon in the Taylor Deeps Zone was comprised of a 19.5-foot-thick interval assaying 24.6% combined zinc-lead and 21.7 opt silver. Notable assays include: 19.5 feet assaying 2.4% zinc; 22.2% lead; and 21.7 opt silver (TDS) HDS-472 is a near vertical infill hole located on the north central portion of the Hardshell claim block, 700 feet east of the PEA resource outline (see Figures 1, 2 and 3). The hole successfully targeted the Taylor Deeps Zone and the extension of the Taylor Sulfide Zone outside the resource grade shell used for the PEA. HDS-472 intersected lower grade but continuous zinc-lead-silver sulfide intercepts in all three carbonate units in the Taylor Sulfide Zone. In the Taylor Deeps Zone, HDS-472 intersected a 36-foot-thick interval assaying 11.3% combined zinc-lead and 2.0 opt silver. Notable assays include: 78 feet assaying 2.4% zinc; 2.3% lead; and 1.2 opt silver (TS) 36 feet assaying 6.7% zinc; 4.6% lead; 2.0 opt silver; and 0.57% copper (TDS) HDS-471 is a vertical hole located on the northern boundary of the Hardshell claim block approximately 550 feet east of the Taylor Deeps PEA resource outline (see Figures 1, 2 and 3). The drill hole targeted the extension of the Taylor Sulfide Zone and infilling of the Taylor Deeps Zone between the resource outline and previously released drill hole HDS-453 (for results see Press Release dated July 13, 2017). The drill hole intersected an 11-foot-thick interval of low grade zinc-lead-silver in the Taylor Sulfide mineralization and a 58-foot interval assaying 11.1% zinc-lead and 2.4 opt silver in the Taylor Deeps Zone. Significant assays from HDS-471 include: 58 feet assaying 4.4% zinc; 6.7% lead; and 2.4 opt silver (TDS) HDS-464 is a vertical drill hole located on the eastern extent of the Hardshell claim block (see Figures 1 and 2). The drill hole targeted the southern extension of the mineralization encountered in previously reported drill hole HDS-435. HDS-464 intersected a 19-foot interval in the Taylor Deeps Zone which extends the mineralization approximately 450 feet south of that intersected in HDS-435 and approximately 1,350 feet east/southeast of the PEA resource outline. Most notable of the results from HDS-464 are: 19 feet assaying 5.3% zinc; 2.5% lead; and 2.8 opt silver (TDS) For a full list of the Trench Vein, Taylor Sulfide and Taylor Deeps Sulfide mineralized intervals from these holes please refer to Table I. Table I. Drill Hole Assay Summary DH_ID From (feet) To (feet) Interval (in feet) From (meters) To (meters) Interval (meters) Ag opt Pb% Zn% Cu% Zone HDS-464 2525 2544 19 769.6 775.4 5.8 2.75 2.53 5.32 0.05 TDS HDS-471 2416 2427 11 736.4 739.7 3.4 0.73 1.64 2.42 0.10 TS HDS-471 2674 2732 58 815.0 832.7 17.7 2.44 6.65 4.37 0.26 TDS HDS-472 2311.5 2345 33.5 704.5 714.7 10.2 1.54 1.15 2.00 0.18 TS HDS-472 2531 2557 26 771.4 779.3 7.9 1.05 2.47 1.99 0.09 TS HDS-472 2595 2673 78 790.9 814.7 23.8 1.20 2.29 2.36 0.07 TS HDS-472 2691 2727 36 820.2 831.1 11.0 1.97 4.62 6.70 0.57 TDS HDS-473 617 631 14 188.1 192.3 4.3 0.95 1.08 2.14 0.07 TVS HDS-473 1145.5 1148 2.5 349.1 349.9 0.8 8.2 12.7 9.69 0.28 TVS HDS-473 1822 1882 60 555.3 573.6 18.3 1.38 1.14 0.89 0.07 TVS HDS-473 1925.5 1933 7.5 586.9 589.1 2.3 2.84 1.12 1.9 0.14 TVS HDS-473 3651 3670.5 19.5 1112.8 1118.7 5.9 21.67 22.23 2.38 0.75 TDS HDS-473 3823 3887 64 1165.2 1184.7 19.5 0.93 1.93 1.66 0.03 TDS HDS-478 2047 2052 5 623.9 625.4 1.5 30.04 16.90 23.00 1.05 TS HDS-478 2075 2095 20 632.4 638.5 6.1 15.93 11.31 15.59 0.58 TS HDS-478 2138 2163 25 651.6 659.3 7.6 5.29 6.92 13.05 0.08 TDS Drill intersections with a combined zinc and lead grade of greater than 9% are bolded. Sulfide drill intervals from the Taylor Sulfide Zone and Taylor Deeps Sulfide Zone are down-the-hole drill intervals. Vertical drill holes are considered to be within +5% of true width based on the dip of the mineralized stratigraphy at 20-25 degrees. Angle drill holes are considered to be within +10% of true width based on the dip of the mineralized stratigraphy at 20-25 degrees. The exception to this are the intervals noted as veins. It is not possible to determine the true width of the veins based on the drill density and no representation is made here regarding true width of the veins. Zones shown include; Taylor Sulfide Zone (TS); Taylor Deeps Sulfide Zone (TDS) and Trench Vein System (TVS). Qualified Person The results of the Arizona Mining Inc. drilling have been reviewed, verified and compiled by Donald R. Taylor, MSc., PG, Chief Operating Officer for Arizona Mining Inc., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). Mr. Taylor has 30 years of mineral exploration and mining experience, and is a Registered Professional Geologist through the SME (registered member #4029597). Assays and Quality Assurance/Quality Control To ensure reliable sample results, the Company has a rigorous QA/QC program in place that monitors the chain-of-custody of samples and includes the insertion of blanks, duplicates, and certified reference standards at statistically derived intervals within each batch of samples. Core is photographed and split in half with one-half retained in a secured facility for verification purposes. Sample preparation (crushing and pulverizing) has been performed at ALS Minerals Laboratories, an ISO/IEC accredited lab located in Tucson, Arizona. ALS Minerals Laboratories prepares a pulp of all samples and sends the pulps to their analytical laboratory in Vancouver, B.C. Canada for analysis. ALS analyzes the pulp sample by ICP following a 4-acid digestion (ME-ICP61 for 33 elements) including Cu (copper), Pb (lead), and Zn (zinc). All samples in which Cu (copper), Pb (lead), or Zn (zinc) are greater than 10,000 ppm are re-run using four acid digestion with an ICP AES finish (Cu-OG62; Pb-OG62; and Zn-OG62) with the elements reported in percentage (%). Silver values are determined by ICP (ME-ICP61) with all samples with silver values greater than 100 ppm repeated using four acid digestion with an ICP-AES finish (Ag-OG62) calibrated for higher levels of silver contained. Any values over 1,500 ppm Ag trigger a fire assay with gravimetric finish analysis. Gold values are determined by a 30 gm fire assay with an ICP-AES finish (Au-ICP21). About Arizona Mining Arizona Mining Inc. (an augustagroup company) is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the exploration and development of its 100%-owned Hermosa Project located in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. The Taylor Deposit, a zinc-lead-silver carbonate replacement deposit, has a resource of 8.6 million tons in the Measured Mineral Resource category grading 4.2% zinc, 4.0% lead and 1.6 opt silver, or 9.7% ZnEq, plus 63.8 million tons in the Indicated Mineral Resource category grading 4.5% zinc, 4.4% lead and 1.9 opt silver, or 10.6% ZnEq, and 38.6 million tons of Inferred Mineral Resources grading 4.4% zinc, 4.2% lead and 3.1 opt silver or 11.6% ZnEq, all reported in accordance with NI 43-101 guidelines utilizing a 4% ZnEq cutoff grade. The Taylor Deposit remains open to the north, west and south over land controlled by the Company and will be aggressively drilled to test the limits of the resource. The Companys other project on the Hermosa property is the Central Deposit, a silver-manganese manto oxide project. VANCOUVER, B.C., Oct. 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ceylon Graphite Corp. (Ceylon) (TSX-V:CYL) (OTC:CYLYF) (FSE:CCY) announces it has signed an agreement to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of JADS Enterprises (Private) Ltd., a local Sri Lankan mining company that has five graphite exploration Grid units (GRIDs) and an exploration license in the Malsiripura/Kurunegela region in central Sri Lanka. The acquisition of JADS will take the total number of GRIDs under Ceylons umbrella in Sri Lanka from 116 to 121. Historical drilling records, from over 30 exploration holes at the Panliyadda sites, suggests the potential for high quality vein/lump graphite in these 5 GRIDs. The chart below outlines these results: Panliyadda Core Sample Summary Hole ID Y X Z Azimuth Angle Hole depth Depth from Depth to Description PLB0001 850340 448516 345 -66 150.1 PLB0002 850356 44497 330 -66 193.5 PLB0003 850369 448459 326 -66 75.2 65 65.05 Graphite Fracture 72 72.05 Graphite Fracture PLB0004 850373 448459 328 -66 200 41 41.05 Graphite Fracture 63.7 66 Graphite bearing zone 67.5 67.8 30cm Graphite vein 78 78.05 Graphite Fracture 88.2 88.25 Graphite Fracture 90.57 91.07 50cm Graphite Vein 102 102.4 40cm Graphite Vein 117 117.05 Graphite Fracture PLB0005 850354 448501 358 -77 195.3 PLB0006 850369 448425 327 -50 250 PLB0007 850372 448454 336 -50 159 65 65.05 Graphite Fracture 117.5 117.55 Graphite Fracture 120 140 Graphite bearing zone PLB0008 850373 448459 327 -75 171.1 36 36.05 Graphite Fracture 38 38.4 40cm Graphite Vein PLB0009 850206 448396 292 -50 147 78 78.05 Graphite Fracture PLB0010 850206 448396 292 -70 151.1 PLB0011 850172 448357 285 -70 86.8 PLB0012 850171 448358 285 -50 67.7 53.7 53.75 Graphite Fracture PLB0013 850115 448442 280 -50 172.45 PLB0014 850115 448442 280 -70 183.6 PLB0015 850203 448476 311 -80 74.85 PLB0016 850378 448429 320 -50 103.85 68.9 68.95 Graphite Fracture 74.15 74.2 Graphite Fracture PLB0017 850172 448335 266 -70 27.2 PLB0018 850378 448429 320 -80 156.8 83.5 83.55 Graphite Fracture PLB0019 850172 448335 275 -50 108.75 PLB0020 850418 448462 330 -50 174.8 76.6 76.65 Graphite Fracture PLB0021 850419 448463 330 -80 88.5 68 68.05 Graphite Fracture 83.8 83.85 Graphite Fracture PLB0022 850138 448375 274 -60 199.82 PLB0023 850207 448412 290 -60 171.45 PLB0024 850207 448434 290 -85 253.4 PLB0025 850220 448360 265 -70 292.8 PLB0026 850138 448406 265 -60 328.4 28 31.7 Graphite bearing zone PLB0027 850129 448356 265 -60 167.54 PLB0028 850206 448396 290 -60 186.65 PLB0029 850129 448356 265 -60 83.54 PLB0030 850206 44396 290 -70 376.7 99 99.05 Graphite Fracture Upon completion of the acquisition, Ceylon intends to conduct a limited drilling program on the Panliyadda site of the Malsiripura property to confirm the quality and quantity of the graphite mineralization, and develop a mine plan. Upon completion of the drilling program, and provided the results of that program are favourable, Ceylon intends to apply for a Class B Mining License, with the ultimate goal of establishing mining operations. Appointment of new General Manager Ceylon is also pleased to announce that it has appointed Mr. Janaka Ratnayake to position of General Manager of Operations for Ceylon Graphite in Sri Lanka. He will be responsible for all of the Companys exploration and mining related business in Sri Lanka. Mr. Ratnayake is a highly experienced mining engineer and mine manager, and considered to be an expert on graphite mining. He started his career in 1996 at AMGs Graphit Kropfmuhl GmbH working as an engineer in its Bogala Graphite Mine. Mr. Ratnayake spent over 10 years with GSMB (Geological Survey and Mines Bureau in the position of Mining Engineer and Chief Mining Engineer). He has worked in Australia in senior mining positions and was, until recently, the Mines Manager at Kahatagaha Graphite Lanka Limited, the largest graphite mine in Sri Lanka. Bharat Parashar, Ceylon Graphites Chief Executive Officer, said: We welcome Janaka to the Ceylon team, his experience and leadership will greatly strengthen our operational capabilities. We are progressing as per plan albeit a little slower than anticipated due to heavier than expected monsoons. Despite this delay, we expect to enter a production phase by the end of the calendar year. We anticipate that the acquisition of JADS will provide Ceylon with a more substantial resource base and positively impact both the quantum of graphite we will bring to the market and our production time lines. The graphite market continues to grow at a very attractive rate. Allied Market Research, recently reported that the global graphite market was valued at $13,004 million in 2015, and is expected to reach $18,769 million by 2022, at a compounded annual growth rate of approximately 5.4%. The electric vehicle market and the renewable energy industry continue to be the main drivers behind this anticipated growth. As these industries grow we anticipate the value of high quality graphite, the likes of which is available primarily in Sri Lanka, will increase. Qualified Person Robert Marvin, P. Geo (ONT) is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the geological information provided in this news release. Mr. Marvin is a Director of Ceylon. About Ceylon Graphite Corp. Ceylon Graphite Corp. is a public company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange that is in the business of exploring for and development of graphite in Sri Lanka. The Government of Sri Lanka has granted the company exploration rights in a land package of over 100km. These exploration GRIDs (each a square kilometre in area) cover areas of historic graphite production from the early twentieth century, and represent a majority of the known graphite occurrences in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan graphite is known to be some of the purest in the world, and currently accounts for less than 1% of the world graphite production. VANCOUVER, Oct. 11, 2017 /CNW/ - Mirasol Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: MRZ, OTCPK: MRZLF, "Mirasol", the "Company") is pleased to report initial exploration results from its new 100% owned Altazor high sulfidation epithermal (HSE) gold project located in the prolifically mineralized Mio-Pliocene age mineral belt of Northern Chile. Altazor comprises approximately 22,900 ha of contiguous exploration claims, and was staked by Mirasol as an outcome of the Company's Atacama-Puna Generative program, which is targeting the discovery of large-scale Au+Ag and Cu deposits in the prolifically mineralized, Tertiary age mineral belts of this region. Mirasol's CEO Stephen Nano stated "We are pleased to have added another large scale, quality HSE gold project to our Chilean portfolio that now establishes Mirasol as one of the leading explorers in this prospective mineral belt. Altazor has attracted the attention of major gold producers who have expressed interest in a potential joint venture (JV) on the project". Altazor has favourable logistics, situated just 20 km south of 345 kV powerlines that follow International Highway Route 23, a paved road connecting northern Chile and Argentina (Figure 1). In common with other Mio-Pliocene mines and projects, Altazor is located at high altitudes of between 4000 and 5200 m; however, Altazor has good "drive up access" via an open valley and a network of easily passable gravel tracks. Altazor is situated in an underexplored 860 km long section of the Mio-Pliocene age mineral belt located between Mirasol's Yamana Gold - Gorbea Joint Venture (see news release September 11, 2017 on Atlas drill results) and the historic, now idled, Choquelimpie HSE gold mine in far northern Chile. Mirasol believes the Chilean and Argentine section of the Mio-Pliocene age mineral belt is highly prospective for the discovery of new world class Au+Ag deposits as exemplified by the recent discoveries of the 3.8 million-ounce Salares Norte1 by Gold Fields and Barrick Gold's 6.8 million ounce Alturas2 HSE gold deposits. Mirasol has used radiometric age-dating on the alteration system at Altazor, which returned a late-Miocene age of 7.8 Ma. This age falls within the key mineralization window of 6.4 to 13.1 Ma that "brackets" the formation of the large to giant Mio-Pliocene age HSE gold deposits in Chile and Argentina (Figure 1), and suggests that the alteration system at Altazor was formed during this key period for gold deposit formation in this belt. As such, it may have the potential of being a productive mineral system. Altazor is centred within a dacite to andesite composition volcanic complex hosting a very large-scale advanced argillic alteration system (the alteration "cap") that appears to extend beneath thin post mineral lavas and may cover an area of up to 75 sq-km (Figure 2). These caps are characteristically barren of ore grade precious metal mineralization and can therefore conceal significant gold and silver ore bodies at depth, as is the case at Salares Norte and Alturas. Mirasol has developed significant in-house knowledge of these systems, including their geochemical signature, alteration mineral associations, and changes in mineral chemistry and crystallinity, which the Company uses to vector exploration and target drilling within these extensive HSE alteration caps. At Altazor, Aster satellite (Figure 2) and in-field pIR-Spec alteration mapping (click on this link to learn more about pIR-Spec in mineral exploration) show that the current outcrop level of the alteration system correlates to the steam heated cap portion of the system, and at lower altitudes in the project the top of the silica-alunite zone may be also exposed (click on this link to learn more about alteration patterns in HSE systems). Steam heated and silica-alunite alteration at Altazor is focused on an extensive multiphase phreatomagmatic to hydrothermal breccia complex currently mapped as a series of discrete bodies over approximately a 5.0 by 1.8 km area (Figure 2 and Figure 3). Breccia bodies play an important role in large HSE gold systems acting as both channel ways for hydrothermal fluid flow and a rock preparation mechanism to host mineralization. The presence of multiple, highly altered breccia bodies at Altazor, individually up to 700 by 350 m, are interpreted as positive features of the project. Mirasol's first pass reconnaissance sampling has been completed over approximately 50% of the project area during the recent exploration season. A total of 216 stream sediment, 395 soil ("talus/lag" material), and 933 rock chip samples have been collected and returned low-level but significantly anomalous Au, Ag, Cu, Pb, Zn and epithermal path finder element assays, from sampling of the mapped breccia bodies (Figure 4). Select rock chip samples of silica-alunite and vuggy silica altered breccia, and veinlets that cross cut the breccia bodies have assayed up to 562 ppb Au, and 650 ppb Ag. Soil (talus/lag) samples assayed up to 18 ppb Au and 1,080 ppb Ag. The Altazor surface results show comparable ppb level anomalous gold assay in soils and rock chips to those recorded at surface at the Salares Norte Project (Table 1). At Salares Norte broad spaced soil (lag) samples assayed typically less than detection limit (5 ppb Au), with some samples assaying up to 24 ppb Au and an isolated peak soil sample with 628 ppb Au3. The highest assay for a pre-drill surface rock chip sample at Salares Norte was 53 ppb3. Mirasol is seeking a JV partner to advance the exploration and drill testing of the Altazor project during this field season (October 2017 to approximately April 2018). The next stage of exploration at the project is anticipated to include systematic soil sampling, geological mapping and rock chip sampling, as well as magnetic and electrical geophysical surveys. These data sets will be used to drive integrated analysis for drill target selection. To follow the Altazor story, please visit Mirasol's website at www.mirasolresources.com Stephen Nano, President and CEO of Mirasol, has approved the technical content of this news release and is a Qualified Person under NI 43 -101. _________________________ 1 Gold Fields. (2016). The Gold Fields Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Supplement to the Integrated Annual Report 2016. 2 Barrick Gold Corporation. (2016). Annual Report 2016. 3 Azevedo, F., Brewer, N., Santos, A., Huete Verdugo, D., Baumgartner, R., Roncal, L., Trueman, A. & Foley, A. (2015). The discovery and geology of the Salares Norte epithermal gold-silver deposit, northern Chile. In NewGenGold 2015 (p145-157). Perth, Australia. Quality Assurance/Quality Control of the Altazor exploration program: All exploration on the project was supervised by Mirasol CEO Stephen C. Nano, who is the Qualified Person under NI 43-101. Mirasol applies industry standard exploration sampling methodologies and techniques. All geochemical soil, stream, rock and drill samples are collected under the supervision of the company's geologists in accordance with industry practice. Geochemical assays are obtained and reported under a quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) program. Samples are dispatched to an ISO 9001:2008 accredited laboratory in Chile for analysis. Assay results from surface rock, channel, trench, and drill core samples may be higher, lower or similar to results obtained from surface samples due to surficial oxidation and enrichment processes or due to natural geological grade variations in the primary mineralization. VANCOUVER, Oct. 11, 2017 /CNW/ - Mawson Resources Limited ("Mawson") or (the "Company") (TSX:MAW) (Frankfurt:MXR) (PINKSHEETS: MWSNF) announces the discovery of a new trend of high-grade gold mineralization in outcrop, located 500 metres east of Rompas. Photo 1: Extremely high-grade, visible gold from a mini-drill sample taken from the East Rompas project (minidrill diameter 25mm). No sulphides present in the sample. Photo 2: Thousands of gold grains (in red ellipse) panned from carbonate-bearing biotite-altered mafic rocks from the East Rompas project. Scale of gold tail in pan approxiamtely 4 centimetres. Figure 1: The Rompas and East Rompas mineralization trends. Key Points: Summer fieldwork has located a series of high grade outcrops with a 750 metre-long strike length, approximately 500 metres east of the Rompas trend; A total of 50 samples have been collected from outcrops over 750 metre strike from which gold grades range from <0.05 g/t gold to 851 g/t gold, with an average of 21.6 g/t gold. Samples are outcrop grab samples, which are selective by nature and are unlikely to represent average grades on the property; Fieldwork continues in the area, with mini-drill sampling, rockchip sampling and geological mapping ongoing. Geophysical surveys are planned to commence immediately with electromagnetic geophysics (VLF-R) and ground magnetics to be undertaken. Diamond drilling is planned for November-December; The area is fully permitted for diamond drilling within the recently permitted Mannisto exploration permit area. Mr Hudson, Chairman & CEO states, "The under-explored greenstone belts of Northern Finland present one of the most exciting global gold exploration opportunities of recent years, and Mawson's long experience in the region is paying dividends. The discovery is a credit to our increased geological understanding of the project, as well as the gold prospectivity of our large, district-scale, 100 sq km mineral system under Mawson's tenure. Although this is early days at East Rompas, we are encouraged by the grade, style and strike length of the discovery. With new gold discoveries in outcrop and permits already in place, we can quickly move to drill testing this new discovery area while we plan for a large winter drill program at Rajapalot, located 8 kilometers east, commencing in January 2018." A total of 50 samples were taken from surface outcrops within a 750 metres by 50 metres area at East Rompas. Gold grades range from <0.05 g/t gold to 851 g/t gold, with an average of 21.6 g/t gold (Figures 1 and 2). Samples are outcrop grab samples, which are selective by nature and are unlikely to represent average grades on the property. The discovery zone is located approximately 500 metres east of the 6 kilometre long Rompas high-grade veins system (6 metres @ 617 g/t in drill hole ROM0011) in Mawson's 100% owned Rompas-Rajapalot project in Northern Finland. The area was prioritized through recent re-interpretation of the regional stratigraphy, including the understanding that disseminated gold occurrences of the Rajapalot-style lie stratigraphically adjacent to the high grade Rompas-style gold vein mineralization. The area is fully permitted for diamond drilling and is located outside Natura 2000 areas, within the recently permitted Mannisto exploration permit area. Gold mineralization in these newly discovered outcrops is hydrothermal, fracture controlled and associated with strongly biotite-altered mafic rocks, believed similar to the Joki discovery at Rajapalot. Most of the fracture-controlled gold mineralization discovered to date occurs in strongly hydrothermally biotite-altered mafic rocks within a 750 metres long zone (Photos 1 and 2). The width of the occurrence is uncertain, but is at least 20 metres. Outcrop is poor and forms less than 5% of the area. In the northern part of the discovery area, alteration is concentrated close to the eastern contact towards metasediment/mafic contact. The biotite alteration appears to be a younger event than the amphibolite-facies foliations developed in most of the adjacent rocks. The mafic rocks are variably magnetic and are hosted within calcsilicate and quartz-rich rocks. Geologic mapping of the zone continues, accompanied by additional ground magnetics at 25 metre spacing and VLF-R at 50 metre spacing. Diamond drilling will be undertaken in November-December. Technical Background The qualified person for Mawson's Finnish projects, Dr. Nick Cook, President for Mawson and Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining Metallurgy has reviewed and verified the contents of this release. Analytical samples were transported by Mawson personnel or commercial transport from site to the CRS Minlab Oy facility in Kempele, Finland. Samples were prepared at Kempele and analyzed for gold at Raahe using the PAL1000 technique which involves grinding the sample in steel pots with abrasive media in the presence of cyanide, followed by measuring the gold in solution with flame AAS equipment. The QA/QC program of Mawson consists of the systematic insertion of certified standards of known gold content, and blanks the within interpreted mineralized rock. In addition, CRS inserts blanks and standards into the analytical process. About Mawson Resources Limited (TSX:MAW, FRANKFURT:MXR, PINKSHEETS:MWSNF) Mawson Resources Limited is an exploration and development company. Mawson has distinguished itself as a leading Nordic Arctic exploration company with a focus on the flagship Rompas and Rajapalot gold projects in Finland. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Chesapeake Gold Corp. (Chesapeake or the Company) (TSX-V:CKG) has commenced a 5,000 metre diamond drill program at its wholly owned Yarely project (Yarely) located near the proposed El Paso (Metates) plant site in Sinaloa State, Mexico. Chesapeake controls a 68,000 contiguous hectare land position favorably situated near a paved highway, civil infrastructure and labour. Yarely Highlights Several different deposit types have been defined in six prospects and include skarns, epithermal and mesothermal veins, disseminated zones, stockworks and breccias At the Central and Loretos prospects, 186 kilometres of IP-Resistivity geophysical surveys outlined a V shaped chargeability anomaly 6 kilometres long, up to 600 metres wide and over 300 metres deep The V shaped IP anomaly is coincident with northwest and northeast trending regional deep seated faults and two mineralized structural corridors The Phase I drill program at Yarely will focus on the Central and Loretos prospects. Drilling will determine the geological characteristics and potential mineralization of the diverse deposit types at depth. Drill results should begin to be released in November. Central Prospect Initial drill holes will test the four subparallel north-northwest trending stockwork structures up to one kilometre in length and associated extensive breccia bodies (see news release dated September 7, 2017). Holes will be drilled to over 200 metres depth targeting these mineralized structural corridors and underlying IP chargeability anomaly that suggests a significant deep sulphide body. The rig will then be moved north to test a swarm of high grade oxide veins exploited during the Spanish Colonial period. Drilling will target sulphide ore shoots below the oxidized zone and to depths of more than 100 metres where the veins intercept the IP geophysical anomaly. Loretos Prospect Three widely spaced exploratory holes are planned to test the west side of the V shaped IP anomaly which is over 3 kilometres long and 1 kilometre wide. At Loretos, quartz-carbonate veins and stockworks are hosted in sandstone, conglomerate and limestone. Geophysics has outlined the presence of sulfides possibly related to intrusive hosted mineralization up to 500 metres in depth. Regional District scale exploration continues at the Yarely project through detailed geologic mapping, soil and rock geochemistry, trenching and IP-Resistivity geophysical surveys. Yasmin, Lucy, Sundae and Los Mimbres prospects are being systematically advanced to the drill stage. A Phase II drill program is planned in 2018 to begin testing these prospects. Alberto Galicia, P. Geo, Vice President Exploration for Chesapeake and a Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101, has reviewed the technical information in this release. TORONTO, Oct. 10, 2017 /CNW/ - Sierra Metals Inc. (TSX: SMT) (BVL: SMT) (NYSE AMERICAN: SMTS) ("Sierra" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an Open Market Sale AgreementSM (the "Sales Agreement") with Jefferies LLC, H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, Scotia Capital (USA) Inc. and Noble Capital Markets, Inc. (collectively, the "Agents"), pursuant to which the Company may, at its discretion and from time to time during the term of the Sales Agreement, sell, through the Agents, acting as agent and/or principal, such number of common shares of the Company ("Common Shares") as would result in aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of up to US$55 million. Sales of Common Shares through the Agents, acting as agent, will be made through "at the market" issuances on the NYSE American at the market price prevailing at the time of each sale, and, as a result, sale prices may vary. No Common Shares will be offered or sold in Canada. The Company has filed a prospectus supplement, dated October 10, 2017, to the base prospectus included in its U.S. registration statement on Form F-10 (Registration No. 333-218076) declared effective on July 7, 2017, pursuant to which the Company may issue up to US$55.0 million of Common Shares (but not more than 22,500,000 Common Shares) in an at-the-market distribution. The U.S. prospectus supplement (together with the related base prospectus) is available on the SEC's website (www.sec.gov) and the Canadian prospectus supplement (together with the related base shelf prospectus) is available on the SEDAR website maintained by the Canadian Securities Administrators at www.sedar.com. Alternatively, copies of these documents may be obtained by contacting the Corporate Secretary of the Company at 79 Wellington Street West, Suite 2100, Toronto, Ontario M5K 1H1, Telephone +1 (416) 366-7777 ext. 1011. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes, including debt repayment and/or capital requirements. In accordance with our amended acquisition credit facility with Banco de Credito del Peru ("BCP"), at least 50% of the proceeds which we receive from the offering must be allocated to the mandatory prepayment of the amounts owing to BCP under such facility. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualifications under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. About Sierra Metals Sierra Metals Inc. is Canadian-based growing polymetallic mining company with production from its Yauricocha Mine in Peru, and its Bolivar and Cusi Mines in Mexico. The Company is focused on increasing production volume and growing mineral resources. Sierra Metals has recently had several new discoveries and still has additional brownfield exploration opportunities at all three mines in Peru and Mexico that are within or in close proximity to the existing mines. Additionally, the Company has large land packages at all three mines with several prospective regional targets providing longer term exploration upside and mineral resource growth potential. The Company's Common Shares trade on the Bolsa de Valores de Lima and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "SMT" and on the NYSE American Exchange under the symbol "SMTS". The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development ("EBRD") invests $1.4m and owns 6.16% of Kincora EBRD is one of the largest investors in Mongolia and has now contributed capital to all three projects in the Devonian copper belt $5.92m total gross funds raised by Kincora in the last two months, with a total of 68,854,232 shares outstanding VANCOUVER, Oct. 11, 2017 /CNW/ - Kincora Copper Limited (the "Company", "Kincora") (TSXV:KCC) announces it has closed a second tranche non-brokered private placement of units (the "Units") at C$0.33 per Unit to raise C$1,400,000 (the "Second Tranche Private Placement"). The Second Tranche Private Placement follows closing of a First Tranche on August 22nd 2017, with total gross funds raised being C$5.92m, supporting a well funded and aggressive exploration and expansion strategy. As per the Company's September 22nd, 2017 press release, each Unit is comprised of one common share (the "Shares") and one-half of a share purchase warrant with each whole warrant (the "Warrants") entitling the holder to acquire a further Share at C$0.445 for a period of two years. The EBRD holds certain pre-emptive rights to acquire further shares of Kincora in future private placements and requires that EBRD consent to a disposition of any interest in the Company's Mongolian subsidiaries. Sam Spring, President and CEO of Kincora, stated: "Following an extensive due diligence process we are delighted to have EBRD as a new shareholder. The Bank is a significant investor in some of Mongolia's largest mining projects and has provided finance to assist the development of the two existing economic copper projects in the Devonian belt. EBRD's investment is testament to the growing belief that Kincora holds some of the most exciting exploration assets along one of the last great underexplored copper belts. In the last two months, Kincora has attracted two new significant investors who are well known in the industry and now also sit alongside HPX with a shareholding of approx. 6%. This Second Tranche strengthens our balance sheet to accelerate ongoing exploration activities, and with the fund raising process now concluded operational news flow is set to accelerate". Eric Rasmussen, Director, Natural Resources commented: "We are pleased to support the exploration plans of Kincora with an equity investment. It is strategically important for Mongolia to attract quality investors into metals and minerals exploration in order to realize the high potential for mining." Background to EBRD EBRD is a multilateral bank that promotes the development of the private sector and entrepreneurial initiative in 38 economies across three continents. The Bank is owned by 66 countries as well as the EU and the EIB. EBRD investments are aimed at making the economies in its regions competitive, inclusive, well-governed, green, resilient and integrated. EBRD is one of the largest institutional investors in Mongolia and a large investor in the Southern Gobi region, including being a syndicate member in the project financing of the underground development of Oyu Tolgoi. Mongolia became an EBRD country of operations in October 2006 and since the beginning of its operations in Mongolia, the EBRD has committed through debt and equity investments more than EUR 1.42 billion to the Mongolian private sector through 92 projects in sectors ranging from banking to manufacturing and from mining to agribusiness. A guest post by David Garrett: It is relatively well known that the life sentence imposed on the vast majority of our murderers almost never means what it says but then it never did. Minimum non parole periods (NPP), a creature of the Sentencing Act 2002, make things a little clearer these days. What is even clearer, from even cursory research, is that the meaning of life has become very different in New Zealand as compared to Australia and Britain. But first a little history. From 1840 onwards, English common law became the law of New Zealand. Capital punishment was first carried out in New Zealand in 1842 on a Maori called Maketu who had murdered five Europeans. With one exception, a case of treason, all death sentences pronounced in New Zealand were for murder, the last being in 1957, when a Wanganui farmer called Bolton was hanged for the murder of his wife by poisoning. During the first 60 years of 20th century, before effective abolition in 1961, the application of the death penalty was anything but consistent which was also the case in England during the same period. In short, whether the sentence was carried out or commuted depended on your sex only one woman, baby farmer Minnie Dean, was ever hanged your place in society, and most importantly the government of the day. Following the election of the first Labour government in 1935 all death sentences were commuted and replaced with life, and in 1941, the death penalty was abolished by statute and replaced with Life with hard labour. After the National Party returned to power in 1949 the death penalty was restored, but its actual application remained capricious, and largely dependent on who the Attorney General of the day was. Those whose sentences were commuted had them replaced with life, but between 1950 and 1961, there was no statutory definition of that sentence, and it became common practice to consider such prisoners for parole after seven years. It is important to note that even during what some would call the good old days of the 1950s and 60s, a life sentence very rarely meant the prisoner would die in jail. Even a notorious rapist and murderer such as Stan Reid whose file was marked never to be released was in fact released several times, the last in 1985 when, six weeks after his release on compassionate grounds at the age of 83, he tried to rape a nun. So, following effective abolition in 1961 (the death penalty remained on the books for treason and piracy until final abolition in 1989) the sentence for murder was life, without there apparently ever being a statutory definition of what that might mean, until the passing of the Sentencing Act 2002. That Act provided for a minimum non parole period for lifers of 10 years, and the following year the Act was amended to provide for a 17 year minimum NPP in cases where at least one of the aggravating factors set out in section 104 (1) of the Act was present: examples include murders involving a high level of depravity or cruelty; murders for payment; or where the victim is especially vulnerable, by reason of age or state of health. In 2010 there was a further refinement added by the Sentencing and Parole Reform Act. This provision, largely overshadowed at the time by the three strikes (3S) provisions contained in that Act, provides for the imposition of life without parole (LWOP) where the murder is a stage two or three offence under the 3S regime, unless the court is satisfied that, given the circumstances of the offence and the offender, it would be manifestly unjust to do so. Miraculously, on each occasion where murders fitting the criteria for LWOP have come before either the High Court or the Court of Appeal, this so-called manifestly unjust proviso has been applied to avoid the imposition of LWOP. Both in that regard, and with regard to minimum non parole periods for murders falling within s.104 (1) of the Sentencing Act, my research reveals that we are now very much out of step with the jurisdictions we most commonly compare ourselves to, particularly Australia and Britain. Both of those countries have whole of life tariff sentences as an option, which are for all practical purposes identical to LWOP as provided for in our Sentencing Act. In Australia, minimum NPPs of 25 or 35 years are, if not common, at least not rare, and are imposed for cases of murder which in New Zealand would only warrant a minimum NPP of 20 years or so. In cases such as R v. McLaughlin, an Australian court would, I have little doubt, either impose LWOP or a minimum NPP of 35 years or more. Before killing 13 year old Jade Bayliss in Christchurch in November 2011 McLaughlin had served a sentence of 12 years for manslaughter in Australia. After his New Zealand murder conviction, the Crown sought a sentence of LWOP. The High Court refused, and instead imposed a life sentence with a minimum NPP of 23 years. There was no appeal by the Crown. Across the Tasman, it would seem that the value of a human life expressed in years of sentence imposed for taking one has long been greater than over here. LWOP has been available in Australia since the abolition of the death penalty in that country in 1973, but its imposition is apparently fairly rare, with only 15 lifers out of a total of more than 1000 serving a whole of life sentence in 2016. As I have noted however, the Aussies readily impose much longer NPPs for aggravated murder than do our courts. Among the Australian lifers who have lengthy minimum NPPs is one Adrian Bayley, serving life with a minimum NPP of 35 years for the rape and murder of a female journalist. To attract an NPP that long in New Zealand you pretty much have to kill multiple times; the high point remains William Bells 30 year NPP for the murder of three people at the Panmure RSA in 2001. The British too are much more ready than our Judges to impose either very long NPPs or whole of life sentences. British Judges have been able to sentence their worst murderers to LWOP since 1983, almost 30 years before our parliament saw fit to give New Zealand Judges that power. The whole-of-life sentence has apparently been imposed in the UK about 100 times since 1983. So what conclusions can we draw? New Zealand legislators have lagged far behind their British and Australian counterparts in recognizing that some murderers belong in jail for the rest of their natural lives. Judges in both Britain and Australia are far more ready than ours to impose either sentences of LWOP or very lengthy NPPs of 30 or even 40 years. But while our Judges have only had the power to impose LWOP for seven years, compared with thirty years in the UK, and forty years in Australia, they have that power now. In my view our Judges need to stiffen their resolve and send foul repeat killers like Jeremy McLaughlin, and Pauesi Brown (who killed good Samaritan Austin Hemmings in 2010, after serving a sentence for manslaughter in Australia) to LWOP, or at least to very lengthy NPPs that ensure that if such vermin are released at all, it will not be until they are very old men. Was Austin Hemmings life really only worth an NPP of 16 years? Not in my book. An NPP of at least twice that would have been appropriate, and that is certainly what Brown would have got if his second killing had been in Australia where he killed the first time. Neptunium, element 93 on the periodic table of elements, was the first transuranium element to be produced synthetically and the first actinide series transuranium element to be discovered. Its discovery came after several false findings of the element, including Enrico Fermi's attempt to bombard uranium with neutrons. That experiment resulted in the discovery of fission, or splitting atoms. Neptunium is sandwiched on the periodic table between uranium and plutonium, which are also radioactive. All three of these elements, named after planets, have between 92 and 94 protons in their nuclei, large enough to undergo a nuclear fission reaction, or "atom splitting." Due to this capability, uranium and plutonium are both widely used in nuclear power plants and weapons. Neptunium, however, was discovered significantly later in history than either of its periodic table neighbors, and is not widely used. Neptunium remains an important element to study because it is produced by nuclear reactions of uranium and plutonium and can last as harmful radioactive waste for millions of years, according to a 2003 report by the Pacific Northwest Nuclear Laboratory. Understanding neptunium's chemistry is essential to ensure safe long-term nuclear waste storage. Just the facts Atomic number (number of protons in the nucleus): 93 Atomic symbol (on the periodic table of elements): Np Atomic weight (average mass of the atom): 237 Density: 11.48 ounces per cubic inch (19.86 grams per cubic cm) Phase at room temperature: solid Melting point: 1,191 degrees Fahrenheit (644 degrees Celsius) Boiling point: 7,052 F (3,900 C) Number of natural isotopes (atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons): 4 Neptunium-237 through neptunium-240. There are 21 additional known isotopes created in a lab. Most common isotope: Np-237 Neptunium (opens in new tab) Shutterstock (opens in new tab) ) (Image credit: Andrei Marincas Discovery: Third time's a charm According to John Emsley in his book, "Natures Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements (opens in new tab)" (Oxford University Press, 1999), Italian scientist Enrico Fermi was the first to claim he discovered element 93, in 1934. He hypothesized that elements heavier than uranium (element 92) could be created by bombarding uranium with neutrons. Theoretically, this would add one neutral mass unit to the uranium atoms, which would then undergo beta decay, or loss of a negative charge that turns a neutron into a proton, resulting in an element with 93 total protons. Fermi's experiment did not end up producing an element; instead of the neutrons fusing with the uranium atoms, they split the uranium atoms into many fragment radioisotopes. Fermi was criticized for his false claim, and did not know at the time that he had actually performed the first atom splitting, or fission, experiment. Just four years later in 1938, Romanian physicist Horia Hulubei and French chemist Yvette Cauchois made a similar false report of discovering element 93. They claimed that they found the element in a naturally occurring mineral sample. At the time, scientists rejected this, believing no elements with more protons than uranium (transuranium elements) were present in nature. Element 93 was accepted as an existing element in 1940 at the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Edwin McMillan and graduate student Philip Abelson used a technique similar to Fermi, but with one important difference: they used slow-moving neutrons. McMillan used a machine called a cyclotron to slow the neutrons and then directed them at a uranium-238 target. This time, the neutrons actually worked to create element 93 by fusing with the uranium atoms instead of breaking them apart. Abelson analyzed the resulting sample, and noted unusual beta radiation that showed a new isotope (later named Np-289) was present. McMillan and Abelson decided to call the element neptunium because Neptune is the next planet beyond Uranus in the solar system. The discovery was the first transuranium element to be synthesized in a lab and earned McMillan a Nobel Prize in 1951. Sources of neptunium Although scientists used to think neptunium could only be created synthetically, trace amounts of four of neptunium's 25 isotopes have since been found in nature, according to Los Alamos National Laboratory. Uranium, found in rock, soil and water, undergoes a natural nuclear reaction that results in small amounts of isotopes Np-237 to Np-240. The majority of neptunium, however, is anthropogenic; that is, it is created as a byproduct of reactions in nuclear power plants. Scientists can extract neptunium from spent nuclear fuel in large quantities. Because of its long half-life of 2.14 million years, Np-237 is the most abundant isotope of neptunium created. Most other isotopes of neptunium have short half-lives and decay within days. Properties of neptunium Neptunium is a member of the actinide series, row 5f of the periodic table. This row (along with the lanthanide row above) is often depicted below and separately from the rest of the periodic table because it is too long to fit on a page with normal dimensions. All 15 actinide elements have very large atomic radii and are radioactive. Neptunium is a silver metal and is very reactive, with four different oxidation states. When it combines with other elements it occurs as different colored solutions (purple, yellow, green and pink). Even on its own, neptunium occurs as three different allotropes, or physical forms, depending on the temperature. It is the densest of the actinides and can remain a liquid for the largest temperature range of any known element. Can we use it? Neptunium's current applications are limited. Neptunium has only been considered, not actually used, as a fissile nuclear fuel. However, neptunium-237 is used to create plutonium-238, which is then used in special energy generators that can power satellites, spacecraft and lighthouses for a long period of time. Neptunium-237 is also used in nuclear physics research as a part of a device that detects high-energy neutrons. Can it harm us? There may be radioactive neptunium in your house! Neptunium accumulates in a common household item: ionizing smoke detectors. To detect smoke, another actinide element, americium-241, emits radiation and turns into neptunium-237. But no need to worry: the amount of radioactive material in smoke detectors is negligible and causes no harm to human health, according to Emsley. Smoke detectors contain less than 0.00000001 ounces (0.0000003 grams) of americium, which decays so slowly that only about 0.2 percent of this already small amount converts to neptunium each year. Scientists are, however, concerned with the long-term storage of neptunium present in spent nuclear fuel, according to a 2005 article published by Berkeley Lab. Although neptunium makes up only a small percentage of total radioactive waste, it poses a particular threat because it is long-lasting and hard to extract. Amy Hixon, an assistant professor at the Notre Dame College of Engineering, has studied the less familiar actinide elements and how to best contain them. "The neptunium present in a used nuclear fuel rod can last for millions of years, and I'm not exaggerating," Hixon said as she explained the reality of containing neptunium. Her lab studies how neptunium and other actinides move through materials simulating geological repositories, like the one proposed for Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Though these deep storage sites are generally accepted as the safest long-term storage, there are none currently operating in the United States. The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository was defunded under the Obama administration in 2011. The Trump administration has cut all funding for deep borehole waste research, but Congress may reconsider funding in the next budget cycle for 2018. Additional resources See more Sodden lawns and streets-turned-lakes plagued low-lying parts of Florida's coast such as Miami and Tampa Bay over the last week, but the culprit wasn't the latest howling storm. In fact, the skies were often sunny and blue. The rash of flooding was instead the work of so-called king tides, the highest high tides of the year, brought on by a combination of seasonal factors and the alignment of the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon. The floods from this annual event effectively allow locals to "step into a time machine" and glimpse their future as global warming drives up sea levels at an ever-faster pace, said Brian McNoldy, a tropical meteorologist at the University of Miami. The level of today's highest tides could become the average level for high tides of the future, scientists say. [6 Unexpected Effects of Climate Change] Along the Atlantic coast of Florida, the tides are naturally highest in the fall, McNoldy said. This happens, he said, because of several factors: Ocean waters are at their warmest, causing the water to expand; the Gulf Stream a warm Atlantic current that moves from the Gulf of Mexico to the tip of Florida and then up the state's eastern coast slows down, allowing water to pile up along the coast; atmospheric pressure is low; and onshore winds are strong. When the sun and moon line up at the new and full moons, their combined gravitational pull acts on top of those already high-tide levels to create the biggest non-storm tides of the year. Miami experienced even higher-than-expected king tides last week thanks to persistent easterly winds that helped push more water ashore. On Oct. 5, a tide gauge at Virginia Key measured water levels 2.1 feet (0.6 meters) higher than the average annual high tide (or the average of the high tides from that year), McNoldy told Live Science. In the Tampa Bay area, southerly winds from Hurricane Nate also boosted sea levels above the expected high tide and caused flooding, which normally isn't as prevalent there during king tides, said Andrew McKaughan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Tampa Bay office. The high and low tides along the Gulf Coast dont vary as widely as those on the eastern shore, as conditions there tend to be calmer, said William Sweet, an oceanographer with the National Ocean Service. The king tide flooding provides a glimpse of the future for these areas, Sweet said, as rising sea levels make flooding events more common and flood levels higher. Nuisance flooding, as it is called, has already been on the rise in recent decades because of the sea-level rise that has occurred so far, he said, and both flooding and sea level rise are progressing at ever faster rates. Along with more frequent floods in the future, in "places with the exact same king tide as this year, you'll have many more areas that flood because of it," McNoldy said. Such floods hamper the everyday lives of people in affected areas; in Miami, the flooding caused major traffic slowdowns. "There are areas along my drive that I know flood during the highest tide days, and I don't drive through those," McNoldy said. He said he had co-workers whose normal half-hour commutes took 2 to 3 hours, as cars plodded their way along inundated streets. Flooding can also affect infrastructure, like wastewater plants, and coastal city planners are increasingly realizing they need to take action to protect the residents. "Sea levels are expected just to keep increasing," Sweet said. "It doesn't bode well for a future that isn't ready." Florida has two more king tide events coming up, with the new moon later this month and the full moon at the beginning of November, usually the highest tide of the year. The strong onshore winds may mean that the recent tides during October's full moon take the crown this year, though. One thing is for certain, though: During the November full moon, the tide "will be high, and it will flood streets," McNoldy said. Original article on Live Science. Doctors have successfully suppressed a rare brain disease that typically strikes young boys, by using a novel type of therapy that alters a patient's genes. The disease, called adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is an extremely rare degenerative disorder that affects about 1 in 20,000 people worldwide, virtually all of whom are boys. One family's desperate search for a cure for ALD was depicted in the 1992 film "Lorenzo's Oil." ALD occurs when an individual inherits a faulty copy of the ABCD1 gene. This faulty gene means that boys with ALD are unable to make a protein that helps break down certain fatty acids, causing their nerve cells to die and neurological function to rapidly deteriorate. Once children start showing symptoms, they quickly lose the ability to walk or talk, going from fully functioning kids in school to being dependent on feeding and breathing tubes within five to ten years of diagnosis. In the disease's most severe form, boys with cerebral ALD die before their 10th birthday. [7 Diseases You Can Learn About from a Genetic Test] "It's a devastating disease," said co-lead study author Dr. Florian Eichler, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. "Unfortunately, when it is diagnosed after symptoms occur, it is often too late, and the wildfire of inflammation in the brain has already spread so far that we have trouble controlling it." Currently, the only effective treatment for ALD is a bone-marrow transplant, Eichler told Live Science. But that requires a long, arduous wait for a compatible donor, and often results in complications such as graft-versus-host disease, in which the body attacks the transplant. But with gene therapy, the risk of graft-versus-host disease is eliminated, because the boys can serve as their own cell donors, Eichler says. In the new study, published online Oct. 4 in The New England Journal of Medicine, Eichler and his team treated 17 boys ages 17 or younger with a single dose of the experimental gene therapy. When the researchers followed up on the boys two years later, 15 were functioning without any major disability or progression of their disease. The other two had died, one from a worsening of the disease and the other from complications of a donor transplant he got after he withdrew from the study. For the gene therapy, the children had their own stem cells harvested from their blood rather than bone marrow. Then, scientists used a unique tool to infuse the cells in a lab with the healthy ABCD1 gene: a lentivirus made from a disabled form of HIV. The lentivirus acts as a "vector," carrying and inserting the healthy gene into the stem cell DNA. "These vectors are kind of like living medicines," said Dr. David Williams, the chief scientific officer at Boston Children's Hospital and the senior author of the study. Once in the body, these altered blood stem cells constantly regenerate to keep treating the patient's disease. The advantage of using disabled HIV over other viral carriers is that HIV actually delivers the healthy gene more safely, without apparently altering any neighboring DNA, Williams told Live Science. When the modified stem cells are transplanted back into the patient two months later, the cells multiply in the bone marrow and eventually find their way into the brain through the bloodstream. There, they replace microglial cells, breaking down fatty acids and supporting neurons to prevent any further brain damage from occurring. "This is very exciting, not just for kids and families with adrenoleukodystrophy, but also as a breakthrough for other disorders that [affect] the brain, said Amanda Bergner, a genetic counselor at Columbia University who was not involved in the study. Neurological disorders have traditionally been hard to target and treat because of how the brain is sealed off from the rest of the body, she said. But the study's success has prompted the therapy maker and study sponsor biotech company Bluebird Bio to include an additional eight boys in the trial. Separate research is also focused on how boys receiving gene therapy fare compared to those who had bone-marrow transplants. And Bluebird Bio scientists, some of whom were also involved in the study, have indicated that they plan to pursue FDA approval for the therapy. Only one gene therapy is FDA-approved in the U.S. a leukemia treatment that received the go-ahead in August. A few others are undergoing clinical trials and some have won regulatory approval in Europe. Fixing rare genetic diseases is impressive, but what remains to be seen is how long the benefits will last, how much the treatment will cost and how accessible it will be to those who need it, Bergner told Live Science. "It's a valuable step forward," she said. But the next step is really going to be implementing programs that help detect ALD as early as possible and lowering barriers to the treatment so that it can be most effective." Originally published on Live Science. In the early 1960s, Jane Goodall's revolutionary studies of wild chimpanzees challenged the scientific establishment's ideas about animals, as well as about women. The story never gets old, but it's also been told in multiple films, many more books and countless articles. That's why it's astounding that the documentary "Jane" (2017), directed by Brett Morgen and scored by Philip Glass, has something new to contribute to the lexicon of information about Goodall. The movie may be able to do that because it draws on more than 100 hours of never-before-released footage from the early 1960s, shot in the Gombe Stream National Park of Tanzania, where Goodall did some of her most important work. "I never thought that another documentary could be new for me," Goodall told a group of reporters at a media roundtable for the movie on Monday (Oct. 9). "[The film has] taken me back to those days more than any other movie that's been done about me." [8 Human-Like Behaviors of Primates] Chimps in the wild Goodall's studies of chimps in the wild revolutionized scientists' understanding of primates, primarily by revealing just how much these animals have in common with humans. Her observations of chimps using reeds to withdraw insects from dirt mounds provided some of the first evidence that animals use tools. To study these chimpanzees, Goodall would first earn their trust, such that she eventually could interact with them and be welcomed by the troop of chimps. Jane Goodall and the chimp she named David Greybeard, the first member of the wild chimpanzee troop to lose his fear of Goodall. (Image credit: National Geographic Creative/Hugo van Lawick) The newly released footage captures Goodall's solitude in the east African jungle, and the film emphasizes that it took more than five months for her to even get close enough to the chimps to observe them doing anything other than running away from her. Later footage shows Goodall's progress with the chimps, including sitting close by as they cautiously approached her to get a banana she had placed on the ground. Feeding the animals unfortunately inspired some of the males to attack Goodall's camp in search of other goods. (This problem was largely fixed with a feeding station.) And of course, there are shots of Goodall much later on, physically interacting with the chimps grooming, tickling and showing affection. In the film, Goodall describes this time as the greatest period in her life, because she was submerged in the process of discovery. [Image Gallery: Lethal Aggression in Wild Chimpanzees] The 16mm film has been digitally restored and looks incredibly vivid and bright compared with most newsreel films shot at that time. It had been "tucked away in the National Geographic archives for over 50 years," according to a statement from the company. Hugo van Lawick, characterized in the film as perhaps the greatest wildlife photographer and filmmaker of his era, was sent by the National Geographic Society to film Goodall as part of a grant that had been awarded to her. During that time in Gombe, the photographer and his human subject gradually fell in love, and later got married and had a son. Jane Goodall kisses her son, Grub, in Gombe, Tanzania. (Image credit: Jane Goodall Institute/Hugo van Lawick) Struggles The movie also captures a very dark time at the Gombe Stream Research Centre. After Goodall left Tanzania to help her husband make films in the Serengeti, multiple groups of wild African chimpanzees were infected with poliothey had contracted from humans (though not necessarily from the scientists at Goodall's station), according to the film. The disease decimated multiple chimp groups in Africa, including the troop Goodall had spent most of her time studying. Many chimps died, and at least one was euthanized by the scientists at Goodall's research station. The footage is harrowing. Jane Goodall and infant chimpanzee Flint in Gombe, Tanzania. Flint was the first infant born at Gombe after Goodall arrived and began her revolutionary studies of wild chimps. Flint furthered Goodall's research by providing insight into chimp parenting behaviors. (Image credit: National Geographic Creative/Hugo van Lawick) Goodall contends that the outbreak did not start at her station, but from then on, she prohibited physical contact between the animals and the scientists. This has changed the way scientists study native animal groups, especially primates, according to a statement from National Geographic. But in a roundtable interview with journalists this month, Goodall pointed out that there is still a chimp research center at Gombe, and research into wild primate behavior has changed, not stopped. "The field of animal behavior, I don't think, has ever been so exciting, because finally science has been forced to admit that we are part of the amazing animal kingdom, and it's not only us who have personalities, minds and emotions," Goodall said. "Now, we're learning about the intelligence not just of chimpanzees and dolphins and elephants, but [also] birds there's a flurry of interest in avian intelligence octopuses, even insects. And now we find trees can communicate with pheromones and microfungi under the roots on the forest floor. It's a really exciting time for young people wanting to go into this field." Sharing an experience The task of sorting through the 100 hours of new footage fell to documentary filmmaker Brett Morgen, whose previous film subjects have included musician Kurt Cobain, rock band the Rolling Stones, film producer Robert Evans and O.J. Simpson people who don't seem to have a lot in common with Goodall. Jane Goodall at the premier of "Jane" at the Hollywood Bowl on Oct. 9, 2017. From left, Goodall's grandson, Merlin van Lawick; her son, Hugo "Grub" van Lawick; the film's director, Brett Morgen; and the film's composer, Philip Glass. (Image credit: National Geographic) But in talking with reporters at the media roundtable, Morgen said his approach to filmmaking has less to do with the particulars of a subject and more with "opening myself up to the energy of the subjects I'm documenting and to try to bottle that energy." He added that even though he had never-before-seen footage at his fingertips, he did not set out to find new information about Goodall or her experience in Gombe. Instead, he sought to use the footage to "tell the story in a cinematic way," he said. He seems to have been left somewhat unmoved by the other documentaries about Goodall. "All of these films told me what happened in Gombe," he said. "None of them allowed me to experience what happened in Gombe." The film is also very much about motherhood, and Morgen expressed a deep reverence for Goodall's mother, Vanne, who gave Goodall the confidence to ignore the rampant sexism of the time and pursue her dream. (Goodall even says in the film that as a child she "dreamed as a man," because in her world, women didn't do the things she wanted to do, like go on adventures in Africa and live among animals.) Vanne also accompanied her daughter on some of the scientist's early expeditions to Africa. In the movie, Jane Goodall talks about admiring the mothering skills of one of her chimp subjects, Flo. Those observations resonated deeper with Goodall after the birth of her son, she said in the film, and it wasn't until becoming a mother herself that Goodall could more fully understand the mothering behaviors she had observed in the chimp communities. Morgen may have succeeded in creating more of an experience than just a historical record, based on Goodall's own thoughts about the movie. "There's an immediacy about it, and, you know, [watching it], I feel I'm living in that best time of my life," she said during the media roundtable. "There's more about me personally and my personal life [than in previous movies], and the relationship with the chimpanzees is so vivid, and so it was very moving to watch. And I think people will take away, not exactly a different Jane but maybe have a better understanding of who I am." "Jane" will appear in select theaters starting on Oct. 20. You can see a complete list of screening dates on the National Geographic website (opens in new tab). The film will also be released on the National Geographic channel in the winter of 2018. Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Original article on Live Science. Introduction There's often more to a picture than meets the eye, and many of the world's most famous artworks have secrets hidden beneath the surface. Several famous paintings are known to cover older works by the artist that can now be detected by scientific techniques like X-ray fluoroscopy, revealing the original paintings and drawings that would otherwise be lost to history. In other cases, works of art feature cryptic clues placed by the artist, or contain curious resemblances and some have even sparked popular conspiracy theories. Here are 11 hidden secrets in famous works of art. The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck (Image credit: Shutterstock) The Arnolfini Portrait by the Dutch painter Jan van Eyck is thought to portray an Italian merchant named Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, who lived in the Flemish city Bruges. The painting is celebrated for its vivid and detailed representations of the couple and their surroundings, and the precise geometry of its composition, which includes an intricate reflection of the scene in a framed circular mirror hanging on the wall of the room. The details of the painting have fueled many theories about its hidden symbolism, from the way the couple is joining hands, to the meaning of the small dog, the carelessly placed pairs of shoes, and the single lit candle in the chandelier. The artist's signature also appears as graffiti on the wall of the room: "Jan van Eyck was here, 1434." The circular convex mirror on the wall near the center of the painting reveals an intricate reflection of the room as the scene was painted including two additional figures standing beside the doorway, one whom may be the artist himself. It's not known if van Eyck used a real convex mirror to paint the scene from behind, but the curved distortions of the image are almost optically perfect, experts have said. A contentious theory from the 1930s holds that the scene is a representation of the marriage of the couple, and that the mirror image and van Eyck's dated signature are designed to serve as a legal record of the marriage, including the two witnesses required to be present. But, this theory now finds little favor with most art historians and with the curators of the National Portrait Gallery in London, England, where the painting is now on exhibit. The distinctive Arnolfini Portrait is often referenced and parodied in popular culture, including a Muppet version featuring Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy. In Ridley Scott's 1982 science-fiction movie "Blade Runner," bounty hunter Rick Deckard (played by actor Harrison Ford) find clues about the androids he is chasing by zooming in on the reflection in a circular, convex mirror that hangs on the wall of a room in a photograph. The Blue Room by Pablo Picasso (Image credit: Evan Vucci/AP) The Blue Room is regarded as one of Pablo Picasso's earliest masterpieces. It was painted when Picasso was 19 years old and living in Paris, and is one of the first works of his early "Blue Period" of melancholy scenes dominated by varying shades of blue. In 2014, scientists announced that they had found a hidden image underneath the painted surface of "The Blue Room," showing the hidden portrait of a man wearing a bow tie, resting his chin on his hand, reported the Associated Press. It's not yet known who the mystery man could be, but it's definitely not a portrait of Picasso himself. One possibility is the art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who hosted Picasso's first show in Paris in 1901. Art historians say Picasso was poor but very productive at the time he painted "The Blue Room," so it wasn't unusual for him to reuse an earlier canvas for a new idea. Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (Image credit: Chris Radburn-Pool/Getty) French scientist Pascal Cotte announced earlier this year that he'd found a hidden image of a different woman beneath the world's most famous portrait, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Cotte was able to examine the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum in Paris in 2004 under intense lights of different frequencies. He then spent more than 10 years analyzing the data from these experiments. Cotte said his research has revealed the original portrait on the Mona Lisa canvas, but it portrays a different woman who is looking off to the side instead of directly at the artist. Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in around 1506. It's generally thought to portray Lisa Gherardini of Florence, the wife of a silk merchant. But, Cotte thinks the original Mona Lisa shows a different Florentine woman of the time named Pacifica Brandano. Not all art experts are convinced by Cotte's research, however. One art historian suggested his methods may have created an artificial image from the original brush stokes used by Leonardo to create the final portrait, but they did not represent a different portrait. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci (Image credit: William Thomas Cain/Getty) Leonardo da Vinci's famous portrayal of Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper has been at the heart of some popular theories in recent years, as portrayed in the 2003 novel "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown and the 2006 movie adaption of the book starring Tom Hanks. But to art historians, da Vincis Last Supper is important for its expressive composition and use of perspective, which was something of an innovation at the time. Da Vinci aligned the figures and the walls of the painted room to strings radiating from a nail in the wall where the original is painted, above a dining hall in a monastery in Milan. Da Vinci also created special tempura paints so that he could take his time over the wall-sized painting, instead of working quickly on wet plaster before it dried. When the abbot of the monastery complained that the painting was taking too long, the infuriated artist was said to have threatened to use the abbot's face as his model for the traitor Judas. In the end, da Vinci visited the prisons of Milan to find the perfect villainous face for Judas, who is seated fifth from the left. Professional art historians say there is no evidence for the conspiracy theories about the Last Supper set out in "The Da Vinci Code," and other books that broach the topic; and they reject the identification of the figure to the left of Jesus as his female follower Mary Magdalene, instead of the apostle John. Cafe Terrace at Night by Vincent van Gogh (Image credit: Juliana Su/ Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0) Vincent van Gogh's 1888 painting "Cafe Terrace at Night" is thought by some to include a representation of Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper." The painting shows a lit cafe in the town of Arles in France, where the Dutch artist lived for a few years before his death in 1890. The central figure in the cafe is a long-haired waiter wearing a white shirt and apron, surrounded by people seated at tables. Independent researcher Jared Baxter argues that van Gogh was deeply religious before beginning his career as an artist, and Baxter thinks the painting is an example of an entire genre of "Last Supper" paintings by various artists that are modelled on da Vinci's original. Baxter also notes the cross shape made by the frame of the window behind the waiter's back, the heavenly appearance of the well-lit cafe (compared to the dark streets outside) and the shadowy figure standing near the door who may represent the traitorous Judas. Patch of Grass by Vincent van Gogh (Image credit: TU Delft) Vincent van Gogh was very poor for most of his life, and like many struggling painters, he often reused his old canvases. Up to 20 paintings at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, or around 15 percent of the artist's entire collection, are known to cover an earlier composition by the artist. Research published in 2008 by scientists in the Netherlands and France revealed a previously unknown portrait by van Gogh, hidden beneath "Patch of Grass," which he painted in Paris in 1886 or 1887. The researchers used powerful X-rays generated by a synchrotron accelerator to identify the chemical elements in the pigments of the hidden layers of paint, without affecting the paint on the surface. Data from the X-ray scans were used to recreate a digital image of the hidden portrait of a Dutch farming woman, shown left, from Van Gogh's very early career as an artist. The researchers think the hidden portrait was painted between 1884 and 1885, when van Gogh lived near the farming village of Nuenen and painted portraits of many of the local people. By the time he got to Paris, he may have thought the portrait of an old woman was "hopelessly out-fashioned," according to the researchers, and decided to paint over it with a colorful Parisian-style floral scene. Self Portraits by Rembrandt van Rijn (Image credit: Andrew W. Mellon Collection/National Gallery of Art) Did the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn do his best work with mirrors? In 2001, British artist David Hockney and American physicist Charles Falco announced that they had found indications that Rembrandt and other Old Masters relied heavily on the use of lenses and curved mirrors to create their life-like scenes and portraits. And in August 2016, two researchers in the United Kingdom, artist Francis O'Neil and physicist Sofia Palazzo Corner, published a study in the Journal of Optics that explained how Rembrandt could have used combinations of curved mirrors and lenses to create his celebrated self portraits. The researchers see many details in Rembrandt's self-portraits that support their theory, including the strong light in the center of the portraits and the relative darkness at the edges, which is also seen in reflections projected by curved mirrors. [Read more about the mirrors and optical tricks that Rembrandt may have employed] The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein (Image credit: Jim Dyson/Getty) "The Ambassadors" is a painting by Hans Holbein, a celebrated German portrait artist who lived in Tudor England for much of his life. In addition to the two gentleman referred to in its modern title, the painting features many curious details that have stimulated great debate, including several carefully detailed scientific instruments, one of the earliest known representations of a globe of the world, and the extraordinary depiction of a human skull rendered in an extreme perspective at the base of the main image. The anamorphic skull's proportions are distorted so that it can only be seen in normal perspective from an especially sharp angle, or by using a mirror positioned against the image. Some art historians think the painting may have been intended to stand beside a staircase, so the skull would be visible to people walking up the stairs. There is much debate about why Holbein chose to include the skull and its unusual, out-of-place perspective. The motif of a human skull is common in Renaissance paintings known as "vanitas" or "memento mori," as a reminder of the impermanence of human lives and earthly glories. The many scientific and navigational instruments in the painting include a wonderfully detailed globe of the Earth, showing the outlines of Europe, Africa and the New World; a celestial globe; a polyhedral sundial; an astrolabe; a quadrant; and a torqetum, an instrument designed to measure the angles between three points in the sky. Analysis of the settings on the instruments suggests to some researchers that they refer to Good Friday, the formal date of the crucifixion in the Christian calendar a further cryptic clue to the symbolic meanings of the painting. Lost Portrait by Edgar Degas (Image credit: David Thurrowgood) Like his contemporary Vincent van Gogh, the French artist Edgar Degas often reused his painted canvases when money was tight or when the earlier work had lost its appeal. In 2016, researchers in Australia announced that they had reconstructed a previously unseen portrait by Degas from the layers of paint beneath a later portrait that now hangs in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. The later portrait has long been known to cover an earlier work by Degas, and the lines of the original have become more apparent as the painting has aged. By conducting X-ray fluorescence and absorption experiments on the painting at the Australian Synchrotron facility in Melbourne, the researchers were able to recreate the hidden image, and to identify the subject as Emma Dobigny, an artist's model who sat for Degas and other painters in the 1870s. [Read more about the hidden portrait by Degas] Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo The famous frescoes painted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome include a celebrated image of God creating Adam, the first man. One of the carefully rendered details of the scene is the cloud or billowing cloak that surrounds the figure of God and a host of angels, which resembles the shape of a human brain. Yes, seriously: Research published in 2010 by two neuroanatomists at Johns Hopkins Medical School highlighted the many similarities between the brain-shaped cloud and human brains, including painted features that appear to represent the cerebellum, the optic nerve, the pituitary gland and the vertebral artery. The researchers noted that Michelangelo had studied human anatomy and even dissected dead bodies to learn details that would give realism to his paintings, so he would have been familiar with the shape of the brain and its major anatomical features. The scientists think Michelangelo purposely painted a brain-shaped cloud or cloak to show that God was not only endowing Adam with life, but also with reason and intelligence. In an interview on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" Monday (Oct. 9), actor Frankie Muniz revealed he's had "a fair amount of ministrokes." Muniz brought up the ministrokes while discussing problems with his memory, according to People magazine. "I have had nine concussions and I've had a fair amount of mini-strokes I'm not saying those things correlate exactly to the reason why my memory's not great," Muniz said. He's had an estimated 15 ministrokes, the People magazine article added. [Strange Stroke Stories: Ebola, Hickeys and Other Weird Causes] But what are ministrokes? And do they have lasting effects? A ministroke, or "transient ischemic attack" (TIA), occurs when a blood clot briefly blocks blood flow to a part of the brain, according to the Mayo Clinic. A TIA is similar to an ischemic stroke, but during an ischemic stroke, the blockage lasts longer, leading to permanent brain damage. In both cases, the blockages are often caused by the buildup of plaque in a blood vessel. The symptoms of a TIA are also similar to those of an ischemic stroke, which is the most common type of stroke, the Mayo Clinic says. During a TIA, a person might experience symptoms such as weakness, numbness or paralysis on one side of the body, slurred or garbled speech, blindness in one or both eyes or double vision, dizziness or loss of balance, or a sudden, severe headache with no known cause. Unlike a stroke, however, a TIA usually doesn't lead to permanent brain damage, according to the Mayo Clinic. This is because in the case of a TIA, the body gets rid of the blockage in the blood vessel before it causes lasting damage, according to the American Stroke Association (ASA). Once the clot is gone, blood flow returns; the longer blood flow is blocked, the more likely there will be permanent damage. (If a TIA-causing clot doesn't go away, it is classified as an ischemic stroke.) Still, it's essential to seek medical attention if you experience stroke-like symptoms. It's not possible to tell if a person is having a full-blown stroke or a TIA based on symptoms alone, the Mayo Clinic says. In some cases of stroke, the symptoms may seem to go away, for example. Though a TIA is often referred to as a ministroke, the ASA says a more accurate term is "warning stroke." This is because a TIA can be a sign that a person will have a full-blown stroke in the future. More than 10 percent of people who have a TIA go on to have a full-blown stroke within three months, and half of these strokes occur with 48 hours of the TIA, according to the National Library of Medicine. In addition, about 1 in 3 people who have had a TIA go on to have a stroke within one year, and up to 40 percent of people who have had an ischemic stroke report that they had a TIA first, the ASA says. Once a person has had a TIA, he or she is more likely to have another one, according to the Mayo Clinic. If you think you're having a stroke, call 911 immediately. Originally published on Live Science. Hospital acquired infections continue to be a major source of patient morbidities. Hand washing guidelines, ubiquitously available alcohol sanitizers, and keeping patients away from each other has helped reduce the spread of nosocomial infections. Nevertheless, much more needs to be done to prevent hospitals themselves from being vectors that spread infections that walk through their doors. A spin-off of the University of Leeds in the U.K., called Surfaceskins, has developed a textile material that releases alcohol onto its surface any time someone touches it. The technology has been implemented in the form of pushpads that can be stuck onto push-activated in-hospital doors, helping to prevent microorganisms from taking a ride from one area to another. Surfaceskins pushpads have tiny bubbles on their surface that are filled with an alcohol gel. When someone presses against a pad, the contact force squeezes the bubbles and forces the gel inside of them to the surface. This disinfects the area where the pad has been touched, helping to prevent any infection that was left on the pad from passing to the next person. Researchers at the University of Leeds have recently completed a study evaluating the technologys benefits compared to traditional metal door plates. They had people whose hands were purposefully infected with Staphylococcus aureus, Eschericia coli, Enterococcus faecalis, or Clostridium difficile bacteria press against the two types of door plates. The investigators showed that the surfaces of the Surfaceskins plates were considerably cleaner, in terms of bacterial counts, than traditional aluminum metal plates. While the new technology helps to alleviate doors from being a pathway for infections to spread, it does not clean the hands nor reduce the need to use existing hand washing procedures. Additionally, the Sufraceskins pads are intended to be used for no more than a week nor for more than 1,000 pushes. Study in The Journal of Hospital Infection: The potential of alcohol release doorplates to reduce surface contamination during hand contact Link: Surfaceskins homepage Via: University of Leeds In many areas the wait time to see a dermatologist can span weeks or even months, leaving those with acute or chronic skin conditions frustrated. YoDerm is trying to change that. For a fee of $59, patients can submit skin problems and upload photos through an online platform, receive a consultation from a board-certified dermatologist, and have a prescription sent to their local pharmacy in less than 24 hours. The idea for YoDerm stemmed from co-founder and CEO Ben Holbers personal experiences. Growing up, he had chronic acne and was unhappy with the pretty traditional experience of scheduling difficulties and months-long waits. This was in stark contrast to his friend Ryan Hambley, now co-founder and Chief Product Officer at YoDerm, whose father was a dermatologist and therefore received constant advice and ongoing care. We actually met in the sixth grade, Holber recalls. So our picture days are longitudinal studies on what quality care in derm can do. They used those photographic insights, along with a few conversations with Hambleys father, to learn more about diagnosing skin conditions through photos. This led to more research, more testing, and a pilot program with local dermatologists in Monterey, California, where the company is now based. That was in 2012. In the last five years, YoDerm has hosted 40,000 consultations and now has a dozen dermatologists on the platform, with a wait list for more. That wait list is likely due to the platforms high appeal to dermatologists, who can take consultations on their own time and without sacrificing in-clinic work. We have some physicians that get up in the morning and complete their queue of patients then, Holber says. We have some physicians that will complete their consultations at their lunch hour or [during] in-between times in the clinic. Of course, YoDerms convenience extends to the other side as well. By shifting the entire process of a traditional doctors visit to an online platform, patients are more apt to seek treatment. In fact, the vast majority of YoDerm patients have never seen a dermatologist before. A major challenge for any health-related startup is addressing the regulations around healthcare and patient privacy. Luckily, the recent growth of telehealth has helped clear the way for companies like YoDerm. We get to stand on the shoulders of giants, Holber says, citing the many resources that now exist to help companies ensure compliance with health regulations. As the seven-person team builds the core business, theyre also beginning to address another problem the fact that patients often dont make it to the pharmacy. In some cohorts, one in five patients wouldnt even start their treatment plan, according to Holber. Whats the great benefit of a treatment plan if you cant get the treatment? To help solve this, YoDerm has been experimenting with home delivery of treatments. They currently offer Latisse, a product used to help eyelashes grow, and finasteride, an FDA-approved drug for male-pattern baldness, with more options in the works. This, says Holber, is one step closer to his vision of full-circle care. And with online consultations, a growing network of patients and physicians, and now prescription treatment delivery, YoDerm seems to be quickly closing that circle. Link: YoDerm website by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 11, 2017 Sometimes just sometimes you can forgive New Yorkers for acting like they live in the center of the world, when you consider the number of high-falutin publications that name-check the city. Nowhere is this more evident than the current spate of journalistic revelations and ensuing publicity meltdowns swirling around famed Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. His career has come crashing to a spectacular end thanks entirely to publications named after the Big Apple although one pulled its punches. It all kicked off last week with The New York Times expose, accusing Weinstein of a pattern of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior stretching back over decades, targeting employees and movie stars alike. The scoop prompted an angry denial from Weinsteins lawyers, who vowed to sue the NYT for defamation. advertisement advertisement But as so often happens, it turns out the first revelations were just the tip of the iceberg. As more women came forward with their own stories, and Weinstein was fired by his own production company, the scandal shovel passed to The New Yorker, which dug up even more mud over the weekend. An article by Ronan Farrow cites sources who claim that Weinstein raped at least three women over the years, and touched four other women against their will. It also confirmed numerous accounts of sexual harassment, unwanted advances and indecent exposure. Weinstein has emphatically denied the rape accusations, but both articles suggest the pattern of sexual harassment was widely known at Miramax and The Weinstein Company, with other employees allegedly working to procure young aspiring actresses for the movie mogul. In the wake of the NYT and New Yorker stories, even more alleged victims came forward with claims of harassment, including high-profile celebrities, like Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. After the mud finally stuck, it also emerged that plenty of journalists had previously attempted to document Weinsteins predatory behaviors but were stopped by the threat of legal action by Weinsteins lawyers. According to an anonymous source cited by the New York Post, New York magazine reporter Ben Wallace was chasing down the story last year, racking up interviews with dozens of sources, but the magazine spiked the story after Weinsteins lawyers and PR flacks descended with dire threats. A spokeswoman for New York denied the rumor, explaining the magazine couldnt gather enough proof of the sexual harassment allegations to go to press. Whether due to pressure or simple lack of evidence, New York has plenty of company in this regard, including the two publications that eventually broke the story. In fact, according to Farrows article in The New Yorker: This has been an open secret to many in Hollywood and beyond, but previous attempts by many publications, including The New Yorker, to investigate and publish the story over the years fell short of the demands of journalistic evidence. Sharon Waxman, writing in The Wrap, delivered a barb wrapped in accolades to the NYT for finally publishing a story on Weinstein, over a decade after the newspapers editors effectively gutted a story she wrote about Weinsteins alleged European procurers, following pressure from Weinsteins legal and PR machine. According to Waxman, Weinstein visited the newspaper in person to voice his displeasure, causing the meat of the story to be removed after which Weinstein enjoyed another 13 years of impunity. by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 11, 2017 More details are emerging of Russian efforts to disseminate propaganda and influence U.S. public opinion via advertising and content distributed over social media, much of it targeted to specific groups. A new study suggests that one of those target audiences included current and former U.S. military personnel. The study by Oxford University researchers, first reported in an op-ed published in Military.com, identified a number of Web sites associated with the Russian government that used social media last year to disseminate a range of ideologically charged content to service members and veterans. That included conspiracy theories and other misinformation. The researchers focused on Twitter and Facebook activity last spring, during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. It found three Web sites with Russian connections were particularly active on Twitter during this period, with significant and persistent interactions with other users on the social platform. advertisement advertisement The Web sites identified by the researchers include Veteranstoday.com, which frequently cites content from New Eastern Outlook, a journal published by the Russian Academy of Sciences, a state-funded institution. Similarly another site, Veteransnewsnow.com, has made a habit of citing content from the Strategic Culture Foundation, a think tank in Moscow with government ties. A third site, Southfront.org, was originally registered in Moscow and frequently cites Veterans Today, the first Web site. Oxford internet studies professor Philip Howard tells Military.com: We've found an entire ecosystem of junk news about national security issues that is deliberately crafted for U.S. veterans and active military personnel. It's a complex blend of content with a Russian view of the world -- wild rumors and conspiracies." Facebook recently admitted that fake sites associated with Russia bought over 3,000 political ads during the 2016 presidential election, typically dealing with hot-button topics such as immigration and other social issues. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post, Howard called on the social media giants to disclose more information to help assess the actual impact, if any, of the ads. But sharing examples is only the first small step in what should be a systematic analysis of foreign political influence on American voters through online networks. The next step in understanding Russian interference involves sharing network data not just ad examples. by Tanya Gazdik , October 11, 2017 Inspired by Iceland has released a tongue-in-cheek sing-a-long film to encourage visitors to attempt Icelandic speech while visiting, despite its difficulty. The Hardest Karaoke Song in the World highlights the uniquely difficult pronunciation of the Icelandic language. The theme and lyrics of the tune is The A to O of Iceland, the Icelandic equivalent of A to Z. It satirizes some of the common perceptions of Iceland. The video has only been online a few days and already has over 86,000 views on YouTube. The song, not quite 3 1/2 minutes, is performed by Icelandic comedian Steindi Jr.. It shows him in a variety of beautiful spots in Iceland including on top of mountains and next to glacial waterfalls. The lyrics and performance of the comical film poke fun at common Icelandic stereotypes including the Icelandic love for wool and their iconic ring road. advertisement advertisement The humorous song makes use of everyday Icelandic words along with some more obscure words and phrases. Since Iceland was first settled in 874, only about one million people have ever spoken the Icelandic language. Harnessing the island's language, which is notoriously difficult to learn, Inspired by Iceland is encouraging people to watch it and have a go themselves. A 90-second video showing tourists in Iceland attempting to sing the song is part of the campaign. The videos are part a marketing initiative which aims to harness the uniqueness of the Icelandic language to highlight the diversity and breadth of Iceland and to encourage visitors to go further and learn more. "We are always looking for ingenious ways to inspire visitors to engage with more aspects of our country and our seven regions, said Inga Hlin Palsdottir, director, Visit Iceland, in a release We know Icelandic is difficult to pronounce, but through our karaoke film we wanted to encourage visitors to have a go and also show the world we are not afraid to laugh along. Anyone up for the challenge to try out the song can find it on the Inspired by Iceland website and youtube channel. Participants are encouraged to send in their attempts to the toursim group. Visitors to the website can also take a quiz to win a trip to Iceland. Inspired by Iceland is the destination brand for Iceland and is managed by Visit Iceland (part of Promote Iceland) in a close cooperation with the government, tourism industry and other stakeholders in Iceland. by Larissa Faw , October 11, 2017 Prestige Brands' Orabrush and its agency True North are introducing a web video campaign to humorously educate viewers that 90% of bad breath comes from a dirty tongue. "[The] idea was, what is the visual impact of bad breath? says Albert Hwang, vice president of over-the-counter brands, digital, and shopper marketing, Prestige Brands. The "Breathtaking" creative doesnt show gunk, slime, or tongues at all. Instead, the ad campaign centers on bad breaths effect from the point of view of the perpetrator. "We see attractive lovers, who have their romantic moments spoiled by the viewers dirty tongue," says Tom Goosmann, chief creative officer, True North. "The campaign never has to represent the smelly suitor, it just puts the viewer in their shoes." The media buy runs across Facebook and YouTube to reach the campaign's "sweet spot" of socially conscious 18-35 year olds who are frequent users of social media. Previous campaigns have targeted the same consumers. Looking forward, the campaign is likely to expand into dating websites, like Match.com and Tinder to connect with this similar demographic. advertisement advertisement This was the first campaign True North has developed for Prestige. Due to the positive reception of the Orabrush campaign, the agency has since begun developing creative for additional brands within the Prestige family, says Goosmann. by Ray Schultz , October 11, 2017 Two UK firms were fined thousands of pounds by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) for allegedly spamming consumers. Vanquis Bank Limited, a Bradford-based bank, was fined 75,000, and given a legal notice ordering it to comply with the law. The bank sent 870,849 spam text messages and 620,000 spam emails to promote its credit cards without the consent of the customers, the ICO charges. In a separate case, the London-based ad and web development agency Xerpla was fined 50,000. The firm sent nearly 1.26 million spam emails on behalf of other firms, for products such as dog food, wine, competitions and boilers, according to the ICO. The fines seem modest compared to the liabilities specified for violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect next May and will apply in the UK despite the UKs decision to leave the EU. But there are other consequences. Shares in Vanquis Banks parent, Provident Financial, fell by 8% following the announcement, according to City A.M. advertisement advertisement Provident Personal Credit Limited, a related firm, was fined for spam texts earlier this year, the ICO continues. Both of the new spam cases were generated by reports from consumers. People were so exasperated by these messages that they complained to us, states Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement for the ICO. That sparked two ICO investigations and enabled us to take action and hold the firms behind this nuisance to account. For these campaigns, Vanquis Bank obtained marketing lists from other organizations, and relied on indirect consent, instead of verifying permission itself, the ICO contends. The bank used non-specific wording such as trusted parties, and carefully selected third parties, the ICO continues. Vanquis Bank is no longer working with the third parties, according to Provident Financial. Xerpla sent spam emails to people who had subscribed to two websites run by the firm -- www.yousave.co.uk and www.headsyouwin.co.uk. The firm used a generic statement in its privacy policy to say that data would be shared with other firms. In general, European privacy regulations are tougher than those in the U.S. However, American companies may draw insights from these cases on how to describe permission-based lists and sharing of data with third parties. People need to be properly informed about what they are consenting to, Eckersley says. Telling them their details could be passed to similar organisations or selected third parties cannot be relied upon as specific consent. Eckersley continues that the rules protect people from the irritation, and in some cases anxiety and distress spam texts and emails cause. According to City A.M., Provident Financial issued this statement: The contravention involved sending SMS text messages and emails to customers advertising the companys product between April 2015 and September 2016 without the necessary permission to do so. Vanquis Bank is sorry for any irritation this has caused to the individuals concerned. The statement continues: Although ICO found that Vanquis Bank did not deliberately contravene the regulation, Vanquis Bank takes this contravention extremely seriously. The Bank has reviewed its marketing processes and put in place steps to ensure that contraventions of this nature do not occur again, including no longer working with the third parties concerned. by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, October 11, 2017 President Donald J. Trump has issued a not-so-veiled threat to NBC challenging the licenses the Federal Communications Commission issues for its local broadcast stations. The threat, which came in a tweet posted this morning, was the most explicit statement to date that the President of the United States wants to censor news coverage about his administration, raising the prospect of challenging a broadcasters licenses because it doesnt agree with its coverage. The threat isnt just another in a long litany of complaints Trump has made about the fake news coverage by mainstream media outlets such as NBC News, CNN and major newspapers including The New York Times and The Washington Post, but has teeth because Trump has sway over the commission, including appointing its commissioners. advertisement advertisement Following a tweet refuting an NBC News story that Trump had asked his military advisors to increase Americas nuclear arsenal tenfold and dismissing it as pure fiction, made up to demean, Trump tweeted: With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country! Trump, who declared war on mainstream news outlets during his first full day as President, has ramped up the rhetoric over his term, but this mornings tweet is the first time he alluded to using the power of his office to retaliate against a broadcaster for coverage he doesnt like. NBC owns 12 broadcast TV stations that are licensed by the FCC, including ones in the biggest TV markets. NBC affiliates that carry NBC News coverage are owned by other companies that also operate local broadcast stations licensed by the FCC. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, October 11, 2017 Google is facing a new lawsuit over allegations that it shared the names and other personally identifiable information of people who purchased apps with developers. This latest complaint was brought by Minnesota resident Adam Gurno, who alleges that he purchased nine apps totaling more than $26 from the Google Play Store between 2012 and 2014. Gurno alleges that Google transmitted his name, email address and ZIP code to the developers without his consent. Gurno quietly brought his class-action complaint last month in California state court. Google transferred the matter to federal court on Tuesday. Gurno alleges breach of contract and other related claims. "Defendants interfered with the plaintiff's and class's right to receive the privacy protections to which they were entitled," his complaint states. The allegations stem from reports in 2013 that Google automatically shared app buyers' personal information with developers. Australian developer Dan Nolan revealed the transmissions in a blog post that criticized the data-sharing as a "massive, massive privacy issue." advertisement advertisement Google's privacy policy for Wallet said at the time that the company may disclose information that is necessary to process transactions. Google initially contended it was necessary to share users' data, because Google didn't process the purchase. In 2014, the company changed its practice. Google has defeated two prior lawsuits with similar allegations. Most recently, U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose, California last December dismissed a lawsuit by a woman who alleged that Google transmitted her personal information to the developer YCDroid after she purchased an app that converts SMS messages to emails. Freeman ruled that the purchaser, Alice Svenson, hadn't shown that she was injured by the alleged data sharing. Freeman also said in her ruling that there was no evidence that YCDroid had ever viewed Svenson's personal data. Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen and president Derrick Hall chatted about the organizations plans after the culmination of an exciting season, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports. Both suggested an interest in continuity while also contemplating the possibility of some changes in the makeup of the roster. Certainly, therell be some complications as the organization seeks ways to improve the on-field result. Hazen downplayed financial considerations as a catalyst for roster moves, but both he and Hall acknowledged their import. Im not anticipating a lot of challenges with being able to bring the group back as constituted if, in fact, thats what we chose to do, said Hazen. While some changes are to be anticipated, he said, I dont think a large majority of that will be driven by (finances) specifically. Hall was a bit more explicit about the limitations. Suggesting that the team has been a bit hasty in doubling down on prior quality seasons, he cited the need for sustainability in an offseason approach. Ultimately, said Hall, we have to get creative in a few spots financially if were going to get aggressive in certain areas. Its hard to guess just what kind of creative options might conceivably be pursued. The team could consider trading away some of its relatively more expensive players, though that seems to be quite a challenge from the outside. In all likelihood, Arizona would need to hang onto significant future obligations (or sweeten the pot with prospects) to move Zack Greinke or Yasmany Tomas. Trading or non-tendering arb-eligible players could result in some savings, though in almost all cases that would mean opening up corresponding holes. While the Snakes have a relatively modest $60.5MM committed to 2018 payroll, that sum accounts for just four players. Indeed, more than half is ticketed for Greinke alone, which helps to illustrate just how relatively massive that commitment was and is for this organization. But thats not the only source of salary. As Piecoro notes, the MLBTR arb projections call for a hefty tally of just over $50MM for Arizona. This year, the D-Backs opened with a payroll in the $93MM range and ultimately topped out at around $105MM, per Piecoro. In the past, the Opening Day balance sheet has been as high as $112MM. Clearly, though, the club will approach or exceed that amount just by holding pat. None of the above numbers account for star outfielder J.D. Martinez, who was added at the deadline and is now headed for free agency. There are others, too, wholl need to be replaced especially closer Fernando Rodney, relievers Jorge De La Rosa and David Hernandez, and catcher Chris Iannetta. Finding new players for those roles may not be prohibitively expensive, though as ever theres generally a tradeoff between the cost and the quality of an asset. Regarding Martinez, whos expected to command a huge commitment after a monster season, the D-Backs say theyll at least try to facilitate a return. In Hazens words, the club will certainly stay engaged with Martinez. Adding the kind of annual salary that the slugger could command would surely require a significant payroll boost and/or the shedding of some other major commitments. 11.10.2017 LISTEN Clonbaba, the Akwa Ibom born Producer and artiste who has been away from the scene for months came back with so much fire on the self produced single "Do It". Mixed and Mastered by SpyMix. You can't resist dancing to this tune, trust me. Enjoy the Club Banger My not just ok https://my.notjustok.com/track/download/id/279072/by/M1ZQVbKIxU On Saturday, October 21 at the National Theatre in Accra, about thirty (30) artistes will gather to thrill music fans at celebration of Becca's 10th anniversary in music. These are a mix of top-notch artistes in Ghana and other African countries showing their love for Rebecca Acheampomaa Acheampong at the 'Becca Unveiled 10 Years and Counting' concert. Some of the musicians performing are M.anifest, Trigmatic, Stonebwoy, Kwabena Kwabena, MzVee, Edem, Mr Eazi, Joyce Blessing, M.I, Patoranking, Ice Prince, Kumi Guitar, Kidi, Obibinii, among others. The programme which has been merged with Davido's '30 Billion' African Tour at the same premises on the same day will see the ebullient songstress Becca who is celebrating 10 years in the music industry dish out great tunes from a repertoire of her musical works. Becca is ably managed by Zylofon Media. The Discovery Learning Alliance, a not for profit arm of global media giant Discovery Communications, has chosen today, the International Day of the Girl, to spotlight the growing impact of the works of award winning Ghanaian Broadcast Journalist and Womens Advocate, Anita Erskine. In an extensive feature on their website, Erskines unwavering commitment to Girls Education and Womens Empowerment is fully outlined and described, bringing her work to a global audience that is undoubtedly inspired by such exemplary stories of resilience, commitment and selfless contributions to society. Discovery Learning Alliance is proud to work with Anita. Shes more than an advocate for girls. Shes a champion for gender equality actively working to improve the life outcomes of girls in Ghana and globally. I look forward to continuing to work with her and learning from her example as she forges ahead! Aric Noboa, President and Executive Producer for Discovery Learning Alliance. Since 2012, Anita Erskine has unapologetically used her influence as a broadcast journalist to highlight the plight of African Girls and Women, whilst amplifying her voice in search of more commitment by government, private sector and corporate institutions to encouraging education for Girls. I am so honoured that Discovery Learning Alliance chose today to tell the world about my work. Aric and his team have stood by and believed in me for a long time and their unwavering support is just so humbling. I love what I do. It is a gift from God and comes from my heart in a way that I can never describe. In the face of every kind of adversity or challenge to increase my commitment to Girls Education, I am always incensed to go harder and push further to help the next girl rise above her circumstances so she can conquer the world! Says Anita Erskine. Guided by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) #5 - Gender Equality, she founded the Women's Elevation Fund (WEF) in 2016 to facilitate the realization of Dreams, Aspiration and Ambition of Young African Women and furnish them with the requisite tools that allow them to be competitive. WEF is completely self-funded by Erskine and provides scholarships and bursaries to Girls in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia. She also commits numerous hours speaking at empowerment workshops across around the world. About 2 weeks ago, she was awarded for her outstanding commitment to Women Empowerment in Africa, by the 40 under 40 Awards. She is the face of the Starr Woman Project for 2017 and is one of Ghanas most sought after public speakers on Women Empowerment. The Discovery Learning Alliance feature on Anita Erskine is available at http:// www.discoverylearningalliance.org/stories/why-i-empower-giby-anita-erskine/ Launched by Discovery Communications in 1997, Discovery Learning Alliance is opening new doors to education in 16 countries, reaching millions through schools and millions more through broadcast television and mass media initiatives in the developing world. Leveraging Discoverys world-class programming and education expertise, DLA extends Discovery Communications mission to help people satisfy their curiosity. Nelly is continuing to proclaim his innocence after being accused for allegedly raping a woman in Washington this past weekend, but the victim claims that his statements are intimidating her. According to TMZ, the woman who is accusing the St Louis rapper of rape says in a letter that Nelly and his team are bullying her harshly in the media, viewing it as verbal attacks. The outlet reveals some of the letter from the victim's legal team, demanding justice for the alleged intimidation. It even includes legal statutes regarding intimidating a witness, which TMZ says is a class B felony in the state of Washington. It is morally reprehensible for an accused person and his bully lawyer to issue derogatory and defamatory statements against a young alleged rape victim, the letter reads. It is also criminal in the State of Washington when those vicious attacks are issued in the form of threats. Since the letter has been issued, Scott Rosenblum, who is Nelly's attorney, has responded to the accusations of intimidation. I would suggest rereading the [intimidating a witness] statute. I would further suggest talking to some of the unbiased witnesses, he tells TMZ. Nelly was arrested for allegedly raping the young woman, but was not charged, and was released pending further investigation. The victim claims she drank with the veteran entertainer at a nightclub before they went back to his tour bus. She claims that he tried to have sex with her but when she refused, he told her to shut up and proceeded to have unprotected sex with her. Nelly and his team are accusing the woman of falsely accusing him and having an agenda for money and fame. The narrative about owning the curves in fashion seems to be flying high as plus-sized models with super-curves walked the 2017 Glitz Africa Fashion Week (GAFW2017) catwalk for the first time. The models stormed the runway on the second day of the show, which started on October 6 amid rapturous shouts and applause. They were rocking clothes designed to celebrate all things curvy and plus sizes. Nigerian lifestyle journalist Latasha Ngwube, who is behind the body positivity movement About that curvy life Collective, told Myjoyonline.com she was inspired by her own body size and shape to champion the cause. She emphasised the need for curvy women to embrace their bodies and the beauty therein. In her effort to redefine African fashion by creating a voice for curvy people, she put together brands such as Noris Clothing, Assian and Abaya Lagos that understand the need for fashion for all sizes and helping to spread the body positivity messages through their brands. Latasha is hoping that by curating this collective of designers and giving them a platform, she can promote size inclusiveness in African fashion. But the GAFW2017 wasnt only about plus size models. The catwalk was as usual taken by well-known designers who delivered assured. Duaba Serwaa was on point with her Nsubura and Kente-themed collection as Quophi Akotua and Mai Atafos wedding shows seemed to outdo each other as the standout of the fashion week. Also outstanding were designs by young, underground and emerging designers who battled it out in graduate shows and other competitions. The audience took the street style shows personal, enjoying themselves all through the event. Gospel artiste Henrietta Gyamfuah Nkansah, popularly known in the gospel music scene as Obaapa Gyamfuah, has won the gospel artiste of the year at the maiden edition of the Eastern Music Awards, held at Eastern Premier Hotel in Koforidua last Saturday, October 7. She beat competition from artistes such as 2 Fresh 4 God, Emelia Donkor, Kobby Isaac, Phil Jay and Davida Afriyie to claim the award on the night. In addition to the gospel artiste of the year award, the celebrated Akosombo-based gospel artiste also took home the best female vocalist of the year award. She beat the likes of Emelia Donkor, Queeny and Davida Afriyie. At the ceremony, 22 music industry players who hail from the Eastern Region were also honoured for their contributions towards the development of the industry in the country. The maiden edition of Eastern Music Awards which was organised by Hi 5 Productions, Presenters Association of the Eastern Region (PATER) and the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) brought together top-notch industry players, including musicians, sound engineers, beats makers, bloggers, among others. Obaapa Gyamfuah, after the awards ceremony, expressed her profound gratitude to God and all her fans for the immense support she has had since joining the gospel music industry. I am saying a big thank to God for His assistance. I also thank all my fans for their loyalty and support all these years, she stated. The gospel artiste described the awards as quite competitive, adding that it was the work of God. Obaapa Gyamfua commended the organisers of the Eastern Music Awards for instituting such awards to honour and celebrate Ghanaian artistes in the Eastern Region. Her performance at the awards ceremony after receiving the award attracted a standing ovation, especially when she performed some her of hit songs like 'Mordichai', among others. Below is the full list of winners: Gospel Song of the Year Davida Afriyie Highlife Song of the Year Talanku Raggae/Dancehall Song of the Year Ghetto Party (Chuku Lion) Female Vocalist of the Year Obaapa Gyamfua Male Vocalist of the Year Kuami Eugene Hiplife Song of the Year Ye Wo Krom (Atom) Promoter of the Year Odehyieba Kwasi Best Group of the Year Splitees Afropop Song of the Year Oluwa (Blutut) Music Producer of the Year Swanzy Kin Collaboration Song of the Year Bad Gal (KO7 ft. Luther) Best Music Video of the Year Ye Wo Krom (Atom) Gospel Artiste of the Year Obaapa Gyamfua Best New Artiste of the Year Elly Element High Life Artiste of the Year Hakeem Bawa Best Rapper of the Year Koo Ntakra Hiplife/Hiphop Artiste of the Year Pope Skinny Raggae/Dancehall Artiste of the Year Kasiebo Eastsyde Song of the Year Meba (Racky Nova ft. Wings Armani and Sean Khare) Most Influential Artiste of the Year Shatta Wale Artiste of the Year Koo Ntakra Lifetime Achievement Award Abirekyieba Kofi Sammy Former President John Mahama has said the election ongoing in Liberia has generally been peaceful. John Mahama, who is leading an ECOWAS Observer Mission to monitor the election in that country, told the media that although there were few hitches and late start of voting in some polling centers, the process has been so far so good. Of course, every electoral system has some glitches, but as the day goes on, they resolve the issue. In a few polling stations they didn't start on time, they started around 8:30am. In the places that we have visited, it looks like the process is ongoing now. Liberians are currently casting their ballots to elect a new president and legislators for the country. This is the third time Liberians are going to the polls after the war that ravaged the country. The incumbent president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Africa's first female president is ineligible to run this time because she has exhausted the limits on the constitutionally mandated term. In the run-up to the election, there were complaints about the late training of presiding officers and electoral officers, and its beginning to show. In some stations, you find that the electoral officers are very confident and they know what they are doing, but in other stations, they were a bit on unsure what to do. But otherwise, I think that the glitches are largely resolved and you can see that the process is ongoing. Of course the queues are long, I'm sure that if the process is quickened, by late afternoon a lot of people should have had the opportunity to vote, John Mahama added. Mr. Mahama left Accra last Thursday to Liberia to monitor the general elections. 20 candidates vying to be president Over 800 candidates representing 26 political parties are said to be contesting for the legislative slots, and 20 candidates vying to replace the incumbent president in Liberia, with a population of about 5 million. John Mahama's wounds from Kenya's election John Mahama had recently been ridiculed after he led a Commonwealth Observer mission to monitor the elections in Kenya, the country that had its presidential election results later overturned by the Supreme Court following alleged malpractices. Although the former Ghanaian President has not publicly spoken on the matter ever since the results were overturned, several people including the Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Governance, Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey , has said Mahama should be left alone because Observer Missions do not have investigative powers. By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana Follow @AlloteyGodwin To a Ghanaian King, handing someone a holdall stuffed with more than 350,000 to deposit in a bank might seem nothing out of the ordinary. Indeed, when Osei Tutu II, traditional ruler of the Kingdom of Ashanti, summoned Mark Arthur to his multimillion-pound residence in Henley-on-Thames and handed him a bag containing almost 200,000 in sterling as well as $200,000 in US currency with consecutive serial numbers, the bank official felt it inappropriate to ask too many questions. However, the subsequent deposit of the cash at Ghana International Bank triggered a money laundering alert in the City of London and cost Mr Arthur his job. The King, who once worked at Brent council, summoned Mr Arthur, the bank's second most senior executive, to his home in August last year. Mr Arthur, from New Barnet, Hertfordshire, a dual citizen of the UK and Ghana, drove to his own home with the cash and then took it in an Uber taxi to the bank's City offices for deposit in the king's account, he told an employment tribunal. Mark Arthur drove to his own home with the cash and then took it in an Uber taxi to the banks City offices for deposit in the kings account, he told an employment tribunal CREDIT: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS Osei Tutu II, the holder of a diplomatic passport, told him the cash had been withdrawn from banks in Ghana and brought to the UK, he said in his witness statement. H e had also instructed Mr Arthur to move $200,000 to an account at Standard bank in Jersey. Mr Arthur, a member of the Ashanti tribe, the largest in Ghana, carried out the transfer within hours, the tribunal heard. He was suspended and then sacked following the incident, after an investigation by outside accountants Grant Thornton. He is claiming wrongful dismissal, unfair dismissal and failure to protect a whistleblower. The bank said he had failed to follow anti-money laundering rules and had violated security policies as it was only insured to carry cash by armoured car up to a maximum of 250,000. Mr Arthur, an executive director of the bank, alleged the deposit and transfer were approved by Ghana International Bank's chief executive, Joseph Mensah. Mr Mensah told an outside reviewer of Mr Arthur's dismissal he didn't even have the authority to sanction such a huge amount. Osei Tutu II, centre, taking part in a carnival in 2015 CREDIT: EDDIE GERALD O sei Tutu II is estimated to be Africa's 10th richest monarch, with valuable goldmine and cocoa plantations and remains one of the most influential traditional figures in Ghana. In his witness statement, Mr Arthur said he was not able to follow anti-money laundering rules when he accepted the cash because of the kings status. H e said: Without a policy to follow and did without wishing to offend a sovereign of my country, I found myself in a very difficult situation and one I had never been in before. I could not carry out the necessary due diligence by talking to His Majesty so decided it would be best to verify the deposits at the bank and to speak directly to Mr Mensah rather than disrespect His Majesty in a face-to-face meeting. The day after the bank accepted the cash and made the transfer to Jersey, it reported the transactions to the National Crime Agency as suspicious. News of Mr Arthur's suspension was subsequently passed to the City watchdogs the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA sent inspectors into the bank who severely criticised its handling of cash, the tribunal heard. Lawyers for Mr Arthur argued that his handling of the deposit was in line with the way the bank previously handled Osei Tutu IIs account CREDIT: HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY Lawyers for Mr Arthur argued that his handling of the deposit was in line with the way the bank previously handled Osei Tutu II's account and that he was aware that the king could travel on a diplomatic passport. They cited a string of large cash deposits in 2013 and 2014 where the source of the funds was not properly recorded. They included a $100,000 that a review of the king's account said came from a fundraising event. There were no documents recording the source of that cash, however. Colin Millar, a building society chairman drafted in by Ghana International Bank to adjudicate on Mr Arthur's appeal against his dismissal, rejected suggestions that the 350,000 holdall was acceptable given the king's history with the bank. He told the tribunal the deposit and swift transfer offshore was a classic warning sign of money laundering. Mr Millar told the hearing: If you want to hide the sources of funds that are from a disreputable source then you move them around until it reaches the point where the authorities can't trace them back to their original source. That's a way of hiding the proceeds of crime. The hearing continues. Originating at www.telegraph.co.uk A law lecturer at the Central University has defended the delay in the release of the autopsy report on late Major Maxwell Adam Mahama by the management of the 37 Military Hospital. Yaw Oppong said the Hospital is being "cautious" because of the national debate the grisly murder of the senior military in May triggered. He believes management at 37 Military Hospital wants to be double sure the report that will come out will be credible and a true reflection of what was found. Speaking to Evans Mensah on Joy FMs Newsnight Tuesday, he said, right from the beginning, in the minds of those who believe are innocent especially those who think they havent caused any offence and their lawyer to be exercising some caution if not doubt. His comments follow reports that the autopsy report on the late Major has still not been made available to police investigators, four months after his death. Yaw Oppong The army officer was slain on May 29, by some residents of Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region, on the suspicion that he was an armed robber. About 23 people are currently standing trial for the murder of the late army officer. Joy News Joseph Ackah-Blay was in court and reported State Prosecutor, DSP George Amegah registered his dissatisfaction with the absence of the report. Some of the suspects The prosecutor said the report was central to the case, forcing the state to file an application for an order to have the report produced. Magistrate Ebenezer Kweku Ansah granted the request and directed the report should be handed to the Police investigators on or before October 26. The pathologist who handled the autopsy Dr Lawrence Adusei and the Head of the 37 Military Hospital's Pathology Department has been summoned to appear before the court. Some of the suspect But commenting on the delay, Mr Oppong said, I rather sympathise with the military that is why they are careful. For all, you know they may even be getting either external or other independent experts to confirm their report. I wont be surprised that if they send it, the lawyers for the accused will ask the court to appoint an independent expert to also bring a report, he said. He said four months may not amount to delay but it is reasonable since others take many years. Although he believes the orders of the court must be respected, they should not also feel compelled to come out with just any report. If they think they need more time, it is reasonable enough to come to court ask for further limited time. Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline | Abubakar Ibrahim | [email protected] The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is proposing the setting-up of Akwaaba Hotels, through a partnership with the private sector at various tourist sites in the country to boost domestic tourism. Tours Facility Manager of the Ghana Tourist Development Company (GTDC), George Adje Kwei Mensah, who disclosed this said the hotels which would be set-up between two to three years, would be affordable for indigenes to patronize tourist sites for economic growth. Mr Adje Kwei Mensah made the disclosure in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) when he led a 22-member delegation of tourists to tour the Kakum National Park and the Cape Coast Castle in the Central Region, as part of activities marking the World Tourism Forum being hosted in Ghana. The 22-member team includes people from Turkey, United States of America, Bosnia, Cote dIvoire, and Ghana amongst other countries, with a focus to selling Ghanas tourism potential to the world. The World Tourism Forum is a global event held in different parts of the World to further boost global tourism. The Secretariat is located in Istanbul, Turkey. Mr Mensah said the Ministry of Tourism, was committed to re-orienting Ghanaians on a new sense of national pride in its heritage, culture and way of life through designed programmes and campaigns. He, therefore, urged Ghanaians to preserve and protect the nations aesthetic values in order to boost the tourism sector. The Forum had in the past, been held in Turkey (Global meeting), Dubai and Russia. Ghana is the first African Country to host the event. Some of the Tourists who spoke to the GNA described their experience as overwhelming, unending and invigorating, saying Europe never knew what they were missing in Africa. Lome (AFP) - The Togo government on Tuesday announced a ban on all midweek marches, hours after the opposition announced plans for a rally next week in a campaign aimed at forcing out President Faure Gnassingbe. From Monday to Friday "all marches are banned. People can meet in a fixed spot" for their public meetings, the minister of territorial administration Payadowa Boukpessi told a press conference. Marches will still be allowed at the weekend, he added. "There have been calls for civil disobedience, calls for economic sabotage, even calls for murder issued by protesters targeting the authorities and members of their families as well as security services," said Adjamagbo-Johnson, explaining the government's reasons for the ban. The announcement came just hours after opposition leaders called for another protest march next week. "The fight continues, To this end, we are already announcing, for Wednesday October 18, a big march towards the offices of (the West African regional group) ECOWAS in Lome," said Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson, coordinator for the main opposition coalition. Last week ECOWAS spoke in favour of the Togo government's plans for constitutional changes which the opposition argues do not go far enough. Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe, in power since the death of his father in 2005, was re-elected in 2010 and again in 2015, in polls that the opposition denounced as unfair The opposition also said it would refuse to meet with a delegation from the International Organisation of French-speaking countries (OIF) due to arrive in Togo on Tuesday for a visit linked to the political crisis. There have already been two days of mass protests this month, the seventh in a wave of agitation that began in August. At least four people have been killed and dozens injured. The government, responding to unprecedented protests from the street, is proposing an overhaul of the constitution under which presidential terms would be limited to two five-year spells in office. Gnassingbe, in power since the death of his father in 2005, was re-elected in 2010 and again in 2015, in polls that the opposition denounced as unfair. If the two-term limit applies from the next elections, scheduled in 2020, he could theoretically remain in office until 2030. As a result, the opposition wants the two-term restriction to be applied retroactively by restoring the 1992 constitution, in order to force Gnassingbe from office. The president's father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, ruled the country with an iron fist from 1967 until his death in 2005. According to a source close to the presidency, the proposed change to the constitution will be put to a referendum "by the end of the year". Allada (Benin) (AFP) - From his chair in the middle of a pile of pineapples, Jean-Xavier Satola supervises cutting and packaging, as Benin -- Africa's fourth-biggest exporter of the fruit -- starts trading again after an eight-month self-imposed absence. The fields of Allada in southern Benin are a hive of activity as about 20 men, in trousers to protect them from the spiky leaves, pick the pineapples while women load them in baskets and carry them away on their heads. The smooth, fat, yellow Cayenne variety of pineapples are washed, packed into cardboard boxes and put on a lorry. Eight hundred boxes will leave on a plane for Europe that evening. Satola has been in the pineapple business for 30 years and as soon as he got the green light from the government was Benin's first trader to resume exports. "I'm at 46 tonnes since the start of the year. It's less than half than in September 2016," he said. "Resumption is slow. Some of our European clients are hesitant. But we're exporting more guaranteed quality now." In December, Benin's government banned exports of the fruit after repeated warnings from the European Union about pineapples treated with the pesticide ethephon. Ethephon is used to help a variety of crops ripen and speeds up colouring. In theory, the chemical stays on the skin of the fruit but if too much is sprayed, it can get inside. The EU warnings came as ethephon residue was found to be higher than permitted levels. But Satola, who heads Benin's National Association of Pineapple Producers and Exporters, said growers were also responding to the taste of European consumers. 'Respect market demands' Producers "did any old thing" to make the outside of their pineapples the preferred yellow colour rather than the natural green, he said. "They were adding doses of colourant pesticides after the rains or tipping in a lot after receiving an urgent order." Benin's authorities imposed a voluntary export ban while it got its house in order. A list of exporters was made, workers who administered the ethephon were trained and the state invested up to 300 million CFA francs ($536,000 460,000 euros) in equipment to analyse levels. The country's food standards agency ABSSA now carries out tests in the fields and at airports before shipping. Benin banned the export of pineapples in December after repeated warnings from the European Union about the use of pesticide ethephon, which helps ripen and speeds up colouring "These measures had to be taken," said the head of ABSSA, Setondji Hossou. "We have to have quality produce and respect market demands." Hyacinthe Dossavi is an ABSSA inspector. Wearing boots, he makes his way through a field of Sugarloaf pineapples, which are also grown in West Africa, and takes samples for testing at the agency's laboratory in Cotonou. The crop was treated eight days ago. Normally, that should mean the ethephon has disappeared. "If it's below normal levels, we'll allow the crop to be cut. If not, it'll have to wait for a bit," said Dossavi. The exporters took some convincing. They play for high stakes with the perishable commodity: wait too long and the fruit risks being too ripe and impossible to sell. It will then be sold on the local market but at a lower price. Bad habits For Ernest Ahokpe, who owns the field tested, it's the price to pay. "Europeans want coloured pineapples. We have to adapt because our competitors are doing it," he said. And those competitors are legion: Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and especially Costa Rica, the world's number one exporter. Before the voluntary ban, Benin had only five percent of the European pineapple market. In 2000, the country exported 500 tonnes of the fruit; in 2014, that had jumped to 4,000 tonnes. As a result of the new regulations, only about 100 tonnes are expected to be exported this year -- and then only untreated Sugarloaf pineapples. 'Europeans want coloured pineapples. We have to adapt because our competitors are doing it,' says pineapple field owner Ernest Ahokpe They will still only be a marginal product at European supermarkets. "My client told me it's not a seller. White people buy based on the colour of the skin before the taste," said pineapple grower Andre Dangbe, who has been exporting for three years. "Here we like (pineapples) green. It's how they're meant to be and is sweet like that." At the offices of her company that exports pineapples to France for use in bottled fruit juice, agricultural engineer Bertille Guedegbe Marcos said the answer is better communication about Benin's Sugarloaf pineapples. "Europeans impose their habits on us but they're bad ones," she said. After a number of threats, the embattled mining company, Exton Cubic Group Limited, has sued the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources over the Ministry's revocation of their mining permits. The Minister, John Peter Amewu, revoked the company's leases and licenses to prospect in the Nyinahini bauxite concession of the Tano Offin Forest Reserve, describing the company's operations there as illegal because of invalid mining leases. Prior to this, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), had indicated that Exton Cubic reneged on commitments to submit a liability estimate of environmental degradation, among others. But Exton Cubic, in an application for a review of the decision at the High Court, has argued that the Minister's decision was unreasonable, unjust, and an abuse of his powers. The company, among others, is seeking a declaration that the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources acted ultra vires [beyond] his statutory powers when he revoked Exton Cubic Group Limited mining leases. It also contends that, revoking of its license was breach of the rules of natural Justice, and in breach of the company's rights to administrative justice and property. Exton Cubic is further seeking an order quashing the minister's decision to revoke the mining leases, and an order of injunction restricting the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources or his agents from interfering with Exton Cubic's rights acquired. Aside from this, the company also wants to protect its rights to the concession, and is thus seeking an order of injunction preventing the Ministry from granting the rights acquired by Exton Cubic Group to any other person. Sammy Gyamfi, PRO of Exton Cubic Since the start of this saga in August 2017, Exton Cubic has threatened to use available legal means to overturn government's revocation of its license, although Mr. Amewu maintained that, the mining company's processes in acquiring the lease were questionable. The processes leading to the grant of the license were not quite clear and were not transparent, very opaque. So it called for a lot of questions. We believe that if the processes had taken time and the duration for the various permits were within the framework, this issue wouldn't have come out, the sector Minister said on the matter. The matter came to public attention when earth moving equipment and vehicles belonging to Exton Cubic's sub-contractor, Ibrahim Mahama's Engineers and Planners (E&P), were impounded at Nyinahin, the community where the forest reserve is located. This was on the orders of the Ashanti Regional Minister following suspicions the mining company was operating illegally. At the time, Mr. Amewu came out to say that his Ministry had granted Exton Cubic Group Limited an entry permit into the Nyinahin bauxite concession. By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana The President of Benin, Patrice Talon, will be in Ghana today for a day's state visit. Patrice Talon will hold a meeting with President Akufo Addo, and the two countries will sign some bilateral agreements. The two leaders will address a joint press conference after the bilateral meetings, before President Patrice Talon leaves the country. President Akufo Addo in May this year visited Benin as part of his working tour to West African countries. The first year of the NPP administration has seen an apparently concerted efforts by President Nana Akufo-Addo to deepen ties with fellow West African States, which started with Ghana's intervention in The Gambia's political crisis. President Akufo-Addo with Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe President Akufo-Addo's first few months as President has seen him pay working visits to Sierra Leone, Togo, Liberia, Guiea and Mali among others, whiles also welcoming other Heads of State and dignitaries from ECOWAS countries. The President has assured of Ghana's commitment in seeing to the success of the ECOWAS because in his view, if ECOWAS succeeds it will help us [West Africans] a lot in the economic development of our country. By: Sammi Wiafe/citifmonline.com/Ghana The Minority MPs have been accused of acting irresponsibly by going public with an unproven report that alleges that some Ghanaians have been radicalized into the ISIS terrorist network. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Frank Annoh Dompreh, says the Minority MPs should have acted more responsibly considering the sensitive nature of the matter and also because the authenticity of the said report is yet to be backed by a credible international agency. The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Nsawam-Adoagyiri Constituency in Eastern Region, is convinced the false revelations are only meant to cause fear and panic. The Libyan report Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa A ranking member of Parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, October 10, 2017, called on the government to as a matter of urgency state its position on the ISIS threat posed by some alleged radicalized citizens. He alleged that information gathered from Libya suggests that Ghana is the second highest country that contributes fighters to Islamist terror group in Libya. Rather worrying for Ghana, we are considered to be among the second highest category of 50 100. This has been explained by the Attorney-Generals Office in Libya to mean between 50 to 100 Ghanaian migrants in Libya have been identified as active frontline fighters of ISIS in Libya, Mr Ablakwa said at the press conference. Ghana appears in this category with seven other countries namely Senegal, Gambia, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Mali and Somalia. Only Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan and Libya were found to have more Islamic State fighters than the category Ghana finds itself. Mr Okudzeto also alleged that Ghanaian ISIS fighters were involved in abductions and other grave criminal activities. A special enquiry found out that kidnapping was done by Islamic State foreign fighters from Ghana, Turkey and Tunisia, he said. The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentarian for North Tongu said the information was contained in highlights of a report presented at a press meeting in Tripoli recently. The Minority is, therefore, calling for a reaction to the information provided by the Libyan Attorney Generals office due to its grave ramifications to Ghanas image. Frank Annoh-Dompreh Mischievious press statement Reacting to the call, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Annoh Dompreh, said he suspects mischief. If a report has been put out there by another republic of which its authenticity of the report has not been proven, all you need to do, as a responsible Minority, is to report this matter to the state agencies for an investigation to be conducted, Mr Dompreh was not enthused. He said the Foreign Affairs Ministry is aware of the report and investigation has begun to establish the authenticity of the claims contained in the report. "What is important is that the Ministry is conducting an investigation into the matter and so for anybody to allege that the Ministry is aware and is not doing anything about it is neither here nor there, he said. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com Churches and Mosques played their roles in the indoctrination of Africans towards Western and Arab religious values. Though they established early modern schools, hospitals where outcasts and the poor could obtain free services. Compared to the new churches and mosques we have today, most Africans would give credit to those charity services of foreign religious bodies. You wonder if African religious bodies are indifferent, into it; for self-enrichment and rituals. Every church and mosque have their rituals which they follow or adhere to. While some do not worship image of any kind, others pray to their images of saints. The United Nations and the so called civilized world were disturbed by the reckless destruction of historical statues in Iraq; and Afghanistan where Taliban militia supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar issued a decree ordering the destruction of all statues including ancient pre-Islamic figures. These objections were not based on religious grounds but on historical preservation of the past. Since the days of Abrahamic religions when he almost sacrificed his son to God, the world has moved on and religions condemned human sacrifices. Ritualists replaced human sacrifices with animal blood. The blood and body of Jesus, replaced with bread and wine. However, it has not stopped powers from using human lives to please their gods or ego for fetish wars. They make distinctions between thirst for wars and human sacrifice; even when both result in loss of lives. There is no doubt that the richest religious bodies today are the old churches and mosques that have made their money from tithes, endowments, investments including real estates all over the world. We now have empty churches and temples except in developing countries. Religious bodies are growing fast in poor countries while their members are declining in richer countries. There must be a link between poverty and religion, even among the poor in rich countries. This may not be surprising because the poor and the outcast in Africa first ventured into church, mosques and their institutions like schools and hospitals while the rich ones were still in doubt or suspicious of the intentions of the new religious bodies in their mist. This is the reason that most of the first educated Africans were the outcasts and the poor who were the experimental breeds as test to fully understand the benefit of foreign religions, schools and hospitals. Of course, there were others that were curious and decided to attend. Many of you that have read Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart would remember that when sceptics like Okonkwo heard that they were serving wine as blood of Jesus, he decided to attend church. He also brought his horn with him for the drink of wine. Like many wealthy Africans, they later realized that these new religions were in Africa to seek converts into their own way of life. Until later, in order to be accepted into their schools and hospitals, you must be converted to their religions. Indeed, they changed African names to English or Arabic names, so that Africans could be freed from the worship of the devil. Even if your name is Oluwatoyin or Chukwuemeka that had God in it, it had to be changed to Jesustoyin, Godwin or Abudu (slave of God)! Nevertheless, Africans never totally gave up their religion. Even when taken overseas as slaves, they practiced Santeria in Cuba and Voodoo in Haiti. Bookman held on to Voodoo and invoked Sango to free his people while fighting for the Independence of Haiti. Slave owners were made to believe that Cuban slaves were praying to the Christian God, while in fact they were praying to African God. None of the foreign religions fully took Africans loyalty away from their God. However, false prophets and evil doers have bastardized African religions by still practicing rituals others religions have given up after the time of Abraham. Evangelic religions have also sprung up exploiting the poor in the mist of poverty and sorrow; promising heavenly bliss on earth if they only pay their tithes dutifully. They have predicted calamities, cured the sick, walk on water and woken the dead to demonstrate their power and increase their congregations. Instead of creating schools and hospitals for the poor, they used their tithes to build expensive schools for any religion. Schools most members of their congregations cannot afford to attend. They create churches and mosques as business centers to channel money into their coffins only to be used to their lavish lifestyles and hedonic appetites. Pastors instill fear, entice with lottery while buying mansions, exotic cars for their families, girlfriends and cronies at home or abroad. The two shrines with human skeletons that brought attention to most Nigerians were in Okija and Oshogbo. Those in the know and many that patronized them faked ignorance and started pointing fingers across the Niger. It has since been revealed almost daily across the Country in churches and mosques that these were business centers where human parts were traded for money, cars and mansions. The last mission on their mind is how to care for the sick and poor. These atrocities in the name of God have been going on for ages. People were kidnaped and their living bodies were chopped off, frozen and flown out of many countries for transplants overseas. Unfortunately, some recipients are prestigious hospitals that never want to know where the body parts were coming from. But locals usually think about people used for magic where live bodies were used for incarnation that produce money from the head or mouth! Whatever was left from the bodies are then sold off to those asked to bring various body parts by some medicine men. These same evil men invoke the name of ancient Abraham, willing to kill his son for God. Desperate poor souls seeking money, fame, trying to get pregnant, miracles or salvation, met these horrible demands by locating someone for sacrifice. It is the same evil men that would demand that seekers of miracles cures in sickness or health sleep with some madmen or homeless women, sleep with their own relatives, children or albino to cure HIVs. May devil not lead us into temptations or desperation where we could be driven by sickness or needs into the hands of evil doers waiting to take advantage of our situations? Some pastors, imams and Babalawo are no different from kidnapers seeking an eye, arm or leg for sale as body parts. When they become the head of churches or mosques, they have perfected and legitimized their trade in the open, licensed to extort anything from people. What happened to the spiritual powers of Badoo, evil pastors and imams while police operating tractors, never seized or broke, while destroying their shrines and temples? Antananarivo (AFP) - The little footbridge near Justin Rakatoarivony's home is submerged in a murky green liquid the texture of sewage. But he has no choice but to cross it every day on his way to work in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The filthy conditions in his area, the southern Ampefiloha district, make him worry that he will be the next victim of the plague outbreak sweeping the country. His fear is far from unfounded: the disease has already killed 21 people in Antananarivo since August, according to the health ministry. "The plague is a disease that comes from the filth, because the filth attracts rats, and rats carry fleas which transmit the plague to humans," said Rakotoarivony, 45. "I fear getting the plague here, but I don't have any choice, I have to cross this bridge every day, so I do it at speed." Rakotoarivony is one of many on the Indian Ocean island nation who are increasingly fearful of the unusually virulent outbreak that has so far killed 48 people nationwide and infected 239 in the capital and its outskirts. Everyone who crosses the bridge puts on a brave face despite the flow of brackish water and domestic rubbish beneath. "The plague can kill in 12 hours," Edmond Rakotondrasoa, 46, a used-phone salesman, told AFP. "But I'm not scared because I'm a believer and God wrote in the Bible, 'I will protect you from all epidemics'." Scrap-metal merchants do business beside the accumulated detritus near the canal without a thought for the unhygienic surroundings. Madagascar's outbreak includes bubonic plague, in which the germ Yersinia pestis is spread by infected rats via fleabites, and pneumonic plague, a particularly dangerous form which spreads from person to person via airborne droplets. One of the traders there has already been diagnosed as a carrier of pneumonic plague. The individual was hospitalised in a specialist clinic in Antananarivo -- but discharged himself before completing his treatment. 'Spitting blood' "Following our efforts to raise awareness about the plague, a group brought in a 24-year-old man who was spitting blood," said Rabenjaminahobianintra Harimanana, head doctor at the Isotry Central health clinic. "Tests (for plague) came back positive, so after being given initial treatment he was sent to the Ambohimiandra Anti-plague Clinic. "But he escaped from the centre and was seen once again trading in the market." Authorities sought to reason with him, but he fled again. He was declared a wanted man but is still at large. "He was scared because he was a repeat offender who had been released from prison," said Harimanana. "We alerted the police so they can return him to hospital if they find him." Hanitra Randrianarison, a senior medical official in Antananarivo, said "this fugitive patient risks spreading the disease very quickly to anyone who gets within two metres (six foot) of him." President Hery Rajaonarimampianina on Tuesday described tackling the plague in military terms. Broom brigade: The market in Anosibe, one of the dirtiest districts in Antananarivo, is targeted for a cleanup "We are at war... and today I think we have the weapons and munitions to fight this epidemic," he said in his first public comments on the crisis as he visited affected areas. The current crisis was sparked on August 28 after a single fatality in the central town of Ankazobe. The victim, a passenger in a public taxi, passed away as the vehicle travelled across the country. They infected two other passengers who died at the beginning of September in Tamatave, a town on the island's east coast that had gone for 100 years without a single recorded instance of the plague. Now some 449 cases of plague have been identified nationwide, prompting authorities to take drastic measures. 'A baseless rumour' Passengers at Antananarivo's transport hubs are subject to medical inspections, infected areas have been fumigated to kill fleas, public gatherings are banned, and schools and universities have been shut. "Local health inspectors are working to identify people infected with the plague and to inform people about the importance of hygiene and cleanliness," said Randrianarison. "All of the local communities in Antananarivo have been taking part in a city-wide clean-up drive." This week, the health ministry trained 384 local health inspectors to deal with plague in Antananarivo. Among them was Norosoa Raharimalala, who works in Ivandry district in the capital's north. Unlike some of those who live and walk alongside the filthy Andriantany canal, the people of Ivandry have been panicked by the plague outbreak, according to Norosoa. They no longer shake hands to greet one another, and avoid standing close to each other. "It takes a plague for people in our area to appreciate cleanliness and hygiene," said Raharimalala. 11.10.2017 LISTEN `We know accidents happen all the time. Human life, from birth to death, is intertwined with accidents of all proportions. Many of these mishaps are unavoidable, or difficult to detect and prevent. For instance, at the time of composing this write-up, parts of California in U.S. is engulfed in wildfire, consuming over 25,000 acres of land that includes destruction of other properties and forced evacuation of more than 20,000 people (see: MSNBC-Live News; October 9, 2017). Randomly or at certain times of the year, wildfires burn and destroy million dollars worth of properties and loss of human lives in many parts of the United States in which the local authorities struggle helplessly to deal with it or contain. In short, the subtext of the larger story here is that even United States of all advanced countries almost always experiences unavoidable accidents, such as hurricanes, tornadoes, sinkholes, deaths from lightning, and many more, that often appear to overwhelm the nation and its people/policymakers. However, we must quickly add that in the midst of inevitability of accidents across cultures, there are also countless human tragedies that can be prevented. On that note, some countries have smartly learned how to proactively respond and tackle preventable accidents before they strike. The uncensored truth is that in Ghana there appears to be no such thing as proactive prevention of avoidable accidents. So, many tragic accidents hit the country catching the local/national decision-makers in the napping mode. Recall the fatal accident in March of this year where a group of about 20 party-goers, including SHS students from Wenchi, perished at the Kintampo Waterfalls during a bad storm. In any other caring and smart-thinking country, the Kintampos heartbroken accident would have been possibly averted. This is because there would definitely be in place the state-of-the-art weather forecast system, accurately predicting the impending killer storm and hence a warning to the touring party to avoid the waterfall area. That is what happens all the time in the U.S. (go ahead and say stop comparing US to Ghana) whenever a deadly hurricane, tornado, or any other impending natural disaster is about to make a landfall. The weather forecasters will pinpoint the direction, duration, and exact time the storm will hit. The contrary holds true in Ghana. Besides showy attitudes, loud mouthing, shallow reasoning, and personal innuendoes, the country is far from or yet to master in the culture of learning how to maintain its existing infrastructures, careful/proactive planning, or learn from its previous mistakes. Basically when we talk about advanced countries, in essence were referring to societies that have learned how to keep improving upon their errors and imperfections. But, like in almost all African nations, Ghana keeps repeating the same things and hopes the outcomes will stay different. The case in point is the many media reports of the periodically lethal explosions happening in the gas/petrol stations mushrooming across Ghana. Sadly, though, this is one of the classic cases of human psychology: That if an individual doesnt have anything of quality to compare to or associate with his/her familiar conditions, the person naturally tends to believe strongly that his/her status quo is either the best or the worst! As some big trucks in Ghana have as their signpost: Travel and see. For many of us who have lived in the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada, or any of the developed country quite a while, as soon as one sets foot in the motherland (Ghana), right away one gets a clear idea of why this country and many others within the continent is described as the so-called Third World nation. In the advanced, law-abiding societies, there is no way the authorities will allow the construction of fuel stations so close to where people live. Plus, these stations are strictly required by law to meet certain standards which are regularly monitored and inspected. Admittedly, Ghana must be far less developed country, other than that the officialdom wouldnt look the other way and allow the greedy, careless, and the well-connected citizens among us who called themselves entrepreneurs/business folks put up gas stations very close to residential or market areas without taking into account the supreme safety of the people. In America, for example, the businessperson can be Jeff Bezo of the Amazon fame or the co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates, the authorities will ensure they follow the laws of the land pertaining to proper business practices. Looking at the tsunamis of avoidable human errors often resulting in tragedies like gas station explosions, it is fair to say the contemporary Ghanaian society has become a place where majority of the people have absolutely no regard for morality, humanity, patriotism, rule of law, except an unexamined emphasis on mythologies and selfishness. The safety-deficient gas stations are popping up and ending in explosions all over the place because the country has poorly inefficient law enforcement mechanism. It is an open secret that once a person has enough money to buy his/her way through the system, the sky tends to be the limit for that person willing to bribe the regulators/law enforcers. This age-old socio-cultural abnormality (bribing state officials) has shaped the mainstream Ghanaians worldview to the point that the police and other law enforcement agencies are held in low esteem in the society. Honestly, no one may take the law enforcer or state regulator of fuel stations serious if the person figures out a few kola in the palms of the enforcer can do the trick. Do we wonder then why shabbily constructed gas stations keep setting off in deadly flames? Indeed, one other notable reasons calamitous but avoidable accident such as gas station explosions, auto deaths on the highways, or the Kintampo Waterfalls tragedy will never stop is that Ghana woefully lacks the willpower and genuine commitment to learn how to put high premium on smarting from its mistakes. The preceding is one of the effective ways to help contain or prevent the tsunamis of mortal accidents in the country. Its also one of the means nations become more developed. After all, experience they say, is the best teacher. Bernard Asubonteng is United States-based writer; send your comments: [email protected] 11.10.2017 LISTEN Gordon Offin-Amaniampong writes Ghana could soon become the first country in the sub region and possibly across the world to introduce the most advanced addressing system. AsaaseGPS (the Anglo-Akan trademark name) is a Ghanaian free online web digital addressing system. Asaase a Ghanaian Twi word stands for Earth with GPS Global Positioning System capping it. Technology experts say it will help trace and pinpoint every Ghanaian irrespective of his/her location in the country. And like Google map, MapQuest or any other navigation search engine the app on AsaaseGPS does all the tricks: Just open the app and type the name of the landmark into the search tab and voila! Ghanas vice President Mahamudu Bawumia who made this known at University of Cape Coast (Cape Vas) in the central region said the NPP administration upon assumption into office from day one saw the need to use the existing technology to implement a digital addressing system. To this end, the governing party set a mission upon itself to venture into the project, noting t, thankfully the task has been accomplished. And like a marketing manager selling a new product Dr. Bawumia employed humor and facts to whip up the excitement of his audience in Cape Coastformerly the Gold Coast capital. Indeed the smile on his face and the body language said it all. He was the happiest man. So how big is this deal? This is what were about to roll out. Its more advanced than United States or United Kingdom or Sweden or Germany, Dr. Bawumia said Because theyd (referring to the west) started with old technology, we are leap-froggingand were going to GPS-technology, so even if youre standing in the middle of River Oti and you want your address when we roll it out you will know your address in the middle of River Oti. Still wearing his smiles the vice president pointed out that Ghanas digital address system has unique post codes for every location within Ghana. The system is going to provide (for me if I look at it and I am biased of course) us the most advanced addressing system in the world Period. Its unbelievable weve been able to put together 16.1 billion addresses, every five by five metre square part of FGHANA has unique address. For the longest time, if youre looking for somebodys house the koko (porridge) seller on the left, blue kiosk on the right and the gutter before you get there. And then if the koko seller doesnt appear youre in trouble, he illustrated amid giggles. Ghanas huge there are so many villages and towns so we want to use the existing technology to implement a digital addressing system. So this is the task we set ouselves when we came into government. And that task has thankfully been accomplished. Why the Oti River allusion someone asked me? I suppose it was off the cuff. I dont think he used it deliberately. Its however, worth noting that the Oti River isnt the longest or biggest in Ghana. The biggest is the River Volta and the longest is the Tano River. I also think that his allusion to the Oti River could possibly be per its proximity to the northern region (his native home) and not the depth, width and its length. But like he earlier indicated if he could be biased this project is unique and matchless at the global stage. In that sense I will say even in Thames, even in Mississippi River and even in space one can locate his/her destination or house. This would bring the West-African nations world record to two. It set her first world record in 1965 when the country built the Akosombo Dam also known as the Volta Dam ---the biggest Man-made Lake in the world by surface area not by volume. Yes it could be viewed as Ghanas flagship project and arguably the most innovative in the world... According to Vice President Bawumia after analysing the factors behind the successes of other developed countries, it has become necessary for Ghana to take advantage of technology in order to speed up development. Are there any foreseeable challenges? Perhaps the only challenge that I foresee when the project is rolled out will have to do with access and the know-how. How does one access the app and generate the address of his location if s/he is technically inept? The features look pretty cool. They are not complex-looking but there still have to be more education and sensitization programmes before, during and after the system is rolled out to ensure its full success. But beyond that I think the giant has landed and shes here to stay. AsaaseGPS will be going places and it will put Ghana in a pole position at the global stage in terms of digital addressing system. One of the major barriers to accessing quality health care being it either maternal or infant health care or any health issue is the use of the English Language by Health Professionals as a medium of communication in many of the countrys health institutions to administer health care to patients. It is a known fact that majority of the Ghanaians populace particularly those living in the rural settings are illiterate and therefore mostly find it difficult to understand the English Language let alone to communicate the language. This makes it difficult for such people to access health care in the health facilities which are man by health professionals who could not also speak the local dialects of the communities they are providing health care to. For instances it would be very difficult to propagate , create and deepened the awareness and understanding on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding , post-natal and ante-natal services to rural settings in order to reduce maternal and new born deaths , using the English Language as a medium of communication. One of the major tool that could be used to confront this challenge is the application of Visual Communication . Visual Communication have the greatest potentials in breaking the Language barriers since the images also known as mural when adopted could be easily understood by patients who could not speak or understand the English Language. The cliche, that a picture tells a thousand words is very authentic. There is real value in using images to promote scientific content. Images help us learn, images grab attention, images explain tough concepts, and inspire. Again , research had shown that Human beings are very visual creatures. A large percentage of the human brain dedicates itself to visual processing . Human beings love for images lies with their cognition and ability to pay attention. Images are able to grab human beings attention easily and they are immediately drawn to them. Research had also proven that Human beings process images at an alarming speed than words. When Human beings see a picture, they are able to analyze it within a very short snippet of time, knowing the meaning and scenario within it immediately. Research further indicates that the human brain is able to recognize a familiar object within 100 milliseconds . Images also have the potential to get an emotional response from your audience. This is necessary when one wants the work he or she is promoting to have an impact on users. For instance bright colors capture our attention because our brains are wired to react to them. Our vision senses are by far our most active of the senses. Perhaps it is in recognition of the importance of Visual Communication in communicating health messages that informed the decision of UNICEF- Ghana to collaboration with the Ghana Health Service in partnering with Rural Initiatives for Self- Empowerment-Ghana (RISE-Ghana) to use the medium of paintings as known mural to communicate the benefits of post-natal and ante-natal services to communities in the Kassena-Nankana West District. The project is part of UNICEF- Ghana and the Ghana Health Service Mother Baby Friendly Health Facility Initiative (MBFHI) Project aimed at communicating the health benefits of post-natal and ante-natal services, increase uptake of optimal breastfeeding as well as promote the support of power structures to increase demand for the services towards a reduction of maternal and neo-natal deaths. Whilst one of the wall paintings or murals is constructed at the Sirigu market, the other one is located at the China health centre, all in the Kassena- Nankana West District. Briefing the media after a tour embarked by RISE-Ghana, locally based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO ), to communities to ascertain the impact the murals were having on maternal and infant health in the area, Mr Awal Ahmed Kariama, the Executive Director of RISE-Ghana, said in spite of the various efforts to increase demand for ante-natal and post natal services, patronage continues to be very low in some parts of the country hence, hence the need for innovative approaches to reach them. He said UNICEF Ghana, the Ghana Health Services and other Civil Society Organizations (CSO) have been using various strategies such as information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials , pregnancy schools, durbars and community fora to create awareness and deepen understanding on the importance of post-natal and ante-natal services in reducing maternal and new born deaths. He said the new innovations and non-conventional approaches such as the Visual Communication have been successful and expressed the hopefully that it would sustain the progress chalked by UNICEF Ghana, the Ghana Health Services and other CSOs by getting people in communities to participate in dealing with the concern. Mrs Ayamah Akwara, a trader at the Sirigu market where one of the wall painting is displayed, said it did not only attract customers to her business but had also opened up discussions around breastfeeding and other health concerns with men who traditionally would not discuss such topics in public. Mr Barnabas Aduko, the Assemblyman for Sirigu Central electoral area, commenting on the mural, said apart from it being an effective method of communicating important health issues and relaying messages that would encourage women to seek health care during pregnancy, it was also able to break the barriers of communication as the images depict the health needs of women and children. We in consultation with women, husbands and community leaders who shape decision-making in communities designed and placed the two murals in the most visible and unconventional spaces like markets and health centres. These are generating meaningful dialogue and increasing the visibility of the benefits and barriers to optimal breastfeeding, ante-natal care and post natal care services among market goers who traditionally will not have seen such important messages, the Assemblyman said. In conclusion from the above analysis one can see the power of Visual Communication in communicating health messages particularly on maternal and infant health, exclusive breastfeeding and complementing feeding among others. It should be put on record that images are vital part of science communication, and should not be cast out in favour of long blocks of text. In order to break down the often complex messages of science, one needs the help of Visuals and this exactly UNICEF-Ghana in collaboration with the GHS is partnering with RISE-Ghana to achieve. What is needed more is for UNICEF-Ghana and the GHS to partner with RISE-Ghana and other CSOs to scale up the Visual Communication components in more communities and health centres across the rest of the region. This would help fast-track the effective implementation of the Mother Baby Friendly Health Facility Initiative (MBFHI) Project aimed at communicating the health benefits of post-natal and ante-natal services, increase uptake of optimal breastfeeding as well as promote the support of power structures to increase demand for the services towards a reduction of maternal and neo-natal deaths. One of the murals at the Sirigu Market shed depicting on the need to support women to go for post -natal services, exclusive breastfeeding and complimentary feeding after six months GNA 11.10.2017 LISTEN You would agree that prevention is better than curative measures. And a spark neglected burnt the house(Leo Tolstoy). Ghana's first Environmental policy enacted in 1995 was based on a broad vision founded on and directed by respect for all relevant principles and themes of environment and sustainable development. Despite the Environmental Protection Agency( EPA) spearheading the process of a sound environment, the management process has been ineffective and enforcement of laws has become an illusory gains, hence not achieving the desired results. Ghana has recorded eight major gas explosions in three years from 2014 to 2017 including the twin disaster at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle(June 3, 2015), Nungua-Zongo gas explosion( July 18, 2014), Trade Fair Explosion on December 23, 2016, among others. The authorities are working on their blind sides, therefore unable to apprehend potential environmental hazards ahead of time. Pressing problems which require urgent action today are the direct result of a lack of anticipation in the past, and often draw resources away from more important tasks. The sad reality is that, most of the gas explosions could have been prevented, provided the gas leak was detected in time. There are instances where people have protested against siting of a filling station but to no avail. In September 2016, Ashongman Estate residents in Accra protested against the construction of a filling station in the community. University of Professional studies demonstrated against the construction of a filling station near the university in May 2016. However, the recent gas explosion that happened on Saturday, October 7,2017, at Atomic Junction near Madina residents in Accra is what whet my appetite to this write up. I personally do not doubt the credibility of the vice president DR.Mahamudu Bawumia, saying new government policies will solve explosions once and for all. But a real decision is measured by the fact that you have taken a new action. If there is no action, you haven't truly decided(Tony Robbins). There is a need to adopt a realistic and implementable environmental policies and strategies to solve these problems as they re-occur. All said and done, I propose a holistic and integrated planning approach in solving the problem. To begin with, a coherent and rigorous Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA) for all new developmental projects should be carried out at the initial stage of a project. The EIA should not be a mere exercise. Mitigation and remediation measures should be given a top priority, and if a problem is envisaged, action or a contingency plan should be taken to offset the problem. This will save us from the embarrassment we have been going through. The EPA should work in liaison with other bodies, including, but not limited to National Petroleum Authority(NPA), Energy Ministry, and Ghana Fire Service to protect the environment from fire outbreak. Fire service officers should be available at all environmental sensitive areas, rather than ensconced in their offices and waiting until there is a fire. Additionally, an Effective Environmental Information System should be made available for easy public outreach. Environmental information system should be seen as a constitutional right which should not be denied. The EPA as the lead institution should recognize the right of every citizen to expose any potential and actual environmental hazards without fear. Also, periodic environmental auditing to check companies operations is very crucial. Periodic environmental auditing should be carried out to check on existing practices and assessing the environmental effects of current activities. EPA should employ more workers in the field of environment with knowledge about Environmental auditing and Environmental Impact assessment to help in the process of achieving a sound environment. The audit team should visit facilities on regular basis to check their environmental credentials with much emphasis on compliance, issue, health and safety auditing. The audit team should be critical about tools and equipments in the facility such as emergency lighting and signs, fire alarm systems, escape hoods and mask, fire extinguishers, fire door closers, fireproof safes and storage, etc. The EPA is supposed to periodically report on the state of the environment which is very crucial. Unfortunately, EPA normally report after a disaster. Let's face reality and stop deluding ourselves. Through the 19th and early 20th centuries, coal miners would bring canaries down to the tunnels with them as an early detection system against life threatening gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide. The canary, normally a very songful bird, would stop and eventually die if not removed from these gases, signaling the miners to exit the mine quickly. So if early miners had an astute way of protecting themselves from the dangers of gas explosion, how much more the contemporary era with technology at our doorsteps. The use of gas and smoke detectors should be given more attention. These detectors are used to detect gas leak or other emissions and can interface with a control system so a process can be automatically shut down. A gas detector such as Amprobe GSD600 and RIDGID 36163 Model Micro CD-100 can be used to check combustible gas systems. Amprobe GSD600 can detect methane in amounts ranging from 40ppm to 640ppm, and propane between 35 ppm and 580ppm. This will help detect leaks early before they become a problem. Most of the detectors are seen at the gas stations but as to whether is functioning or is just a camouflage remains a big question since authorities do not often inspect those areas. Moreover, stringent enforcement of laws. Punishment for environmental offenders are not punitive enough. So people are more concerned about enriching themselves and do not consider the repercussions they will cause to others. It is not uncommon to see filling stations sharing boundaries with some shops, residential apartments, and schools in Ghana. And we should be critical about activities that do not complement each other. Furthermore, embracing GIS as an effective strategic tool to tackle gas leakages and possibilities of explosions. Given the current rate of gas explosions, it is essential that companies are able to accurately monitor environmental changes associated with operations. It's time to realize the importance of geospatial data to minimize risks. The spatial component is however still underutilized in the oil and gas industry in Ghana. Facilities Management using 3D GIS with field layout helps accurate monitoring of associated environmental changes in near real time for Health, Safety and Environment, and emergency response during leaks or explosions. It will also help in distribution and pipeline management through path analysis for distribution network, network analysis for environment friendly routes, pipeline monitoring for geo-hazards and leaks, tracking of inspections using remotely acquired data. Developing a data base using GIS should be available to all stakeholders, specifically workers in the field on mobile devices. This will lead to a better decision making during emergency response situations, and improved public relations. pipelines need to be continually monitored to check for leaks and geo-hazards, and to manage and track inspections. Tracking device via Advent GIS should be planted at the various filling stations to ensure complete monitoring among workers and customers. Finally, massive education and awareness creation with the goal of sensitizing and conscientizing the people on gas usage. Emphasis should be on adoption of environmentally friendly practices. Environmental educational programs and projects to promote a clear understanding of the relationship between economics, environment, and other societal upheavals is paramount. It is undeniable fact that, most of the eco-catastrophes that occurred is as a result of man's negligence. Therefore, individual level of consciousness is key to circumvent the identified challenges of the environment. It doesn't matter where you are, whether in your car, your home, school, or at the office, you might not be far from a source of combustible gas. Therefore, we should all come on board and take audacious steps to fight against behaviours that triggers gas explosions. The environment is very sensitive, fragile and vulnerable to disasters. But it is our moral responsibility to prevent it from happening. If you do what youve always done, youll get what youve always gotten(Tony Robbins). Thank You. 0546163213/0202789098 [email protected] BA.Environment and Resource Management. The Northern Region is the largest in Ghana with a total landmass of about 70,384 Km2 but unfortunately one of the least developed. Among the key reasons responsible for the underdevelopment of the region is the difficulty the regional capital (Tamale) faces in effectively reaching out to and cooperating with the various districts and municipal assemblies. Coupled with insufficient resources and remote locations of some of the districts and municipalities from Tamale, poverty and the high rate of illiteracy and ethnic conflicts have made the administration of the region more cumbersome. Recently, various government agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Student Unions contributed immensely in educating rural folks to educate their children formally. These campaigns have yielded wonderful results which have come with attendant challenges like the insufficient school infrastructure in many communities as well as the insufficiency of teaching and learning materials to match the increasing enrollments. Here again various government and religious organizations and civil service groups have done a great deal though insufficient to address these challenges. It is important to state at this point that contrary to the popular opinion among most Ghanaians that inhabitants of the Northern Region are from one tribe, there is huge ethnic diversity in the region. This perception to a large extent is due to the manner in which these ethnic groups have been able to co-exist for decades despite few escalations of tensions in recent years. This co-existence in the region has much to thank our founding fathers (e.g. Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah) for the manner in which they handled ethnicity and made everyone see themselves first as Ghanaians before any other identities. The boarding school system entrenched this nationalistic identity as students from various ethnic groups learned to co-exist peacefully in schools. Not is not only this,a lot of government agencies, NGOs Chiefs and various Ethnic Youth Associations have worked tremendously hard to educate their tribesmen on the importance and advantages of living peacefully. There have also been peace talks between these ethnic groups especially those that have seen recent ethnic and tribal escalations and the region is finally beginning to see promising signs of peaceful co-existence. We wish to use this opportunity to congratulate government on following up on their campaign promises to create new regions out of the existing Northern Region. We are convinced this exercise will effectively resize the landmass of the region in proportion to available resources for effective development. It will also facilitate the administration of the districts and municipalities that are far from the current regional capital, Tamale. This project will give the new regions a better scope to concentrate on the much needed infrastructural development the current Northern Region is in dire need of. In addition, this initiative will create more businesses and jobs for the inhabitants especially the youth who hitherto were idle and prone to quarrels and conflicts. It will also bring economic emancipation to all residents thereby curbing the rate of poverty significantly. It is on the background of these prospective administrative successes, peaceful coexistence and education, that we KOYA-USA find it extremely worrying that some of the ethnic groups and stakeholders in the Northern Region seem to use this noble and development driven idea (of creation new regions) by the government to stoke further ethnic differences in the region. The focus of this piece is to make suggestions to government to consider in their current development oriented agenda to create new regions out of the Northern Region. We believe this initiative should be approached and implemented tactfully and diplomatically in order not to refuel and heighten ethnic and tribal tensions. Creating 3 new regions out of the Northern Region is an excellent proposal but a demarcation of new regions along tribal and ethnic lines will thwart and jeopardize the current roadmap to achieving everlasting peace, stability and development, which will end up being more destructive than constructive. The primary motive for creating new regions should be solely economic, business and development driven in order to derive maximum benefit rather than ethnic and tribal aggregations and conglomerations. Our proposal (which will soon reach government) takes into consideration the geographic location and ease of access to potential regional capitals, as well as economic integration for accelerated development. We advocate an integrated approach where districts should be included entirely into one region and the criteria for grouping districts should be based on similarities in economic activities and ventures. Our proposal puts Ghana first and Northern Region second and has little or no room for ethnic and tribal sentiments. We are very much aware that at this time many lobbyists will spend sleepless nights rallying support for some districts capitals to be considered as regional capitals and also for new regions to be demarcated along tribal and ethnic lines. While lobbying for regional capitals is a worthwhile agenda to pursue, we wish to advice government to ensure that all towns vying for these positions should promise and pledge to all Ghanaians an everlasting peace accord in order to help implement and fulfill the development agenda in the creation of the new regions. To the lobbyist with tribal sentiments we say sorry, and with due respect, please consider toning down your tribal sentiments and vote for development for the sake of the very people we all are fighting for. The economic importance of asking individuals to travel pass a proximal district capital to a distal one for the same purpose is a serious financial loss to families with poverty as a consequence. Remember, there is no region and there can be no region comprising 100% of one tribe. Also, the welfare and prosperity of one tribe tantamount that of all other tribes. Again there is no single tribe that constitutes the much needed 80% of votes to create new regions and we can only achieve this agenda when we stay united and focused on development. Finally, we know critics will argue that some of the existing Regions bear tribal connotations but we wish to state categorically that the fact that these blunders were made by policy makers at the time gives no license to continue to thread on ethnic and tribal sentiments. The past generation may forgive us for those blunders but posterity will hold us accountable for using the hard earned taxpayers money to fulfill tribal aspirations at the expense of development in the year of our Lord 2017. We believe Ghana as a country aspiring to become the gateway to Africa should follow the precedent set for us by our selfless and indefatigable founding fathers. We should be striving to bridge our ethnic differences, and not entrenching them, as this will serve as a stepping stone to unite Africa. United We Stand, Divided We Fall. God bless our Homeland Ghana, Long live Ghana. Signed: Mr. Peter Bajo - President Mr. Emmanuel Nayan - Secretary Dr. Mark Ulanja - PRO The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has organized an environmental and sanitation crusade training for 150 national service personnel to help in educating the public on keeping a clean and green city. The training is also aimed at preventing people from littering around to keep to avoid diseases and also cut down cost on waste management of the assembly. This is part of efforts by the assembly to ensure that all factors that tend to have adverse effects on human health in the environment are brought under control. The three day training is to also to equip service personnel with knowledge of the assembly bye-laws that regulate the environment, its aspects of sanitation and disease control, and how to enforce them. The training was facilitated by the Environmental and Sanitation Department, and the Human Resources Department of the assembly. Residents in Kumasi have recently raised concerns over how filth has engulfed parts of the city especially the central business district. Speaking in an interview with Otec FMs Francis Appiah, the Deputy Metro Environmental Health Officer, Eric Gyasi said the service personnel will be deployed at lorry terminals, market places and other places where waste is mostly generated. The service personnel will visit houses, churches, schools, hospitals and other habitats to assess, advise and identify health hazards and correctional measures will be prescribed. They have the power to arrest any person who violates sanitation bye-laws, he added. He said they are Sanitation Inspectors to augment the few inspectors in the city to enforce the sanitation bye-laws to keep the city clean and green. These people will be clothed in branded shirts for easy identification, so the public should cooperate with them to make the city free from filth, he advised. Traditional Chiefs in the New Juaben Traditional Area have pledged their support to join this years National Breast Cancer Awareness Creation WALK which is annually organized by Breast Care International. The event, which is yearly organized under the leadership of Dr. Mrs. Beatrice Wiafe, CEO of Peace and Love Hospitals, will be held on October 14 this year, at the Koforidua Jacksons Park. Speaking at the official launching of this years BCI WALK FOR THE CURE, the Busumbruhene of the New Juaben Traditional Council, Nana Bugye Asante, speaking on behalf of the Traditional Council, pledged to join the walk to create awareness and help save lives. I must say the Chiefs in New Juaben are very happy that this years event is being organized here, it has coincided with this years celebration of Akwantu Kesei Festival and we believe its a blessing in disguise. Nana Bugye Asante added that, on 14th October, no chief in New Juaben will put on traditional clothes, we will all be in sneakers and trainers to join the 30,000 Ghanaians who will be taking part in the walk. We want the world to know how as chiefs we cherish our women in the society, our challenges are their challenges and their concerns are ours also. From here, I will be visiting all the Chiefs to rally them and get them ready for the walk, so I am pleading with the organizers to make available a number of t-shirts which will be used for the walk because we will be coming with the queen mothers. On her part, the CEO of Peace and Love Hospitals, and the President of Breast Care International, Dr. Mrs. Beatrice Wiafe, showed appreciation to all who are contributing to make the walk a success. I must say we are impressed with what we have seen so far when we got to Koforidua. The chairman of the local organizing committee, Eric Kwakye Darfour, the Eastern Regional Minister, together with his able deputy, Joseph Tetteh, have been very helpful and we are grateful. My sincere gratitude also goes to every member of the local organizing committee, you have worked tirelessly and we are proud of all of you, we will not rest until all women in the country make it a regular habit of getting breast examination for early detection and treatment. Breast Cancer can be cured, it is curable and before one can get help, then the cancer needs to be detected early, so the onus lies on us all to create massive awareness on it, breast cancer should not kill any woman againshe said. Over 30, 000 people which includes personnel and wives of police, fire, army, immigration and prison officers, keep fit clubs, association of hairdressers, beauticians, dressmakers, drivers unions, teacher associations and other civil societies, are all expected to take part in the BCI WALK FOR THE CURE on Saturday October 14th. By: Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku/citifmonline.com/Ghana Since 1979, the State Department has maintained a State Sponsor of Terrorism list. Three laws inform the designation: (1) The Export Administration Act of 1979 ; (2) The Arms Export Control Act ; and (3) the Foreign Assistance Act . If the secretary of state determines a country "has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism," onto the list it goes. Libya, Iraq, South Yemen, and Syria were charter members of the list, and Cuba, Iran, and North Korea all joined in the 1980s. In 1993, Secretary of State Warren Christopher added Sudan, which at the time hosted Osama Bin Laden. Over the next several years, however, the State Department removed most countries: South Yemen left the list in 1990 when, upon Yemeni unification, it ceased to exist, and Iraq was removed after Saddam Hussein's ouster. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice removed both Libya and North Korea less because either state abandoned terrorism , and more to advance unrelated diplomatic initiatives. Secretary of State John Kerry acted similarly with regard to Cuba. Today, only Iran, Syria, and Sudan remain listed, and it's likely that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will remove Sudan soon. The shrinking of the state sponsorship list against the backdrop of worsening terrorism, much of it supported by governments, highlights how subjective short-term diplomatic considerations corrupt what should be a tool to pressure states to stop using terror. It's time to return the terror list to its original purpose: calling out states which embrace terrorism, no matter whether they are U.S. allies or not. Certainly, Iran and Syria deserve to be on the list. The Palestinian Authority would too, if it was a state. Rice removed North Korea for all the wrong reasons, and the Trump administration should rectify that mistake. But, what about the other countries that have never been on the list but deserve to be? Consider Turkey: Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it has enabled and supplied the Islamic State and al Qaeda-linked groups inside Syria. A WikiLeaks dump of Erdogan's son-in-law suggested he was deeply complicit in illicit oil trade with the Islamic State. When al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb overran northern Mali, a Turkish ambassador sided with al Qaeda over the French paratroopers who intervened to restore order. Erdogan's support of Hamas is both broad and personal . Three years ago, tapes leaked that seemed to suggest that Erdogan's office was using the state-owned Turkish Airlines to smuggle weaponry to Boko Haram , Islamist insurgents terrorizing Nigeria. Now, Nigerian customs have again uncovered a shipment of Turkish weaponry. That Turkish state media boasts about its ability to shoot down U.S. aircraft is just icing on the cake. NATO member or not, Turkey fits the U.S. legal definition of terror sponsorship and has repeatedly engaged in such behavior. Designate Turkey and if Turkish officials complain, then the State Department should tell them that the way to move past the crisis is to change Turkey's behavior; no longer should sleight of hand suffice. Pakistan, too, has escaped the state sponsorship of terrorism list for far too long. Leaders of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence openly supports the Taliban. Nor is it credible that al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden lived in Abbottabad, Pakistan's equivalent of West Point, without senior Pakistani authorities knowing it. Islamabad continues to tolerate and support an array of terrorist groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad, which recruited the Times Square bomber, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the 2001 attack on India's parliament and the 2008 slaughter of tourists at a Mumbai hotel. Occasional Pakistani government crackdowns on these groups are insincere: Even for the most high-profile terrorists, Pakistani prisons have revolving doors. Perhaps the Bush and Obama administration gave Islamabad a pass because they wanted Pakistan's logistical cooperation in Afghanistan, but it didn't work. Turning a blind eye toward Pakistani terror support cost scores of American lives, even as Pakistani leaders received billions of U.S. dollars. It is time to hold Pakistan to account. If Pakistan then wishes to escape sanctions, it must imprison terrorists on its soil and cease any funding and equipping of them. Lastly, there's Qatar: There's no question that the gas-rich Persian Gulf state has not only become the chief banker to Hamas, but it also finances the most radical al Qaeda-affiliated groups in Syria and Libya. It is provides a lifeline to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and finances Turkey's terror-loving president. Al Jazeera Arabic, its flagship satellite station, has been caught red-handed coordinating with terrorist groups before attacks in Iraq. While Qatar signed onto the Jeddah Communique in 2014 promising to crack down on terror finance for the Islamic State and other extremist groups, it has failed to abide by its commitments. The U.S.-leased Al Udeid Airbase, now superfluous to U.S. strategic needs, should not be a reason to avoid designation. Simply put, the State Department should hold Doha accountable for its decisions and actions. If Qatari authorities object, they would be better served by ceasing terror finance than by spending millions of dollars on D.C. lobbyists and television and Internet advertisements. The willingness of the State Department to turn a blind eye to so-called allies' terror sponsorship undercuts the war on terrorism and leads terror sponsors to believe they can act with impunity. The situation now would be analogous to a World War II-era State Department bending over backwards to ignore German and Japanese atrocities out of fear that it might antagonize their leadership or undermine the prospects of talks. Neither Democrats nor Republicans would allow a babysitter into their house and, out of politeness, ignore that she was a meth addict. Foreign policy should not be immune to similar common sense. It is always better to base national security on reality than on fantasy, and if friends turn out not to be friends, so be it. ">Embed code: Michael Rubin ( @Mrubin1971 ) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official. The belief of mental illness having a spiritual cause dates back to medieval times, and has since been a challenge to scientific knowledge and biomedical care providers in modern times. In the historical development of the care and treatment of the mental illness, during the periods of Demonology and the Dark Ages, the causes of mental illness were believed to be caused by spirits and demons. Various forms of inhuman treatments were meted out to the mentally ill such as flogging, starving, purging with emetics as treatments and in some cases as punishment when the patients were believed to be demon possessed. Today despite the enlightenment in scientific knowledge and medicine, some of these ancient practices and beliefs are still being carried out on people with mental illness especially in Ghana where people give spiritual meaning to almost everything that happens in their lives than it having a natural cause. For instance, exorcisms, a practice where demons and spirits are driven out of a person believed to be possessed are still practice in this modern era but have been metamorphosed to what is now known as spiritual deliverance. Over spiritualisation of life circumstances, including our health is undoubtedly a deeply ingrained phenomenon that has permeated and influences almost every aspect of our life, from eating food, choosing relationships, joining associations, finding a partner for life to seeking health care. Ones religious doctrine and belief greatly influence his need for health care. Even at a point of life and death in the hospital, some people still turn down blood transfusion in the name of their religious doctrines. A professor once said Africans are notoriously religious. Indeed Ghanaians are notoriously religious and spiritual. Everything that happens in their lives is given a spiritual meaning other than it having a natural cause. Some people are quick to confide their health problems to their pastors and spiritual leaders more than they do to their doctors. The understanding of mental illness and mental health in our part of the world is a worrisome situation that needs much attention just as mental illness itself. When even the educated ones who are supposed to know better troop to the prayer camps to seek answers to their psychological and mental health problems, then you know there is a challenge for mental healthcare providers in Ghana. Apparently, education on mental illness in Ghana is low as many people still associate mental illness with witchcraft and superstition. Many are ignorant about mental illness and mental health and hence are not able to differentiate between behaviour of mental patients from sheer criminal behaviour. This has led to many mental patients being attacked and in some instances lynched for displaying inappropriate behaviour in the public such attempting to steal, unlawful entry to houses and attacking people for no apparent reason. Others have also been thrown to jail for things they did as a result of their mental illnesses. In May 2015, an old woman by name Madam Barbara Boakye-Yiadom, who was suffering from mental illness and found her way onto the streets of Madina in Accra, was accused as a transgender witch and was nearly lynched by a mob who had surrounded her and taking pictures of her nakedness. She was said to have crushed with an electricity poll and landed when flying in the night. Social media was ladened with the naked pictures of this innocent woman who instead of getting help from the society for her unfortunate illness was rather subjected to global shame. She clearly appeared confused and helpless with obvious signs of mental health problem but that eluded the Ghanaian society who was enjoining her antics. Even journalists, who by virtue of their educational enlightenment, should have known better could not also resist the whims but carried the story as a hot cake. It later emerged that the woman has been staying in Canada for most of her life and had returned from Canada to seek treatment for her mental condition in Ghana. Faith leaders are the first point of contact to most people and their families when they are experiencing mental health problems in Ghana. They do so because they belief mental illness is a spiritual problem so they will rather beseech their spiritual leaders first for help than seeking biomedical care. The activities and the role these prayer camps and other spiritual homes play therefore cannot be ruled out from the equation of mental health care in Ghana. There are rampant human right abuses of persons with mental illness at most prayer camps in Ghana. Mental patients at some prayer camps are housed in poor and unsafe environment. The care givers at the prayer camps lack the requisite knowledge to professionally handle the patients. Their patients are subjected to beating and canning, mishandling, chaining them in the sun and rains and to the mercy of mosquito bites and harsh weather conditions at night. In some cases where the patients are believed to be possessed by demons as in the era of demonological and Dark Ages, severe beatings are meted out on them to drive out the demon from the person. These practices at the prayer camps in the long run worsens the plights of these innocent patients and do not help patients to recover early. Faith healers in some prayer camps, after struggling with their patients for months or even years to no avail then direct them to go to the psychiatric hospital, claiming they have done with the spiritual realm of the condition, leaving the physical aspect. This poses a great challenge for mental healthcare providers as many end up with complicated physical conditions at the prayer camps thereby making their medical prognosis poor. In contrast, in a mental healthcare setting, be it a psychiatric hospital or psychiatric unit at the general hospital, mental healthcare providers together with other biomedical care givers provide a serene and a humane environment for their patients and this helps in their early recovery process. The professional training acquired by the biomedical care providers at the psychiatric hospitals helps them to understand the behavior of their patients as part of their conditions and relate well with them. The rights of patients are respected. The psychiatric hospital is therefore a family home for both healthcare providers and patients and their relatives. Faith healers and their activities at the prayer camps preach spiritual cause of mental illness, they do not belief in physical cause. This, they are able to assuage the average Ghanaian who already has a predilection to spiritual meaning of life circumstances to patronise their outfit than attending psychiatric hospital when faced with mental health problem. This has given rise to the proliferation of prayer camps and other spiritual homes across the length and breadth of the country. Biomedical care providers are constantly faced with the challenge of having to discharge patients against medical advice since most of the patients and relatives belief their problem is spiritual and always demand taking patients to prayer camps. They support their action with a quotation in the bible, Ephesians 6:12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against religious principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Biomedical care providers are not are happy with the situation where demand to discharge their patients against medical advice because it interrupts medical treatment of patients and challenges mental health care providers and other stakeholders to intensify the education on mental illness to demystify the myths surrounding mental illness. However the limited resources in the sector are a major hindrance to accomplishing this mission. Prayer camps and other spiritual homes do not belief in long term taking of psychiatric medication and have therefore been preaching against that. Whiles mental healthcare providers recognise the importance of patients faith in the treatment process and thus respect patients belief, some faith healers on other hand are completely against long term taking and adherence to psychiatric medication. They argue that taking medication for spiritual problems is tantamount to lack of faith and would rather depend on God for healing through prayers. Psychiatric Patients who insist on going to prayer camps and other spiritual homes to continue treatment are advised by mental healthcare providers to continue taking their medications alongside the spiritual prayers but most patients end up abandoning their drugs because their pastors preach against it as lack of faith. This has seen patients relapsed on many occasions and are brought back to the hospital for treatment, a worrying trend of vicious cycle in the metal health care in Ghana and in most African countries. Fasting and prayers, especially dry fasting at some prayer camps is hindering and retrogression mental health care in Ghana. Psychiatric patients who find their way to prayer camps to exercise their religious faith and in a desperate quest to get healed stop taking their medication whiles they go into fasting. After stopping the medication for sometimes they relapsed and are either being chained at the prayer camps or send back to the psychiatric hospital. Mental healthcare providers often advise their patients never to stop taking their drugs in the name of fasting or any other reason. They are further advised to confide in their caregivers at the hospital any concerns they have regarding their treatments and fasting. But in a country where over 90% of the population identify themselves as religious, many tend to heed to the word of their pastors or spiritual leaders than what biomedical care providers would tell them. It is therefore not surprising that a patient relative would call his or her pastor on phone to complain about a patient odd behaviour on a hospital bed instead of reporting to the healthcare providers. When some prayer camps are unable to control and manage their aggressive patients, they send them to psychiatric hospital to take injections to calm them and return to the camps, and indeed their caregivers go to the psychiatric hospital and insist on going back when they are told by healthcare providers to stay for further management. Mental healthcare providers, through the psychiatric social work department and the community psychiatric nurses are not able to effectively track and monitor patients at home because of the activities of prayer camps and spiritual homes. Most of these faith healers are on the media landscape touting triumphantly of having the best cure for all mental health problems, quoting biblical verses and scenarios to back their claims. It is important to state, however that some of the prayer camps are collaborating with mental health care providers to give care to their client whiles upholding and maintaining their philosophy of spiritual causes of mental illness. Community psychiatric nurses pay regular visits to these camps to give health education and management of aggressive patients and also give education on the need to continue taking psychiatric drugs whiles at the prayer camps. However, some other prayer camps resist attempts by mental healthcare providers to give them guidelines on how to attend to their clients, including humane treatments and respecting the fundamental human rights of their patients. The Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in collaboration with the Mental Health Authority, in June this year rescued some patients from the shackles of welded chains in a prayer camp in Nyankomase called Jesus Divine Prayer Centre in the central region. The patients were anchored to trees with chains for many years with no intention of releasing them in the near future. The chains were released with the help of hacksaws and the patients were sent to Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital for treatment. Most of them have since been treated and discharged home. The exercise was taken after several failed attempts by healthcare providers for the owner of the camp to improve the condition of the camp and care of the patients. It is apparent that faith healers and their activities at their homes are first respondents to persons and families facing mental health problems in our belief system, their roles and impacts on mental health care, therefore cannot be underestimated. It is important for mental healthcare providers and spiritual leaders or faith healers to synergise their efforts towards ensuring optimal care for persons facing mental health problems. Whiles faith healers belief in the spiritual causes of mental health illness, it is imperative to collaborate with mental health care providers for guidelines and guidance on acceptable standard of mental healthcare. Faith healers and other religious leaders can play a crucial role in mental health care when giving guidelines and training in mental health on treatment of mental illness. They can help to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness. In the light this, the mental health Act 846 (Act 2012) has made provisions to regularise the activities of prayer camps and faith healers in Ghana, including the protection of the right of persons with mental illness. The Act in its current stage is however financially crippled to meet this exercise. Stakeholders in the mental healthcare sector, including the Mental Health Authority are pushing for a legislative instrument (LI) for the Act to financially stand the test of time. The legislative instrument is currently before parliament, appealing to the conscience of the law makers to give it a thumb up. When done, the LI will determine a levy for mental health care in Ghana and this will help mitigate the challenges in the mental health sector including the activities of prayer camps and spiritual homes. Until that is done, the myriad challenges facing the mental health care sector in Ghana, including the impact of prayer camps and spiritual homes will continue to glare. Written by Malcolm Akatinga Ali, a mental health nurse and advocate at Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in Cape Coast. Email: [email protected] Facebook: Malcolm Chibaro Ali It is often said that half a loaf is better than none but it is also true that even a full loaf you will eat without knowing when and how your next meal is coming from is to be thought through before consumption. We will restore in full Nursing and Teacher Trainee allowances in 100 days if NPP is elected come December 7th, 2016. These were the words of Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, the then running mate of the then opposition NPP. This statement caused an uprising within teachers and nurses as well as their trainees front who couldnt fathom why trainee allowance was cancelled despite all the explanation that was given to them by government. The reasons were simple, though poorly communicated. The NDC government wanted to increase trainee enrolment which would in turn produce more health professionals into the system. The nurse/patient ratio which is currently nothing good to write home about is what the John Mahama government wanted to tackle. This is undoubtedly a laudable idea if it was effectively communicated. Ghana was expected to be an exporter of Nurses in the not too distant future. Ghana largely exports goods but few services are exported. This initiative would have boosted our export of services too. Construction of Extra Teaching Hospitals, Regional Hospitals, District Health Centres and many more Chips Compounds was the prime focus. That is why under the last 8 years of the NDC government several health facilities were constructed and the idea was to be in full capacity to absorb the large number of health professionals that was expected from the increased enrolment in the health institutions. The benefits of more health facilities is enormous; it is the only means we can reduce the Maternal mortality rate, reduce the rate of child deaths, fight malaria, diarhoea and other communicable diseases as a more rigorous health awareness campaign would be conducted. Provision of loans through the Student Loans Trust Fund was also made available, and access was made much easier to cushion students whose financial capabilities are limited. Lets not also forget that the UP Tradition once upon a time cancelled trainee allowance and converted several training institutions into secondary schools. The Kumasi Anglican Senior High School (KASS) is a very good example of some of the training institutions that was converted from training status to Secondary school status. To add more salt to injury they even said the teachers reward is in Heaven and for that matter it wasnt governments duty to reward them with allowances. The Mills/Mahama government saw a dramatic increase of Teachers and Nurses salaries as well as all workers salaries in general with the introduction of the Single Spine Salary Pay Structure. All manner of hate campaign was embarked by the NPP against the NDC at the student trainees front. They bought into the lies of the NPP and finally the NPP was elected. The trainee teachers and nurses were paid an allowance of GHc450 each under the NDC regime prior to its cancellation at a time NSS personnel allowances was GHc243.58, 45.87% below the trainee allowances. So a restoration of GHc400 cannot represent a full restoration of allowances; the trainees deserves better. It should either be the GHS450 they were previously paid or the current terms of GHc887.69 which is the 50.88% above the NSS personnel allowances which currently stand at GHc559.04 Now this is where the problem lies. The quota system that limits the intake of students which was abolished by the NDC government has been reintroduced, this saw a dramatic cut in the admission of students into the various training institutions this year and is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. This measure deliberately refuses many applicants admission into these training institutions thereby killing the dreams of our young brothers and sisters who but for the quota system would have become Nurses. This is an ABSOLUTE ABSURDITY; as the FATE, FUTURE, and DREAMS of these young ones is now held HOSTAGE by a mere power drunk CARTEL. The bonding system that used to be attached to these nursing trainee allowances have also been abolished. Now those who have successfully passed through these Health Training Institutions (HTIs) as well as those who are well informed about the bonding system will attest to the fact that the BOND is a legal document that is signed between the individual trainee and the government. This agreement is basically for the government to pay the trainee allowance and the student will in turn serve the government for a maximum of 5 years before he/she can leave the shores of Ghana. The mind boggling questions are: 1. Is the government satisfied with the current number of Nurses and Midwives that it doesnt deem it necessary any longer to bond them? We all know the Patient/Nurse ratio is still very poor. 2. Why will government use tax payers money to pay allowances without entering into any legal agreement/contract them? 3. And most importantly is the government giving these unsuspecting trainee students a token to keep them silent and unemployed after graduation? Trainee Nurses shouldnt clap and leap until the bonding system is reintroduced else their joy will be short lived immediately they graduate and start thinking about employment which would be extremely hard to get. Without the bond no unemployed nurse would have the moral right/courage to demonstrate or picket to pressurize government to employ them. Better put without the Bond, all public and privately trained nurses will be the same since no legal agreement exist between them and government. Dont get me wrong; I am not against trainee allowances, I want to see them absorbed immediately after their graduation with or without allowances. My humble piece of advice to trainee nurses is make hay while the sun shines. Enough said. A word to a wise is enough. Besides the only help I can offer a widow screaming from the concubines room is to peep through the window which I have done. Lagos, Nigeria, 11 October 2017: Determined to give customers additional value for their money, JumiaNigeria and AirFrance KLM have announced a unique partnership to reward Nigerian-based flyers registered with the airlines Flying Blue loyalty programme. The Flying Blue initiative which is tailored to give additional benefits to customers will also expose them to over 1,000,000 product assortment on Africas largest online store, Jumia. Usually when Air France KLM Flying Blue members earn miles, accumulated miles can be used to pay for tickets, upgrades, hotel stays, and excess baggage allowance. However, with this new partnerships, miles can now be used to purchase items on Jumia Nigeria website. This seamless process requires AirFrance KLM Flying Blue members to visit www.flyingblue.com then spend miles blue store leisure shopping voucher to retrieve their vouchers. The vouchers are of 3 values, each indicating the cash value and miles value. Members can buy the voucher of their choice and have the miles deducted from their Flying Blue account. An email will be sent to them with an online shopping code for jumia.com.ng. Alternatively, members can also combine the value of the voucher with cash to pay for the item of their choice. Members who have insufficient miles for an airline award or who have miles expiring soon can convert these miles into vouchers to shop on Jumia.com.ng. In a statement by the CEO of Jumia Nigeria, Juliet Anammah, she stated that Jumia is proud to unveil a driving partnership with AirFrance KLM airlines to reiterate its commitment to customers. This collaboration will create unparalleled opportunities for the passengers and also allow customers to enjoy the convenience and wide selection available through shopping online with Jumia. Air France and KLM continue to pursue new ways of adding value to our customers. At different occasions, when customers provide us with feedback on how to make the customer loyalty program flying blue more attractive, the question often asked is if it would be possible to use flying blue miles on more products, especially products customers need in their day to day life. As we like to listen to our customers and try as much as possible to improve on the services we offer, we decided to look for a partner to turn this dream into a reality. Today we are happy to announce that we are joining forces with the biggest online retailer in Nigeria Jumia! Arthur Dieffenthaler, Commercial Director, Air France KLM, Nigeria & Ghana. If you are craving real African adventure, then, The Mother City, aka Cape Town, South Africa is the place to go. There are so many exciting things to engage in the city. As such jumia Travel, the leading online travel agency urges you to plan your trip with this roundup of the best Cape Town activities. Go mountain climbing Climbing the mountain ranges that the Cape Peninsular has to offer is a must. There is a range of long and shorter walks and even cable car lifts for those who prefer not to work up a sweat in order to enjoy a good view. Visit the beach The breathtaking coastline of the Cape cannot be ignored by tourist and visitors. The various beaches all come equipped with perfect seaside towns that offer the best of nightlife, eateries, markets and more. At the beach, there are a wide range of things to do including: sunbathing, fishing, kayaking, swimming, surfing and horse riding. See games at the Aquila Private Game Reserve The Aquila Private Game Reserve offers its guests the opportunity to get up close and personal with its game park inhabitant on one their thrilling night tours. The reserve also includes in-park accommodation and guided tours. Take a lesson in South African history Robben Island and the District Six Museum are must-visits for anyone interested in South Africa's period of apartheid, which came to an end in 1990. The Robben Island-which housed Nelson Mandela when he was in captivity-is a symbol both of centuries of cruel oppression. The District Six takes you down memory lane when the ruling government declared the area whites only and over 60,000 of its residents were forcibly taken from their homes and shipped out before their homes were burnt. Whale watching Whale watching is among the most popular activities for visitors to the coast. With many boat-based whale watching tours, look out points and advertised watching spot guides, it is almost certain that you will catch a sight of something extraordinary in the seas of the Cape. 11.10.2017 LISTEN International Day of the Girl Child (Day of the Girl) is celebrated annually on October 11 to highlight issues concerning the gender inequality faced by young girls. This years theme is The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030. According to the United Nations statistics on adolescents, there are nearly 600 million girls aged 10 to 19 in the world today. Each of these girls has limitless individual potential to contributing to national development; however, most of these girls are not able to sharpen or make their voices heard in the development because they all of a sudden disappeared. Girls have had to battle with issues of inequities in secondary education to protection issues, which do not seem to receive the pragmatic action to addressing the challenges. Adolescent girls are differently affected in many ways and should benefit from targeted investments and programmes, in addressing their peculiar needs. The high price of sanitary products and the impact on girls' education is not just a problem in Ghana. According to a 2014 campaign , girls are also missing school in countries like India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone for the same reason. Why is it wrong to tax menstruation? It is obvious women are being discriminated against on the grounds of natural bodily function which is disappointing enough. The lack of Menstrual Hygiene and sanitation is in direct correlation with the girls dropping out of school and sometimes-lower productivity at work. Indirect tax regimes depend on classification, thus: essential goods and luxuries. Sanitary pads must be classified as essential. The decision to tax sanitary pads is sadly an indictment on our collective dignity as a people. Its a shameful over-stretch of patriarchy a male activist. Therefore, it is hypocritical for Ghana to be mentioned among countries celebrating today just as all other celebrations geared towards women and girls without abolishing the tax on sanitary pads. Sanitary pads attract 20% import tax levy in Ghana under the Harmonized Code (HS code 9619002900) of the Ghana Revenue Authority as a way of celebrating the International Day of the Girl in honest and showing commitment to all that we say for women and girls, sanitary pads should attract zero tax. If our call is adhered to, then Ghana will join countries like Ireland, Kenya and Canada to become one of the few countries to make sanitary pads tax-free. Support our call to get sanitary pads reclassified as unavoidable by signing the petition below: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/waive-taxes-on-sanitary-pads Investing in adolescent girls can have a formidable ripple effect to create a better world by 2030. J Initiative and Junior Graphic will be intensifying education and advocacy on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) under its Happy School Girl Project (HSGP) to seek redress. Lets all join the fight! The Secretariat of the All Africa Students Union (AASU) is delighted by the decision of United States of America (USA) to lift its economic sanctions on Sudan. These sanctions, which lasted for the past 20 years, have certainly imposed untold hardships on the people of Sudan. AASU wishes to recognize the efforts of the international community - countries, organizations or individuals, which have contributed to the resolution of this problem that has hampered the development of the country, albeit that Sudan has made tremendous strides in the said period. We, equally, acclaim Sudan for taking the path of improving human rights, enhancing religious freedom, and charting a recommended path sustainable peace. The Republic of Sudans commitment to remain a key player in all the efforts aimed at the preservation of international peace and security, and combating terrorism in all its forms as well as human trafficking is laudable and crucial for the attainment of sustainable development and fixing the doldrums confronting the world, particularly Africa. AASU would like to seize this occasion to call on all African countries to deepen the culture of peace and democracy within the framework of a social, cultural and economically united Africa. Long live international solidarity! Peter Kwasi Kodjie Secretary General-All Africa Students Union (AASU) A Takoradi District court has remanded into police custody, the Chinese national who shot and killed Nana Boah, a 30-year old Ghanaian lotto operator, at Wassa Akropong in the Western Region. Police Inspector Bernard Paa Ahinsan, who represented the state, prayed the court, presided over by His Worship, Thomas K. Ofidie, to remand the accused into police custody, to allow them some time to further investigate the case. Jiang Gen Hai, allegedly shot and killed Nana Boah, who had accompanied his friend, a plumber, to demand GHc150 as his workmans pay for services he had rendered to the Chinese. Hes believed to have been shot and killed instantly by the Chinese after an argument ensued over the refusal of the Chinese national to pay for the amount he had been charged by the plumber. Initial reports had suggested that the Ghanaian was shot mistakenly, although that has also not been confirmed. Eyewitnesses told Citi News that during the confrontation, a gun brought out by one of the Chinese was seized by the two Ghanaians but a second gun was reportedly fired by the Chinese, killing the witness, Nana Boamah instantly. The youth of Wassa Akropong responded in anger by burning some 14 cars belonging to the Chinese nationals in the town, and also vandalizied other properties. The suspect was arrested by the police and sent to the Asankragua Divisional Command. He was subsequently transferred to the Western Regional Police Command in Sekondi. Police say he will be charged for murder, and he is to reappear in court on 26th October, 2017. Crackdown on Chinese The incident angered the youth of the town who burnt and vandalized properties belonging to the Chinese nationals. About 14 cars belonging to the Chinese, as well as some of their shops, have been burnt by the irate youth . Police had to relocate about 48 Chinese nationals to safety following the rioting. Later on, angry youth also set up checkpoints on the Wassa Akropong High street in search of Chinese nationals following the killing, which heightened already existing tensions because of Chinese involvement in illegal mining. By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has called for stiff punishment for owners of service stations that violate safety standards in the sale of petroleum products. In a statement issued yesterday in Accra and signed by Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director, it said owners of petroleum products stations must know that they have a responsibility to train their staff on health and safety, ensure structural integrity of their installations, and ensure that everything humanly possible is done to prevent leakages and explosions. This prevents a policy decision that bundles undisciplined business owners with the disciplined ones for sanction. Product stations that fail to comply with safety standards must be made to compensate all affected persons and have their licences revoked to incentivize compliance within the industry. The sanctions must include possible incarceration of the owners of the service stations, if negligence can be attributed to them. It added that public education must be strengthened. Many citizens die annually from gas explosions as a result of poor observance of basic safety rules, which may even be a bigger problem than what gets national attention. There is the need for public education on what activities can be carried out around petroleum products service stations. In the same vein, persons who continue to operate in restricted areas despite warnings from authorities must be forcibly removed and dealt with. Advice to government ACEP also said it wants to see a shift from the government's business-as-usual responses to a comprehensive action that deals with a system that enables the unfortunate to continue to occur. The government should end the usual approach of prescription from the same institutions that have failed to deliver on their job, for which reason explosions have sequentially occurred over the years. Ghana needs to find a fix for the institutional weaknesses that endanger citizens' lives by commissioning an independent examination of the regulatory regime for an objective solution thereto. It attributed the gas explosion to the failure of institutions that have the mandate to check, monitor, and sanction the distribution of petroleum products in the downstream sector. The minimum requirements for a gas station to be built and sustainably operate are a licence from the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), an environmental permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), fire certificate from the Fire Service, and a building permit from the Town and Country Planning authority, as well as Local Government. These authorities have a duty of care to ensure that the safety of Ghanaians is paramount in the siting and operation of these highly flammable petroleum product stations by ensuring that business owners adhere to zoning regulations and health and safety standards to protect lives and properties. Unfortunately, the duty of care is taken for granted as a number of these high risk businesses are licensed to operate right at heart congested public areas, and sanctions are rarely activated to ensure compliance. Negligence of local authority The Atomic Junction explosion happened at a location where the local authority takes taxes every day from 'trotro' and taxi drivers in the makeshift lorry station, which sits in the middle of three petroleum products filling stations. At the same enclave are food vendors whose daily operations involve public exposure to naked fire. What's worse is that the technical, structural, and environmental integrity of the exploded gas installation was weak, pointing without doubt to the inefficiencies of the authorizing bodies. Unfortunately, these authorities who fail to do their work are often times the very ones that congregate as the extracted few to find the solution to the problems they initiate. To adequately and effectively deal with the recurrent explosion of petroleum products service station, there are systemic challenges that need broader consultation for a swift, independent and comprehensive solution. Technical audit ACEP therefore recommended that an immediate technical audit must be conducted on all petroleum products service stations. The assurance of the structural integrity of all service points across the country is urgently needed. This is important to ensure that another explosion is not in the loom. Consequently, an independent technical audit must be conducted on all stations to ensure that those found not to be compliant with safety standards are closed, and their further existence carefully assessed. Also, it said an independent consulting firm must undertake forensic examination of the regulatory regime. By Samuel Boadi Seven persons, between the ages of 14 and 35 years, have been arrested in a forest near Tamale, the Northern Regional capital, for allegedly smoking marijuana (wee) and encroaching on the forest. A joint military and police taskforce arrested them in an exercise initiated by the Tamale mayor to restore sanity and rid the Tamale forest of encroachers. The taskforce was unable to arrest all the encroachers as it is believed they had a tip-off that the exercise was going to be embarked upon. When DAILY GUIDE went to the forest with the security personnel, all structures put up there were destroyed and burnt by the taskforce. Some large quantities of dry leaves suspected to be marijuana and some white substance suspected to be cocaine were retrieved from the arrested persons. Tamale mayor Musah Superior himself was among the taskforce that swooped on the encroachers. The action came after a 21-day ultimatum given by the mayor for all encroachers to vacate the forest had elapsed. Mr Musah Superior said all individuals occupying the forest would be removed to make room for the achievement of the dream of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly turning the forest into a recreational centre. According to him, the metropolis would launch a fight against public smoking from October 31, 2017. This is part of a strategy to restore sanity and security in the metropolis in particular and the region at large. Meanwhile, Mr Musah Superior has advised the encroachers who are mostly teenagers to enroll in schools or learn some vocational skills. He said that his outfit would provide all the necessary support to individuals who want to engage in a trade. The mayor charged persons with business ideas to contact his office with their ideas as the assembly might be able to help them acquire funds from state institutions such as MANSLOC to implement their ideas. FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale Judge of an Accra circuit court has expressed dissatisfaction with the undue delays in releasing the autopsy report of the late Major Maxwell Adams Mahama, who was brutally murdered at Denkyira-Obuase in the Central Region about five months ago. The judge, Ebenezer Kwaku Ansah, has subsequently ordered the court's registry to write to the Pathology Department of the 37 Military Hospital to furnish the Director General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service with the full autopsy report. The court further ordered Dr. Lawrence Adusei, the pathologist who carried out the autopsy, to submit the report by the next adjourned date October 26, 2017 or appear before the court to explain what was causing the delay. Twenty-two suspects have since been arrested by the police and are in prison custody assisting with further investigations whiles some others are still at large. State prosecutor, DSP George Amega, told the court that the case investigators had forwarded the docket to the Attorney General but could not add the autopsy report as it was yet to be delivered by the hospital. He said the full autopsy report was very necessary in carrying on with the case and prayed the court to order for the full report to enable the investigators to swiftly conduct their investigations. He said it is not the intention of the state to delay the case as it is working assiduously to bring the perpetrators to justice. Mr Kwaku Ansah, who was clearly surprised at how long it was taking for the report to be released, said he found it very strange that the report in a case that is of national interest was taking that long to be released. Major Mahama was killed by some 22 suspects and others who are still at large during detachment duties at Denkyira-Obuasi.. Then army captain, Maxwell Mahama was on a 20-kilometre walk when he was reportedly mistaken for an armed robber by some women from whom he had bought some snails, when they sighted a side pistol with him. [email protected] By Gibril Abdul Razak The cross-party support for a holistic approach to the mushrooming petroleum product vending spots across the nation is heartwarming. That is an ample suggestion that the time to act is now. There is no time to wait now that the momentum is high for an immediate action. There has never been such a loud national cry for action against an anomaly; not even the galamsey menace received such a national reaction. We are relieved at the prospect that Ghanaians would join hands with the authorities when the bulldozers move to the sites for action. Nobody who loves this nation should stand in the way of the pending action against the dangerous vending points. As we pointed out already, state agencies responsible for managing the location of gas and petrol stations should be held responsible for the rather chaotic landscape. A pressure group, the Alliance For Accountable Governance (AFAG) have already said it and we cannot dispute this stance. There is something about the petroleum industry which makes many politicians whose party is in power want to construct fuel or gas station. We wish to commend the Energy Minister for directing the relevant agencies to empanel a 200-man auditing team to commence inspecting the gas and petroleum facilities across the country. Residents in areas where such facilities are springing up should be encouraged to report the anomalies to the relevant agencies for prompt action. We have taken serious note of the remarks of Hon Mahama Ayariga about the factors which militated against the success of his efforts to audit and close down filling stations in the aftermath of the Circle disaster. Juxtaposing the foregone against the useless efforts by an NDC MP to politicize the issue of gas explosions, exposes the hypocrisy of some politicians in this country. In the same vein therefore the Circle disaster can be attributed to the NDC administration. In fact there are cogent points to buttress this suspicion since, after all, the so-called Dubai project and the attendant poor drainage system at the place was somewhat responsible for the flooding and the fuel leakage and the fire. What about that? We must guard against unnecessary allegations which expose not only the political imbecility of their origins but make people lose confidence in politicians. 'Not all politicians tell lies' was what President Akufo-Addo said recently when he addressed an audience during his recent visit to the Northern Regional. Tomorrow Cabinet would meet as the President announced and the issue of the recurring gas explosions in the light of the breaches of standards in the petroleum industry would be high on the agenda. Ghanaians would be eager for the outcome of the meeting which we can vouch would be swift and decisive. Leadership is about taking decisions for the general good of the country. It is for this reason that we urge the President to be as resolute on the subject as he did the galamsey menace. With the goodwill of Ghanaians, victory is certain. It is now or never, President Akufo-Addo. This is the nation's clarion cry. 11.10.2017 LISTEN Accra, October 11, 2017//-Every journey to Nigeria especially its largest commercial city, Lagos is always enthralling and telling of the peoples sheer determination and power to do more to uplift themselves and others in other parts of Africa. It maybe these attributes that drive the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africas leading philanthropy dedicated to catalysing and harnessing the entrepreneurial minds of the African youth . In 2015, the Foundation launched the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme now known as TEF Entrepreneurship Programme which is the largest African philanthropic initiative devoted to entrepreneurship, carries the foundations 10-year, $100 million vision to identify and empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs. Founded by Tony Elumelu, a Nigerian economist, entrepreneur, and African philanthropist, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and Transcorp, the Foundation targets to create a million jobs, and add $10 billion in revenues to Africas economy. As a journalist who was among several other colleagues to cover the launch of the programme in 2015 and also a past fellow of the TEF Entrepreneurship Forum Travel Fellowship for Journalists 2016 to cover the second annual TEF Entrepreneurship Forum, the most diverse and the largest gathering of African entrepreneurs and SMEs, the experience was fantastic. Team work I have covered many international events outside my home country of Ghana but the level of team work and volunteerism exhibited by the staff of TEF, UBA, Heirs Holdings and other partners was beyond my imagination. It was so impeccable. This spirit of team work was seen throughout my three days of stay in Lagos. From the first evening I arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos, Nigeria, I met other TEF beneficiaries who were attending the TEF Entrepreneurship Forum 2016. After going through the immigration formalities, we were picked by an executive mini shuttle bus to the Nigeria Law School where we went through the registration processes before the main event. As late as 11 pm that night, we were welcomed by the indefatigable Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications of UBA, Madam Bola Atta, Media Relations Executive, Marketing & Corporate Communications of UBA, Omede Odekina, Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications of TEF, Ms Bolanle Omisore and the Programme Analyst at TEF, Mrs Binta Williams. They briefed us (the fellowship journalists) at the media centre which was equipped with the necessary facilities on how to provide an immaculate coverage for the event was held on October 28 to 29, 2016. At the end of the brief, we were served with Nigerian Jollof which Nigerians claimed to be best jollof food but Ghanaians and Senegalese disagreed. After the delicious meal, we were shuttled to separate hotels because of our sheer numbers. I was accommodated at hotel with The Gambian, Sierra Leonean and Kenyan journalists. The memorial entrepreneurship day This day was the official beginning of the forum. It was the day of memorial speeches, the day of exquisite Nigerian culture and that of Africa. The keywords at the forum picked this journalist were-Africapitalism which is an economic philosophy propounded by Mr Tony Elumelu, CON, and is predicated on the belief that Africas private sector can and must play a leading role in the continents development. Other keywords included-entrepreneurship and its family of words, conducive business environment, private sector and technology and innovations. The first day was also about meeting the selected 1,000 beneficiaries of the 2016 TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, networking, building new relationships, among others. Additionally, it featured prominently plenary panels, masterclasses, TED-style talks and sector specific networking opportunities. The young entrepreneurs were eager to share and learn best practices, and this was clearly seen through the questions they asked. Indeed, all the entrepreneurs who attended the opening day event had their innovative and mind-blogging fine-tuned. Interacting with some of the entrepreneurs on that day, I was emphatic that Africa has tremendous potential entrepreneurs with great and creative ideas that can change the course of the African continent. I realised that entrepreneurship is key to achieving poverty reduction and empowering Africans to solve our challenges without dependence on aid from western countries. These young entrepreneurs are willing to revolutionalise all sector of the economies in their home countries with the enabling power of technologies. For instance, The Gambian beneficiary of the programme who shared his testimony at the forum, said he started with a team of a few people to creating employment for some 146 people at his company, Tropingo Foods, a food processing company which focuses on adding value to the fruits industry. Momarr Taal turned over $1.6 million in 2015 and currently exports to Asia, Europe, among other places. They chalked this feat through the Tony Elumelu Foundation Programme that they managed to make their business dreams to come a reality. Furthermore, another highlight of day one was talked on Africapitalism by the originator of the philosophy, Tony Elumelu. UBA House In the evening of that day, Kennedy Uzoka, Group Managing Director (GMD) and CEO of pan-African banking group, UBA) Plc together with senior directors of the bank held an interactive media session with the more than 34 African journalists at the UBA House. At that short event he reaffirmed the banks task of extending operations to 25 African countries in the near to medium-term from the existing 19 countries is on course. The UBA in May, last year held its inaugural Senior Leadership Forum which reflected the strategic importance and growth potential of the Groups pan-African business. UBA subsidiaries according to Mr Uzoka operate in 19 African countries and now contribute more than 25 percent to Group operating revenue. UBA is increasingly recognised as a strong pan-African brand, hailed for democratising banking in its countries of operation while participating in leading financial transactions, he told the visiting journalists. Later in the evening of that same day, Mr Tony Elumelu held a media mixer at UBA House where we had a cocktail reception with UBA Group board members and other senior executives of the bank. The reception afforded the journalists the unparalleled ample opportunity to interact with Mr Elumelu and the board members in a casual manner. Majority of the journalists took memorable selfies with Mr Elumelu. The last day It was the much awaited moment as some entrepreneurs and other participants were ready to interact with MrElumelu for the first time. The last day featured a high-level panel discussion dedicated to identifying policies to strengthen the enabling environment for entrepreneurs. The round table panel discussion was moderated by BBCs anchor, Lerato Mbele, with panelists including His Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma, President of Sierra Leone, President Olusegun Obasanjo, Former President of Nigeria, Former Prime Minister of Benin Republic Lionel Zinsou, and Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Honourable Minister of Information, Tourism and Culture. While the private sector speakers of the event included: Kennedy Uzoka, Group CEO of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Mrs. Folorunso Alakija, Vice Chair of Famfa Oil Segun Awolowo, CEO of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council Clem Ugorji, Public Affairs & Communications Director, Coca-Cola West Africa Emeke Iweriebor, Regional CEO of UBA Africa (Francophone) Matthew Pearson, Head of Africa Equity Sales at ICBC Standard Bank Sam Nwanze, Chief Investment Officer at Heirs Holdings. TEF CEO Parminder Vir OBE said: We are proud to have established a unique platform for African entrepreneurs to forge relationships and business partnerships. In doing so, we are creating an ecosystem that fosters innovation and collaboration, on a scale few believed possible. Finally, Mr Tony Elumelu was called on stage, welcomed with loud cheers and smiles on all the faces of the young African entrepreneurs who saw him as their only source of hope. Mr Elumelu congratulated all the entrepreneurs who made it for that year programme and his unflinching pledged support for their personal and business developments. He used the occasion to challenge all stakeholders from the public and private sectors, civil society, multilateral organizations and all individuals invested in Africas economic development to join hands with the Foundation to support the wider African entrepreneurial community. During the same night, the Foundation treated all the guests to scintillating performances from P-Square. There was also a surprise performance of rising stars in Nigeria. Then it was time to return to our various countries after the short, but fruitful stay in Lagos. On the following day morning, around 9:30 am was shuttled to the airport to fly to Accra, Ghana. But the memories are still fresh in my mind especially the proverbial hospitality of Nigerians and their zeal to succeed at all cost. Returning to Lagos with fresh expectation Fortunately, I have been awarded another travel fellowship to cover the 3rd annual TEF Entrepreneurship Forum which will take place on October 13-14 in Lagos, Nigeria. This is the first year that invitation to the Forum is extended beyond the 1,000 Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs from the 2017 cohort, to include selected SMEs, media, hubs, incubators, academia and investors from diverse nations across Africa; from Mauritius to Cape Verde to Kenya and more. Assembled SMEs will build networks, share knowledge, connect with investors and link with corporate supply chains. Since launching the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme and committing $100 million to empowering 10,000 African entrepreneurs in a decade we have unleashed our continents most potent development force, its entrepreneurs, said TEF Founder Tony O. Elumelu, CON. In just 3 years, our first 3,000 entrepreneurs have created tens of thousands of jobs and generated considerable wealth. On October 13 and 14, the global entrepreneurship community will gather in Lagos to build a New Africa, a thriving, self-reliant continent capable of replicating the results of our ground-breaking Programme. The two-day Forum will feature plenary panels, masterclasses, sector specific networking opportunities and policy-led forums focused on enabling African business growth. I hope that my expectation of witnessing another eventful event will be met. After making some inroads in his fight against illegal mining popularly known as galamsey, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, is now courting the support of traditional leaders to help government to bring an end to the use of land guards. The term 'Land Guards' is a local expression used to define heavily built and armed thugs who are usually hired by land owners to protect their landed properties, especially those in dispute. The phenomenon of Land Guards in Ghana, has led to the loss of many lives, whiles several others have been maimed. Some land guards are also believed to have the support of powerful individuals within the security agencies, government, and judiciary services, for which reason most of them are barely punished for the heinous crimes they commit. Touching on the issue during a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of the Osu Traditional Council, Nii Okwei Kinka Dowuona VI, Mr. Amewu said there is a blue print being put together by government to end the illegal practice. His majesty, our visit here is to reiterate government's intention of collaborating with stakeholders, including chiefs, elders, opinion leader, who largely own these lands. His majesty, the NPP government is strongly of the view that development cannot take place in vacuum without the involvement of our chief and elders. Mr. Amewu added that, we are also here to announce the presence of our team, and the willingness of the government of his Excellency President Akufo Addo to collaborate with you and the people of Osu kingdom to make sure that the good crafted policies that the NPP government wants to implement will be implemented without any resistance. The Lands and Natural Minister said We believe his majesty, over the period, you have been highly involved in government agenda towards development, and it is your wish that the government of Ghana continue to grow from strength to strength. It is on that basis that we have come to renew our alliance and the pledge by His Excellency, President Akufo Addo, to work with you and work with the people of this land. The government of NPP within a short time in office has come with numerous projects and initiatives. We are all aware that some of those projects and initiatives were well crafted in our manifesto. It is our manifesto promises that brought us to office, and the President is more committed to deliver on these promises. Nana Akufo-Addo is a man of his words and we believe that promises and pledges we make to Ghanaians, would be delivered. War on Land Guards On the matter of land guards, the Minister said As a Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, we have a clear mandate of what we are expected to do. We know that, we cannot work in a vacuum without your involvement. Over the years, the land management problems in Accra, Osu and other places have become a chronic management problem for the lands commission and also the ministry at large. He noted that, currently, the issue of land guards has become a problematic one; government has crafted ideas and strategies to address this problem. We believe strongly that with your involvement and engagement, we can bring the land guard issue to a close Mr. Amewu noted. The Ministry also presented three computers, a printer, other computer accessories and an unspecified amount of money to the traditional authorities. By: Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, a Deputy Ministry of Information, has said about 400 gas stations are located in residential areas across the country. Meanwhile, the President has stated that the government would soon come out with a policy intervention to address the frequent gas explosions. Both the President and Mr Nkrumah made their statements following the Atomic Junction gas explosion, which occurred on Saturday night. Seven persons have been confirmed dead, while 132 sustained various degree of injuries in the multiple explosions that started from the Mansco Gas Station and extended to the adjacent Total Filling Station. Sixty four of the injured persons were treated and discharged, while 68 are still receiving medical treatment in six different health facilities. Some of the health facilities treating victims of the explosion are the Pentecost Hospital in Madina, 37 Military Hospital, Ridge Hospital and the Police Hospital. The venue of the disaster has been condoned off by security agencies, while investigations are ongoing to establish the cause of the explosion. Officials of the National Disaster Management Organisation, Ghana National Fire Service, Ghana Police Service and other security agencies have set up post at the place to prevent intruders. The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and some government officials visited the scene of the disaster on Sunday to assess the situation. Dr Bawumia assured Ghanaians that the government would implement stringent policies to resolve the matter. Some members of the public, in an interview with Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Sunday, were unanimous in their call for the government to be serious with the matter and resolve the phenomenon once and for all. Kwasi Eshun, who lives close to a gas filling station at Gbawe in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra Region, expressed fear about his safety and that of his family in view of the frequent gas explosions. He suggested that gas filling stations be taken away from residential areas, while the National Petroleum Authority and Environmental Protection Agency undertook constant monitoring to check safety standards of those facilities to forestall future occurrence. Ghana has recorded eight major explosions in three years from 2014. Six of them occurred in the Greater Accra Regions, while the Western and Central Regions have recorded one each. GNA An Accra Circuit Court has ordered the Pathology Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to furnish the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) with the full autopsy report on the late Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, the slain New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North in the Eastern Region within one month. Over the past weeks, the prosecution, led by DSP George Amegah, had prayed the court, presided over by Mr. AritNsemoh, for adjournments. Although two persons, Daniel Asiedu, 19, aka Sexy Don Don a phone dealer and Vincent Bosso aka Junior Agogo a phone repairer- have been arraigned before the court for allegedly murdering the MP, no autopsy has been released to ascertain the actual cause of death of the former MP. Sexy Don Don has been slapped with the charge of murder while Agogo faces abetment of murder. They have since been remanded into police custody over the death of the MP. State prosecutors earlier asked for more time for further investigations into the case. The prosecution indicated that it has to get conclusive evidence in the matter. The prosecution on July 29 told the court that the police have stumbled upon fresh leads in the case. Although the prosecution did not disclose the nature of the information to the court, the prosecutor emphasized that the police were working on them. But the judge, who was not happy with the delays and excuse for adjournment as presented by the prosecution, therefore ordered the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to release the autopsy report on the late MP to enable the case investigators to continue with their investigations. The judge also remanded the suspects into prison custody. The case has been adjourned to November 10, 2017. Kigali (AFP) - Rwanda denied Wednesday that its military used torture to extract confessions from detainees, calling a scathing report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) "baseless". In a 91-page report published on Tuesday, the rights watchdog said it had confirmed 104 cases of people being illegally detained and tortured in Rwandan military detention centres between 2010 and 2016, estimating the true figure to be much higher. The report said victims were usually accused of collaborating with "enemies" of the Rwandan government, taken to unknown locations and tortured by asphyxiation, electric shock and mock executions until they signed a confession document or incriminated others. Rwandan Justice Minister Johnston Busingye said in a statement that there was no "credible evidence" of the accusations. "There's no truth to the Human Rights Watch report. Rwanda is a party to, and observes the Convention against Torture as well as domestic laws," he said. "HRW has recycled old, discredited, baseless allegations, for which they have no credible evidence. They will, in time, be exposed. The 'new' report is rather a continuation of HRW's entrenched, vindictive agenda against Rwanda." The US-based watchdog's report came just two months after it accused Rwandan security forces, including soldiers, of executing at least 37 petty offenders instead of prosecuting them. The group's latest report found that most victims were detained on suspicion of being members of the FDLR -- a predominantly Hutu rebel group based in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo -- with some of its members suspected of participating in the 1994 genocide that ravaged the country. Others were suspected of having ties to the Rwanda National Congress, an opposition group in exile composed mainly of former members of Rwanda's ruling party, or to the jailed Victoire Ingabire, president of a banned opposition party. President Paul Kagame has been in power since 2000, winning a third term in August with nearly 99 percent of the vote, and critics have accused him of using of the military to scare potential opponents and rule the country through fear. The National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammi Awuku, has on behalf of Ghanaian youth, commended President Akufo-Addo for justifying the confidence reposed in him by Ghanaians, following the restoration of the trainee nurses allowance. 58,000 health trainees, comprising nurses and midwives, will be paid their allowance of GH400 per person, for each of the 10 months of the academic year. The government has thus committed GHC232 million for the payment of the allowances for the 2017/2018 academic year. This was announced by President Akufo-Addo at a grand event to celebrate the restoration of the allowance in the Brong Ahafo region. Ahead of the 2016 general election, the NPP promised to reintroduce the scrapped allowance. On Tuesday, a ceremony was held in Sunyani to officially launch the reintroduction of the allowance, even though payment had begun since September. In a Facebook post, Mr. Awuku, who doubles as the Board Chairman of the Youth Employment Agency, YEA, said, With a fulfilled heart, I write once again as one of our major campaign promises; the restoration of the nurses-trainee allowance has been implemented. I thank the president of the Republic, H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo We greatly commend him for a good work done as he continues to do more. We the youth of Ghana will continue to give him our unflinching support in moving the country forward, as he is a shining example of a political leader who promises and delivers. In 2014, the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) scrapped the payment of allowances to trainee nurses on the basis that it disallowed sufficient funds needed to improve infrastructure to accommodate more trainees into the nursing schools. The restoration of the allowance follows the implementation of the NPP governments flagship programme, Free SHS to cater for the tuition, accommodation, and feeding of students in state-owned second cycle institutions across the country. Agriculture can power the economic transformation of African countries, according to a new report from the Ghana-based African Centre Economic Transformation (ACET), founded by former Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, K.Y. Amoako. The 2017 report, Agriculture Powering Africas Economic Transformation, has been backed by Kofi Annan and some African finance ministers. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General and Chair of the Africa Progress Panel said, With a uniquely diverse climate and more than half the worlds uncultivated arable land, Africa has the natural resources to drive a boom in agriculture that can lift millions out of poverty. But we have not yet created the right economic conditions. He said, This excellent report shows how we can do that and underlines why we must. Finance Minister of Burkina Faso, Rosine Coulibaly Sori said, This is not just an economic argument. The steps needed to transform Africas agriculture make excellent social policies too. She said, Eighty percent of African farmers are small holders and half of those are women. With more secure access to land, they can operate modern farms that produce more, and raise their incomes. These reforms could feed our people and fuel our economies, but we must act quickly. Chief Economist at ACET, and lead author of the report, Yaw Ansu said, This is not just about agriculture. This is about how you transform the whole economy, with agriculture as the catalyst and a driver. He said, There are lessons to learn from East Asia, but they need to be adapted to the African context, including our historical land ownership system, which is currently acting as a brake on transformation. The report Agriculture Powering Africas Economic Transformation, views agriculture and its challenges through a transformational lens rooted in national economies. The reports practical approach is intended for African policymakers, addressing key issues such as land tenure, agricultural productivity, commercialization of farming, agribusiness, employment, the role of women in agriculture, and balancing intensification with environmental sustainability and climate change. The report concludes that agricultural transformation requires two processes: modernizing farming by boosting productivity and strengthening the links between farms and other economic sectors, particularly manufacturing through agro-processing. Likewise, the report addresses the importance of ensuring gender equity in access to the opportunities opened up by agricultural transformation and the rapidly changing institutional environment for African agriculture. It also emphasizes the need to leverage technological innovations to spur transformation. Modernization of agriculture Modernising African agriculture will require policies to boost farm productivity and strengthen the sectors links with the rest of the economy. To achieve this, African countries must overhaul their land tenure systems and support farmers by making new technologies accessible, reducing business risk and educating them as businesspeople. These reforms could trigger an economic transformation with benefits far beyond the sector, stimulating growth in manufacturing and related services, whilst driving down food prices and raising disposable incomes. Transforming agriculture would enable the continent to feed its own people whilst growing its economies. Food imports African countries currently spend $68bn a year on food imports, a figure likely to keep rising. Meanwhile global food demand is forecast to double by 2050, by which time the continent will be home to 1 billion young people. Drawing on comprehensive data and analysis from across African economies, the report highlights key opportunities and challenges to reform. Growing private sector involvement in agriculture and developments in technology offer opportunities to rapidly accelerate agricultural transformation, but must be balanced with measures to ensure the benefits are shared and sustainable. Strategic investments and innovative programs from governments are urgently needed to support existing farmers and bring in new investors in agriculture and agri-business. The report is the second Transformation Report from the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), an economic policy institute supporting Africas long-term growth through transformation. It was financed in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as part of their commitment to improving lives in Africa. The World Bank provided technical comments to the report. The General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God, Rev Prof Paul Frimpong-Manso, has joined other Ghanaians in expressing concern about the recent spate of avoidable gas explosions to hit the country. In a release on the subject, the church expressed concern that so much properties and lives have been lost as a result of the gas explosions, adding that the spate of the tragedies has reached alarming proportions. The increasing cases of gas explosion and fire outbreaks in Ghana has reached alarming proportions in recent times, and therefore it has become an issue of national concern in view of their negative effects on the environment, economy and human life in general, he said, adding that what is even more worrying is that some of these explosions are due to human errors and could have been avoided if the owners or operators of the filling stations as state agencies responsible for approving their siting, licensing and supervision had exercised due diligence in the discharge of their duties.' The Church expressed happiness with the reaction of President Akufo-Addo since the tragedy struck, especially his appeal to his compatriots to recognize that all have to make adjustments to guarantee the safety and security of others to avoid recurrence of the tragedy. The church, the release went on, sees the government's resolve to lay out a national policy to obviate a recurrence of such tragedies 'as a step in the right direction.' The church pledged its full support to the government in this fight, and appealed to others to do same so that the menace can be nipped in the bud. The Assemblies of God expressed their condolences to the bereaved families and asked all to stand with them in prayer in these trying times. Continuing, the church said we also appeal for any form of assistance one may wish to offer the bereaved families and the injured to help mitigate their loss.' The church saluted personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), Police and others, who joined hands to manage the emergency. Never again should our dear country be inundated with horror of such disturbing proportion, particularly those attributable to human error and indiscretion, the church stressed. Sorry, we can't find the content you're looking for at this URL. Farming communities in the Eastern region are struggling to cope following the ban on the export of some vegetables to Europe. According to farmers in these communities, the inability to export is making it difficult for them to raise money to take care of their families. Jobs have been lost, farmlands have been left bare and unemployment is on the rise as a result of the problem. The farmers are asking government to quickly work at resolving issues with the European Union to get the ban lifted so normal life can return to the communities. At the end of every year, I get about 15,000 cedis from the export of the chili pepper. And additionally, hundreds of young people worked on the fields growing and harvesting the pepper. But all that is not possible now, Kwasi Nyantakyi, a farmer based at Beregoro in the Eastern Region told Joy News in an interview. He used to farm and export chili pepper, but that is not possible now. The situation is same in several other towns in the region including Suhum and Nsawam. Kwasi Nyantakyi, a farmer at Begoro The ban was placed about four years ago after the EU claimed it had consistently found that vegetables exported to the European Union from the country contained pests. According to the EU, repeated warnings to government to deal with the problem did not see it being resolved. Now, the ban is beginning to bite. Chili pepper has helped us here for a very long time. But pests and diseases are making it impossible to export them...We are hoping that they can reverse the ban quickly so we can continue to farm, 22-year-old farmer at Apaa in the Fanteakwa District Kwesi Clement noted. Officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture have been undertaking training sessions for farmers and field trials as part of procedures that the ministry hopes will eventually lead to the lifting of the ban. But the farmers are frustrated about what they say is the slow pace of work. The farmers have diversified and tried to grow other crops but they say that is not as profitable as the chili pepper. The problem is that over the last two years that we have been unable to export the chili pepper, it has been frustrating. We have tried to change the crops but we dont earn enough money from them, said Samuel Danso, an executive of the Export Farmers Association which has been created to help farmers deal with the problem. I used to employ 70 to 80 people on the chili pepper farm. But with the ban, those people dont have any jobs to do? Government should help us, farmers, to get the ban lifted. When the chili pepper goes, even government benefits from the taxes, Mr. Danso who is also a teacher in the Beregoro community noted. The situation has resulted in hundreds of young people losing their jobs, thus forcing them to migrate to Koforidua and the national capital Accra. Samuel Danso, an executive of the Export Farmers Association For a lot of the young people, being able to grow and sell chili pepper constituted decent employment opportunities as envisaged by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 which seeks to promote decent employment. Unfortunately, many farmers and youth have lost their jobs over the last few years as a result of the ban. Agric Consultant with the Meridian Agricultural Services Aaron Attefah Ampofo says the problem is a completely avoidable one that could have been prevented. He expresses concern about inadequate resources for government regulatory agencies that are supposed to help ensure effective monitoring of the food production chain. The very laws that create these institutions stipulate that they should be funded. But you will go there and money to conduct surveys on the market and also to enforce the regulations is not there, he noted with concern. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has meanwhile assured it is committed to ensuring the window for export is re-opened once again soon. A team from the EU was in the country last month to conduct a fresh round of assessment to determine whether the country had successfully dealt with the problem and will soon issue a report recommending what next. The farmers are calling for a speedy resolution of the concerns so the ban can be lifted. Bangui (Central African Republic) (AFP) - The Central African Republic (CAR) is not in a "pre-genocide" state despite its problems, a United Nations expert said Wednesday, touching on comments by a former UN official that have sparked a storm. CAR "is not in a pre-genocide situation," Adama Dieng, the UN's special advisor for the prevention of genocide, said. Genocide "is a long process," he explained. In August, the UN's then-aid chief, Stephen O'Brien, said he was deeply worried about the mounting violence in CAR. He said he saw "the early warning signs of genocide" and urged more troops and police to bolster the UN peacekeeping mission there. That assertion was strongly contested by CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera. He said the fighting stemmed especially from competition for minerals and other natural resources by armed groups, rather than a "programme" by one group to exterminate the other. Dieng, who arrived for a fact-finding visit on October 6, cautioned that the situation in CAR is "serious." There are still "indicators... that could result... in crimes of genocide" if they are not tackled, he warned. These include major abuses against civilian populations for their ethnic or religious affiliation, the proliferation of armed groups and the weakness of the state, he explained. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is to make his first visit to CAR by the end of the month. The current crisis in the Central African Republic dates to 2013 when the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel alliance seized power. They were forced out, with help from a military intervention by former colonial power France, but the country has remained plagued by violence involving various armed groups. More than 600,000 people have fled their homes within the country and a further 500,000 have crossed borders as refugees, while nearly 2.5 million need aid, according to the UN. The UN is considering beefing up its 12,000-strong peacekeeping force in the country in response to the bloodshed. On Monday, several armed groups signed an agreement for a ceasefire and free movement of people in two prefectures in eastern CAR. In June, they signed up to a ceasefire brokered by the Catholic church, but the truce only lasted a matter of hours. The Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority and the AviAssist Foundation, Africas only independent, non-profit organisation dedicated solely to the safety improvements in African aviation, today announced a partnership to establish the AviAssist Safety Promotion Centre (ASPC) Rwanda. The partnership, signed at AviaDev, aims to establish a long-term mutually beneficial association in capacity building on aviation safety skills as well as business and leadership skills at the ASPC in Rwanda. The ASPC-Rwanda is geared to become East Africa's leading aviation safety resource centre, making Rwanda and States in the East and Southern African ICAO region more self-sufficient at safety promotion. The centre will impart training and safety training that is crucial to support aviation experts in their role as safety leaders and champions. Silas Udahemuka, Director General of Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority: We are very pleased to launch this cooperation. RCAA is committed to promoting the aviation safety in Rwanda and the East African region and this partnership helps us to achieve this goal. This partnership with ASPC Rwanda will help develop as well as sharpen skills that we expect will impact the daily operations of the aviation sector since ensuring safety is a key factor in the business of aviation. We are thrilled to partner with one of Africas leading civil aviation authorities for the set up of our first ASPC , says Tom Kok, Director of AviAssist. It is a unique opportunity to combine our safety promotion experience in Africa with the excellent safety oversight performance of the Government of Rwanda. This partnership will bring great benefits for the continuous professional development that the Foundation brings to Africa. We are particularly grateful to the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure & the Environment. Without their commitment to aviation safety in Africa in support of the No Country Left Behind campaign of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the set up of our first ASPC would not have been possible. The AviAssist Foundation is the only nonprofit organisation dedicated to providing impartial, independent, expert safety guidance and resources to the African aviation industry. It works in close coordination with ICAO, stakeholders and other safety support providers. More at www.aviassist.org The Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority is the national aviation authority of the Republic of Rwanda. More at www.caa.gov.rw FOR MORE INFORMATION Contact AviAssist Foundation Tel. +44 (0) 7552-816.435 [email protected] Contact RCAA Tony Barigye, Public Relations Officer [email protected] About AviaDev AviaDev Africa is the only dedicated air service development event for Africa, taking place on the African continent in 2017. It is organised by Bench Events ( www.benchevents.com ), which is known for producing the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) and several other top-level hotel conferences around the world. Sponsors of AviaDev are: Host Partners: Rwanda Development Board, Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority, RwandAir, Akagera Aviation, Rwanda Convention Bureau, Remarkable Rwanda; Sponsors: Bugesera Airport Company, Embraer, Honeywell, Rolls Royce, Travelport and Travel Commerce Solutions. 11.10.2017 LISTEN Accra, Oct. 11, CDA Consult The African Court on Human and Peoples Rights has ordered the United Republic of Tanzania restore the pre-existing situation and re-establish the rights of Mohamed Abubakari. The African Continental Court on September 28, unanimously explained that by the expression all appropriate measures, the Court was referring to the release of the Applicant or any other measure that would help erase the consequences of the violations established. The African Court ruling obtained by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) based in Accra indicated that the expression remedy the violations established means erase the effects of the violations established through the adoption of the measures indicated. CDA Consult hereby reproduces the full report below: In the matter of Mohamed Abubakari verses the United Republic of Tanzania. The African Court was composed of: Sylvain ORE, President; Ben KIOKO, Vice-President; Gerard NIYUNGEKO; El Hadji GUISSE; Rafaa BEN ACHOUR; Solomy B. BOSSA; Angelo V. MATUSSE; Ntyam S. O. MENGUE; Marie-Therese MUKAMULISA; Tujilane R. CHIZUMILA; Chafika BENSAOULA, all Judges; and Dr Robert ENO, Registrar. In the Request for Interpretation of the Judgment of 3 June 2016 in the Matter of Mohamed Abubakari v. United Republic of Tanzania, Given that Judges Elsie N. THOMPSON, Fatsah OUGUERGOUZ and Duncan TAMBALA who heard the substantive case are no longer members of the Court, Rule 66 (4) of the Rules of Court (herein-after referred as the Rules) was applied. After deliberation, the African Court renders the following Judgment: I. PROCEDURE 1. The United Republic of Tanzania, pursuant to Article 28 (4) of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples Rights (herein-after referred to as the Protocol) and Rule 66(1) of the Rules, filed before the Court an Application for interpretation of the Judgment of 3 June 2016 on the above-mentioned matter. 2. Dated 24 January 2017, the Application was received at the Registry of the Court on 30 January 2017. 3. On 2 February 2017, the Registry served a copy of the Application on Mr. Mohamed Abubakari and invited the latter to submit his written observations, if any, within thirty (30) days from receipt thereof, in accordance with the provisions of Rule 66(3) of the Rules. 4. On 28 March 2017, Mr. Mohamed Abubakari filed his observations, after the expiry of the 30 days deadline, and prayed the Court to accept the said observations. 5. On 2 April 2017, the Court examined the Applicants request and decided to grant the same in the interest of justice. 6. By notice dated 11 April 2017, the Parties were notified of the Courts decision to close the written procedure. The Court did not deem it necessary to hold a public hearing. II. THE REQUEST FOR INTERPRETATION 7. As indicated above, the instant Application for interpretation concerns the Judgment rendered by the Court on 3 June 2016 in the Matter of Mohamed Abubakari v. The United Republic of Tanzania (Application 007/2013), the relevant paragraphs of which are worded as follows in the operative provisions: For these reasons, the Court, Unanimously, () ix) Rules that the Respondent State has violated Article 7 of the Charter and Article 14 of the Covenant as regards the Applicants rights to defend himself and have the benefit of a Counsel at the time of his arrest; to obtain free legal assistance during the judicial proceedings; to be promptly given the documents in the records to enable him defend himself; his defense based on the fact that the Prosecutor before the District Court had a conflict of interest with the victim of the armed robbery, to be considered by the Judge; not to be convicted solely on the basis of the inconsistent testimony of a single witness in the absence of any identification parade; and to have his alibi defense given serious consideration by the Respondent States Police and Judicial Authorities; () (xii) Orders the Respondent State to take all appropriate measures within a reasonable time frame to remedy all violations established, excluding a reopening of the trial, and to inform the Court of the measure so taken within six (6) months from the date of this Judgment () 8. Referring to Rule 66(1) of the Rules, the United Republic of Tanzania avers that it is encountering difficulties in the implementation of the Judgment due to varied interpretations by the actors involved in the administration of criminal justice at the national level, who are required to implement the Judgment. 9. Consequently, it prays the Court to provide it with clarifications on the meaning of the expression all appropriate measures used in point xii of the operative provisions of the Judgment, adding that the interpretation of the said terms will enable it to take tangible and definitive action. 10. The United Republic of Tanzania also seeks to understand what the Court means by the expression remedy all violations established given, it emphasizes, that the acts concerned have already been carried out. III. OBSERVATIONS OF MR. MOHAMED ABUBAKARI 11. Mohamed Abubakari first indicates that the Application for interpretation seems to have been filed within the time frame prescribed under Rule 66 of the Rules; that, however, the time frame under the said Rule 66 cannot be interpreted in isolation; and that the other measures in the operative provisions of the Courts Judgment of 3 June 2016 must be taken, in consideration of the clause which enjoins the United Republic of Tanzania to notify the Court of the measures taken to remedy the violations established within six (6) months following the date of the Judgment. 12. He argues that the United Republic of Tanzania filed a report on the measures it has taken outside the specified time of six (6) months set by the Court, and that the said report represents only partial implementation of the measures ordered by the latter. 13. Abubakari further maintains that had the United Republic of Tanzania sought to have all or part of the Judgment interpreted, it could have so requested as soon as possible and in any case, prior to the expiry of the time frame ordered by the Court to receive the Respondents report; and that the Application for interpretation should therefore have preceded the report on implementation. 14. He further contends that there are various options, either taken alone or in combination, which the United Republic of Tanzania effects in compliance with Courts Order to take all appropriate measures within a reasonable time frame to remedy all the violations established; that the United Republic of Tanzania legislation provides for many possible remedies for wrongfully convicted persons such as himself; that these remedies include, but not limited to, the following: a) Remission of sentence, provided for under the Tanzanian Penal Code CAP 16 which at section 27 (2) provides for the remission of prison sentence in respect of which the United Republic of Tanzania could have filed an Application at the Court of Appeal for the remission of Applicants thirty (30) years prison sentence. b) Outright release or conditional release, provided under section 38 of the Tanzanian Penal Code which confers on the Court which convicted an offender the power to order his absolute or conditional discharge, provided that the offender does not commit another offence during the period of conditional discharge, and such period must not exceed 12 months. In this regard, since the Applicant has already served twenty (20) years of his thirty (30) years sentence, and considering the favourable Judgment of this Court and his conduct during his imprisonment, the United Republic of Tanzania could have taken this measure. c) Presidential pardon, provided under section 45 of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, pursuant to which the President of the United Republic of Tanzania may grant pardon, with or without condition, to any person convicted of an offence by a national Court. 15. Lastly, Mr. Abubakari submits that the delay in implementing the Courts Orders and in submitting the relevant report on compliance thereof, has aggravated and unduly prolonged the violation of his rights; and for these reasons, he prays the Court to: i) rule that the United Republic of Tanzania has not complied with the Order of this Court enjoining it to file a report on the implementation of its Orders within six (6) months of delivery of the Judgment; ii) declare the Application frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the process of this Honourable Court; iii) order his release pending the Judgment on reparations. IV. JURISDICTION OF THE COURT 16. As indicated above, the instant Application for interpretation concerns the Judgment rendered by the Court on 3 June 2016. 17. In terms of Article 28 (4) of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples Rights (herein-after referred to as the Protocol) the Court may interpret its own decision. 18. The Court consequently finds that it has jurisdiction to interpret the said Judgment. V. ADMISSIBILITY OF THE APPLICATION 19. Rule 66 (1) and (2) of the Rules provide as follows: 1. Pursuant to Article 28 (4) of the Protocol, any party may, for the purpose of executing a judgment, apply to the Court for interpretation of the judgment within twelve months from the date the judgment was delivered unless the Court, in the interest of justice, decides otherwise. 2. The Application shall be filed in the Registry. It shall state clearly the point or points in the operative provisions of the judgment on which interpretation is required. 20. It emerges from these provisions that an Application for interpretation of a Judgment can be declared admissible only when it fulfills the following three conditions: a) its objective must be to facilitate the execution of the Judgment; b) it must be filed within twelve (12) months following the date of the delivery of the Judgment unless the Court, in the interest of justice decides otherwise; and c) it must clearly state the point or points of the operative provisions of the Judgment on which interpretation is required. 21. As regards the purpose of the instant Application, the United Republic of Tanzania requests interpretation of the expression all appropriate measures used in the operative provisions of the Judgment. 22. The Court notes that this request actually aims to clarify a point in the operative provisions of the Judgment rendered by the Court on 3 June 2016, and thus facilitate its execution. 23. Consequently, it finds that the Application fulfills the first condition provided under Rule 66(1) of the Rules. 24. With regard to the time limit within which an Application should be filed, the Court notes that the applicable time limit is that which is prescribed under Rule 66 (1) of the Rules, and not the time frame of six (6) months allowed by the Court for the Respondent to notify it of the measures taken. 25. The United Republic of Tanzania, having filed its Request for interpretation on 30 January 2017, that is, within the time frame of eight (8) months and twenty-seven (27) days, the Court finds that the United Republic of Tanzania seized the Court of its Application for interpretation within the statutory time frame of twelve (12) months provided under Rule 66 (1) of the Rules. 26. Lastly, the United Republic of Tanzania clearly stated the points in the operative provisions of the Judgment on which interpretation is required, namely, the terms and expressions used in point xii of the operative provisions of the Judgment. 27. In view of the aforesaid, the Court finds that the instant Application for interpretation fulfills all the conditions of admissibility. VI. INTERPRETATION OF THE JUDGMENT 28. In its Judgment of 3 June 2016, the Court ordered the United Republic of Tanzania to take all appropriate measures to remedy the violations found. 29. On the first question, the United Republic of Tanzania prays the Court to interpret the expression all appropriate measures used in point xii of the operative provisions of the Judgment. 30. The Court notes that, in examining an Application for interpretation, it does not complete or modify the decision it rendered - it being a final decision with the effect of res judicata - but clarifies the meaning and scope thereof. 31. In the context of the instant request for interpretation, the Court wishes to recall the principle generally applied by international jurisdictions that reparation should, as far as possible, erase the consequences of an unlawful act and restore the state which would have presumably existed if the act had not been committed. 32. In this regard, Article 27(1) of the Protocol provides that: if the Court finds that there has been violation of a human or peoples rights, it shall make appropriate orders to remedy the violation, including the payment of fair compensation or reparation. 33. As has been stated above, the most appropriate form of remedy for violation of the right to a fair trial is to act in such a way that the victim finds him/herself in the situation that he/she would have been had the violation found not been committed. To attain this objective, the United Republic of Tanzania has two options: it should either reopen the case in compliance with the rules of a fair trial or take all appropriate measures to ensure that the Applicant finds himself in the situation preceding the violations. 34. As regard the first option, the Court is of the view that reopening the case would not be a just measure, in as much as the Applicant has already spent nineteen (19) years in prison, more than a half of the prison sentence, and given that a fresh judicial procedure could be long. Accordingly, the Court has excluded such a measure. 35. Concerning the second option, the Court intended to offer the United Republic of Tanzania room for evaluation to enable it to identify and activate all the measures that would enable it to eliminate the effects of the violations established by the Court. 36. The Court specifies in this respect that in its Judgment of 3 June 2016, it did not state that the Applicants request to be set free was unfounded. It merely indicated that it could order such a measure directly, only in special and compelling circumstances which have not been established in the instant case. 37. The second question posed reads as follows given that these acts have already been carried out, the United Republic of Tanzania would like to understand how to remedy the violation and interpret the term remedy. 38. The Court clarifies that the expression all appropriate measures includes the release of the Applicant and any other measure that would help erase the consequences of the violations established, restore the pre-existing situation and re-establish the rights of the Applicant. 39. The Court further clarifies that the expression remedy all violations established should mean to erase the effects of the violations established through adoption of the measures indicated in the preceding paragraph. VII. COSTS 40. In terms of Rule 30 of the Rules, unless otherwise decided by the Court, each party shall bear its own costs. 41. Taking into account the circumstances of this matter, the Court decides that each Party should bear its own costs. 42. For these reasons, The African Court, Unanimously: (i) Declares that it has jurisdiction to hear the instant Application (ii) Declares that the Application is admissible (iii) Rules that by the expression all appropriate measures, the Court was referring to the release of the Applicant or any other measure that would help erase the consequences of the violations established, restore the pre-existing situation and re-establish the rights of the Applicant (iv) Rules that the expression remedy the violations established means erase the effects of the violations established through the adoption of the measures indicated in point iii above (v) Rules that each Party shall bear its own costs. Signed: Sylvain ORE, President; Ben KIOKO, Vice-President; Gerard NIYUNGEKO, Judge; El Hadji GUISSE, Judge; Rafaa BEN ACHOUR, Judge; Solomy B. BOSSA, Judge; Angelo V. MATUSSE, Judge; Ntyam S. O. MENGUE, Judge; Marie-Therese MUKAMULISA, Judge; Tujilane R. CHIZUMILA, Judge; Chafika BENSAOULA, Judge; Dr Robert ENO, Registrar. Lawyers of An aggrieved member of the New Patriotic party, Bafour AmoBimpong, have threatened to sue the New Patriotic Party, Chairman Freddy, Blair and the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo for failing to settle a debt ten years after a contract. A letter dated 27th September 2017, from the Law Temple in Accra signed by Raphael Alijina Esq. and delivered to the General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu, stated our instructions are that running up to the 2008 presidential and Parliamentary elections of the Republic of Ghana, your party contracted our client(Bafour Amo Bimpong) to among other things, arrange buses to transport citizens of Ghana resident in the Republic of Cote DIvoire to travel to Ghana to register and vote in the General Elections Our client tells us that accordingly he entered into a series of contracts with transport owners in the Republic of Cote DIvoire to transport all such interested Ghanaians resident in the Republic of Cote DIvoire to travel to Ghana and vote in the General Elections, the letter stated. Our further instructions are that persons within the party who dealt with our client are Mr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Ken Ofori Atta, Kelly Gazekpo Asenso Boakye, Yoofi Grant, Yaw Amfo Kwakye and Ambassador Kabral Amihere. Our further instructions are that your party however refused to pay our client for the work he did by contracting with transport owners to transport Ghanaians in Cote DIvoire toGhana to register and vote in the elections. Furthermore, your party also refused to give money to our client to pay off the transport owners who transported the people to Ghana. As a result, the Transport owners in Cote DIvoire caused the arrest and long detentionof our client , and he was tried for criminal charge of defrauding by false pretense until he managed to escape with his family and sought asylum in the Republic of Nigeria where he further resisted several attempts by the authorities in Cote DIvoire for his deportation to Cote DIvoire to face trial of the criminal charge until he again escaped to Ghana in early 2017. Our client tells us that since 2008 he wrote several letters to your party including a petition to the President, Nana Akufo Addo, but all fell on deaf ears. The Purpose of this letter is to demand for your party to make a suitable arrangement to pay off all the amount our client owes the transport owners for which reason he still has the criminal charge hanging on his neck in the republic of Cote DIvoire and pay handsome compensation to him for the work he did for the party and for which he suffered and continue to suffer criminal prosecution in the Republic of Cote DIvoire. Take notice that we have full instructions of our clients to take legal action against the party and the individuals of the party involved if the party fails to give positive response to this letter within 14 days upon receipt of the letter and without further notice to the party. The loyal member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo this year to help address the serious party issue that contributed to his downfall. In a two page letter to the president, Mr B.A. Bimpong said he was contracted by the NPP through Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, the 2008 campaign manager of the party to run specific errand for the party- to bring people from the Ivory Coast to Ghana to enable them vote in the first and Second Round Elections for that year. I sacrificed everything including my life for that risky task. Little did I know I would be rewarded with impunity, unnatural wickedness and extreme cruelty? I now find myself depressed and oppressed in life, he stated. According to him, though he performed the task perfectly to the admiration of the NPP, Mr Kofi Konadu Apraku and the NPP refused to pay him, leading to his arrest in Ivory Coast when he could not pay the transport owners who bussed the party supporters to Ghana. He said he was contracted by Dr Apraku with the support of Ken Ofori Atta, Current Minister of Finance, Kelly Gazekpo, also a known member of the party, one Asenso Boakye, Deputy Chief of Staff, among others The full petition of Mr B. A. Bimpong is published below: OPEN PETITION TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA, NANA ADDO DANQUAH AKUFFO ADDO Your Excellency, I plead with you to urgently intervene in this matter in order to rescue me from the sickening and horrifying situation I have been passing through since December, 2008. It is not a deliberate intention to bring this issue into the public domain. But as a result of the blockage of my numerous petitions and letters to you by the princes and princesses of Persia within and around the party headquarters and the flagstaff house. Since December, 2008 I have sent over 20 written petitions to your office and some through the party headquarters. The first two being a letter through courier express FedEXlnternational with Air waybill No.848722826539 dated January,28,2009, addressed to NANA ADDO DANQUAH, NPP headquarters, Accra and the other through email: [email protected] on Thursday 4yh December,2009 at 14h52. The last two were copies of similar petitions sent to the Chief of staff and another of similar one to chairman of the council of state and the two addressed to HIS EXCELLENCY, THE PRESIDENT OF RHE REPUBLIC OF GHANA FLAGSTAFF HOUSE. Your Excellency, I am a journalist. I was a press correspondent in the parliament and also regular in partys campaign in 2008. I was contracted by the NPP through Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, the 2008 campaign manager of the party to run specific errand for the party. I sacrificed everything including my life for that risky task. Little did I know I would be rewarded with impunity, unnatural wickedness and extreme cruelty? I now find myself depressed and oppressed in life. Your excellency, with the greatest respect I cannot tell details of the deal in this publicity. I will rather plead with your Excellency to summon the under listed personalities of the party who knew about or played a role or the other in the deal that has caused my predicament. Dr.Kofi Konadu Apraku-2008 NPP campaign manager Mr.Keli Gazepo-2008 chairman of the finance committee of the party Mr. Ken Ofori Atta financier of the NPP Mr. Yoofi Grant- financier of the NPP Mr.Yaw Amfo Kwakye -2008 special assistant to Nana Addo Danquah Mr.Asenso Boakye-2008 member of Nana Addos campaign team Ambassador Amihere the then Ghanas ambassador to RCI, offered me a hotel accommodation in Abidjan throughout my operation. Your Excellency, I know you believe in the rule of law and justice, a renowned human right activist, it is my fiem believe that if this petition reaches your desk, your action on the matter will end my 8 years of suffering. I arrived in this country on the 20th January, 2017, the first time in 8 years. I called Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku whom I had earlier informed of my coming. He replied with a text message directing me to Mr. Yaw Kwakye, the then personal assistant to you. In getting in touch with him he referred me to the party headquarters. I got to the party headquarters but the best answer I could get from the acting general secretary, was that if I like I can cause an arrest of Dr. Apraku or I can proceed to court and make my claims from Dr. Apraku and the 2008 campaign team but not from the party. I left to the chief of staff at the flagstaff house to hand over another petition on 2nd February 2017. The political assistant to your chief of staff later informed me that, he and Mr. Asenso Boakye have been mandated by the Chief of Staff to look into the matter and make recommendations. In early April, I was called on phone from the office of the Chief of Staff that the duo have finished their findings and requested me to summit my report for compensation apart from the outstanding debts or claims, of which I did. From the day I made my submission, only the register of the reception can attest to the number of times I have being in the Chief of Staffs just to be given new appointment. In a desperate move to ensure justice done and also get out of the 8 years socio-economic woes and predicaments that am facing, another petition is sent to the Chairman of the Council of State, but for over a month now, the is no response. Your Excellency, I humbly plead with you to delve into this matter to enable the stakeholders know that injustice done anywhere is a threat to justice done everywhere and justice delayed is justice denied. Thank you. Long live His Excellency. The Northern Regional Security Council (REGSEC), has reinforced security in the Nanung (Bimbilla) traditional area, ahead of the burial of the late Nakpaa-Naa Salifu Dawuni on October 12, 2017. Scores of military and police personnel left Tamale today (Wednesday) for Bimbilla, to augment the operations of the team there. This is to avert any untoward situation in the area following the upcoming burial of the late chief. The late Nakpaa-Naa Salifu Dawuni died on 5th March 2014, and his remains have been deposited at the Yendi hospital morgue. The REGSEC in consultation with the Nanumba North District Security Committee (DISEC), has finally given the late chief's family the right to bury him at his private residence in Bimbila. Chairman of the REGSEC, Salifu Sa-eed, in a Citi News interview pleaded with both sides of the chieftaincy divide to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies. He emphasized the need for all stakeholders and residents of Bimbila, to exercise maximum restraint before, during and after the burial. He reassured residents of Nanung of government's neutrality in handling the Bimbila chieftaincy dispute. Meanwhile, a statement signed by Bakpab Naa Nantogmmah Adam, on behalf of the Dasana family, warned that they will resist any attempt to bury the late Nakpa-Naa Salifu Dawuni as overlord of Bimbila. Nakpaa-Naa Salifu Dawuni died as a Nakpaa-Naa, hence should be buried as Nakpaa-Naa and not Bimbila Naa. We recalled that the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo in his recent visit to some parts of the Northern Region, indicated that his government will not interfere in any chieftaincy matters, He even warned that he the President will not hesitate to sanction any of his appointees who meddles in any chieftaincy issues, we pause here to ask whether Bimbila chieftaincy crisis is part of the chieftaincy issues that His Excellency was talking about? We suspect strongly that some politicians in Nanung are behind these evil plans to forcefully bury the late Nakpaa-Naa Salifu Dawuni in Bimbila against the norms and customs of the traditional area. We are appealing to President Akufo Addo. Please walk your talk by bringing such politicians to book before they turn the entire Nanung into chaos. Below is the REGSEC's official statement: By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana Tullow Ghana Limited (TGL) has been praised for its education projects in the Western region by traditional authorities from the Lower Axim and Gwira areas. The commendation comes during the maiden session of stakeholder engagements with the chiefs and peoples in the Western region. Paramount Chief for Lower Axim, Awulae Attibrukusu III, hailed TGLs social investment initiatives particularly in the area of education in the region. Such programs have seen the construction of a dormitory project at Axim girls, re-tooling of the laboratories of Western Region schools such as Archbishop Porter Girls, Nkroful Senior High School, Assembly Hall for Half Assini SHS and Takoradi Technical University. TGL is now rolling out a three-year Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics program from basic to secondary as well as tertiary institutions not only in the Western Region. It is also targeting other similar institutions such as Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ashesi University, the Africa Science Academy and University of Mines and Technology Tarkwa. Nonetheless, speaking at the session on Friday, Awulae Attibrukusu III encouraged TGL to do more. He wants TGL to work on an initiative or scheme that helps support or prepare final year SHS students in the Jubilee and TEN area of influence to have adequate preparation for their final exams so that their chances of tertiary education will be guaranteed. This week will see the TGL engagements gain momentum as the Social Performance Team of Tullow Ghana Limited meet with the chiefs of Sekondi, Shama, Ahanta, Upper Dixcove, Lower Dixcove and Essikado traditional areas. Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline | JoyBusiness Hundreds of businesses and exhibitors are expected to showcase to the world what they have to offer as far as business is concerned in the 2017 Northern trade fair and exhibition Taking place in Tamale, the Northern regional capital. The Northern trade fair and exhibition is a marketing platform aims at providing opportunities for businesses in and around Tamale takes place in Wednesday, October 11, 2017 The the four-day event is being organized by the Ministry of trade and Industries in partnership with the Ghana Association of Industries (GAI), Ghana Trade Fair and exhibition, and some media organations. The event is also meant to build the capacity of entreprenures in the area of business planning, networking and opens investment opportunities for them. The Northern Trade Fair and Exhibition is also to link businesses within the Northern sector to other parts of the country. To grace the occasion including the minister for Business development, Honorable Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, the Northern regional minister Honorable Salifu Saeed, Chiefs, religious clergy, the Media and the general public Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Microfinance and Small Loan Centre (MASLOC) Mr. Stephen Amoah has vowed to sacrifice his blood to fight anybody whose attitude will become an obstacle towards the development of the nation. He bemoaned the corruption, tribalism, over politicisation of issues and attitudes of Ghanaians hindering the development of the Nation. According to him, God has blessed Ghana with all the natural resources such as gold, diamond, cocoa, timber, bauxite and all the raw materials which can create jobs for the youth in the country but Ghana is still importing goods for survival. A country such as Ghana is endowed with almost everything on earth to be so rich, properly industrialised and create jobs for everyone in terms of human development, he said. He added that Ghana has learnt more than most countries on the continent of Africa. Our land is fertile for agricultural produce or activities, God has blessed us much but why are people jobless in this 21st century, he quizzed. He told Otec FMs Kwaku Anane Junior that the cedi is getting weaker and weaker because we import about 80-90% despite having all the raw materials and the skilled labour to develop the country. But because of the way other people behave, our attitude, our life and lies, corruption, unnecessary politicisation of important policies and stealing are the reasons some of us will sacrifice our blood. It is not a joke, he stated. Mr. Stephen Amoah explained that the whole of last year the past government was able to collect Ghs 4.5 million but within this shortest time he has been able to collect Ghs 9.2million to from defaulters. According to him, people from past and present governments are owing the sector including MPs, Ministers, musicians, ordinary citizens, entrepreneurs, business persons and many others. Unless president Akufo-Addo tells me to leave my post or gives me a different job, if you are CPP NDC, NPP, no matter who you are, I will collect the money, he stressed. Kitalo nyo! I heard the Uganda Police arrested Ingrid Turinawe's goat too just because it had a red ribborn(symbol for agelimit) on one of its legs.This kind of shit just makes me want to throw up. Its a terrifying time in Uganda at the moment. Its not a surprise that tourism is way down in the country and its only going to get worse once the age limits have been removed.It appears that police are given carte blanch to do as they please against humans and non-humans,we better buckle in. It's gonna get worse. But we mustnt lose hope, we must stand strong on behalf of our humanity, our compassion and our morals. Its the first time for me to see an animal arrested over political charges. Imagine what the police are thinking of a human being who opposes Museveni in any way. The police institution is being abused, and this is unacceptable.The idea of trying to create crimes just because one disagrees with chairman Museveni politically, and target him or her or in this case the poor goat, really endangers democracy. It reminds me of what Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the KGB, said to Joseph Stalin. He said, show me the man and Ill find you the crime... My point is that we should not stretch existing criminal laws to fit political opponents with whose actions we disagree. I also suspect that after the removal of the age limits,the state may be tempted to form fake rebel organisations as a way of trapping its opponents. All dictators use these methods after realising that the population nolonger supports them, but these methods aren't sustainable. In the 1920s and 30s, Stalin (a Crypto Jew whose all three wives were Jewish) too founded resistance movements abroad against himself to control and kill Russian opponents in exile. It worked for a while but it was unsustainable. If people are tired of you as their leader, please just leave. Whatever you do when the population isn't behind you, is unsustainable for so long. In the end, I think good will win out over evil.Identifying the real processes that create reality is the key to understand the past and present. By the way, I read somewhere on UAH that Museveni has 'privatised elephants' in Uganda too........'Apparently, he is inviting investers to come to Uganda and take over the elephants and tourists from America can come in to kill them for sport'. I dont know the truth of it but I think its high time that the animal rights groups start lobbying for rights of animals in the country. In the USA,a new law in Connecticut, enacted Oct 1 2016, called Desmond's Law, gives an animal an advocate in court and thus a voice in court. We should also heritage list all buildings or properties constructed by the government before Museveni came to power. Atleast, they will have some international protection before they are all sold out. Let me hope its not late for the National theatre! Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba "In tribute to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Uganda, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife, discrimination and terrorism." Some chiefs and traditional rulers within the Bimbila traditional are resisting the burial of the late Nakpaa Naa Salifu Dawuni in the Bimbila town. Government through the Northern regional coordinating council has ordered the release of the remains of the late chief for immediate burial on Thursday. But addressing press conference on Wednesday, some leading faction of the Naa Dasana Abdulai Andani, late chief of the Nanumba traditional area stated that, they were ready to resist the proposed burial of the late Nakpaa Naa. According to the people of the Andani gate, the late Nakpaa Naa, Salifu Dawuni was not a recognized chief of Nunung traditional area. "Indeed, we are peace loving chiefs who are interested in having a lasting solution to the Nanung chieftaincy crisis as soon as possible, however, we are not ready to condone any illegalilties. We are therefore serving a notice that, we would resist any attempt to bury the late Nakpaa Naa in Bimbila town because he has never been enskinned as Bimbila Naa" the statement said The chiefs reminded government on its promise not to mingle with the issues of chieftaincy in the country as it is purely a traditional and custom. The statement released by the chiefs says " We recalled that, the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo in his recent visit to some parts of the Northern region indicated that his government would not interfere in any chieftaincy matters, he even warned that, he the president would not hesitate to sanction any of his appointee(s) who meddle in any chieftaincy issues, we pause here to ask whether Bimbila chieftaincy crisis is part of the chieftaincy issues that His Excellency was talking about? " The statement noted that, some politicians in the Nanung were behind the moves that calls for the illegal burial of the late Nakpaa Naa Salifu Dawuni as a chief of Bimbila though he was not. "we suspect strongly that, some politicians in the Nanung are behind this evil plans to forcefully bury the late Nakpaa Naa Dawuni in Bimbila against the norms and customs of the traditional area" the statement added The chiefs have therefore appealed to the president to walk his talk by bringing the suspected politicians to book for the peace of the area. The chiefs led by the Nakpab-naa Nantogmah Adam warned that, no space will be giving for the late Nakpaa Naa Salifu Dawuni to be given a burial as the chief of Bimbila, but rather, should be buried as Nakpaa Naa. N'Djamena (AFP) - Chad is to boost protection for a key haven for endangered wildlife in the south of the country under an agreement with a conservation group. African Parks is to take over management and protection of a territory of high ecological value that lies around the vast Zakouma National Park in southern Chad. The programme will help beef up security at the Siniaka Minia and Bahr-Salamat reserves around the park, as well as vital corridors used by fauna, African Parks said in a statement. The deal was signed on Tuesday in Johannesburg. African Parks has been managing Zakouma since 2010, after the park's elephant population had slumped by 95 percent over the previous eight years. Since then poaching has been "practically eliminated," helping its elephant population rise for the first time in a decade and creating jobs for the local community, the NGO said. Chad's first national park, created in 1963, Zakouma has an area of nearly 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 square miles), lying just south of the Sahara and above the fertile regions of the rainforest. On Sunday, Chad and South Africa signed a memorandum of understanding under which African Parks will move a "founder population" of six black rhinoceroses from South Africa to Zakouma next year. The black rhinoceros was last seen in the wild in Chad in the late 1980s. Waste management company, Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL) on Tuesday began an exercise to keep the scene of the gas explosion at Atomic Junction clean. About 25 Zoomlion workers, comprising mainly of sweepers, were at the scene of the gas explosion, sweeping the area and its environs. The company also brought some of its refuse trucks which collected the debris and transported it to various dumping sites in Accra. The objective of the exercise, Public Coordinator of Zoomlion, Accra Region, Seth Adzraku, explained, is to the keep the scene of the explosion clean. According to him, the exercise, which will last for some time, was part of his outfits corporate social responsibility. He indicated that the devasting explosion last Saturday left in its wake plastic substances and all kinds of debris and they are working in collaboration with the La-Nkwantanang/Madina Municipal Assembly to keep the place clean. He explained that Zoomlion was not doing a major clean-up exercise, but basically sweeping the scene of the incident. This, he said, was in respect of the fact that investigations by state regulatory bodies and some security agencies were still on-going. He assured that they will undertake a major clean-up exercise which will include fumigating the scene of the blasts and its surroundings. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com The Minority in Parliament has called on President Akufo-Addo, to call officials of his government who have allegedly been interfering in the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute, to order. According to the Minority, despite the President's directive for his appointees not to get involved in the dispute, there have been claims that some members of the administration have tried to influence the matter. Speaking at a Press conference on Wednesday, Minority Spokesperson on Defence and Interior, James Agalga, called on the President to call his appointees to order, as their interference could affect the peace in the area ahead of the burial of Nakpaa-Naa Salifu Dawuni. It is worthy of note that, the Nakpaa-Naa Salifu Dawuni, is the subject of a pending appeal launched by the same family in the Supreme Court. Information available to us indicates that, many people are fleeing from Bimbilla when news broke that the late Nakpaa-Naa's remains are on its way to Bimbilla for burial tomorrow [Thursday]. Only last week, the President admonished his appointees to desist from interfering in Chieftaincy matters, and that such matters be left to the traditional authorities. What has become of the President's admonition? he queried. It's against this backdrop that we want to call on the President to walk the talk by ensuring that the chieftaincy dispute in Bimbilla is resolved devoid of political interference. It's especially important that the status quo relative to the Chieftaincy of Bimbilla, is preserved pending the outcome of the litigation in the Supreme Court. We call on the people of Bimbilla to exercise restraint, and use all the legitimate and legal means to vindicate their rights so that the peace will continue to reign in Bimbilla for the collective good of the area. Speaking to Citi News Duke Mensah-Opoku after the press conference, a former deputy Interior Minister, Jame Agalga, stated that until the Supreme Court rules on the matter, any attempt by political figures to influence the matter could worsen the already tense situation in the area. At the press conference of the family of the acting Bimbilla-Naa in Accra today on the troubling situation, the names of some political functionaries were mentioned. They mentioned a number of names and alluded to political interference. We cannot independently confirm that. It's important that the Supreme Court is allowed to deal with the matter. The issue about whether the Nakpaa-Naa was legitimately installed as the Bimbilla-Naa, is yet to be determined by the Supreme Court. If we resort to conducts which could prejudice the outcome of the Supreme Court's decision, the peace of the area could be undermined, Agalga added. Bimbilla is a flash-point, so we think that government must tread cautiously by not meddling in these things and allow the institutions of state to come out with its ruling so that as a government we can put steps in place to ensure that the decision of the Supreme Court is respected by all. Tensions in Bimbilla Tensions in Bimbilla are reportedly running high ahead of the burial of the late Nakpaa-Naa October 12, 2017. Scores of military and police personnel left Tamale today (Wednesday) for Bimbilla, to augment the operations of the team there. This is to avert any untoward situation in the area following the upcoming burial of the late chief. The late Nakpaa-Naa Salifu Dawuni died on 5th March 2014, and his remains have been deposited at the Yendi hospital morgue. By: Edwin Kwakofi & Duke Mensah-Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana I chanced on an online item on a Public Lecture being organized by the Christian Service University College (CSUC) , slated for the 13th of October 2017 on the theme Institutional corruption in Ghana, causes and effect. I checked the speakers of the program and reached contact with the organizers to make input into the discussion. I hope this platform set a stimulating tone for the fight against corruption. Many including our former president, John Agyekum Kuffour have said corruption is as old as Adam which suggests it is a complex task to tackle. Corruption is a word whose definition has been given varied interpretations. To some, it is relative to culture, i.e where you are coming from and how you describe it. However, without referring to any definition from any reference, from daily experience, it is a form of dishonest desire by a person or group for an activity that serves their selfish personal interest other than the general good. Just as Imani Ghana, a Public Think Tank estimates that over Three Billion dollars of tax payers monies are lost annually through corruption, It is ten months already, and I ask how much more of our tax payers monies gone to corruption? The president, Nana Akuffor Addo during his inaugural address, inter alia, said he would protect the public purse. He admonished Ghanaians to be citizens and not spectators for national development. As part of his grand strategy, he is establishing the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to fight high crimes to complement other existing structures. On another platform, he has said he would not steal our monies and that he should be trusted. But the question is , will the team he has put in place in the executive - right from the presidency, ministers, leaders in charge of state organizations, administrative heads and the civil servants; the legislature ,the Judiciary and the media fraternity and as well as general Ghanaian populace sing from the same hymn book? Just open a discussion about bribery and corruption and one is certain of pointing accusing fingers at the politician next door. But in a reverse discussion thrown back, one is certain to say when given the opportunity he will also chop as we say in Ghana, Suggesting that the entity called Ghana is not for anyone. On daily basis Ghanaians employed in the public and private space to provide varied forms of services use their position dishonestly. One is certain to demand money or a brown envelope for a service provided and that is normal. In fact, the recipient of the service is equally willing to part with some money! The intention behind that is a betrothal for a tomorrow opportunity! Here you are considered as being smart. If you dare otherwise and question the status quo, you are certain to be branded too known. According to the Ghana 2010 Population censors report, 71% of the Ghanaian populationprofess to be Christians. Therefore, every seven out of ten (7: 10) people profess to be Christians. By a logical conclusion of this statistics who are the corrupt? I reiterate what the Koforidua Area Head of the church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Nyamekye said that corruption is an evil desire and Christians must shun, particularly those in key positions in government I expect the Lecture will conduct a stimulating postmortem of the Christian flock as per the theme and proffer a direction that provides a practical demonstration to the teachings of Christ who is our example. The Bible teachings prescribe attitudes modeled on the life of Jesus Christ, one that answers the question as Charles Sheldon wrote what will Jesus do. Which is to say, the value proposition of integrity should permeate our interaction with the community, environment, workplace and all humanity for national development and as a service to God? This should be the anchor moral value upon which our national development rides on. It is time for the church to be active agents of change by partnering with government and other stakeholders such as Islamic community, traditional leaders who are the custodians of culture in the fight against corruption, and other social vices. The indecent acculturation seen on the theatrical stage and media space by some print media houses exposing pornographic images to our unsuspecting children must stop. At 60, we need the right moral values to guide our national developmental path. It seems to me that the Christian leadership has not taken advantage of the chance to bring in orderliness within its fold. Come to think about it, there are Christian church associations like Ghana Pentecostal and charismatic council, the Christian Council of Ghana amongst others but not all churches are under their fold to regulate their activities. It is a fact that that there is no law that hold them bound to any association. So do we throw out our hands in the air for the insanity to prevail on the airwaves and national psyche? Thankfully, the ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs has been established. This offers the church leadership an opportunity to collaborate with the ministry in working out a policy that streamlines their activities. Another worry trend into the bargain, which perhaps, have not interrogated is the seemingly commercialization of the church by some. It is a fact that there is a huge unemployment amongst the youth and the middle age class. It not farfetched to come to a conclusion judging from what happens on our radio and television space with all manner of pastors rushing for space to advertise their churches and seek members. it is worth quoting a former president Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo that there is no doubt that all our institutions have been tarnished by the brush of corruption. He made this statement when giving a speech at a church program. I dare say that, as the Christian flock is the microcosm of the church, we need to be frank and see some truth in that statement. As we do prognosis of the endemic corruption and seek a holistic solution to the canker, we should also be looking at the whistleblower policy and reward system how effective it has been thou far in the fight against bribery and corruption. There has been one too many complaints of people who have reported corrupt and fraudulent activities and have been often left to the mercy of the system. In such circumstance, one falls into dilemma over whether to report a corrupt issue or not. That certainly is detrimental to the fight against corruption. I bring readers again to the question what will Jesus do? if you are faced with a dishonest situation. Thank you. Ebenezer Annang A National Service Personnel [email protected] Nairobi (AFP) - Kenya's electoral authorities said Wednesday they had not received formal notice that opposition leader Raila Odinga had quit the presidential race re-run set for October 26, so regarded all original candidates as still on the slate. Kenya's Supreme Court last month annulled an apparent victory by incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta in August polls, citing widespread counting irregularities and mismanagement by election officials, calling for a re-run within 60 days. Then on Tuesday, Kenyatta's main challenger Odinga plunged the country into uncharted waters by saying he was pulling out, accusing the election commission (IEBC) of failing to deliver vital reforms. In its statement on Wednesday, the IEBC said its position was that the new vote "shall include all the eight candidates who participated in the 8th August (election)". Though the commission took note of a letter from Odinga and his running mate announcing their withdrawal, it said the men had not submitted the official form to do so. "Once the commission receives the requisite notice from any of the candidates, it will process the same in accordance with the... law," IEBC said. Odinga says he is not giving up on standing entirely, but that withdrawing now is necessary to ensure a free and fair election. The opposition view is that a 2013 ruling by the Supreme Court means if any candidate withdraws, the IEBC must conduct fresh poll nominations, beginning the whole process over again. The commission said it understood the anxiety surrounding the electoral procedure -- earlier, eight people were hurt after Kenyan police fired teargas in running battles with opposition protesters who burned tyres and lobbed stones. "We appeal for calm and dialogue among all players to ensure that elections are successfully held and for the country to move forward," the commission concluded. Even so, it remained unclear whether, once Odinga's withdrawal from the race is finalised, that would force the October 26 re-run to be scrapped or whether it would simply go ahead without him. Kinshasa (AFP) - The election to pick DR Congo's next president will not happen before early 2019, the electoral commission said Wednesday, a delay that raises fresh security worries in the vast African nation. Polls were due this year under a transitional deal aimed at avoiding fresh political bloodshed after President Joseph Kabila refused to step down when his second mandate ended in December. But the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) said Wednesday it would need another 504 days to prepare for the vote after the completion of an electoral census, which is far from accomplished in the restive Kasai region. The delay could be reduced "if we accept to use voting machines and if we change the electoral law," a commission spokesman told AFP. The polls have been repeatedly pushed back and CENI said in July it would not be possible to hold a nationwide vote this year due to ongoing security issues, particularly in the Kasai area. Activists in the natural resource-rich nation of some 70 million immediately called for resistance to the delay. "There can be no more waiting. To the Congolese people... it's now or never," pro-democracy group LUCHA reacted on Twitter. Following a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday, French Ambassador Francois Delattre called on Kinshasa to quickly release a full timetable for what he said must be "credible" elections. 'Transparent and peaceful elections' "The council expects a speedy publication of the electoral timetable and the implementation of the confidence-building measures. There is a consensus on this very important point," Delattre told reporters. The Security Council called for elections to be organised this year in the DR Congo, in line with a political agreement struck in December between the government and opposition groups. Under the deal, Kabila was allowed to remain in office pending the elections, ruling in tandem with a transitional watchdog and a new premier, to be chosen within opposition ranks. But diplomats privately acknowledged that holding polls in the vast African country in the coming three months would not be possible due to logistical hurdles. Diplomats said they did not consider the latest statement from the electoral commission as a formal timetable, which they stressed must contain specific dates for the vote. The head of the UN's peacekeeping mission in DR Congo, Maman Sidikou, said Wednesday that journalists, opposition supporters and activists in the country are the targets of intimidation and violence. "In this context of political uncertainty, the security situation has gotten worse in several regions," he said. Kabila was first propelled into office after his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, was assassinated in January 2001, during the Second Congo War. The young soldier won a first elected five-year term in 2006 in a poll organised with the help of the large UN mission deployed in the country. In his address to the United Nations in September, he said he was "most certainly moving towards credible, transparent and peaceful elections" and that a timetable would be announced "soon."= Just over a month after China shut down its crypto exchanges, Russia might be following suit. The Central Bank of Russia has said it plans to take down the bitcoin exchange websites. The news did what it does best, bringing about price volatility. Bitcoin shed roughly US$600 almost instantly. It has since recovered however. First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia Sergei Shvetsov announced: We can not stand apart. We can not give direct and easy access to such dubious instruments for retail (investors) We think that for our citizens, for businesses, the usage of such cryptocurrencies as an investment object carries unreasonably high risks. The development certainly has come as a surprise. Russia was seemingly warming up to crypto markets recently. Only last month, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov seemed to support bitcoin, commenting: There is no sense banning them [digital currencies], there is a need to regulate them. And just last week, he outlined that Russia was considering adding cryptos to its financial literacy strategy. Which would have introduced cryptocurrencies to the classroom, preparing their finance students for the future. Well, that idea went out the window quickly. Even Vladimir Putin has voiced his criticism of bitcoin, according to Russia Today. Russian state media says Putin has warned of the risks that come with digital currencies, including: opportunities to launder funds acquired through criminal activities, tax evasion, even terrorism financing, as well as the spread of fraud schemes. Reasons for the backflip in opinion are unclear as yet. But, apart from the minor price shock, the market appears unfazed. Unlike China, Russia is relatively small in the crypto market, so the news didnt hit as hard. Chinas Bitcoin Backflips Continue Speaking of China, the government may in fact be double-dealing. Rumours that the Chinese government has actually entered the crypto market continue to surface. Thats in spite of their supposed crackdown. On 10 October, a token called Biance was updated, which showed who the developer was. It was a joint-stock commercial bank called Ping An Bank Co Ltd. An organisation that has had government ties in the past. On the same day, China Bitcoin also had an update. This time the developer was the Xiamen Local Taxation Bureau an official land tax department. Cointelegraph.com speculates: Maybe Ping An Banks involvement can be explained as commercial activities, but Xiamen Local Taxation Bureaus control over China Bitcoin demonstrates the Chinese governments interest in ICO and Bitcoin. Its still only rumours at this point, but it wouldnt surprise us if it were true. We firmly believe that no government can afford to ignore bitcoin. And you shouldnt ignore it either. It could be a once-in-a-lifetime event to potentially make some serious profits. For more information, weve got a detailed report to get you started. Dont miss out, grab your free copy right here. Regards, Ryan Clarkson-Ledward, Junior Analyst, Money Morning You don your armour, tucking your earbuds in, and the music blares, while some self-proclaimed gentleman still audibly says hell treat you right, all right. It doesnt matter what youre wearing. The catcallers gravelly, slithering voices still trail after you sometimes they follow you physically for blocks. Why do men catcall, and continue to do so when women clearly dont want their attention? Is it really to get a woman to smile? Is following her supposed to make her feel safe? Is continually jeering at her with the guys okay, even after she clearly shakes her head no, says shes not interested or is driven to cuss catcallers out? The answer is no, but catcallers seem to think that word means encouragement. It doesnt seem like they intend to earn a positive response: they think catcalling is hilarious, that a womans autonomy and peace of mind walking down the street are a target waiting to be hit by their abuse. Catcalling is a game to a man when to a woman, its anything but that. Its one more example of everyday sexism the world could do without. What are the best responses to catcalls? It must be cautioned for women to keep their wits about them, as some men may turn violent in response to any response. But, sometimes, reading about other womens best responses to catcalling helps women reclaim their power while laughing. 1. Catcallers Meet Confetti Guns In Mexico City, one feminist collective, Las Hijas de Violencia (the Daughters of Violence), is fighting catcallers with confetti guns while battling outdated traditions and raunchy statements hidden beneath the guise of nice words. The group says women arent interested in hearing positive comments about their bodies while walking down the street. They say that women begin to experience such harassment as young as between 9 and 11 years of age. Las Hijas de Violencia respond by coating the catcaller in confetti. Men try to deny the harassment took place, but hey, thats kind of hard when theyre covered in the evidence. Other men will try to laugh it off, doing their best to retain their illusion of power. Woman Takes Selfies With Her Catcallers Some of your less enlightened male (or female) friends may say that catcalling doesnt happen that often. As a 20-year-old student in the Netherlands, Noa Jansma experienced sexual objectification on a daily basis and got tired of it. In response, Jansma took selfies with every catcaller for a month and posted the results on Instagram, captioned with the harassers catcalls like art in a gallery. From old to young, many of the men posed like they were hanging out at the bar on a Saturday night, while Jansmas expression remained stoic, which as most women know is an encouragement for a man to tell her to smile. One man, with a thumbs up in the selfie, had said to her, Hey, beautiful, why are you sad? Of course, Jansma replied, Im not sad, and he asked, Why dont you smile at me then? Youre too sweet to be sad. Other men, old enough to be her father, asked her for a kiss, while one man followed her for two streets, asking her to get in his car. Her Instagram now has over 170,000 followers, mostly women. Regular Mookychick contributor Roswell has written about how she takes a similar approach. When she is subjected to street harrassment, she pulls out a phone and takes a photo. 3. When He Appreciates Mama Natures Assets When a man yells out that you have a nice butt, sometimes you have to use those assets to your advantage, especially when the winds about to blow. Thats exactly what @carajanefrancis did. She said, Man calls out nice ass and I just happen to be holding in a fart. Stop, look right at him and let it go. Thanks, Mama Nature. 4. Helping Your Harasser Find New Sexist Friends for a Play Date Hes just lonely, and wants some comfort. Why wont you give this poor man your number? When a man kept harassing @KrezzyNL, she gave him the number of another sexist to be good buddies with since theyd have a lot in common. Lecture the Crap Out of Them One lovely day, @witchminx was riding her bike down the street, and this one guy said to his buddies, she wants my dick, and she rode back and lectured them for a good ten minutes. Clearly, they want to know about sex ed, bodily autonomy and the female body, right?? Give it to them straight the whole bleeding for three to seven days thing, and everything they need to know about erectile dysfunction, since younger men are increasingly experiencing deflated man balloon issues. Part of being proactive in these moments is, of course, weighing whats most important to your safety. Stand up for yourself, but keep your wits about you as you press onward in your daily battle to smash the patriarchy. 'The big truck is still on ... Fire Destruction In Sonoma County View Photos Washinton, DC US House Speaker Paul Ryan weighed in on the devastating wildfires currently burning in Northern California. During a press conference this morning in Washington, DC, Ryan spoke about the urgency in passing a $36.5-billion supplemental funding bill for disaster relief, which he says would help those impacted by the recent hurricanes, as well as wildfires in California. Ryan stated, These are some of the deadliest wildfires in their (Californias) history. More than 122,000 acres are burning. Youve seen the scenes on TV. Its haunting. Farms, businesses, livelihoods being destroyed. People have lost their homes. Seventeen people have lost their lives right now. Many, many more people are missing at this moment. So I just want to commend the firefighters and first responders who are risking their lives to help people fight these fires and to save people. You see what theyre doing. It makes you proud of your country that weve got these men and women who are rushing into harms way to save people. It just makes you thankful for who they are and what they do. The disaster relief supplemental bill was approved in the House appropriations committee last night and is expected to be taken up by the full House later this week. Ryan concluded, This is a time when our country needs to respond. This is a time when all levels and units of government need to respond. And this is a time when we here in Congress will respond because that is our responsibility. - The question of what the looted funds being recovered by the present administration are used for has been answered - The federal government has revealed that these recovered funds are used to finance the 2017 budget - President Buhari also said power generation has peaked at an all-time high of 7,001 Megawatts According to the federal government, part of the stolen funds recovered from those that looted the economy is being used to finance the 2017 budget. This was disclosed by the accountant general of the federation, Alhaji Idris Ahmed, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari at the 22nd annual conference of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) in Abuja. At the conference which held on Tuesday, October 10, he also said the decision had been collectively taken by the government to use some of the recovered stolen funds to finance the 2017 budget. According to Punch, Buhari said: My administration has practically done much in delivering on its core focus of diversifying the economy. Part of the stolen funds recovered is being used by government to finance the 2017 budget. Power generation has peaked at an all-time high of 7,001 megawatts in the third quarter of 2017. On the matter of electricity, the president also disclosed that the government was aiming at the production of 10,000 megawatts of electricity by the year 2020. READ ALSO: Buhari govt was unaware that the USA was monitoring GEJs men - Foreign minister According to him, the firm implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) since September 2015 had significantly enhanced transparency in the federal governments public financial management system. ANAN chairman of council, Alhaji Shehu Ladan, pledged the support of the association to the governments economic agenda. Ladan said: The accountant is key. We are calling on our members to increase their integrity quotient. As an association, we are strengthening our discipline mechanism to ensure that members found wanting do not go unpunished. He also said it was important for the government to ensure the reinvestment of the recovered stolen funds to make for quicker recovery of the economy. PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV Legit.ng earlier reported that President Buhari has formally written to the National Assembly to approve a loan request of $6.5 billion. The president made the request known via a letter addressed to Senate president, Bukola Saraki, and speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara. According to the letter, the loans will be sourced through issuance of Euro and Diaspora bonds. STREET GIST: Signing of 2017 budget in June, same old story? - on Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit.ng The police in Plateau state on Wednesday, October 11, confirmed the death of Moses Gwom, a former secretary to the Plateau state government. The police said the former SSG was killed by gunmen who attacked his residence. During the attack, which the police said occurred at about 9pm on Tuesday, October 10, the gunmen also injured 12 others. READ ALSO: Why we supported IPOB's ban by southeast governors - Ohanaeze Ndigbo Terna Tyopev, the spokesperson for the command who confirmed the incident said: Unknown gunmen attacked and killed one Moses Gwom, at his residence in Barkin ladi. His house is located opposite STF checkpoint, 12 others were injured during the attack. The gunmen were said to have also attacked security operatives at the checkpoint before wrecking havoc on the residence of late official, Premium Times reports. The police spokesperson said that no arrest had been made, but security operatives are on the trail of the suspects. PAY ATTENTION: Watch more videos on Legit.ng TV Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that there was pandemonium in Ughelli, Delta state on Sunday night, May 7, as unknown gunmen attacked and shot the area commander of the Ughelli area command of the Delta state police command, ACP Usman Ndanbabo. STREET GIST: Signing of 2017 budget in June, same old story? - on Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit.ng - 40 members of Boko Haram has reportedly surrendered in Borno state - The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps said the Boko Haram members indicated their intention to renounce membership of the terrorist group - It said negotiations between the command and insurgents were conducted through a firewood vendor The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Borno says about 40 Boko Haram insurgents have indicated willingness to surrender to the corps in the state. The Commandant of the corps in the state, Ibrahim Abdullahi, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) on Wednesday in Maiduguri. READ ALSO: Gunmen kill Moses Gwom, ex-Plateau SSG, injure 12 others Abdullahi said that the insurgents had indicated their intention to renounce membership of the terrorist group but through an intermediary. He said that negotiations between the command and the insurgents were conducted through a firewood vendor. He also said that six insurgents had earlier surrendered to the corps in the last one month in the state. The commandant stated that the extremists surrendered voluntarily under the Federal Governments Safe Corridor Initiative(SCI). About 40 of the insurgents have come forward to surrender. They indicated that many of them are willing to lay down their arms, Abdullahi said. According to him, the command has also conducted town hall meetings with communities and religious leaders to enhance security in the state. NAN report that hundreds of the insurgents had surrendered to the Nigerian Army under the SCI in the past three months. PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app The surrendered insurgents are currently undergoing De-radicalisation process at the Military Rehabilitation Centre, Gombe, to facilitate their reintegration into the society. Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the Nigerian army engaged in a shootout with Boko Haram killing three terrorists while a soldier was left injured. Brigadier-general Sani Usman who is the spokesperson of the Nigerian army said they were intercepted in Lingir village of Borno state while trying to herd rustled cattle into the Maiduguri cattle market. Boko Haram abducted my husband and the Gov't forgot about him - on Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit.ng - Catalonian leaders have signed a document that declared the regions independence from Spain - The declaration has however been suspended and would not be implemented for several weeks - The document was signed by 72 members of Catalonias parliament After a long awaited speech before Catalonias parliament Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and other regional leaders have signed a declaration of independence from Spain. But the move will not be implemented immediately allowing for talks with the national government in Madrid. READ ALSO: Gunmen kill Moses Gwom, ex-Plateau SSG, injure 12 others According to The Telegraph, the text, proclaiming the constitution of a Catalan republic as an independent and sovereign state, was signed by 72 members of Catalonias parliament. Puigdemont in his address said he would suspend the formal declaration to allow for talks with Madrid, disappointing the more supporters of independence. The gesture was welcomed by some lawmakers but fell short of a unilateral proclamation for others. Puigdemont who had been under intense pressure claimed the recent disputed referendum gave Catalonia the right to be independent. However Madrid has vowed to block any move by Catalonia to break away and rejects the idea of any form of mediation with Catalan leaders who it accuses of of acting outside of the law. Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that emergency services in Catalonia reported scores of injuries suffered by Catalans in clashes with the Spanish police determined to stop voting in a referendum for independence. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app The injuries to people occurred as riot police stormed voting stations to stop the referendum on independence from Spain. Most of those people sustained slight injuries and three suffered more serious injuries, the Catalan services said on Twitter. We need to understand the Biafra objective - on Legit.ng TV. Source: Legit.ng - The minister of health, Professor Isaac Adewole, has stated that the monkeypox disease which has been reported in various parts of the country, is only a suspicion at the moment - According to the minister, the disease can only be confirmed after laboratory tests have been conducted - Samples from patients have been sent to the World Health Organisation center in Senegal and test results are expected within 48 hours Professor Isaac Adewole, minister of health, has described the monkeypox disease which has been reported in various parts of the country, as only a suspicion at the moment. According to reports, the minister made his comments in a chat with newsmen at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja. READ ALSO: The North is not afraid of restructuring - Tambuwal Legit.ng gathers that Adewole stated that the disease can only be confirmed after laboratory tests. He said that samples had been taken for analysis at the World Health Organisation center in Senegal. He stated: We will know within 48 hours if what we are dealing with is monkeypox. The minister further disclosed that states did not report the outbreak of the disease on time, but urged Nigerians not to panic. PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that Dr. Jide Idris, the Lagos state commissioner for health, said that two suspected cases of monkeypox had been recorded in the state. Idris speaking at a news conference said that the two suspected cases were currently under observation in health facilities in the state. Monkey Pox has no known cure, Nigerians should be careful - Doctor warns - on Legit.ng TV: Source: Legit.ng This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 1361 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser,what weve accomplished in the last year and our current goal, more original reporting. By Lynn Parramore, a senior research analyst at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website Over a 40-year career, Philadelphia attorney Daniel Berger has obtained millions in settlements for investors and consumers hurt by a rogues gallery of corporate wrongdoers, from Exxon to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco. But when it comes to what Americas prescription drug makers have done to drive one of the ghastliest addiction crises in the countrys history, he confesses amazement. I used to think that there was nothing more reprehensible than what the tobacco industry did in suppressing what it knew about the adverse effects of an addictive and dangerous product, says Berger. But I was wrong. The drug makers are worse than Big Tobacco. The U.S. prescription drug industry has opened a new frontier in public havoc, manipulating markets and deceptively marketing opioid drugs that are known to addict and even kill. Its a national emergency that claims 90 lives per day. Berger lays much of the blame at the feet of companies that have played every dirty trick imaginable to convince doctors to overprescribe medication that can transform fresh-faced teens and mild-mannered adults into zombified junkies. So how have they gotten away with it? A Market for Lies The prescription drug industry is a strange beast, born of perverse thinking about markets and economics, explains Berger. In a normal market, you shop around to find the best price and quality on something you want or needa toaster, a new car. Businesses then compete to supply what youre looking for. Youve got choices: If the price is too high, you refuse to buy, or you wait until the market offers something better. Its the supposed beauty of supply and demand. But the prescription drug market operates nothing like that. Drug makers game the patent and regulatory systems to create monopolies over every single one of their products. Berger explains that when drug makers get patent approval for brand-name pharmaceuticals, the patents create market exclusivity for those productsprotecting them from competition from both generics and brand-name drugs that treat the same condition. The manufacturers can now exploit their monopoly positions, created by the patents, by marketing their drugs for conditions for which they never got regulatory approval. This dramatically increases sales. They can also charge very high prices because if youre in pain or dying, youll pay virtually anything. Using all these tricks, opioid manufacturers have been able to exploit the public and have created a whole new generation of desperate addicts. They monopolize their products and then, as Berger puts it, market the hell out of them for unapproved and dangerous uses. Opioids are a drug class that includes opium derivatives like heroin (introduced by German drug maker Bayer in 1898), synthetics like fentanyl, and prescription painkillers like oxycodone (brand name: OxyContin). A number of factors are aggravating the addiction crisis: There has been a movement in medicine to treat pain more aggressively, while at the same time wide-ranging economic distress has generated a desire to escape a dismal reality. But a key driving force is doctorswho have been wooed by pharmaceutical marketing repsoverprescribing for chronic pain. For the first time since the years after heroin was invented, writes investigative journalist Sam Quinones in Dreamland: The True Tale of Americas Opiate Epidemic, the root of the scourge was not some street gang or drug mafia but doctors and drug companies. Doctors were once reluctant to write prescriptions for opioids. The U.S. drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), would only approve such drugs for severe cases like cancer patients in chronic agony or certain people in short-term pain after, say, an operation. But representatives of Connecticut-based drug maker Purdue, which released OxyContin in 1996, along with other companies, began to flood doctors offices with reports asserting that using the drug for off-label purposes was harmless. Often the targets were primary care physicians with little training in addiction. Have a chronic arthritis case? Give your patient OxyContin. Tell folks take it every day, for weeks, even years, to treat just about any kind of chronic pain. The upshot was addiction typically not because people were getting high for fun, but because they used a legal drug in precisely the way the doctor ordered. Purdue and others whisked doctors to stylish retreats to push them to prescribe drugs for uses not approved by U.S. regulatorsa marketing strategy banned by federal law. They even created fake grassroots organizations to make it seem as though patients were demanding more prescriptions. Pharmaceutical companies like to dodge responsibility for the opioid crisis by blaming dishonest distributors and pointing out that theyre not the ones prescribing or handing out drugs to patients. True enough: They dont need to, because theyve done their work hooking you long before the drug is in your hands. The marketing is not only fraudulent; its incredibly elaborate, says Berger. Fake scientific studies promote the lie that opioids are better than other medications for pain. Theyve gone to just about any length. Bribery, you name it. Its outrageous. OxyContin is so addictive that it can create physical dependency in a matter of weeks. As drug makers and doctors who began to dole out pills by the handful in pain clinics learned, addicts do not behave like ordinary consumers. They dont choose to buy or to wait until next week. They need their drug right away and will do anything to get it because if they dont, they will suffer excruciating symptoms. A Los Angeles Times report shows that among the lies Purdue spread about OxyContin was that one pill subdued pain for twelve hours. Except that for many patients it wears off much sooner, exposing them to horrific pain and withdrawal. Purdue knew this, but feared lower sales if it admitted the truth. So sales reps advised doctors to just give stronger doses, which increased the addiction risk. As the money from hooked patients piled up, so did the bodies. So many bodies that earlier this year the Ohio Coroners Office found nowhere to store them. In 2007, Purdue pleaded guilty in federal court in Virginia to misleading doctors and patients about OxyContins safety and paid a $600 million fine. But that sum was hardly an annoyance. From 1995 to 2015, Purdue made $35 billion from OxyContin sales alone. The Sacklers, who own the company, are now one of the richest families in America, as revealed by this triumphant Forbes spread. They know that lax regulation keeps the heat off, and that even litigation and criminal prosecutions can do little to stop them. Berger says that until such legal programs are massive in scale and scope, companies will go on with business as usual.We have to have injunctive relief [a court order to stop a behavior] that bans the marketing to doctors of opioids completely for unapproved uses, as well as an expansion of the FDA and DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency] to specifically target the drugs, says Berger. His law firm, Berger & Montague, is involved in the effort to seek relief for the city of Philadelphia, which has seen above-average opioid prescribing and suffered the highest rates of fatal drug overdoses in the state last year. Even though prescriptions have been slightly reduced across the country since 2012, Philadelphia is finding out what happens to many people hooked on opioids when they cant get a prescription or find the price too high: They turn to smack. Fatal overdoses of heroin, oxycodones close cousin, have been skyrocketing since 2007 across the country. Landscapes of Despair The opium poppy has been part of human history since at least 3,400 B.C. when it was cultivated in Mesopotamia as the joy plant. Derivates, such as laudanum and morphine, offered more convenient and, people wrongly believed, safer ways to get the plants benefits. Bayer originally touted heroin as a non-addictive substitute for morphine, even for children, until it was outlawed in the U.S. in 1925. Rendering it illegal did not stop it from destroying the lives of many of Americas most celebrated artists, from Billie Holiday to Philip Seymour Hoffman. Drug overdoses now kill more people than gun homicides and car crashes combined. In 2015, nearly two-thirds of all overdoses had one thing in common: opioids. As more and more names appear in the obituaries linked to opioid overdoses, most recently Buddhist teacher Michael Stone, Americans begin to wonder who is next. Syracuse Universitys Shannon Monnat, a sociologist focused on rural issues and an INET grantee, has been studying the epidemic and how it impacts various populations. Her research reveals that the rise in drug-induced deaths has been especially sharp among middle-aged people (45-55), with prescription opioid overdoses increasingly impacting both middle-aged and older populations. Heroin, whose sedating and euphoric effects are very similar to prescription opioids, looks to be the culprit in more young adult overdoses. Monnat considers how the opioid crisis points to bigger societal problems impacting the economy, educational institutions, the health care system, political systems, and communities. Her work centers on investigating the characteristics of what she calls landscapes of despairplaces where people are hurting economically and socially, like Appalachia, the Industrial Midwest, and parts of New England. She points out that persistent disadvantage and long-term poverty are clearly connected to the opioid crisis, noting that many of the areas most impacted were once robust centers of manufacturing before jobs moved to other countries. Opioid addiction seems to thrive in downwardly mobile small cities in rural areasbut not all of them. Whats fascinating is that some of these areas have very high mortality rates from drug overdose, like Appalachia, say Monnat. But others, like the Southern Black Belt [a region which stretches across Alabama and Mississippi], have not seen such rises. Originally named for its rich, dark, soilwhich attracted cotton planters in the 19th centurythe Black Belt has a large African American population. The area has a history of unremitting poverty, low incomes, high unemployment, and high mortality. Yet despite many hardships, which are linked the legacy of slavery, Monnat says that the region is also distinct for its very tight-knit communities, strong kinship networks, and other networks where people can find emotional support. It seems that when people have somewhere to turn in hard times, they may build up immunity to an epidemic like the opioid scourge. Ironically, another factor that may have protected these communities is prejudice, as Quinones discusses in Dreamland. The low-profile heroin dealers originating from a small municipality on Mexicos west coast who are associated with the current opioid scourge have tended to fear black Americans, preferring to target white communities. They also avoid big cities where large cartels are already established. So small, predominately white towns are their sweet spot. Appalachia is known for kinship networks, but it also has a legacy of isolation and an outlaw tradition associated with the history of moonshining and bootlegging which can feed into todays underground selling and distribution of opioid drugs. In this region, much of the struggling white working class has experienced economic distress with little hope of relief from Americas political system. Democrats often openly disdain rednecks and hillbillies while concentrating on identity politics rather than economic hardship. Republicans promote policies of free trade and deregulation that cast the region further into destitution. Monnat has found that counties with large numbers of people employed in physical laborespecially occupations with higher rates of disabilityhave higher rates of drug fatalities. These are places where coal miners work in backbreaking positions and military veterans suffer the pain of injuries. She observes that drug companies have besieged these areas with aggressive marketing of pain pills. In Appalachia, youd see mining companies with physicians on staff prescribing opioids to keep people in pain working, she says. That was happening before OxyContin, but companies like Purdue targeted these communities to push OxyContin as a safer alternative to other pain medications. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) report that the opioid epidemic, which started as a regional crisis, is now a national crisis. It casts a pall over far more than individual lives; it is now decimating communities and even helping to reshape the American political landscape. Monnat finds a relationship between the landscapes of despair and the 2016 presidential election. Voting patterns show that areas in which President Trump did better than expected, like Pennsylvania and Ohio, were also places where opioid overdoses and deaths from alcohol and suicide occurred at high rates over the past decade. During his campaign, Trump expressed concern for people in regions like Appalachia and flung stinging barbs at the politicians who had failed them. These voters supported him in high numbers, and yet sadly, his policies will likely give more power to the pharmaceutical companies that have turned their suffering into stock windfalls. Profit Trumps People Trump the campaigner shook his fist at Big Pharma for getting away with murderone of those statements that occasionally drops from his lips with atomic accuracy. But Trump the President has done an about-face. As journalist David Dayen has pointed out, a draft of an executive order on drug prices (which never materialized) called for deregulation of the FDA and favors to industry. It was written by none other than a pharmaceutical lobbyist. In March, President Trump issued an executive order creating a commission to study drug addiction and the opioid epidemic. The commission, headed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, has so far released recommendations which locate the overprescribing problem in doctors offices and hospitals in every state in our nation, while making nary a mention of pharmaceutical marketing departments. The panel suggests insufficient remedies like new treatment facilities and educating schoolchildren on the dangers of opioids, along with ineffective ones like more funds to Homeland Security. Regulation of Big Pharma? Nope. The federal government did announce that it would team up with drug makers to research and generate non-opioid pain medications and additional medication-assisted treatment options. Among the participants? Purdue. Economist William Lazonick of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and an INET grantee, agrees with Berger that the way the pharmaceutical industry operates amounts to a catastrophe for the public. Its crazy that each and every drug is not treated like a regulated monopoly, he says. Taxpayers fund much of the research that goes into creating these drugs through the NIH and other public research facilities. Moreover, the companies are gifted with a monopoly through patents which last two decades. Lazonick notes that Big Pharma claims that it needs high profits to keep inventing new drugs, but it spends more of its profits buying back its own stock than increasing investment in R&D on new drugs. Executives running drug companies are incentivized to make profits any way they can because they are rewarded by high stock prices. Lazonick explains that they stoke those stock prices by gouging patients or lying about the safety of productswhatever it takes. He observes that for the past several decades America has undergone a devastating experiment based on the philosophy of economist Milton Friedman, who claimed that the only social responsibility of a company is to make a profit. Untimely deaths from tobacco-related illnesses, auto safety failures, and now, harmful opioid drugs, prove that the experiment is a tragic failure. Lazonick sees the need for nothing less than a new structure of corporate governance that ensures the ethical responsibly of drug makers to do what they are supposed to do: create high-quality, low-cost products that are safe. The current structure, based on the misguided idea that companies should be run for the sole purpose of enriching shareholders, is particularly perverse when it comes to products that are potentially fatal. The problem with this model is that when shareholders are the only people who matter, the rest of us suffer. Since taxpayers support pharmaceutical companies by funding public research and many other things they require to do business, Lazonick says it is only fair and logical that someone representing the public sit on their boards. Berger adds that companies should be required to make drugs widely available at affordable prices in return for their use of publicly-funded, basic research at no cost whatsoever. America, for the time being, stands out among nations in letting pharmaceutical companies run amok to inflate drug prices, advertise and market drugs without proper regulation, and use taxpayer resources while exposing them to egregious harm. The only thing Americas drug companies are competitive about, says Lazonick, is getting people addicted. This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 1351 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser,what weve accomplished in the last year and our current goal, more original reporting. Tuesday evening, Catalonias President Carles Puigdemont tried to come up with a Solomonic compromise between his separatist movement and the Spanish government. With other senior officials in the region, he signed a declaration of independence, but said he was suspending it for several weeks to pursue negotiations with Spain. Spains leaders reacted quickly, scheduling an emergency Cabinet meeting for Wednesday morning. Prime Minister Rajoy was mum, but central government officials kept up their drumbeat of disapproval. For instance, the BBC reported: Spains Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria responded to Tuesdays developments by saying: Neither Mr Puigdemont nor anybody else can claim to impose mediation. Any dialogue between democrats has to take place within the law. Puigdemonts gambit was consistent with his initial move after the contested independence referendum: he said Catalonia would secede shortly but called for negotiations. As we pointed out then: Yet after having threatened to declare independence within 48 hours of a favorable referendum vote (and press reports indicated that the total number of voted lodged favoring departure was higher than the threshold Catalonian separatists had set), officials in Catalonia are now retreating from their threat of a speedy exodus. Instead they want to negotiate and have the EU moderate. But you cant have talks unless the other side wants to talk too. In the intervening days, Spain has made it even clearer than it did in the referendum crackdown that it has no intention of indulging Catalonias secessionists. The only open question is how harsh its next moves will be. Let us consider the moves Spain has already taken against the separatists: Spain issued a decree allowing companies to move headquarters more readily. One well-regarded company, Oryzon Genomics, announced plans to move even before the Spanish government intervened to facilitate a corporate exodus. Some US companies with units based in Catalonia claimed they could withdraw overnight. CNBC provided a roundup yesterday of the companies who said they were making plans to relocate or giving it serious study. The king denounced the separatists. From his speech: For some time, certain authorities in Catalonia, repeatedly, consciously and deliberately, have been failing to comply with the constitution and the statute on autonomy With these decisions they have systematically infringed the approved legal framework, showing an unacceptable disloyalty to the powers of the state. A state that those authorities represent in Catalonia. They have broken the democratic principles of the rule of law and have undermined the harmony and coexistence of Catalan society, to the point unhappily of dividing itand with their irresponsible conduct are even putting at risk the economic and social stability of Catalonia and all of Spain. Experts pointed out that the last time the king made a similar statement was during a short-lived coup attempt in 1981. The Constitutional court suspended a scheduled Catalonia parliamentary session. As we described, the Constitutional court blocked the meeting of Catalonias parliament at which the referendum results were set to be presented and where the legislators were expected to approve a declaration of independence. Moreover, as the Guardian pointed out: The court warned that any session carried out in defiance of its ban would be null, and added that the parliaments leaders could face criminal action if they ignored the court order. There is no reason to think that the government in Madrid has had a change of heart and will now make nice to Catalonia. The only retreat it has made from its hardline stance is to apologize for the headbreaking during its referendum crackdown. That in turn resulted from the media widely publishing video clips showing excessive use of force, resulting in international condemnation. In other words, the central government is not going to negotiate, since it sees no reason to. It will stick to its playbook. . From the Financial Times last week: As Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy met other party leaders on Monday, his government gave little sign it was open to talks as long as the separatist Catalan government pushes for full independence from Spain, in contravention of the law and the constitution.. Rafael Catala, the justice minister, said the government would use all the tools at its disposal including if necessary the suspension of Catalonias autonomy to enforce the rule of law. We have always said that we would use all the force of the law, he said told Spanish television. There were also hawkish calls by Albert Rivera, the head of the liberal Ciudadanos party which supports the PP government, to suspend Catalonias autonomy immediately. The government on Monday rejected taking these steps right away, although has left the option open for the future. One of the reasons Madrid wont compromise, aside from the fact that that appears to be out of character for Rajoy, is that the central government isnt willing (it would argue isnt able) to give Catalonia the compromise that could put the secession push to rest, namely, giving Catalonia a level of autonomy similar to that of the Basque country. The critical change would be to let the region control its own tax collection and remit some funds from that to the central government. Catalonias intent, as with the Basques, would be to keep more of the proceeds for itself. The Basque region is small enough that the revenue loss wasnt terribly consequential. By contrast, given that Spain does not have its own currency, and separately is a devout believer in neoliberal economics, Spain cant deficit spend on a sustained basis to make up for a shortfall, and raising taxes or cutting spending in a still-weak economy would be unpopular and would hurt growth. Shorter: theres no solution space even if Rajoys government were willing to talk. So the open question is how harsh will Rajoys new measures be? ABC Australia set forth some possibilities: Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy could take the unprecedented step of dissolving the Catalan Parliament and triggering new regional elections, the so-called nuclear option. Last week Carlos Uxo, a Spanish studies expert at Monash University, said there were a couple of outcomes: The President of Catalonia would probably be arrested The Spanish Government would seize control of the region At a minimum, it seems likely that Spain will order the arrest of everyone who signed the declaration of independence. It might offer the token concession of being willing to withdraw the order if they cancel the declaration. If Catalonia does not back down and the separatist leaders are able to evade arrest, Madrid could invoke Article 155 and take control of Catalonia. But as weve said, if the secessionists dont retreat, this becomes a lose-lose situation. While the central government has more than enough tools to bring Catalonia to heel short term, it cant keep down a popular movement with as much support as the secessionists have garnered. And the less careful and surgical Madrid is in how it combats the secessionists, the more it does to increase their resolve. The Basques eventually got their way via a sustained campaign of violence. That is what Spain will put in motion in Catalonia unless it proceeds with great finesse, a quality its leaders seem to lack. Update 6:45 AM. I need to turn in, so forgive me for being brief. From the Financial Times: Spains prime minister has opened the way for Madrid to suspend the autonomy of Catalonia by demanding that the regional government makes clear whether it considers itself independent. Madrid is considering whether to apply a nuclear option in the Spanish constitution Article 155 to intervene, suspend all Catalan autonomy and call new elections. I would assume Catalan president Carles Puigdemonts response will be We arent independent now. Tactically, less is more, particularly given the risks. However, Rajoy signaling that he is ready to strip Catalonia of its independence is likely to fuel more pro-independence protests if the separatists keep their cool and make minimal formal responses. But since I havent been impressed with how either side is playing its hand, I defer to readers in Spain who no doubt have a much better reading on what other considerations could affect what move Puigdemont and his allies take next. This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 1354 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser,what weve accomplished in the last year and our current goal, more original reporting. Last week, we highlighted the fact that the EUs Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, was pressing the EU to approve having the Brexit talks move to include the consideration of the so-called future relationship, meaning trade. This is important because it is what we call a shape of the table issue, in this case, the order in which issues will be negotiated. We had seen Barniers move as bona fide, since a big job of a negotiator is to try to move his side towards a deal. Readers rejected this idea. It now appears that our interpretation was correct, and Barnier is continuing to push the EU to relent. However, as well discuss, he appears very unlikely to succeed. Why Does This Wrangle Matter? The short version is that the UK is certain to suffer at best a hard Brexit and at worst, a disorderly Brexit if the Brexit negotiations dont proceed according to the original tentative plan. That was to start discussing the future relationship, meaning trade and/or a transition phase after this October round. The 27 remaining members of the EU need to approve having the negotiations move on to these new issues. Frankly, I think a hard Brexit is inevitable. The UK side lacks a unified negotiating position, meaning it cant credibly commit to anything. Even though the UK is so utterly unprepared for any kind of Brexit that it desperately needs a standstill of some sort, the hard Brexiters go to war and whip up the press any time that idea rears its head. Theyve had a go at Phillip Hammond at Treasury who is trying to steer a more moderate course, plus Boris Johnson has threatened a leadership challenge. No one seriously wants him as PM but Johnson has his use as a means of keeping the weak Theresa May in line. If you read Article 50, Section 2 says: In the light of the guidelines provided by the European Council, the Union shall negotiate and conclude an agreement with that State, setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal, taking account of the framework for its future relationship with the Union. The European Council published the guidelines at the end of April. They included a section that said the negotiations would be phased, what would be in the first phase, and that the European Council would determine if the negotiations had made enough progress to move to the next phase. This document didnt set a timetable for the first phase but the hope was that the European Council would approve starting to discuss the future relationship issues after the October round. Note that the original negotiating guidelines, which were approved by the 27 remaining EU members, stipulated that only certain issues would be addressed in the first phase. One point contained general language that meant more to the EU than to me. It was originally deemed to cover the movement of people issue, meaning among other things, the rights of EU and UK citizens post Brexit. That point now includes the Irish border issue. The second first phase topic was more clearly stated; its the so-called Brexit bill, meaning settling of accounts. With this background, its apparent why the UK was out of line in being muley and effectively refusing to negotiate in August by insisting that it wasnt going to discuss the financial settlement without discussing the future relationship in parallel. Yes, it is to the EUs negotiating advantage to proceed in its original order. The EU countries are unified in their desire to have the UK pony up, with the exception of obstructionist Poland and countries particularly dependent on exports to the UK, namely Denmark and the Netherlands. By contrast, on the issue of trade in isolation, there are more countries that have more UK-friendly inclinations, particularly many of the Eastern European members. However, had the UK bothered to read Article 50 before it invoked it, it would see clearly that the EU gets to set the guidelines. Their ball, their game. And it hasnt helped that the UK is playing poorly: Whose court is the ball in? A cartoon from @kaltoons pic.twitter.com/QXsuSIZjQ2 The Economist (@TheEconomist) October 10, 2017 Why Is Barnier Pushing the UKs Case? From our post over the weekend, quoting a Financial Times story: The EUs chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, made a good faith effort to get a waiver for the UK. But predictably, EU officials were not moved: The uncompromising positions in Berlin and Paris emerged on Friday as ambassadors from the remaining 27 EU members held their first debate on the unions approach to transition talks, including the option of approving exploratory negotiations at an October summit. Michel Barnier, the EUs chief negotiator, outlined the potential benefits of opening talks on a transition deal at the meeting. He argued that they could create space to resolve the big outstanding issues on a Brexit bill, as well as recognise Britains recent more accommodative stance. But this option was firmly rejected by a group of countries led by Germany and France, which took a stricter view on the sequence of negotiations, according to several diplomats briefed on the meeting. The Times today confirmed the Financial Times reporting, with a new wrinkle: Treasurys Hammond has published an article in which he says he is refusing to set aside funds for a hard Brexit planning. He contends that there are indicators that the EU will relent and allow discussions on trade before the Brexit tab is settled. Note this is more important than it might seem because Hammond is due to present his budget next month. As an aside, Hammonds stance completely undercuts Mays farcical hard Brexit planning papers that we shellacked yesterday. The wee problem is that the related story in the Times on Barniers efforts to get the EU to relent on its order of battle does not appear that different that the Financial Times story over the weekend. First, without specifying the time frame, it appears to be based on the same meeting on which the pink paper reported, that of a presentation by Barnier to EU ambassadors (the Times piece repeatedly mentions diplomats as its sources). In other words, this appears to be a second report on the same meeting. Second, although the Times story gives a picture that that more countries support Barnier than the pink paper indicated, both agreed that France and Germany were opposed to cutting the UK any slack. This is important for two reasons. First, as weve regularly indicated, when France and Germany agree on anything, they can usually get the rest of the EU to follow. Their interests are generally opposed, so when they concur, it usually means it cant be that bad for the smaller countries. Second, it takes unanimous approval of all 27 EU countries to allow the negotiations to include new issues. Germany and France have no compunctions about voting no even if no one else were to follow (although one can imagine theyd try to persuade others to follow or at worst abstain to improve the optics). From the Times account: Michel Barnier is pushing European governments to give him permission to begin exploring transition and trade talks with Britain next week in the face of opposition from Germany. Behind closed doors the EUs lead negotiator has unexpectedly become Britains best hope But the German government is pressing hard for Britain to give further guarantees on the financial settlement Germany wants more and it wants it more or less in writing, said one diplomat. That is toxic for the British. But other European officials dont sound as accommodating: Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, will chair talks between Europes leaders next Thursday. He said that unless negotiations made progress over the coming weeks then Britain and the EU could be heading for a no deal scenario. We are negotiating in good faith, and we still hope that the so-called sufficient progress will be possible by December, he said. However, if it turns out that the talks continue at a slow pace, and that sufficient progress hasnt been reached, then together with our UK friends we will have to think about where we are heading. Note that Tusk is not on the same page as Barnier. The UK and Barnier (and whatever EU members Barnier has managed to get in his corner) want to get a sufficient progress approval in October, the original target, and not December. EU sources have been messaging for the last couple of months that approving moving to the next set of issues in October was looking unrealistic and that December was the current fallback date. Again from the Times: Mr Barnier first called for his existing negotiating guidelines, which rule out transition talks, to be relaxed last Friday and despite having the support of almost all countries he was firmly rebuffed by Germany, France and Romania in a decision that requires the consensus of all EU 27 governments. According to diplomats Mr Barnier suggested that while there was not yet sufficient progress on withdrawal negotiations to move on to a formal second phase of trade talks there was enough of a positive atmosphere after Mrs Mays concessions to permit analytical work on a transition to begin. While this is more detailed that the Financial Times account, there is a significant difference in the impression given as to how much support Barnier has. Here is how the Financial Times reported on the same meeting: Germany and France have dashed British hopes of fast-tracking talks on a two-year post-Brexit transition deal, insisting that the UKs EU divorce bill be resolved first But according to European diplomats, a Germany-led group of EU countries has demanded more clarity on the long-term financial commitments Britain will honour But this option was firmly rejected by a group of countries led by Germany and France, which took a stricter view on the sequence of negotiations, according to several diplomats briefed on the meeting. Now the finer points of the reporting dont matter much at this juncture, since the opposition of Germany and France alone are enough to scupper having the UK be allowed to talk trade soon. But it seems unlikely that several sources would all say something along the lines of Germany and France represented a group if their only ally was Romania. The other reason I give the Financial Times account more weight is that historically it has had far and away the best Brussels desk of all the UK papers. It was heads and shoulders above any English language paper on its reporting on the Trokias negotiations with Greece in 2015. By contrast, the Times has a scoop in the form of publishing Hammonds letter justifying his budget plans. That means its related report runs the risk of being overly dependent on sources aligned with him, which also means aligned with Barnier. But we get back to the question: Why is Barnier sticking his neck out this way? We gave one explanation in comments on Saturday: Barnier has been a highly respected EU negotiator for many years. I see his conduct as consistent with what youd expect from a professional negotaitor. One thing that happens in negotiations is that the negotiator is or becomes as loyal to getting a deal done as he is to his principal. Indeed, if you dont understand that dynamic as a principal it can really bite you. One of the reasons this dual function matters is that principals inevitably want too much even when they are in the power position. So a key role of the negotiator is to make them accept less than they want. The cliche in dealmaking is a good deal is one where both sides feel bruised. Barnier thus needs to preserve the best relationship he can with the UK side under the circumstances even with the Brits looking like they are doing their best to poison the well. That means making a solid case for demands they have that are reasonable. This UK demand isnt nuts in substance even though they went about it all wrong (as in this is something they should have explored with the EU before triggering Article 50). Moreover, on a different level Barnier knows his principal would have to do a lot of wrangling on its side and take a lot of procedural steps to indulge the UK (as in theyd need to change his negotiating parameters formally). Given the very high bar for getting the EU to adopt the UK position, he has very little to lose by acting as a fair broker of the UK position. It demonstrates that he has made a good faith effort while knowing full well that the die is pretty much cast and the odds of a course change now are low. A second reason is that the European Commission has long positioned itself as the friend of smaller EU countries, as in a forum that can serve as a counterweight to Germany and France. Juncker tried to play this role ineptly during the Greek negotiations. Right after Syriza took office, before opinions in Europe had hardened against them, Juncker tried acting as the young governments advocate, only to be slapped down by Germany. There is a third possible reason, and this is speculative. Recall Theresa Mays speech in Florence on September 22, in which she proposed funding the UK share of the EU budget during a two year transition phase. That funding commitment was seen in the UK as a major sop to the EU, although it was also a clever gambit, since the Eastern European countries who are potential UK allies on trade are also the most eager to see the UK pay up. But that also made the proposal controversial among the hard Brexit camp. Barnier was initially unreceptive. From the Financial Times two days after her speech: David Davis, the UKs Brexit secretary, has been told that Britains request to have an EU transition deal will only be discussed once the UK has settled its divorce matters, including its exit bill. Arriving just ahead of the fourth round of Brexit talks in Brussels today, Michel Barnier, the EUs negotiating chief, said prime minister Theresa Mays explicit request for a transition deal of around two years after 2019 would only get a hearing in the second phase of talks. To get to this point, the two sides will have to overcome the sticky issue of money. But the story also included this bit: Brussels is demanding more detail on the positions laid out in Florence, including the size and scope of the financial settlement and the legal position of EU citizens after withdrawal. First, is it possible that the UK sounded its most likely allies before the Florence speech? Or perhaps a group of foreign diplomats from countries with significant UK exports pointed out that being willing to write a large interim check could split the united EU position? Second, the UK might have made enough in the way of additional private assurances to persuade Barnier that the British were more prepared to deal than their public posturing would lead one to believe. Or it may simply be that Barnier can see that these negotiations are going to be a colossal train wreck, and he is doing everything in his power to make sure that the histories of this sorry affair will hold him blameless. It would be nice to be more hopeful about the Brexit talks. But I dont see the hyperventilating stories about Hammands hopes for the negotiations as being well founded. It would be better if I were wrong. (Natural News) The state of California, not known for its rational decision-making, might have just done the right thing for a change when it comes to enhancing medical freedom. The states legislature, commandingly controlled by far-Left Democrats, have sent Gov. Jerry Brown a bill that no longer criminalizes the intentional, knowledgeable transmission of the HIV virus, which can cause AIDS and he signed it this week. As reported by the UKs Daily Mail, at present it is a felony to knowingly infect another person with HIV via sexual transmission. Once upon a time, persons who knowingly transmitted the incurable disease faced up to eight years in prison. Now, however, the new law lowers the act to a misdemeanor punishable by no more than six months in jail. Naturally, the change is being hailed by the LGBTQ community, which has an abnormally high HIV infection rate, as a step towards de-stigmatizing the disease and the community. But other people who oppose the new law say that it will only encourage even more irresponsible, unsafe sexual behavior that leads to additional infections (and higher medical costs for state taxpayers). Up to this point, HIV was the only sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the Golden State that carried a felony sentence if the disease was transmitted to someone else if the infected person knew he or she carried the virus. Even intentionally donated HIV-infected blood or infecting a person knowingly with a different STD only carried a misdemeanor sentence. Thats all changed now. The legislation, SB239, was written by state Sen. Scott Weiner and Assemblyman Todd Gloria. In a statement, Weiner said the bills passage is a major step toward treating HIV as a public health issue, instead of treating people living with HIV as criminals. As far as we know, the state didnt actually treat people living with HIV as criminals. Rather, it punished people who knowingly infected other people, which some believe was reminiscent of a medical police state; if you could be criminalized for passing along one virus, how close was the state getting to criminalizing the passage of other viruses (like the flu)? That said, as the Daily Mail noted, others are using advances in medical science as justification to decriminalize intentional infection of another person with the HIV virus: Californias new law comes as recently developed drugs for preventing and treating HIV have significantly extended life expectancies and lowered transmission rates in the HIV-positive community. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially announced that people who are on regular viral load suppression medication cannot transmit HIV to their partners, as it is maintained at undetectable levels. The paper noted further that the CDC said that the HIV infection rate only fell 10 percent between 2010 and 2014 in the United States. Opponents of the new law argue thats not very much, and still, people are getting infected, whether the medical treatment for getting the disease has significantly extended life expectancies or not. HIV infection can still lead to death. (Related: California just decriminalized child prostitutes beginning Jan 1 legalization stirs outrage.) As the CDC notes on its own website: HIV is a virus spread through certain body fluids that attacks the bodys immune system, specifically the CD4 cells, often called T cells. Over time, HIV can destroy so many of these cells that the body cant fight off infections and disease. These special cells help the immune system fight off infections. Untreated, HIV reduces the number of CD4 cells (T cells) in the body. This damage to the immune system makes it harder and harder for the body to fight off infections and some other diseases. Gloria countered that his legislation marks an important step to update our laws to reflect the medical advances which no longer make a positive diagnosis equal to a death sentence. J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk NaturalNews.com (Natural News) In what will no doubt come as a shocker to most people, a scientific organization is warning that fingerprint evidence in criminal cases does not conclude beyond a reasonable doubt a persons guilt. As noted by Homeland Security Newswire, a new report from a working group of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, regarding the quality of latent fingerprint analysis notes that courtroom testimony and reports stating or even implying that fingerprints collected from a crime scene belong to a single person are indefensible and have no basis in scientific foundation, the site reported. Fingerprinting is one of the most heavily used forensic methods. Routinely, fingerprint analysts report and testify to identification, that is, that the person who left the mark at the crime scene is the same person whose fingerprint is in the database, Joseph B. (Jay) Kadane, Carnegie Mellon Universitys Leonard J. Savage University Professor of Statistics and Social Sciences, Emeritus, said. Our review of the scientific literature found that there is no scientific way to estimate the number of people in some communitya city, a state, the country, the worldwho share the characteristics found, and hence no scientific basis for identification. An executive summary of the report states: Forensic science is an important tool for investigating crime and helping to determine guilt or innocence at trial, but questions have been raised about the validity and reliability of many forensic disciplines. A crucial National Research Council report issued in 2009 noted that most forensic disciplines have not been subjected to rigorous scientific study, arising as they have from crime labs, not academia. Further, there was no way to know which aspects of these disciplines were based on a solid scientific footing and which were not. The university says that Kadane, William Thompson of the University of California-Irvine, John Black of Black & White Forensics LLC, and Anil Jain of Michigan State University demonstrate in the report, Forensic Science Assessments: A Quality Gap Analysis of Latent Fingerprint Analysis, that though latent fingerprint examiners are able to successfully rule out the majority of the population from being the source of the prints, there is insufficient data to determine how fingerprints are unique and what makes them so. (Related: U.S. police have begun collecting DNA of innocent people with new stop and swabs.) As such, its scientifically baseless to make a claim that a latent fingerprint analysis gives examiners a way to narrow the pool of potential suspects to a single person. Law enforcement experts and officials say that forensic science is an increasingly important field of study that has given investigators some tools to better determine guilt or innocence of suspects on trial. However, questions continue to be raised about just how valid these methods are in the face of renewed scientific scrutiny. For instance, a critical National Research Council report that was issued in 2009 points out that the majority of forensic disciplines had not, at that point, been scrutinized via the rigorous scientific method. As such, there is no way to determine which aspects of these disciplines are based on a sound scientific basis and which ones arent. This new report examines the bases for latent fingerprint examination, and sets forth what is known, what is not known and where there are gaps, says Homeland Security Newswire. The fourteen recommendations in the report constitute a roadmap for further research. The report should also help key actors in the criminal justice systemlaw enforcement, lawyers and judgesmake more informed decisions. Another aspect of forensic science used to determine a persons innocence or guilty recently came under scrutiny. As Natural News reported in July 2015, hundreds and perhaps thousands of people around the country are currently serving prison terms (some have even been executed) due to a now-debunked forensic tool long employed by the FBI that in recent years has proven to be patently inaccurate. That method? Hair analysis. J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel. Sources include: HomelandSecurityNewswire.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The official narrative of the Las Vegas shooting massacre is riddled with inconsistencies and unanswered questions. Regardless of Stephen Paddocks potential ties to a greater plot, who was this cowardly figure hiding behind automatic gunfire on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel? With a cache of weapons and ammo in the background, his body was found dead on the floor of his hotel room, but his dead physical carcass doesnt suffice justice. What were the motivations, impulses, and hidden intentions of this man? What kind of dark emotions fomented in the inner workings of his soul? What lifestyle choices led him to this point of indescribable evil? Who was behind the face of this cold and calculated shooting spree? Newly uncovered deposition offers insight into Paddocks spiritually-depraved lifestyle Four years earlier, in a court deposition, Stephen Paddock was giving insight into his own depraved state. The 97-page deposition is taken from a civil suit from 2013, when Paddock tried to glean a settlement from the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas after he slipped on one of the hotels walkways and hurt his leg. Camera footage documented the fall, but he didnt win the settlement. In the deposition, Paddock spoke of his lifestyle, how he slept all day, avoided the light of the sun, and gambled through the night. He described himself as the biggest video poker player in the world. Night after night he stared into the gambling machines. Year after year, artificial lights glared off his retina. His soul was left void of real human connection, he was disconnected from responsibility, and his mind was severed from reality. Paddock was well off financially, wagering up to a million dollars a night, but he was dying inside, never happy, nor fulfilled, as evidenced by his numbing addiction to high-stakes gambling. At one point in 2006, he admitted to gambling 14 hours a day, 365 days a year. The casinos gave him free stays 95% of the time because he was such a big spender. No amount of money or freedom from responsibility could satisfy the deepening, darkening hole that was slowly consuming his character. Mind-altering pills masked Paddocks core spiritual issues and exacerbated his aggressive, addictive behaviors In the deposition, Paddock arrogantly proclaimed that he had a physician on retainer. The physician supplied Valium to Paddock for anxiousness. Paddocks anxiety is a symptom of a much greater spiritual void, of a life accountable to none, of a life saturated in addiction, with no real connection to circadian rhythm or other human beings. Paddock slept through the day, was extremely vitamin D deficient, and said he did not do sun. Not only were his root issues avoided and his mental health declining due to lack of sunlight, but the Valium he consumed also caused drastic side effects, including irritable behavior, rage, and aggression. The Valium only exacerbated his deeply-embedded problems, slowly pushing him to the edge. According to Nevadas prescription drug monitoring database, Paddock was prescribed the Valium in June, and it is hard to know exactly what other mind-altering prescription drugs he was able to obtain illegally. In the deposition, Paddock described his physician: Hes like on retainer, I call it, I guess. It means I pay a fee yearly I have good access to him. What drives a soul to such evil mania? In these desperate situations, the topic that eludes our thinking is the topic of spiritual health. At the core of Paddocks actions, slowly cutting away at his character, is a sickness of the soul, a spiritual disconnect. This spiritual decay is pervasive throughout culture and is witnessed in selfish behaviors, addictive, self-consuming materialism, unaccountable narcissism, no remorse, and no repentance. Authentic eye-to-eye connections are lost in the drunkenness of substances and screens. These issues cannot be resolved by a supplement or a mind-altering pill, but must be addressed consciously by every single one of us, as we examine our own hearts and address the deepest parts of our sinful nature. Sources include: CNN.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) What many are now referring to as the opioid crisis represents one of the worst epidemics of our time, claiming more than 64,000 lives annually, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). But the perpetrator of it all, the pharmaceutical industry, will not be going unpunished if a wave of potential lawsuits soon to be pending in multiple states is victorious in achieving justice. New reports suggest that Big Pharma could soon go the way of Big Tobacco as a result of these suits, seeing as how the very same lawyer that tanked the cigarette industry is now going after the legal drug cartels that make and sell them. Mike Moore, a former attorney general from Mississippi, is aggressively calling on states to pursue legal remedy against drug companies for failing to properly calculate the addiction risks of their opioid drugs. Moore is calling on at least 25 states to join him in building a multi-state coalition to sue the pants off of the drug industry for recklessly harming and killing millions with its opioid poisons. It is a similar strategy to the one he employed as attorney general back in 1994 when he filed the first ever state lawsuit against tobacco companies. Not long after, he helped to spearhead another lawsuit that led to negotiations that in turn resulted in a $246 billion settlement. I want there to be a huge amount of resources available for treatment, Moore is quoted as saying. And I want the industry to change its practices. Moore was also successful in making BP pay for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Moores highly successful track record of litigation further includes a lawsuit he filed on behalf of the federal government against oil giant BP, which back in 2010 caused major damage as part of the infamous Deepwater Horizon spill that took place in the Gulf of Mexico. Moore was able to garner a $20 billion settlement from BP for damages back in the spring of this year. Because of Moores get it done approach, many are confident that he can take on Big Pharma and win, which is why some 40 state attorneys general are reportedly already investigating how they might go about filing their own lawsuits. It is a massive undertaking, but one that stands a high probability of success if done correctly. What is further amazing about how Moore wishes to go about suing the drug industry is that he does not simply want to make the case that opioids leads to addiction when people abuse them. He wants to further peg opioids as leading to addiction even when used as directed by physicians in other words, opioids are inherently dangerous and probably should not be on the market at all. When hes motivated, you dont want to be on the other side, James Tierney, a former Maine attorney general who worked with Moore to go after the tobacco industry, is quoted as saying. In addition to Moores efforts, there are reportedly many others pursuing justice against Big Pharma on the more local level. Several dozen cities and counties are included among these, as are cases in the states of Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Both South Carolina and New Hampshire have also more recently joined the effort, with likely many more on the way. If they can get 14 or 15 states to file against the drugmakers, that will put stress on the companies, cost wise, to defend these suits all over the country, says Carl Tobias, a product-liability law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia. That will give them incentive to talk rather than fight. Sources for this article include: DrugAbuse.gov DailyCallerNewsFoundation.org Pharmacist.com NaturalNews.com VisaJourney.com Bloomberg.com The supplement industry faces a lot of legal hurdles that come from federal agencies, state attorney generals, plaintiff lawyers and self-regulatory efforts. In this Healthy INSIDER Podcast, Josh Long, INSIDER legal and regulatory editor discusses the hot regulatory topics that were showcased at SupplySide West on Sept. 25 to 29 in Las Vegas. With Sandy Almendarez, editor in chief, INSIDER, Long covers: FDAs efforts to create an old dietary ingredient (ODI) list to help supplement brands decided if they must submit a new dietary ingredient (NDI) notification for their products. The effects of the new U.S. president Donald Trump on the supplement industry. The battle thats brewing between cannabidiol (CBD) supplement/food brands and a pharmaceutical company thats likely to obtain drug status for CBD. Join us in April 2018 for SupplySide East in Secaucus, New Jersey, for further discussions of how these regulatory trends affect the supplement industry. Its no surprise clean label is the major trend on the 2017 food and beverage scene, but the innovation lies in clean labels emerging ties to trust and transparency, and the investment brands are making to ensure their products align with consumer values. In this podcast, Judie Bizzozero, editor, Food Insider Journal, discusses the food and beverage trends she saw during the 2017 SupplySide West trade show, held Sept. 25 to 29 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, with Sandy Almendarez, editor in chief, INSIDER. Along with clean label, they cover: New plant-based ingredient offerings seen on the SupplySide West Expo Hall from companies such as Glanbia, Kerry, Dupont, Cargill, Tate & Lyle and more The growing trend of fermented beverages (kombucha, anyone?) Sugar reduction and weight management ingredient offering that allow for tasty and indulgent products. Join us in April 2018 for SupplySide East in Secaucus, New Jersey, to meet with more ingredient suppliers serving the food and beverage industries. Data center workloads for AI, graphics rendering, high-performance computing and business intelligence are getting a boost as a Who's Who of the world's biggest server makers and cloud providers snap up Nvidia's Volta-based Tesla V100 GPU accelerators. Nvidia is rallying its entire ecosystem, including software makers, around the new Tesla V100s, effectively consolidating its dominance in GPUs for data centers. IBM, HPE, Dell EMC and Supermicro announced at the Strata Data Conference in New York Wednesday that they are or will be using the GPUs, which are now shipping. Earlier this week at Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference in Beijing, Lenovo, Huawei and Inspur said they would be using Nvidia's HGX reference architecture to offer Volta architecture-based systems for hyperscale data centers. Volta architecture is key Volta GPUs take a giant step forward in supplanting Nvidia's Pascal architecture. Volta-based Tesla V100s, for example, sport 21 billion transistors and 5,120 CUDA cores, cruising at 1,455MHz boost clock speeds. The Pascal-based Tesla P100, by comparison, offers up to 3,840 CUDA cores and 15 billion transistors. NVidia has about 70 percent of the market for discrete GPUs, and is just about the only game in town for machine-learning GPU workloads. Hardware is just part of the story, though. The ecosystem around its CUDA parallel computing platform and application programming interface (API) model, for example, has helped erect a barrier that competitors like Intel and AMD find hard to breach. "While we focus a lot on the hardware and Volta is obviously a fine part, there should be as much if not more focus on all the supplemental products that are wrapped around it compilers, systems, software tools, etcetera that Nvidia honestly has had years head start developing," said Mercury Research's Dean McCarron. Software tools for Volta-based Tesla V100 GPUs Among these complementary tools is a new version of Nvidia's TensorRT, an optimizing compiler and runtime engine for deployment of machine-learning systems for hyperscale data centers, embedded or automotive GPU platforms. Third-party software makers also stepped forward at Strata to announce applications that will run on the Volta-based GPUs. H2O.ai's Driverless AI program, for example, has been specifically tuned and is already running on Nvidia's Volta-based DG-X1 supercomputer, released earlier this month, and will run on any of the servers supporting the new version of the Tesla V100s (as well as being backward compatible with Pascal systems). Driverless AI is designed to let business users glean insights from data without needing expertise in machine learning models, and H2O.ai has found use cases in areas such as insurance, financial services and health care, according to SriSatish Ambati, the company's CEO and co-founder. While the massively parallel architecture of GPUs make them particularly suitable for machine-learning tasks such as training neural networks, servers incorporate the processors for a variety of tasks. "The common theme is anything that needs a GPU but it's not just AI," Mercury Research's McArron said. "AI, machine learning, virtualization, rendering, lots of parallel search functions all of that can obviously fit into a data center and that's where we've seen a lot of Nvidia's growth." Kinetica, an in-memory database application that harnesses the computing power of GPUs, is also running on Nvidia DGX systems as well as other servers running Pascal- or Volta-based GPUs. "We've definitely seen a performance increase," with Volta, said Woody Christy, director of partner engineering at Kinetica, on the sidelines of Strata. Kinetica's database speeds up Tableau queries and is used in financial services, retail, health care utilities and the public sector for fast OLAP, AI, business intelligence, and geosptial analytics. Servers now available to support Tesla V100 GPUs At Strata, meanwhile, server makers announcing systems based on Volta V100 GPUs include: Dell EMC: The company's PowerEdge R740 supports up to three V100 GPUs for PCIe; the PowerEdge R740XD runs up to three V100 GPUs for PCIe; and the PowerEdge C4130 can include up to four V100 GPUs for PCIe or four V100 GPUs for NVIDIA NVlink technology in an SXM2 form factor. HPE: The HPE Apollo 6500 supports up to eight V100 GPUs for PCIe and the HPE ProLiant DL380 systems can run up to three V100 GPUs for PCIe. Supermicro: Products supporting the new GPUs include a 7048GR-TR workstation for general, high-performance computing; 4028GR-TXRT, 4028GR-TRT and 4028GR-TR2 servers designed to handle machine-learning applications; and 1028GQ-TRT servers built for applications such as advanced analytics. IBM: Upcoming IBM Power System servers based on the POWER9 processor will incorporate multiple V100 GPUs and use NVLink, featuring an OpenPower CPU-to-GPU design for maximum throughput. IBM said it will unveil more details by the end of the year. In addition, at the GPU Technology Conference in Beijing, another vote of support for the Volta architecture came from hyperscale cloud providers Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, who said they would shift from Pascal to Volta based GPUs in their data centers and cloud-service infrastructures. Zika virus is mutating so fast in Brazilian patients that different serotypes of the pathogen could appear in the near future, as is already the case with dengue virus. This would hinder the production of a vaccine and impair the effectiveness of the diagnostic tests already developed. The alarm was sounded by Edison Luiz Durigon, Full Professor at the University of Sao Paulo's Biomedical Science Institute (ICB-USP), in Brazil. Such assertion is based on a study carried out by a group of scientists from the institute under the auspices of the Zika Virus Research Network in Sao Paulo (Rede Zika), which is supported by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). "Today there's only one Zika, and people become immune after being infected once," says Durigon, "But the virus is constantly mutating, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see Zika 2, 3 and 4 emerging before long". For months, the team closely monitored three asymptomatic patients - two men and a woman - and collected samples of the patients' blood, saliva, and urine, as well as semen in the case of the two men, every week. The material was sent to the United States, where whole-genome sequencing of the virus was performed thanks to a partnership with the US Army. "Week by week, we examined the data to see what was different in the viral genome," Durigon said. "In one patient, we found compartmentalized strains: the virus present in his semen was different from the virus in his urine. In all cases, the pathogen we found in the final stage of the infection wasn't the same as the virus that entered the patient." According to Durigon, the male patients continued to excrete large amounts of Zika virus in their semen for up to six months. One was found to have the virus in his saliva for three months. "Zika continued to replicate in the patient's testicular cells all this time, and using an electron microscope, we could see that the spermatozoa were formed already infected," he said. "This means a conception could occur with infected sperm. We have no idea whether pregnancy progresses in such cases, and if so, what the consequences would be for the fetus." The possibility of sexual transmission greatly increases Zika virus's capacity to spread, Durigon added, stressing that in his view, medical culture must change, as the profession still focuses on antenatal care for women. "It's no use testing only pregnant women to see if the virus is present, and advising only women to use insect repellent and avoid high-risk areas during pregnancy, while leaving men to go on with their lives as normal," he said. "Women could be infected by their partners. Doctors aren't paying attention to this possibility." Serological test During his presentation, Durigon recalled how Rede Zika was set up in Sao Paulo and how the swiftly organized network linking the scientific community and FAPESP ensured the advance of knowledge about Zika. "The virus was first isolated in Brazil in November 2015 by Pedro Vasconcelos, a researcher at Evandro Chagas Institute in Para. Our group at ICB-USP requested a sample, which arrived by mail while we were still putting up Christmas decorations," Durigon said. Researchers in Sao Paulo State then went into action. Between 2000 and 2007, they were part of the Viral Genetic Diversity Network (VGDN), a project supported by FAPESP that enabled an important infrastructure for virological research in Sao Paulo. Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today "In 2015, many members of that network had ongoing projects on other subjects with support from FAPESP," he recalled. "The agency quickly approved additional funding for these projects, and all efforts focused on the study of Zika. As a result, we were soon able to grow viral isolates in the lab and distribute them to several research groups around Brazil." According to Durigon, the scientific community's swift response in Sao Paulo inspired groups in other states as well as other research funding agencies, enabling the creation of a nationwide Zika network. The advances achieved since then include the development of molecular diagnostic tests (capable of detecting viral RNA in samples taken from patients during infection), proof that the virus causes a congenital syndrome that may or may involve microcephaly, the development of experimental vaccines, and finally the validation of a serological test that detects antibodies against the virus in blood samples even after the infectious stage is over and that does not cross-react with antibodies against dengue. "After two years, we can at last say with pride that we've produced a genuinely effective serological test to detect Zika," Durigon said. "We've validated it in over 1,000 samples from the population of Sao Jose do Rio Preto in the interior of Sao Paulo State, and in 800 samples from patients in Salvador, Bahia, including women who had children with and without microcephaly and patients who had yellow fever and dengue. If this test can identify Zika in Salvador, it can work anywhere in the world." The team that developed the serological method also includes ICB-USP researchers Paolo Zanotto and Luis Carlos de Souza Ferreira (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/23065). The next step, according to Durigon, is to collect more samples in Sao Paulo State and its capital in order to find out how many people have actually been infected to date in the region. Because up to 80% of cases may be asymptomatic, without the serological test, it is impossible to know the real magnitude of the epidemic and the percentage of the population that is still susceptible to the virus. "Sao Paulo has apparently had few cases of Zika so far," he said. "In Salvador, the tests are showing that a large proportion of the population has already been infected, including pregnant women, and that's why there have been many cases of microcephaly. Bahia, Pernambuco and Paraiba will probably have few cases for at least four years or so, until a significant proportion of the population is susceptible again. In Sao Paulo, we don't yet know." The main concern today, he added, is children born to mothers who are infected unawares by Zika during pregnancy. "These children may have brain damage but not microcephaly, so they won't be carefully monitored. The problem won't appear until later when they start displaying motor or learning difficulties. We could have a generation of children with all kinds of complications, and we won't know how to deal with them." As soon as the serological test is available on a large scale, the largest possible number of children born during the period should be tested. Positive results should be assessed with caution and confirmed by imaging. "What we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg. We don't know what's underneath," he said. While memory loss is an early symptom of Alzheimer's disease, its presence doesn't mean a person will develop dementia. A new study at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has found a clinically useful way to predict who won't develop Alzheimer's disease, based on patients' awareness of their memory problems. People who were unaware of their memory loss, a condition called anosognosia, were more likely to progress to Alzheimer's disease, according to the study, published today in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Those who were aware of memory problems were unlikely to develop dementia. "If patients complain of memory problems, but their partner or caregiver isn't overly concerned, it's likely that the memory loss is due to other factors, possibly depression or anxiety," says lead author Dr. Philip Gerretsen, Clinician Scientist in CAMH's Geriatric Division and Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute. "They can be reassured that they are unlikely to develop dementia, and the other causes of memory loss should be addressed." In other cases, the partner or caregiver is more likely to be distressed while patients don't feel they have any memory problems. In Alzheimer's disease, lack of awareness is linked to more burden on caregivers. Both unawareness of illness (anosognosia) and memory loss (known as mild cognitive impairment) can be objectively assessed using questionnaires. The study, believed to be the largest of its kind on illness awareness, had data on 1,062 people aged 55 to 90 from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). This included 191 people with Alzheimer's disease, 499 with mild cognitive impairment and 372 as part of the healthy comparison group. The researchers also wanted to identify which parts of the brain were affected in impaired illness awareness. They examined the brain's uptake of glucose, a type of sugar. Brain cells need glucose to function, but glucose uptake is impaired in Alzheimer's disease. Using PET brain scans, they showed that those with impaired illness awareness also had reduced glucose uptake in specific brain regions, even when accounting for other factors linked to reduced glucose uptake, such as age and degree of memory loss. As the next stage of this research, Dr. Gerretsen will be tracking older adults with mild cognitive impairment who are receiving an intervention to prevent Alzheimer's dementia. This ongoing study, the PACt-MD study, combines brain training exercises and brain stimulation, using a mild electrical current to stimulate brain cells and improve learning and memory. While the main study is focused on dementia prevention, Dr. Gerretsen will be looking at whether the intervention improves illness awareness in conjunction with preventing progression to dementia. Behavioral and psychological symptoms are difficult for dementia patients and their caregivers, but despite research efforts, there are still gaps in knowledge about what causes or precipitates these symptoms, according to researchers. In a review, the researchers analyzed previously published studies on the causes and precipitants of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). They found that while there have been many studies on patient determinants -- individual characteristics within the person suffering from dementia -- research was lacking in other areas. "We found that there haven't been many studies done on how a patient's caregiver or environment can trigger or affect these symptoms," said Ann Kolanowski, professor of nursing at Penn State. "In order to best treat people living with dementia, we need to learn more about all the possible causes of behavioral and psychological symptoms, and further research into these specific areas is needed." Dementia -- which affects 47.5 million people worldwide -- is almost always accompanied by BPSD. These symptoms, which include such behaviors as aggression and agitation, contribute to a poorer quality of life and a more rapid decline in cognitive and physical abilities. Kolanowski said that not only are these symptoms difficult for the person, but that people who exhibit them also are placed into care facilities more often than those who do not. "Families have a hard time responding well to aggression, or psychosis, or people wandering out of their homes at night. It's exhausting to them," she said. "We need to learn more about the factors precipitating these symptoms, so we can design approaches and interventions that will reduce them. Not only for the benefit of the person suffering from dementia, but also the caregivers." Neuroscience eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today The team gathered research on five of the most common BPSD in people with dementia: aggression, agitation, apathy, depression and psychosis. After compiling the available research on what causes or influences these symptoms, the researchers narrowed their focus to 56 high-quality, low-bias research papers. They then combined the study results into one report, published in Nursing Outlook. The researchers found evidence that certain factors affected multiple BPSD, including neurodegeneration, the type of dementia and the severity of the cognitive impairments. But the team also identified areas that are lacking in research, including how BPSD affect the progression of dementia and how environment and caregiver behavior can influence BPSD. They found that while there is some evidence for such factors as caregiver burden and communication skills affecting BPSD, there were not enough studies conducted, according to the researchers. "Learning about how factors within the person affect BPSD is important, but less is known about how the environment or caregiver might influence these symptoms," Kolanowski said. "If we know more about how external factors influence BPSD, that could powerfully affect how we design treatments and interventions." Kolanowski said that she hopes the report will help other nursing researchers both better understand what already has been discovered and to inspire them to branch out into other areas where research is needed. The review is a pre-summit activity for the National Research Summit on Dementia Care, the first national summit on dementia care in the United States, taking place Oct. 16-17, and will help inform the direction of future dementia research. The University of Illinois at Chicago has received a $3 million federal grant to study the effects of inflammation on polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS. Affecting one in seven women, PCOS is an endocrine system disorder that disrupts the menstrual cycle and impedes ovulation. It often causes acne and excess hair growth on the face and abdomen, and is one of the most frequent causes of female infertility. The exact cause is unknown, but researchers think that excess insulin, inflammation and genetics may all contribute. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will look at the role of inflammation in 90 women with PCOS. Principal investigator Dr. Frank Gonzalez says the goal is to understand the underlying mechanisms of PCOS. "While we have made great strides in helping women with PCOS, we need more research to understand exactly what happens in the body to cause the ovaries to malfunction," said Gonzalez, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the laboratory for reproductive endocrine and inflammation research in the UIC College of Medicine. "This study will test whether or not inflammation contributes to ovarian dysfunction independent of weight and insulin resistance." Genetics & Genomics eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today Gonzalez and his research team will randomize patients into two groups. The control group will receive a placebo and the study group will receive a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug called salsalate, commonly used to treat patients with joint pain caused by inflammation in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. Participants will undergo testing before and after treatment to measure inflammation in response to consuming a large dose of fats or sugar, insulin resistance and secretion of ovarian androgen. Elevated levels of androgen, also known as the "male" hormone, are believed to contribute to PCOS. During the 12-week trial, researchers will also monitor patients for ovulation during treatment and analyze weight and degree of insulin resistance. "We expect that women with PCOS receiving salsalate treatment will exhibit evidence of ovulation, decreased ovarian androgen secretion, and reduced inflammation, regardless of weight or degree of insulin resistance," Gonzalez said. "If our hypothesis is proved correct, this will provide needed evidence that treatment with a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent can help support normal ovarian function and help direct future therapeutic research." Doctors diagnose PCOS when other conditions are eliminated. They look for at least two of three signs of PCOS: irregular periods, excess androgens and enlarged ovaries containing numerous small cysts. Because the exact cause of PCOS is still unclear, current treatment primarily focuses on management of symptoms. Source: https://today.uic.edu/does-chronic-inflammation-contribute-to-pcos The University of Texas at Arlington received a $1.4 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education to further the efforts of the McNair Scholars program. The program assists undergraduate students who are first-generation college students, from low-income and minority populations, in continuing their education and pursuing master's and doctoral degrees. The federally funded McNair Scholars program was founded on the belief that neither socio-economic nor minority status should prevent someone from pursuing a career in higher education. The program is named after Ronald McNair, a NASA astronaut who was killed in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster. "We want our McNair Scholars to graduate with their bachelor's degrees in a timely manner and go to graduate school. But we don't want them to stop with a master's degree," said Joan Reinhardt, director of the McNair Scholars Program at UTA. "We want them to obtain their Ph.D. degrees and enter academia to create more diversity among those who are teaching or conducting research at the college or university level, which is a benefit for them and our country overall." Only 161 universities in the United States are selected to host McNair Scholars programs. The UTA chapter was established in 1990, making it one of the oldest programs in existence. McNair Scholars participate in special research internships working closely with faculty mentors during their junior or senior years to expose them to the rigors and demands of graduate school. Examples of research conducted by UTA's McNair Scholars in just the last year include organ regeneration in snakes, music interpretation theory and cancer cell growth. McNair Scholars come from all disciplines, but there is a particular emphasis on recruiting those studying in science, technology, engineering and math. "As a first-generation college student, I started at UTA knowing little about college and even less about graduate school," said Arianna Gomez, a UTA senior studying psychology. "The McNair Scholars program changed everything. I would not be so sure of my future had I not been a McNair Scholar." Gomez is currently applying to graduate school and plans to obtain a doctorate degree. Many graduates of UTA's McNair Scholars program already have obtained their doctoral degrees and are now working at colleges and universities or in research posts across the country. Padmini Veerapen earned her doctorate from UTA is currently an assistant professor of mathematics at Tennessee Tech University. Sharon Lynn Eaves is an assistant professor of psychology at Stephen F. Austin State University and Diana Cervantes is currently a faculty member at UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth and also the lead epidemiologist for the Texas Department of State Health Services in Arlington. "The McNair Scholars program at UTA allowed me to dare to believe that I might be able to go to graduate school and be successful," Veerapen said. "As a kid growing up on the island of Mauritius, I never thought I could go this far. The UTA McNair Scholars program changed that and was a stepping stone toward all that I am now." Eligible students must be U.S. citizens and either a low-income and first-generation undergraduate or a member of an underrepresented group in graduate education - which means African American, Hispanic, Native American, Native Alaskan or Native Hawaiian. Scholars also must maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or above. McNair Scholars are chosen after an extensive application and interview process. UTA has received other recent recognition for offering minority students opportunities to earn degrees. In August, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education ranked UTA as No. 1 in Texas for bachelor's and master's degrees awarded to African-American students, No. 1 in North Texas and No. 12 in the U.S. for master's degrees awarded to Hispanic graduate students, and No. 1 in North Texas for master's degrees awarded to all minority students. The piCO Smokerlyzer is being used in a study by the Maastricht University on the effectiveness of financial incentives and smoking cessation Manufactured by second-generation family company, Bedfont Scientific Ltd., the piCO Smokerlyzer is a breath analysis medical device used to help people quit smoking. It will be used in a clinical study at the Maastricht University to investigate whether or not a reward makes smoking cessation more effective. Image credit: Bedfont Scientific The project, CATCH (Continuous Abstinence Through Corporate Healthcare), run by Prof. Dr. C. P. van Schayck and Dr. G. E. Nagelhout, will take several Dutch companies partaking in Smoking Cessation programmes, however only half of the subjects will receive gift certificates for their efforts. The Smokerlyzer range is a series of carbon monoxide (CO) monitors that measures the harmful amount of CO that is inhaled from smoking, which can show how much a patient has been smoking, giving smoking cessation advisors an idea on the level of dependency that the smoker has. Sinefuma, a Smokerlyzer distributor for Bedfont, is the biggest smoking cessation company in the Netherlands. Marcel Clarijs, director at SineFuma, explains: It is beautiful that we can work together with the university and participate in research to find how we can get more succesfull quitters. We ran the smoking cessation programme within this study and were able to provide them with useful Smokerlyzer monitors so they can validate the success rates. This CATCH project consisted of about 60 group trainings with 50 different companies to help employees to quit smoking. Roughly 600 people participated in total and now over the next 3 years the university will do the research. Jason Smith, Managing Director at Bedfont, adds: In the 12 months after removing behavioral interventions, inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections increased relative to control practices, according to a study published by JAMA. Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing contributes to antibiotic resistance and leads to adverse events. A randomized trial of three behavioral interventions intended to reduce inappropriate prescribing found that 2 of the 3 interventions were effective. Jason N. Doctor, Ph.D., of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, examined the persistence of effects 12 months after stopping the interventions. The researchers randomized 47 primary care practices in Boston and Los Angeles and enrolled 248 clinicians to receive 0, 1, 2, or 3 interventions for 18 months. All clinicians received education on antibiotic prescribing guidelines. The authors found that during the postintervention period, the rate of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing decreased in control clinics from 14.2 percent to 11.8 percent, and for the different types of interventions, it increased from 7.4 percent to 8.8 percent for suggested alternatives; increased from 6.1 percent to 10.2 percent for accountable justification; and increased from 4.8 percent to 6.3 percent for peer comparison. During the postintervention period, peer comparison remained lower than control, whereas accountable justification was not different from control. Limitations of the study are that it only included volunteering clinicians from selected practices, and the postintervention follow-up was only 12 months. "These findings suggest that institutions exploring behavioral interventions to influence clinician decision-making should consider applying them long-term," the authors write. It was a case of spies watching spies watching spies: Israeli intelligence officers looked on in real time as Russian government hackers searched computers around the world for the code names of American intelligence programs. What gave the Russian hacking, detected more than two years ago, such global reach was its improvised search tool antivirus software made by a Russian company, Kaspersky Lab, that is used by 400 million people worldwide, including by officials at some two dozen American government agencies. The Israeli officials who had hacked into Kasperskys own network alerted the United States to the broad Russian intrusion, which has not been previously reported, leading to a decision just last month to order Kaspersky software removed from government computers. Antivirus is the ultimate back door, Blake Darche, a former N.S.A. operator and co-founder of Area 1 Security. It provides consistent, reliable and remote access that can be used for any purpose, from launching a destructive attack to conducting espionage on thousands or even millions of users. On Sept. 13, the Department of Homeland Security ordered all federal executive branch agencies to stop using Kaspersky products, giving agencies 90 days to remove the software. Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine C. Duke cited the information security risks presented by Kaspersky and said the companys antivirus and other software provide broad access to files and can be exploited by malicious cyber actors to compromise federal computer systems. That directive, which some officials thought was long overdue, was based, in large part, on intelligence gleaned from Israels 2014 intrusion into Kasperskys corporate systems. Kaspersky Lab did not discover the Israeli intrusion into its systems until mid-2015, when a Kaspersky engineer testing a new detection tool noticed unusual activity in the companys network. The report did not name Israel as the intruder but noted that the breach bore striking similarities to a previous attack, known as Duqu, which researchers had attributed to the same nation states responsible for the infamous Stuxnet cyberweapon. Stuxnet was a joint American-Israeli operation that successfully infiltrated Irans Natanz nuclear facility, and used malicious code to destroy a fifth of Irans uranium centrifuges in 2010. Kaspersky reported that its attackers had used the same algorithm and some of the same code as Duqu, but noted that in many ways it was even more sophisticated. So the company researchers named the new attack Duqu 2.0, noting that other victims of the attack were prime Israeli targets. Among the targets Kaspersky uncovered were hotels and conference venues used for closed-door meetings by members of the United Nations Security Council to negotiate the terms of the Iran nuclear deal. Kasperskys researchers noted that attackers had managed to burrow deep into the companys computers and evade detection for months. Investigators later discovered that the Israeli hackers had implanted multiple back doors into Kasperskys systems, employing sophisticated tools to steal passwords, take screenshots, and vacuum up emails and documents. In its June 2015 report, Kaspersky noted that its attackers seemed primarily interested in the companys work on nation-state attacks, particularly Kasperskys work on the Equation Group its private industry term for the N.S.A. and the Regin campaign, another industry term for a hacking unit inside the United Kingdoms intelligence agency, the Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ. Israeli intelligence officers informed the N.S.A. that in the course of their Kaspersky hack, they uncovered evidence that Russian government hackers were using Kasperskys access to aggressively scan for American government classified programs, and pulling any findings back to Russian intelligence systems. They provided their N.S.A. counterparts with solid evidence of the Kremlin campaign in the form of screenshots and other documentation, according to the people briefed on the events. Yellowstone National Park is famous in the volcanology community for being the site of three explosive supereruptions, the last of which was 631,000 years ago. During that eruption, approximately 1000 cubic kilometers of rock, dust, and volcanic ash blasted into the sky. Debris rained across the continental United States, spanning a rough triangle that stretches from todays Canadian border down to California and over to Louisiana. In places, ash reached more than a meter thick. At IAVCEI 2017 [International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earths Interior] in Portland, Oregon, researchers presented evidence that such eruptions only need a few decades of gestation before exploding. If something like this happened today, it would be catastrophic, says Hannah Shamloo, a geologist at Arizona State, speaking to the American Geophysical Union. We want to understand what triggers these eruptions, so we can set up warning systems. Thats the big-picture goal. Alongside her Ph.D. adviser at Arizona State, geologist Christy Till, Shamloo examined two specific sorts of crystals known as phenocrysts, which form as magma cools a beneath a volcano. Varying between 1 and 2 millimeters each, these crystals are too large to have formed during the heat of an eruption. Rather, each crystal starts with a core that grows layer upon layer, forming a rough equivalent to the rings of a tree. The early evidence, presented at a recent volcanology conference, shows that Yellowstones most recent supereruption was sparked when new magma moved into the system only decades before the eruption. Previous estimates assumed that the geological process that led to the event took millenniums to occur. To reach that conclusion, Hannah Shamloo, a graduate student at Arizona State University, and her colleagues spent weeks at Yellowstones Lava Creek Tuff a fossilized ash deposit from its last supereruption. There, they hauled rocks under the heat of the sun to gather samples, occasionally suspending their work when a bison or a bear roamed nearby. Last month, Nextbigfuture reported that Nasa estimates that if a 35% increase in heat transfer could be achieved from its magma chamber, Yellowstone would no longer pose a threat. A volcano the size of Yellowstone is essentially a gigantic heat generator, equivalent to six industrial power plants. Yellowstone currently leaks about 60-70% of the heat coming up from below into the atmosphere, via water which seeps into the magma chamber through cracks. The remainder builds up inside the magma, enabling it to dissolve more and more volatile gases and surrounding rocks. Once this heat reaches a certain threshold, then an explosive eruption is inevitable. Nasa have conceived a very different plan. They believe the most viable solution could be to drill up to 10km down into the supervolcano, and pump down water at high pressure. The circulating water would return at a temperature of around 350C (662F), thus slowly day by day extracting heat from the volcano. And while such a project would come at an estimated cost of around $3.46bn (2.69bn), it comes with an enticing catch which could convince politicians to make the investment. Yellowstone currently leaks around 6GW in heat, Wilcox says. Through drilling in this way, it could be used to create a geothermal plant, which generates electric power at extremely competitive prices of around $0.10/kWh. You would have to give the geothermal companies incentives to drill somewhat deeper and use hotter water than they usually would, but you would pay back your initial investment, and get electricity which can power the surrounding area for a period of potentially tens of thousands of years. And the long-term benefit is that you prevent a future supervolcano eruption which would devastate humanity. The idea is to drill in from the supervolcano from the lower sides, starting outside the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park, and extracting the heat from the underside of the magma chamber. This way youre preventing the heat coming up from below from ever reaching the top of the chamber which is where the real threat arises, Wilcox says. Cooling Yellowstone in this manner would happen at a rate of one meter a year, taking of the order of tens of thousands of years until just cold rock was left. The Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) needs to be smarter and leaner than the Abrams tank and Bradley fighting vehicle and completely reimagined, said Maj. Gen. Eric Wesley, who commands the Armys Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning, Georgia. The Army plans to have a blueprint for its successor to the M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle by 2022. While the shape of the vehicle remains undecided, Wesley said its clear it needs new ways of defending itself, including active protection systems and new weapons all with the goal of lightening the load and increasing maneuverability. The Armys current tanks weigh nearly 80 tons, Wesley said, up from roughly 65 when fielding began. We cannot afford to take another plate of steel and put it on the front, he said. We cannot afford to increase the weight of the Abrams, because its no longer mobile. You cant get it across key roads and bridges; you cant truck with it. Just adding passive armor is no longer sufficient. Active protection systems, which the Army is working to add in modular form to its existing vehicles, would allow the NGCV to operate lighter by creating a force field of sorts to defend against incoming fire before it makes contact. Active protection allows you to lower the weight and increase the protection of the vehicle by destroying rounds before they can penetrate the vehicle, Wesley said. Another weight-saving measure that may appear on the NGCV? Laser weapons. You are clearly a super-user of NUVO.net. Thats a good thing. It means you depend on independent and local news sources to keep you informed. You are a smart person. Coincidentally, independent and local news sources depend on you too. Youve read 25 articles this month and now, wed like you to be join our mission and become a NUVO Supporter. For as little as $4 a month, you can keep us alive and fighting -- and can have unlimited access to the independent news that cant be found anywhere else. NYTimes.com no longer supports Internet Explorer 9 or earlier. Please upgrade your browser. AAP government missed 14 out of 15 Delhi metro board meetings: Yogendra Yadav India oi-Anusha Recommended Video Metro Price Hike : AAP missed 14 of the 15 meetings of the Delhi Metro Board | Oneindia News For a party that has been vehemently protesting the hike in Delhi metro fares, representatives of the Aam Aadmi Party attended just one out of 15 meetings held by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Board. Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav alleged that Arvind Kejriwal's party missed 14 of the 15 meetings in the last two years. "Delhi government which has a 50 per cent stake in Delhi Metro, didn't attend meetings of committees related to DMRC's functioning in the last two years. Now they are misleading the people of Delhi," Yogendra Yadav said. He quoted the DMRC's annual financial report for the year 2015-16 and 2016-17. Swaraj India said that Delhi government officials, who are members of various committees, were absent in the meetings- a place where their presence could have made differences if the government intended for them. Delhi government officials are members of committees on audit, operations and maintenance, and property development. AAP has been protesting against the hike in metro fares since Monday. The party had even demanded that the metro functioning be handed over to them so they can run it without a price hike. "What stopped the government from opposing the fare hike when the chief secretary is a member of the fare fixation committee? The annual report shows whether their concerns are genuine or not," said Anupam, Swaraj India's spokesperson, and Delhi unit chief. According to the DMRC annual reports shared by Yadav's party, Delhi metro board's audit committee meetings were held on May 24, 2016, July 22, 2016, September 16, 2016, and January 16, 2017. Delhi government representatives did not attend a single meeting. Sanjeev Nandan Sahai, Delhi government's principal secretary (finance) missed property development committee, procurement committee meetings a miss but attended one audit committee meeting. Vikram Dev Dutt, the then transport secretary gave two meetings a miss while Gitanjali Gupta Kundra, principal secretary (transport), missed the maintenance committee meeting. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 9:21 [IST] AgustaWestland: After saying witness may have died, ED cites a little birdie to say he is alive AgustaWestland case: Court summons former IAF chief Tyagi India oi-Deepika By Deepika Patiala House court on Wednesday issued summons to former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi and others in AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter deal case. The court issued the summons asking them to appear before him on December 20. It also issued non bailable warrant against 3 foreign nationals, namely GR Heshke, CV Gerosa and CM James in the case. On September 1, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a chargesheet against retired Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi, former Air Marshal JS Gujral and 10 others in the 3,700 crore AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter case. Running into 30,000 pages, the chargesheet, filed before a special court, also named as accused Air Chief Marshal Tyagi's cousin Sanjeev Tyagi, lawyer Gautam Khaitan, alleged middlemen Christian Michel, Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke, former AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini and former Finmeccanica chairman Giuseppe Orsi. The agency has invoked Sections 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, read with various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, against the accused. It charged that Tyagi not only lowered the service ceiling requirement of the helicopter from 6,000 to 4,500 metres but also revised the operational requirements. The case The scam is about a contract, signed undet the UPA regime, to purchase 12 Agusta Westland AW-101 helicopters in February, 2010 for the Communication Squadron of Indian Air Force to carry the President, Prime Minister and other VVIPs. Controversy over the contract came to light on February, 12. 2013 with the arrest of Giuseppe Orsi, the CEO of Finmeccanica, Agusta Westland's parent company by Italian authorities, the following day former defence minister AK Antony ordered a probe into the contract. The deal was rejected in 2002 as the choppers were unable to fly at an altitude of 6,000 metres. However, in 2005 the same was revised to 4,500 metres. Tyagi had told the CBI that the decision was taken in consultation with officials in the PMO and also the Special Protection Group. OneIndia News At Supreme Court Karti reveals details of his banking activity abroad India oi-Vicky By Vicky The only banking activity conducted by me during my visit to the UK post the registration of the FIR by the CBI related to the two accounts in the Metro Bank and a sub account. He told the Supreme Court that the said account was opened in the Metro Bank only in 2016 and a linked sub-account was opened later. I never held any prior account before that, he also told the court. Karti sought permission from the Supreme Court to travel abroad between October 19 and November 13. He said that he needed to make this trip as he had to admit his daughter for higher studies at the Cambridge University for the year 2018-19. He further stated that he has just one bank account in the Metro Bank in UK. This was opened in June 2016, he also said. He also said that the bank account has not got any remittance from anyone except him, his wife and daughter. I am politically exposed person and the UK has strict laws governing PEPs in terms of opening bank accounts, he also submitted. It is because of my father's and my political affiliation I am being subject to such rigorous scrutiny. We own only one asset abroad and this was acquired by transfer of funds through nationalised banks under RBI's liberalised remittance scheme. The submission comes a few days after the CBI said that Karti the son of former union minister, P Chidambaram had gone abroad to close his foreign accounts. The CBI while arguing that the look out circular against Karti should remain in force said that he went abroad and closed his accounts. Karti Chidambaram has closed several foreign accounts and transferred money deposited in them when he was abroad, the CBI also said. This is in clear contradiction to what Karti, had tol d the agency-that he had just one account. The court is hearing a plea challenging the lookout circular issued by the Central Bureau of Investigation which barred Karti, son of former union minister P Chidambaram from traveling abroad. The Central Bureau of Investigation has alleged that Karti Chidambaram took service charges for getting FIPB clearance when his father P Chidambaram was the union finance minister. The CBI while defending the circular said that it has ample evidence to show the properties and accounts that Karti Chidambaram holds abroad. It also accused him of charging service while getting FIPB clearance when his father Chidambaram was the finance minister of India. The submissions were made by the CBI which probed Karti in the INX media case. Karti Chidambaram arguing through his counsel said that the CBI has claimed that he had properties all across the world. They also said I have bank accounts abroad. However during the questioning the CBI did not ask me one question about it, he also submitted. The CBI responded by saying, " we have things to show- the jugglery of accounts and properties abroad. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 16:00 [IST] 'Kantara' box office: Even as Bollywood's Akshays and Ajays struggle, this one hits Rs 75-crore mark Bengaluru's killer potholes: BJP protests outside BBMP office India oi-Madhuri Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers on Wednesday protested with symbolic body outside Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) office against recent deaths due to potholes in Bengaluru city. Earlier on Tuesday evening, a 21-year-old bike-borne woman died after allegedly ramming into a lorry while trying to avoid a pothole in Devanahalli. The driver of the truck fled the scene after the accident. However, he was arrested later by the Vijaypura police. The deceased has been identified as Kavita, who was a garment worker and was riding pillion with her elder sister Vijayalakshmi. The incident happened at around 5:30 pm on Tuesday in Devanahalli close to Vishwanathapura police station. According to the police, while trying to negotiate a pothole, Vijayalakshmi slowed down the two-wheeler when a truck hit them from behind. As the women fell off their vehicle, the truck ran over Kavita, killing her instantaneously. Two days ago, a woman was run over by a truck when the motorcycle she was riding pillion with her nephew skidded near Nayandahalli while negotiating a pothole. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has blamed torrential rains for the potholes in the city and has promised to rid the city of potholes in a fortnight. OneIndia News Dont say Love Jihad every now and then: Kerala HC India oi-Vicky By Vicky The Kerala High Court which had recently annulled a inter-faith marriage has now said that every case cannot be Love Jihad. Don't say Love Jihad every now and then, the HC observed. The observations came during a habeas corpus hearing. One Anees from Kerala had sought an order that his wife Sruthi be released from the custody of her family. During her deposition, Sruthi said that she was forcibly being kept at a Yoga centre near Kochi. The people at the Yoga centre which helps re-convert Hindu women who have embraced another religion tortured me, she also alleged before the court. During the course of the hearing the counsel appearing for the Yoga centre said that this was a case of Love Jihad. The Bench then shot back by saying, " don't say Love Jihad every now and then and in every case." It may be recalled that the NIA is probing the Hadiya case which had also be termed as Love Jihad. The Supreme Court had ordered the NIA probe, but the Kerala government went up before the top court questioning the need for such an investigation. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 6:44 [IST] How 7th Pay Commission led to overall operating ratio of the Railways going down Shoot them at sight if Railway property is destroyed says junior Rail minister Officials in Railway Minister's office to work in 2 shifts of nine hours each Will senior citizens get concessions in train fare? Here's what Railway Minister says Elphinstone stampede: Committee to probe delay in tender for new footbridge India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Railway Ministry on Wednesday constituted a high-level committee to probe 18-month delay in the tender of a new foot overbridge at Elphinstone Road station. The committee will be headed by former CVC Pratyush Sinha and will submit its report within three months. In a stampede incident on September 29 at Elphinstone railway station, at least 22 people were killed, including four women. Also, 39 people were injured. Then Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had assured a Shiv Sena MP last year that a wider bridge would be built in its place. In a letter dated February 20, 2016, Prabhu had written to Sena MP from Mumbai Arvind Sawant that the "construction of 12 meters wide new foot overbridge at Elphinstone Road was under the positive consideration of Railway Ministry." Construction of the new bridge, connecting Western Railway and Central Railway after the extension of Platform No 1 and 2 towards north side by 100 metres, was under "positive consideration" of the Ministry, Prabhu had written in the letter accessed by PTI. After the stampede at Elphinstone Road station, people came to know that an additional foot overbridge had already been sanctioned for and tender was floated for the same. Rs 9.5 Crore was sanctioned by Railway Ministry for the project. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 17:40 [IST] Good rains don't mean end of problems for farmers, here is why India oi-Anusha "Leave alone farming, there was no water to drink- neither for the people nor the cattle over the last four years. We sold our cattle simply because we could not tend to them. Gold, land, tractor- we have sold or pledged it all," recalls Thammegowda, a farmer from Mulkatte village. Consecutive droughts have ravaged the village. Rain has been good this year but lives of farmers as well as the drought-ravaged land will take more than one good rain to recover. For the first time in four years, people of Mulkatte- an agrarian village in Nagamangala taluk of Mandya district in Karnataka- are seeing their lake brim with water. Despite the bountiful rains that the state has seen, farmers are not very positive. The heavily rain-dependent region is praying for another spell of rain to make its ragi crop a success. Another crop failure means another year of doom for the village of about 750 people. Sipping a cup of tea, seated on a casual bench outside the tea stall on a sunny Monday morning, villagers, mostly farmers spoke of how the drought had taken a toll. "The greenery you see around you is just weed and grass. Two months ago, the land was brown and barren. Despite the rains, we have no crop this year because we need to prepare the land first. Those who have sown are hoping for another spell of rain but the situation is tricky. If it rains too much, the crop will be wasted," said M D Devegowda, a 63-year-old farmer from the village. The thirsty villages within a lush green district The village traditionally grows ragi- a drought-tolerant crop, vegetables, and coconut but the drought has changed things and villages believe that it will take another year of good monsoon to reverse the damage. Nagamangala taluk lies in the tail end of the otherwise lush green and well irrigated Mandya district-Karnataka's sugar bowl. "We have no connectivity to Cauvery like other parts of Mandya and are heavily dependent on Hemavathy for water. But for the last few years, no water was released from the reservoir. The Hemavathi irrigation canal ends in our taluk but the works on the same are incomplete. Despite the acute water shortage and rainfall deficit, our taluk never finds a place in the state government survey for rain deficit regions," said M Paramesha, a local who cleared the Karnataka Administrative Services examination and is currently posted in Tumkur. The wait for the loan waiver is long and tiring 1,127 farmers from 28 villages belonging to one of the cooperative societies are eligible for a loan waiver as announced by the Karnataka government. Not a single rupee of the sanctioned Rs 3.80 crore has been disbursed so far. Farmers have been told that the money would be disbursed by December and this is the tale of one cooperative society alone. "Farm waiver is never the permanent solution to farm crisis. Governments fail to come up with a long-term plan to make farmers self-sufficient. With MSP, there is some respite but is the government willing to offer a price that is suitable if not profitable for the farmer?" asked Devinder Sharma, an agricultural researcher, and activist. "I invest Rs 8,000-9,000 to cultivate Ragi in the one-acre land. A good harvest would yield me 20-24 kgs grains but I am forced to sell one quintal of Ragi at nothing more than Rs 1800-1900 to middlemen," said Vishakante Gowda, President of the Kasaba Vyavasaya Seva Sahakara Sangha, a cooperative society. As on Tuesday, the price of one quintal of Ragi from Nagamangala was pegged at Rs 2,300 on the Krishi Marata Vahini website- an online agricultural marketing information system meant to help farmers. "The government barely purchases the produce once a year. Our Rights, Tenancy, and Crops (RTC) form are used by middlemen to sell our produce at higher rates (at govt fixed rates)," said Halugowdappa, a 61-year-old farmer who sold his land for his daughter's marriage. Out of the five-acre he owns, he had decided to cultivate a mere 1.5 acre, with financial crunch being the reason. Farmers don't want to grow to sell "We now cultivate only for our consumption. What we grow is enough for our household and to feed the cattle. There are barely 3 pairs of oxen in the entire village because none can afford to take care of them anymore. You (city dwellers) give us a good price for our produce and we will grow more grains and send it to you," said Vishakante Gowda. His statement reflective of the urban-rural disconnect in India, a term researchers have time and again referred to as the crux of farm crisis Farmers from this rain-dependent village have but one request to the government- release water through the canals once a year so the lakes are filled up. "All that the government has to do is release water once a year and we will never face drought," M Paramesh said. OneIndia News Great tolerance, the CBI is sitting idle in Goa says its SP Head of Financial Scams wing investigating his own brother? CBI denies allegations India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar IPS officer Rajiv Singh of the Tripura cadre, Joint Director in the Banking and Securities Frauds Section of the CBI, is facing allegations of interfering in the investigation of a bank scam involving his brother. Some within the agency point out that Rajiv Singh's brother, Sanjiv Singh, is accused of swindling Allahabad Bank's branch in Ranchi of Rs. 6 crores. The Singhs' family home in Hazaribagh of Jharkhand was also raided a year ago when the CBI first registered a case against him. Some CBI officers also allege that at that time, Rajiv Singh reached out to colleagues in the CBI who raided his family home and other locations to collect evidence against his brother, according to an NDTV report. A complaint submitted to top officials of the Chief Vigilance Office claims these colleagues immediately alerted then CBI director Anil Sinha about the impropriety of such interventions. Rajiv Singh's new position could interfere with progress, it claimed. The case is yet to be chargesheeted. However, CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal told NDTV, "It is stated that Rajiv Singh (Joint Director, CBI) - or the Zone/Branch he is heading - is not handling the case in question. Allegations of any interference on part of Sh Rajiv Singh in the said case is totally unfounded and incorrect. The allegations are strongly denied." OneIndia News Honeypreet Insan confesses to inciting Panchkula violence: Reports India oi-Madhuri Recommended Video Honeypreet Insan sent to six days police remand by Panchkula Court | Oneindia News Gurmeet Ram Rahim's adopted daughter Honeypreet Insan, who is in the custody of Harayana Police confessed on Wednesday that she incited the Panchkula violence that killed over 40 people, according to reports in the media. Earlier on Tuesday, Honeypreet and her accomplice Sukhdeep Kaur were sent to a three-day police remand by a Panchkula court. Honeypreet is accused of inciting violence after Ram Rahim was convicted on two counts of rape on August 25. She was arrested on October 3 on the Zirakpur-Patiala road in Punjab by the Haryana police. Honeypreet tops a list of 43 people "wanted" by the state police in connection with the violence following Ram Rahim's conviction in a rape case. At least 41 people died and several were injured in the violence. Honeypreet, who calls herself "Papa's angel", had accompanied Ram Rahim from the sect headquarters at Sirsa to special CBI court in Panchkula on August 25. After Dera chief's conviction that day, she also accompanied him in a chopper when he was flown to Rohtak jail. There had been no trace of Honeypreet after August 25. On September 26, the Delhi High Court had dismissed Honeypreet's transit anticipatory bail plea. The court's order was based on the ground that she had been evading arrest and hence, was not entitled to any discretionary relief. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 12:55 [IST] How Mumbai cops arrested Pallavi Purkayastha's Killer after he jumped parole India oi-Madhuri Sajjad Mughal, the security guard, convicted for the murder of 25-year-old advocate Pallavi Purkayastha in 2012, and was on the run since March 2016 after jumping parole. He was arrested by Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Tuesday near Srinagar. Sajjad Mughal was sentenced to life in jail in 2014 for the killing of 25-year-old Pallavi in her 16th floor apartment in central Mumbai. Last year, he left a jail in Nasik on parole, ostensibly to visit his unwell mother. He never returned. The police first suspected he had slipped across the border into Pakistan. However, a special team led by Inspector Sanjay Nikam was formed to travel to his hometown in Kashmir. They wore Kashmiri attire phiran and skull cap, and sported beard to mingle with locals in the terrain. In order to look like a Muslim tourist, Nikam had to pierce his ears and pick up Urdu accent. He also had to even lose a few kilos for the mission. A week before his arrest, Mumbai police team learnt that he was working as an assistant electrician for a tunnel work project in Gagangiri village, about 50-60 kilometres from Srinagar from where he was nabbed by the team and brought to Mumbai by flight. What happened that night when Pallavi Purkayastha was murdered? The 25-year-old lawyer and national level swimmer was murdered in her 16th floor Himalayan Heights apartment in Wadala in central Mumbai. On August 9, 2012, Sajjad stole Pallavi's flat keys and sneaked into her flat when she was asleep. When he tried to rape her, Pallavi resisted which is when he started stabbing her before slitting her throat. Bloodstains on the corridor and on the neighbours doorbell were proof of her struggle to seek help before she was dragged back into the apartment. Her body was discovered in a pool of blood by his lawyer boyfriend Avik Sengupta, who lived with her, who returned home from work the next day. OneIndia News Kerala govt intends to replace Governor as Chancellor of universities through ordinance DGP Kerala orders FIR against The Kerala Story after TN journalist forwards complaint to CM Kerala: Bomb hurled at BJP office in Kannur, party blames CPM India oi-Deepika By Deepika In yet another case of political violence in Kerala, bombs were hurled at Bharatiya Janata Party's offices on Wednesday. The BJP has blamed the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) for the bomb attack on its panchayat office in Kannur. The BJP and the CPI (M) have indulged in blame game for the killing of their party activists in the state. BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday protested against the alleged killings of his party activists in Kerala with a "Jan Raksha Yatra" (people's protection march) in New Delhi. He had alleged that at least 120 BJP workers have been killed since the communists came to power in Kerala. On Sunday, as many as 14 persons, including four police personnel, sustained injuries when some crude bombs were hurled around on a procession taken out by CPI(M) activists at Kaivellikal. Two swords, seven iron rods and a knife were found near the district office of the BJP in Kannur, a media report said. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 15:42 [IST] 'Loknayak' Jayaprakash Narayan's 115th birth anniversary India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Today India is celebarating 115th birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as JP or Loknayak. He was a theorist and a political leader, who was responsible for the fall of Indira Gandhi's government in the mid-1970's. JP, born in Sitabdiara, Bihar, would have turned 115 today. He was inspired by the ideas of Karl Marx when working and studying in Berkeley, California, 1922 onwards. On returning to India in 1929, JP, invited by Nehru and drawn by a speech by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad seeking participation in the freedom struggle, joined the Congress. A few years later, JP became one of the founding members of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP). The Congress party had to face a humiliating defeat in 1977 for the first time due to his clarion call for 'Total Revolution'. In a famous speech delivered in Patna's Gandhi maidan in 1974, during the emergency, JP said, " After 27 years of freedom, people of this country are wracked by hunger, rising prices, corruption-oppressed by every kind of injustice. It is a total revolution we want, nothing less." Though he was the architect of Janata government formed in 1977, JP stayed away from power politics. Unfortunately, his idea of 'Total Revolution' could not be realised as the Janata government fell halfway through its term. I bow to the venerable Loknayak JP on his Jayanti. His unflinching courage & righteousness continue to inspire every Indian. pic.twitter.com/xNcWULdCp9 Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 11, 2017 OneIndia News Lured, not forced two women tell NIA in Hadiya Love Jihad case India oi-Vicky By Vicky As part of its ongoing probe into cases of Love Jihad in Kerala, the National Investigation Agency has examined two Hindu women who reportedly converted to Islam. During their deposition before the NIA, they said that they were lured, but not forced to convert to Islam. The NIA examined the two women as part of its probe into the case of Akhila Asokan alias Hadiya, a 24 year old Hindu girl who converted to Islam. Her parents had moved the Kerala High Court alleging that this conversion was part of radicalisation. They also alleged that she was forcibly married of to Shefin Jahan. After the HC annulled the marriage, Jahan moved the Supreme Court which had ordered an NIA probe to find out if a concept called Love Jihad exists or not. NIA officials said that they have asked the Kerala for details on the alleged forced conversions at the Therbiyathul Islam Sabha in Kozhikode, a religious centre authorised by the Kerala government where Akhila is learnt to have converted. NIA officials say that one of the women examined said that she converted to Islam to marry a Muslim man. The probe agency is now corroborating the statements of the two women. The agency is going further to find out if the conversions were forced or were the women lured. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 6:59 [IST] Loudspeaker row: Notices issued to 1,400 persons in Thane, massive police deployment in place to maintain peace MNS workers attack non-Maharashtrians in Sangli India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar In a video that surfaced on Wednesday, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) members were seen attacking non-Maharashtrians on the pretext of demanding preference to local youth for jobs in the MIDC Kupwad industries area. Kupwad, formerly a small town, now houses the MIDC industrial area harbouring many foundries, spinning mills, chocolate factories, oil manufacturing, cold storage etc. Notable foundries are Tulsi foundry, J sons foundry. Lotte is a chocolate manufacturing industry is housed here. Notable spinning mills like Toto Toya spin ltd. Oil manufacturing factory ( Chakan oil mills) are also housed here. MNS-led by Raj Thackeray has been vocal against outsiders migrating to Maharashtra in search of employment. The MNS raised the issue of unemployment among Maharashtrian youths and blamed the 'outsiders'-mostly migrant north Indians-for the same. Following Raj's tirade, MNS workers beat up north Indian hawkers and cab drivers. In 2008, clashes broke out between MNS and Samajwadi party workers over "cultural dadagiri (bullying) of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar migrants and their leaders" #WATCH MNS workers beat up non-Maharashtrians in Sangli's MIDC Kupwad demanding preference to local youth for jobs in the area's industries pic.twitter.com/xtMRAHWbSD ANI (@ANI) October 11, 2017 No bullock cart races in Maharashtra this Diwali, Bombay HC extends ban India oi-Anusha The Bombay High Court on Wednesday extended the ban on bullock cart races in Maharashtra. The court observed that amendment to the law could not change the fact that the races meted out cruelty to animals. Bullock cart races are organized as part of Diwali celebrations in Maharashtra but the Bombay High Court order will disallow the same this year. "The very act of making the bull run would amount to cruelty. Can an amendment to the law change this fact?" the court observed before extending the ban on the sport. Taking a cue from Tamil Nadu assembly that passed an ordinance to allow Jallikattu, the Maharashtra government too, during the budget session had introduced and passed a bill to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Maharashtra Amendment) Act, 2017, however, makes it clear that the organisers of 'bailgada sharyat', 'chhakadi' and 'shankarpal', would have to be approved by the respective district collectors. The Bombay High Court in August had asked the government to frame rules that would govern the sport and banned the sport till that time. On Wednesday the court extended the ban. The High Court was hearing a petition asking for the ban imposed on granting permission to be lifted. On Tuesday, the court had banned the sale of firecracker in residential localities in Mumbai. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 13:38 [IST] Oommen Chandy was involved in solar scam says report, Kerala govt orders ACB probe India oi-Anusha The Kerala government has ordered a Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau probe against Congress leader and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday disclosed the findings of the judicial commission and claimed that it had found Oommen Chandy and his office's involvement in the multi-crore solar panel scam. During a press meet on Wednesday, Vijayan said that the Justice (retd) Sivarajan Commission constituted to probe the scam had found that Chandy and his former staff members, namely, Tenny Joppen, Jikkumon Jacob, gunman Salim Raj and Delhi based friend Kuruvilla had helped the prime accused in the case. The accused, Saritha S Nair and Biju Radhakrishnan and their company Team Solar are accused of cheating clients to the tune of crores in cohorts with the then Kerala Chief Minster Chandy. Justice (retired) G Sivarajan commission submits report in Kerala Solar panel scam Vijayan said that a criminal case would be registered against former Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan after the panel found him guilty of letting Chandy escape from the case. Vijayan who made excerpts of the panel public alleged that the Special investigation team that probed the case had also tried to help Chandy. The Kerala government has now formed a new SIT that will probe allegations against Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and other Congress leaders like Benny Behanan and Thamapanoor Ravi, allegations of sexual abuse raised by Saritha Nair in connection with the case. The move comes as a massive setback to Oommen Chandy. The Congress in Kerala has rubbished the panel's findings and has accused the state government of making politically motivated decisions. OneIndia News Doctors strike: Union health minister appeals to Bengal CM not to make it prestige issue Doctors go on 24-hour nationwide strike against passage of NMC Bill in Lok Sabha Left parties to hold nationwide protest against inflation, unemployment from May 25 to 31 Petrol pump dealers call off October 13 strike India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Petrol pump dealers called-off their October 13 strike as the United Petroleum Front (UPF) has withdrawn their nationwide strike. The nationwide strike of dealers on October 13 was to press for various demands including better margins and inclusion of petroleum products in the Goods and Services Tax. Also, UPF had warned that if the demands were not met at the earliest, fuel dealers will be forced to stop, indefinitely, purchase and sale operations from October 27. UPF represents over 54,000 dealers from the Federation of All-India Petroleum Traders, the All-India Petroleum Dealers Association and the Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 17:09 [IST] PFI activist arrested: What is the Narath Arms Training case India oi-Vicky By Vicky An absconding accused in the Narath Armed Training case was arrested by the National Investigation Agency. The NIA said that it had arrested a member of the Popular Front of India, Azharudheen K T alias Azhar aged 24. The case relates to the Narath Armed Training incident. This case dates back to 2013 when the members of the PFI and SDPI had organised an arms training camp at Narathi in Kannur. The case was busted on April 23 2013. Based on concrete information, the cops had raided the training camp and taken 21 activists into custody. The case was then transferred to the NIA. NIA officials informed OneIndia that they were on the lookout for Azhar who was the president of the PFI's Narath unit. At the time of the raid, Azhar was guarding the compound. On seeing the cops, he fled from the scene. During the course of the investigations, it was learnt that the camp at Narath was being held so that the two groups could further their subversive activities. The case went up to the court which handed out jail terms to 21 persons. One person was however acquitted in the case. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 6:39 [IST] West Bengal, three other states get new Governors New Governors for 8 states: Here are the names President Kovind to address two-day Governors conference India oi-PTI President Ram Nath Kovind will preside over a two-day Conference of Governors at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi. This is the 48th such conference to be held in Rashtrapati Bhavan and the first to be presided by President Kovind. Twenty-seven governors and three lieutenant governors of states and union territories will attend the event. Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the conference, a statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said. The theme of the opening session will be New India- 2022. India will complete 75 years of independence that year. "New India 2022 requires a number of initiatives in infrastructure to cater to the needs of citizens of the country," the statement said. "Similarly, to build New India 2022, emphasis has to be given on various services viz. access to quality education, training and skill development, healthcare, cleanliness, open-defecation free cities and villages, pollution free environment, safety and security of citizens, etc," it added. The first session of the conference will start with a presentation by the NITI Aayog on the possible elements of New India 2022. Then the governors will hold detailed deliberations on infrastructure and public services for New India 2022 in two groups, it said. In each group, the Centres ministers concerned will be present. The second session will be on higher education in states and skill Development and entrepreneurship to make youth employable, the statement said. The governors will give their remarks and suggestions on ways to achieve the goal along with their experiences from the states, it said. In the third session on the second day, governors will make brief remarks on any special issues pertaining to their respective states or union territories. They will also highlight key achievements or initiatives started in the Raj Bhavans, which can be adopted or replicated. In the concluding session, a brief report on the deliberations will be presented by the respective conveners. The deliberations and outcomes of the conference will be used by governors to sensitise stakeholders in their respective states as well as for working towards New India 2022, the release said. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and other ministers will participate in the conference. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 17:59 [IST] I have been assaulted by Rabri Devi, driven out of her house: Tej Pratap's wife Aishwarya Rai IRCTC hotels scam:ED summons asks Rabri Devi to appear on Oct 16 India oi-PTI New Delhi, October 11: Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi has been asked to appear before Enforcement Directorate on October 16. She skipped her scheduled appearance on Wednesday before the ED in connection with its money laundering probe in the railway hotels allotment corruption case. Rabri Devi, the wife of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, has earlier twice skipped the ED summonses in this case. It was not immediately clear if she furnished any reason for her absence today. The ED had yesterday questioned her son and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav for about nine hours in connection with this case. The CBI has also recently recorded the statement of Tejashwi Yadav and Lalu Prasad in this case. The ED had registered a criminal case against the Lalu Prasad family members and others under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) sometime back. It had earlier questioned a few people in this case including the wife of former UPA minister P C Gupta. The agency had taken cognisance of a CBI FIR in this regard to initiate its own criminal complaint. In July, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a criminal FIR (first information report) and conducted multiple searches against former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad and others. The ED will investigate the alleged "proceeds of crime" generated by the accused, purportedly through shell companies, officials had said. Rabri Devi, Tejashwi Yadav and others will be probed by the agency under charges filed in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR. The case dates back to the time when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government. Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director P K Goel. The CBI FIR alleges that Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two IRCTC hotels to a company after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land in Patna through a 'benami' company owned by Sarla Gupta. The FIR was registered on July 5 in connection with favours allegedly extended to Sujata Hotels in awarding a contract for the upkeep of the hotels in Ranchi and Puri and receiving premium land as 'quid pro quo'. The ED has powers to attach and confiscate tainted assets under the PMLA and it is expected that it will initiate such a move once it makes progress in the case. PTI With another ISIS module busted, TN has become a paradise of Islamic Jihadists 'Medicine can also be studied in Tamil medium!' - CM Stalin's efforts are getting a growing response Mayor Priya is not the puppet but the savior - How did Chennai recover from the floods? Russian tourist begs in Kancheepuram temple, police help him India oi-PTI Recommended Video Russian man begs infront of temple after ATM pin gets locked | Oneindia News Kancheepuram, October 11: A 24-year-old Russian, left with no money, started begging at a temple in Kancheepuram after he could not withdraw money using his bank ATM card as the PIN got locked. The tourist who has been identified only by his first name Evangelin, came to Kumarakottam Sri Subramanya Swami temple and sat at the gate with his backpack and sought alms using his cap. The devotees were surprised to see a foreigner seeking alms and alerted the police, an officer said, adding he was taken to a police station where they checked his travel documents. The police said his travel documents were in order and he had a valid visa till next month. The tourist told police that as a last resort he sought alms since he was left with no money. He could not withdraw money using his ATM card since the PIN got locked, he said. Police arranged money for the Russian and asked him to contact consulate officials in Chennai for help. PTI Mark Zuckerberg says 'sorry' as Meta fires over 11,000 employees in one go | Full statement Twitter will do lots of dumb things: What else did Musk say today? Student spends 42 days in Muzaffarnagar jail for social media posts India pti-PTI New Delhi, October 11: An 18-year-old boy, who made light of the Ganga being declared a "living entity", debated BJP's promise of building a Ram Mandir to lure voters, had to send 42 days in prison for his social media posts. For his social media commentary, which the Uttar Pradesh Police considered criminal, Zakir Ali Tyagi said he had to spend 42 days in Muzaffarnagar jail with hardened criminals where he had to pay cash even to use the washroom. The 18-year-old, who was picked up on the night of April 2, was charged under the Indian Penal Code's Section 420 (cheating) and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act (computer related offences). He was released on bail after 42 days, but the police has added Section 124A dealing with sedition in the charge sheet, lawyer Qazi Ahmed, who argued the bail case, told PTI. However, it could not be independently verified as a copy of the charge sheet was not available. "I was picked up on the night of April 2 on the pretext of questioning when I returned home from a jalsa (soiree) in a local madrassa. I was told by the police officer that I would be released in a few hours," Tyagi told reporters here yesterday. The Muslim youth, who worked with a transporter in a steel factory in Muzaffarnagar, recounted his ordeal at the Press Club of India. He was brought to Delhi by the Bhim Army Defence Committee, a forum led by noted lawyers like Colin Gonsalves, which takes up cases of alleged injustice against Dalits, minorities and other marginalized groups. "The night I was picked up, someone who was not in uniform walked into the lock-up and bashed me. He abused me and called me a terrorist. However, the medical report that was produced by the police, which is mandatory in cases of arrests, said I was perfectly fit," Tyagi said. By the time he walked out on bail, he had lost his job, which earned him Rs 8,000 per month. His employer, who had been supportive, told him he was being forced to reduce his staff due to losses in the wake of implementation of GST. Tyagi is now pursuing a BA course through correspondence from Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut. The FIR, a copy of which is available on the website of the Uttar Pradesh Police, lists some of his Facebook activities, including a post asking if criminal charges would be initiated if someone drowns in the Ganga now that it had been declared a living entity. It refers to his post asking why the Centre was not doing away with the Haj subsidy given to Air India. There is also a mention of his post that the "promise of the government on Ram Mandir was nothing but a gimmick which will be made before the next polls again to lure voters, like the promise to send Mullahs to Pakistan." Besides, the FIR states that Tyagi used a photograph of police officer Akhtar Ali, who was killed in an encounter with criminals in Dadri in 2016, as his Facebook profile picture, which "deceived people". Social activist Wasiq Nadeem Khan confirmed that Tyagi's lawyer has been informed about the sedition charge. "On Zakir's first bail hearing, the magistrate came late and postponed it to the next week. In the second hearing, the plea for bail was simply dismissed on grounds that the 'matter is serious'. Subsequently, he had to spent 42 days in Muzaffarnagar jail. We will now move the Allahabad High Court for relief," he said. Muzaffarnagar SSP Anant Deo was not available for comment. Addl SP (City) Muzaffarnagar, Omvir Singh, said he was not aware of the case as he had joined after April. Singh, however, said that in many cases of "objectionable posts" the IT Act comes into the picture. The officer-in-charge of Kotwali (city) police station, which booked Tyagi, did not respond when asked about the case. "I am there on Facebook. I love politics and reading and sharing views. And I was not the only one who put up the slain cop's picture on my profile after he was killed by criminals. Many people did that to express their admiration for him. I never imagined sharing opinions on social media will bring me to this pass. I urge everyone to help me fight the case as a charge of sedition can destroy my life," Tyagi said. Tyagi, who "loves politics and admires Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh", said he now sticks to "sharing links of news reports" and toned down his comments. PTI he has toned down his Facebook presence and PTI With another ISIS module busted, TN has become a paradise of Islamic Jihadists 'Medicine can also be studied in Tamil medium!' - CM Stalin's efforts are getting a growing response Mayor Priya is not the puppet but the savior - How did Chennai recover from the floods? Swaraj assures help to Russian tourist begging in Kancheepuram temple India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has assured help to a Russian tourist who was found begging in Kancheepuram temple in Tamil Nadu. Swaraj tweeted, "Evangelin - Your country Russia is our time-tested friend. My officials in Chennai will provide you all help." Evangelin - Your country Russia is our time tested friend. My officials in Chennai will provide you all help. https://t.co/6bPv7MFomI Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) October 10, 2017 A 24-year-old Russian, left with no money, started begging after he could not withdraw money using his bank ATM card as the PIN got locked. The tourist who has been identified only by his first name Evangelin, came to Kumarakottam Sri Subramanya Swami temple and sat at the gate with his backpack and sought alms using his cap. Police arranged money for the Russian and asked him to contact consulate officials in Chennai for help. (With agency inputs) For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 18:37 [IST] JEE Main 2023 exam dates to be out soon: Check details When this mom got a surprise gift, her reaction was 'gold' | Watch Traders move SC over ban on sale of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR India oi-Deepika By Deepika Firecracker traders on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court urging it to reconsider its recent order banning the sale of firecrackers in Delhi and NCR. The traders have approached the court in their individual capacity seeking permission from the apex court to sell their existing stock. The traders urged that conducting business of firecrackers is a legitimate activity protected under the Constitution of India giving 'Right to Work'. The SC ban on the sale of firecrackers elicited angry reactions from shopkeepers, who were expecting to cash in on sales during the festive season. The firecracker business amounts to over Rs 500 crore in the city and many traders, who have already purchased the stock for this Diwali, are worried that the ban will incur them huge loss. In an effort to check alarming pollution level, the Supreme Court on Monday slapped a temporary ban on the sale of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR region during Diwali this year, dealing a blow to the traders and businessmen dealing in them. Giving out the order, the apex court maintained that its last month's order, which lifted the stay and permitted the sale of firecrackers, would come into effective only from November 1, 12 days after the 'festival of lights'. OneIndia News Will raise our climate ambitions but not under pressure: Javadekar Now Ferraris and Lamborghinis can test in India: India gets Asias longest high speed track Shouldn't worry about 2024, instead think of 2029 polls: Javadekar's advice to Opposition Central university teachers to get benefit of 7th Pay Commission India oi-Vikas By Vikas Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said that teachers of all centrally funded deemed universities and 43 central universities will get the benefit of 7th Pay Commission. In a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Javadekar said that 7.51 lakh teachers in universities will get benefits of 7th Pay Commission recommendations. "We must attract good talent into academia, they need to be given attractive compensation," he said. Javadekar at cabinet meeting The cabinet briefing was held at the Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi. The meeting was attended by IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan along with Javadekar. HRD Minister stressed on better remuneration for teachers "We must attract good talent into academia, they need to be given attractive compensation," HRD minister said. Varsity teachers will a hike a almost 22-28% "This amounts to an increase of around 22% - 28%," Javadekar said in the briefing. While at first the government was thinking of giving arrears, the change in decision was prompted after the April-June GDP growth slipped to a three-year low of 5.7 percent. The government believes it will bounce back in the second quarter. Moreover the fiscal math this year was already burdened, the government points out. While the government has decided to hike the basic minimum pay beyond the 7th Pay Commission, there is not much clarity on the arrears. Central Government employees who are hoping that the pay hike would come in January 2017 may not have much good news on the arrears front. OneIndia News On PMs guidance how Devbhoomi Uttarakhands Temples will be developed Portals of Gangotri shrine close for winters, devotees can worship at Mukhba village now Anand Mahindra's tweet about UPI at country's 'last tea shop' is every Indian's emotion NSA Ajit Doval, late CDS Gen Rawat among others to be awarded Uttarakhand Gaurav Samman Uttarakhand cuts VAT on petrol, diesel by 2 percent India oi-Deepika By Deepika The Uttarakhand government has decided to reduce the value added tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel by 2%, state Finance Minister Prakash Pant said on Wednesday. The Central government had earlier instructed the state governments to bring down the taxes to help the consumers. Uttarakhand is the third BJP ruled state to cut VAT on fuels following the directions of Central government. On Tuesday, two BJP-ruled states Gujarat and Maharashtra have today slashed the VAT on fuel. While the Gujarat government cut the fuel prices by 4 per cent, the Maharashtra government reduced petrol and diesel prices by Rs 2 and Rs 1 respectively. The lowering of tax in the state follows Union finance minister Arun Jaitley recently writing to all state governments nudging them to reduce taxes on petrol and diesel. The Centre had recently brought down excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 2 per litre. However, the Kerala government, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), objected to the directive, citing that the status is unfavourable to implement the move. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 14:25 [IST] When will Gujarat election 2017 be held: When there are no marriages? India oi-Vicky By Vicky When will the Gujarat 2017 election be held? If the Election Commission of India takes the suggestion made by the BJP, then it would be held at a time when there are no marriages. A memorandum was submitted to the Election Commission of India by Parindu Bhagat, the BJP's legal cell in charge. He suggested that the elections should be held between December 14 and January 14. This period was suggested since there are no Hindu weddings that take place in the country during this period. "It is pertinent to note that no marriage ceremonies take place between 14th of December up till 14th of January. This period is not considered appropriate for marriage ceremonies as per Hindu religion. Therefore, considering this fact, it is requested if the date of the election is considered somewhere between 14th December to 14th January." Further the memorandum also suggested that the distance between the campaign offices of the political parties and the polling stations should be lessened from 200 to 50 to 100 metres. The memorandum also suggests that the election be celebrated in the form of a festival with maximum participation. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 9:03 [IST] "You tell me what to do", "don't be anti-Bengaluru," say CM, minister on pothole deaths India oi-Anusha Five deaths in five days but politicians refuse to acknowledge the serious problem killer potholes are posing in Bengaluru. While Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asked mocked questions over pothole deaths seeking 'suggestions', Bengaluru development minister K J George deemed questions on pothole deaths 'anti-Bengaluru'. "You tell me what to do. Do you have suggestions?" is how Chief Minister Siddaramaiah chose to respond to a question raised by a journalist on potholes in the city on Wednesday. This is not the first time that Siddaramaiah has reacted this way over a civic issue. "There are two ways to fix potholes- cold mix and hot mix. We can only use cold mix during the rainy season but it is not longlasting irrespective of the quality. Hot mix is a better alternative but can't be used during rains. We are repairing the potholes on an urgent basis," he said when journalists pointed out that quality tender work, for starters, may be an effective way to ensure good roads for Bengalureans. Earlier in the day, Bengaluru development minister K J George said that deliberate attempts were being made to tarnish the image of Bengaluru by highlighting pothole deaths. "All accidents are simply being portrayed as pothole accidents. Some people are trying to paint a bad picture of Bengaluru. False news is being spread about people dying due to potholes," George said adding that not all accidents were due to potholes. Th minister even showed journalists photos of road repairs being taken up by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday set a 15-day deadline to fix all potholes in the city. When asked if the deadline will be met, K J George accused journalists of making anti-Bengaluru statements. "Can I hold up an umbrella to stop rains? Potholes can only be fixed once it stops pouring continuously. Why are you (media) making anti-Bengaluru statements?" he asked journalists. Saddened to hear that 3 people lost their lives in Bengaluru because of potholes on road. While @CMofKarnataka busy in corruption, innocent people paying with their lives for @siddaramaiah incompetency. B.S. Yeddyurappa (@BSYBJP) October 11, 2017 The BJP meanwhile, is all set to use the pothole problem to its advantage. On Wednesday, the BJP staged a massive protest outside the BBMP office. On Thursday, BJP state President B S Yeddyurappa will visit rain-affected areas in the city with corporators to launch an attack on the Congress government over civic apathy. OneIndia News What led to the resignation of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Sri Lanka PM: A timeline Sri Lanka crisis: How Mahinda Rajapaksa was evacuated by army from 'Temple Tree' Case filed for arrest of Mahinda Rajapaksa, 6 others in attack on peaceful protesters in Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksas son arrested for anti-India stir International pti-PTI Sri Lanka police on Tuesday arrested three prominent opposition lawmakers, including the son of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, for leading a protest against government plans to privatise an airport that is named after the ex-strongman. A police spokesman said MP Namal Rajapaksa was arrested for being a member of an unlawful assembly outside the Indian consulate in the southern town of Hambantota on Friday. Police superintendent Ruwan Gunasekera said Rajapaksa, the eldest son of former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, had violated a court order banning street protests and damaged public property. "He was arrested along with two other members of parliament and three others," Gunasekera said. Police arrested 28 after the protest. Video footage of the demonstration released on social media showed Rajapaksa chanting anti-India slogans at Hambantota, 240 kilometres (150 miles) south of Colombo, and leading a march towards the consulate. Rajapakse accused the government of trying to sell the airport named after his father to an Indian company at a rock bottom price. Hundreds of protesters tried to break through barricades but police fired teargas and water cannon to stop them reaching the diplomatic compound. At least four policemen were injured when the demonstrators pelted stones. The government has denied it was planning to sell off the $210 million international airport, but Colombo has said Indian companies had shown interest in a joint venture to make the facility commercially viable. The airport in Rajapaksa's home constituency of Hambantota is one of several state-owned white elephants that were built under the former president and have never turned a profit. It is one of the world's least used airports, servicing just one flight a day. The new government offered to sell the airport after sealing a billion-dollar deal in July with a Chinese state- owned company to take over a majority stake in a deep sea port in Hambantota. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 10:20 [IST] Trump likely to announce bid for presidency next week Symbolic victory to Trump as US Supreme Court quashes travel ban challenge International oi-PTI Washington, October 11: An appeal that had blocked a now-expired version of Donald Trump's anti-immigration decree has been quashed by the US Supreme Court. The decision was mostly symbolic victory to the Republican president because the legal context had become outdated; the second version of the decree prohibited for 90 days entry into the United States to travellers from six Muslim-majority countries. The March 6 decree, opposed by the states of Maryland and Hawaii, was suspended. Courts of appeal, respectively, in Richmond, Virginia and San Francisco, California, upheld the suspension decision in May and June. Yesterday, the Supreme Court quashed the appeal decision on the Maryland ruling, with the suspension in Hawaii still valid but its days likely numbered. The White House at the end of September issued a new decree that permanently bars nationals of seven countries from crossing US borders, in the interest of US national security. Over the latest version of the ban the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also has filed a suit. PTI For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 13:21 [IST] Donald Trump meets advisers to discuss N Korea options International pti-PTI Washington, Oct 11: US President Donald Trump has discussed "a range of options" with his national security team to respond to North Korea's recent missile and nuclear tests, his office said. The briefing by his defense secretary James Mattis and top military officer General Joseph Dunford "focused on a range of options to respond to any form of North Korean aggression or, if necessary, to prevent North Korea from threatening the United States and its allies with nuclear weapons," according to a brief statement. It came days after he said that diplomatic efforts with North Korea have consistently failed, adding that "only one thing will work." Trump has engaged in an escalating war of words with North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un, trading insults amid rising tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals. "Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid," Trump tweeted Saturday. It "hasn't worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of US negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!" Trump's administration has also been at the forefront of a drive to impose a series of sanctions against North Korea in response to its sixth nuclear test -- the largest yet -- and the firing of two missiles over Japan. The United States fought a bloody conflict in Korea from 1950-1953 that ultimately ended in stalemate and the continued division of the peninsula after hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops entered on the side of the north, turning it into a war of attrition. PTI From Greg Palast Website By Greg Palast and *Zach Roberts for Truthout We can't make this up: African-American school teacher DeAndre Harris, victim of a beating by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, has been charged with assaulting the white supremacists who beat him with boards, iron rods, and brass knuckles. That is correct. Harris, who was shown being beaten close to death in photos released by Truthout and carried worldwide, has now been charged with the same crime as his attackers: "unlawful wounding." Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Sen. Bob Corker: 'It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center' The senior senator is just the latest member of the Republican party at odds with Trump. (Image by YouTube, Channel: ABC News) Details DMCA Senator Bob Corker R. Tenn calling White House "an adult day care center". There's been some serious hyperventilating lately regarding President Trump's mental stability with the latest coming from Senator Bob Corker -R. Tenn. who referred to Chief of Staff John Kelly, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis as "those people that help separate our country from chaos". Corker then added the White House is "an adult day care center", to which President "tweeter" shot back Corker "didn't have the guts" to run for re-election. So "it" goes. A group of 27 psychiatrists conclude, "Mr. Trump in the office of the presidency is a danger to the public and the international community". [1] One of the 27, psychiatrist Bandy Lee put it succinctly, "They're not making a diagnosis" but "the specific symptoms, the severity of the symptoms, an inability to accept facts, rage reactions, an attraction to violence, a proneness to incite violence-all these things are signs of danger". Any thinking person could hardly disagree with the assessment by these mental health experts. Most of us are simply laymen when it comes to assessing anyone's character and we're often wrong in our judgments. Not with Trump. His tweets are a dead giveaway to the man's reactionary character and inability to reflect before blurting out against any perceived slight. I'm no expert on intricacies of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution but there seems to be a groundswell pushing the amendment be applied as a way to remove Trump from the presidency. It would be unprecedented for a president to be "drummed" out of office by people from his own party controlling both Houses of Congress. Remember Nixon resigned over the Watergate cover-up when Democrats controlled the House of Representatives and were ready to impeach him. Meanwhile a Democratic Senate was ready to convict him. Trump could prove the exception. When the powerful Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee essentially says Trump is out of control; Trump declared unfit under the 25th Amendment could be in the offing. Yet maybe not. When one reads the 25th Amendment it's no small matter to remove a president-which seems to have been written with a future president in mind having developed Alzheimer's and clearly couldn't function. Not someone like President "tweet"; someone clearly unimaginable when the 25th Amendment was written and later became part of the Constitution. I believe there's less than a 50-50 chance of Trump being removed via the 25th Amendment with Republicans controlling both Houses of Congress. Two thirds in both Houses are required to vote in favor of removing a President. That's a lot of votes. It's doubtful that many Republicans would have the guts to do so with their own re-election prospects on the line. Especially in states who voted for Trump where many of his followers refuse to acknowledge the danger he represents. Stay tuned. As Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over till it's over". Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). From Paul Craig Roberts Website Forensic Acoustic Analysis Points to Existence of a Second Shooter. This analysis seems to make sense. If it has been done correctly, it is evidence of a second Las Vegas shooter. It is evidence not only of two sets of gunshots but of bullets hitting the ground from two different distances. So unless the bullets were being fired into the ground only, it seems people will have been hit. On the other hand, we have what seem to be videos of crisis actors carrying pretend wounded people into a hospital, and we have videos of hospital visits with alleged seriously wounded people who have had an almost instantaneous recovery. As the letter from the purported military surgeon pointed out, quick recoveries from gunshot trauma are not the norm. Remember also the Republican congressman, Steve Scalise, who was shot in the hip last June in D.C. He was in critical condition for some time, and was in no condition to be giving interviews a couple of days later. Yet, here is a video of a young woman allegedly shot in the hip at the Las Vegas concert all rosy cheeked and chatting away a mere three days after being "nearly paralyzed" by her gunshot injury. If there are dead and injured, what is the point of crisis actors and interviews with victims who show no sign of trauma? If there is acoustic evidence of two shooters from two locations, why is the official story insistent on one shooter from one location? You can see how difficult it would be to try to get the truth. There are too many other things that need my attention, and for which I am better qualified, for me to commit any more time and energy to the Las Vegas shooting. As in every other case, there is an official story, one that always seems to be ready in advance, and one from which authorities and media do not depart. The "investigation" looks more like the imposition of an official story. The media and the public authorities are content to dismiss suspicions by calling them conspiracy theories. This makes it impossible to clear up contradictions and anomalies. I promised you an account of any qualified replies to the purported military surgeon's letter. Read the surgeon's letter here. This is from a person who identifies himself as a paramedic for 22 years: "Sir, After reading the letter from the retired surgeon addressing gunshot wounds, I wanted to comment that I, too, am mystified by the set number of fatalities and absence of fatal complications. I spent 22 years employed as paramedic and have seen many gunshot wounds. Granted, the distance of the shots can explain the lesser number of horrible, graphic wounds, but the publicized accounts of the wounded seem very inconsistent with my experiences with gunshot wounds and the recovery of those who have been shot. I understand we are not witnessing the day to day progress of those who who survived, but I agree with the surgeon that it doesn't add up. Thank you." I have had two confirmations of the veracity of the surgeon's letter from trama RNs. However, one of them tells me she knows of someone who was killed. I have not heard from any surgeons familiar with gunshot wounds. I would imagine that they want to stay clear of all of this. People with extensive firearms experience call attention to the photo of the dead Stephen Paddock in the hotel room. Where, they ask, are the thousands of shell casings and empty ammunition clips from the extensive automatic fire? Others point out that the few casings in sight are mysteriously on top of Paddock's blood, not covered by it. I can't explain any of this. We have an official story, and that is all we are going to get. Nuclear, Bomb, War, Danger (Image by pixabay.com) Details DMCA On Wednesday morning, NBC News provided sane people with more reason to be scared: at a private July 20 meeting with his top national security officials, President Donald Trump said he wanted a nearly tenfold increase in the US nuclear arsenal. He made this remark after being shown a chart that illustrated a steady decrease in the number of US nuclear weapons over the past 50 years. Trump responded by telling his most senior advisers, which included Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that he wanted the bigger number shown at the start of the downward slope, not the smaller amount at the end. Officials had to explain to Trump that the current level was lower due to years of successful arms treaties and that the nation's overall military posture was now much stronger than in the days of a larger and bloated nuclear arsenal. It was at the end of this meeting -- where other national security matters were discussed -- that Tillerson apparently was overheard referring to Trump as a "moron." It is indeed worrisome that Trump seemed to adopt a simplistic and dangerous more-is-better approach to nuclear weapons. But what's even more unsettling, as I have previously written, is that Trump has a history of making comments about nuclear weapons that both display his profound ignorance about this all-important subject and suggest he believes a nuclear conflict is inevitable and perhaps destined for the near future. Trump first demonstrated he knew little about nuclear weapons in the 1980s, when he repeatedly boasted to reporters that he would make a good nuclear arms negotiator and that the job would be easy. In a 1984 interview with the Washington Post, Trump, then a 38-year-old celebrity developer, said he hoped one day to become the United States' chief negotiator with the Soviet Union for nuclear weapons. Trump declared he could negotiate a great nuclear arms deal with Moscow. Comparing crafting an arms accord with cooking up a real estate deal, Trump insisted he had innate talent for this mission. He claimed he would know exactly what to demand of the Russians -- though he conceded his lack of experience in the technical field of nuclear weaponry. "It would take an hour-and-a-half to learn everything there is to learn about missiles...I think I know most of it anyway," he said. "You're talking about just getting updated on a situation." A few months earlier, Trump had expressed the same sentiment to a New York Times reporter. The writer noted, "Trump thinks he has an answer to nuclear armament: Let him negotiate arms agreements -- he who can talk people into selling $100 million properties to him for $13 million. "Negotiations is an art, he says and I have a gift for it." In 1986, Trump told Bernard Lown, a cardiologist who invented the defibrillator and who received the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for joining with a prominent Soviet physician to promote nuclear arms reduction, that he could concoct a nuclear disarmament deal with the Soviet Union and end the Cold War in an hour. Quicklink Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their quicklinks after publishing them. To see if the quicklink was renamed or re-published, please click here. Progressive Content Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing. To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here. From Smirking Chimp Image created from image crediting (Image by Medea Benjamin) Details DMCA President Trump is expected to announce this week that he will not recertify that Iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal. He will argue, falsely, that the agreement is no longer in the national interest of the United States. The president's announcement will not end the deal but will pass the buck to Congress. In the next 60 days, Congress could impose new sanctions that would scuttle the deal or it could pass new legislation addressing issues that were never part of the original mandate, which would also effectively kill the agreement. Enough public pressure could keep the agreement intact. Here are 10 good reasons why the US should uphold the deal. 1. President Trump's claim that Iran is not complying with the conditions of the deal is false. Iran is complying, as certified in eight reports over the past two years by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the entity charged of monitoring the deal. The Trump administration has not produced any evidence that Iran is not holding up its part of the bargain. Trump's concern about Iran's missile tests and its ties to militia groups are different issues; they're not part of this narrow, clearly defined nuclear deal. 2. The deal is actually a good one for the United States and the region because it does what it set out to do: keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It eliminates two-thirds of Iran's centrifuges and 98 percent of its enriched-uranium stockpile, and it is verified by the most intrusive verification and inspection regime ever negotiated. That's why even AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby group that sunk millions of dollars into trying to defeat the deal, is not calling on Trump to "decertify" Iran's compliance or withdraw from the agreement. 3. Scuttling the agreement would isolate the United States, not Iran. Of the six nations that signed the deal, only the United States is complaining. The other signatories are the four permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, France, Russia and China -- plus Germany and the European Union. All are happy with the deal and intend to uphold it. A US pullout would leave the US out in the cold and collapse the consensus hashed out among our allies. 4. Nixing the Iran deal would send a disastrous signal to North Korea at this moment of crisis. If the US refuses to uphold a deal with Iran that it spent 20 months negotiating, why should North Korea even consider talks? A US exit from the Iran deal would signal to the North Korean leadership that there is only one path forward: speed up its nuclear and missile tests and its preparations for war. It would also alienate the Chinese, who not only want to preserve the Iran deal but are also essential to resolving the North Korean stand-off. 5. The US needs to work with Iran on ending the violence in the region, from Yemen to Syria. Trump's concerns about Iranian support for the "three Hs," Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, will be exacerbated if the deal is undone, as Iran will have an even greater incentive to oppose US policies. If the deal holds, it will be pave the way for talks with Iran about all these other issues. 6. Without this deal, Iran would be free to rapidly reconstitute its nuclear program, installing more centrifuges and accumulating a larger stockpile of bomb-usable material. It would free Iran to produce as much enriched uranium or plutonium as it wants. If US officials are troubled by Iran's foreign policy now, imagine how much more powerful a nuclear-armed Iran would be. That is why Secretary of State Tillerson and National Security Adviser HR McMaster have argued against withdrawal. 7. De-certification would weaken global confidence in the United States and multilateralism. The deal was not only made between six nations, but the entire UN system. The UN Security Council approved the deal by a 15-0 vote. Putting the deal in jeopardy would compromise the entire international framework for non-violent conflict resolution and sink international respect for US leadership to a new low. 8. If the US pulls out and imposes more sanctions restricting business with Iran, those most affected would be US businesses. US firms are anxious to jump into this massive market of 80 million people. While Trump is busy whining about the "worst deal ever," the Chinese have just signed cooperation agreements with Iran on energy, transport, science, technology and national defense -- agreements worth up to $600 billion in the next 10 years. Europeans companies from Total to Citroen to Airbus have signed agreements as well. Meanwhile, US businesses will be left empty-handed. 9. Trump's bombastic talk about a "military option," with strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, could lead to a catastrophic war. Iran could immediately retaliate by attacking Israel and US troops stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and on military bases throughout the Middle East. That's why Republican Senator and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker has warned that Trump's actions risk setting the nation "on the path to World War Three." 10. Upending the agreement will be a boon to Iran's conservative clerics, the very ones we DON'T want to embolden. President Rouhani will lose power to the hardliners, who were against negotiating with the West from the get-go. Their hand will be strengthened on the nuclear issue and other issues pertaining to Iran's foreign affairs, which would spell more chaos in the region. It could also lead to a backlash internally against the more secular, liberal forces in Iran. Toying with a serious nuclear agreement to influence Iran in other areas is simply irresponsible and dangerous. That is precisely what defines President Trump: irrational and dangerous. Before he destroys the best global foreign policy achievement in the last decade, the world community -- from the UN to the US Congress to the public -- has to stop him. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License An Egyptian court sentenced eight people to death Tuesday and 50 others to life in prison for their role in a case known as the storming of Helwan police station. According to prosecution, on 14 August 2013 protesters stormed Helwan police station, which led to the killing of three police officers and two civilians. The police station and 20 police cars were destroyed. The same court issued a 10-year prison term against seven defendants and five years in prison against three others. The defendants are accused of several charges including terrorism, premeditated murder, the attempted sabotage of public buildings and the destruction of police cars. The Giza Criminal Court referred earlier this week 13 people's cases to the country's Grand Mufti in preparation for their execution. Former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and co-founder of the Nahdha party, Ibrahim Al-Zaafarani, said that the number of Egyptians sentenced to death since the July 2013 coup has reached 917 cases. In July 2013 Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi overthrew the government of elected President Mohammad Morsi with the blessing of the United States. Since then General Al-Sisi has assumed the title of Field Marshal. Al-Zaafarani said in a press statement that 16 Egyptians are waiting to be hung whilst eight people have already been executed. According to Al-Zaafarani nearly 640 Egyptians have died in prison as a result of torture and medical negligence while the number of those who have been extra-judicially executed has reached nearly 300 people. A report by the UK-based Arab Organisation for Human Rights on human-rights violations in Egypt during the third quarter of 2017 said that Egyptian courts have issued death sentences against 74 people. In the aftermath of the 2013 coup, Egypt's judiciary gave 237 death sentences in 2016, more than any other country in the region. That same year, 44 people -- including eight women -- were executed, a figure that doubled since the previous year and has risen sharply since the coup. In 2013 no executions were recorded. As well as facing military tribunals, defendants are often sentenced to the death penalty in mass trials in which there is no time for individual evidence to be considered properly. In March 2014 a court in Egypt's southern city of Minya passed down 529 execution orders in one go, then just weeks later sentenced 683 to the same fate. Those who are sentenced to death in Egypt face hanging, an ancient, barbaric form of execution that snaps the neck and breaks the spinal cord or cuts off the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain and eventually results in death. In a 2015 report Reprieve revealed that of the 588 people who had been sentenced to death since 2014, 72 percent of sentences were administered for attending pro-democracy protests. Egypt's highest criminal court has also sentenced six men to death for killing a policeman in the northern city of Mansoura in 2014 in what became known as the Mansoura Six case. The policeman was part of Hussein Qandil's protection unit, one of the judges who presided over Mohammed Morsi's trial. Theirs is a familiar story -- confessions were tortured out of them, they were denied access to lawyers, verdicts formed on the evidence of secret sources as well as there being major holes in the case as video evidence did not match up with witness statements. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). From Consortium News Despite the U.S. media's extensive coverage of Israel, what Miko Peled says is seldom heard by Americans, although he was born in Jerusalem and comes from a famous Israeli family. Peled's grandfather was one of the signers of the Israeli founding documents. His father was a soldier in the war which led to the creation of Israel and later a senior army general during the 1967 war. And one of Peled's nieces was killed in a suicide bombing attack. However, in contrast to what one might expect, Miko Peled is a voice of sharp criticism of Israel and Israeli policies. He does not mince his words. Israel is a "settler colonial state" and Israel does NOT have a "right to exist" as an apartheid state with preferential treatment based on ethnicity. Peled does not speak in the abstract; he gives specific examples to demonstrate what he says. Palestinians in the West Bank have no consistent running water while settlers enjoy unlimited drinking water plus swimming pools and water for green lawns. The situation in Gaza is even worse. The two million residents of the tiny Gaza strip endure horrific conditions. Babies with medical conditions die while just a few miles away, Israeli babies with the same conditions will live. Peled does not limit his criticism to the "Occupied Territories," He says all of the state should be called Palestine with equal rights and opportunities for all. Peled pokes fun at the claims that Jews anywhere have a "right to return" because of a supposed 2,000-year-old claim and entitlement. These claims are based on the Old Testament not scientific history. In contrast with the myth, most Israeli citizens have zero DNA connection to the region. Peled humorously points to the irony of Zionists who claim a 2,000-year-old "right" to the land as they deny and denigrate the rights and claims of Palestinians who were expelled in 1948 and after. As Peled explains, most Israelis are quick to tell Palestinians to "get over it" despite the fact that Palestinian claims are well documented and only go back 70 years, not 2,000. Unknown to most Americans, about half a million Palestinians languish in Lebanon, waiting for the time when they return to their villages in Palestine from which they were expelled in 1948 and after. The actual history of those events has been clearly documented by the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. But Peled is not entirely pessimistic. Indeed, he thinks that it is better that the pretense of a "two-state solution," which has been used as an excuse to justify the current situation, is openly dismissed by President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Things are now clarified, leaving two paths to the future. One, a supremacist "democracy" for Jews and continuing occupation and oppression for the Palestinians or, two, a one-state democracy for all. Peaceful Resistance While acknowledging that most Israelis today reject the idea of equality for Palestinians, Peled recalls how quickly the change from apartheid to democracy happened in South Africa. He says if they could overcome apartheid in South Africa, why is this not possible in Israel/Palestine? In the 1980s and early 1990s, the international Boycott Apartheid campaign helped to end open racism in South Africa. Around the world, there is a similar peaceful and non-violent campaign pressing for the end of open racism in Israel. It's called "BDS" for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. The goal is to pressure Israel to abandon its apartheid policies just as South Africa did. Making clear his own stand, Peled wore a large BDS button on his lapel. For those who mistakenly believe that Israel is a progressive force internationally, the reality is that Israel was one of apartheid South Africa's closest allies. For taking the stance he does, and especially because of his family roots, Miko Peled has been vilified and threatened. It takes great courage to follow his beliefs as he has. His family is apparently with him. In his memoir, The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,he describes how his mother refused to take furniture or property of Palestinians who had been expelled from Jerusalem in 1967, as many other prominent Jewish families were doing. Peled describes his father's evolution from military general to an advocate for peace and respect for Palestinians. And he describes the reaction of his sister and how she blamed Netanyahu and racist policies for the death of her daughter. Miko Peled demonstrates courage and integrity. Through his writing and speeches, he exposes racist policies in Israel and the U.S. He seeks a better future even if it sometimes appears hopeless and provokes slander and personal threats against himself. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). According to Wikipedia the Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an underground American fascist organization founded by William Dudley Pelley around 1933. These white supremacists and anti-Semites wore a silver shirt with a blue tie, along with a campaign hat and blue corduroy trousers with leggings. By 1934 they claimed to have had around 15,000 members, and they competed with the German-American Bund movement for notoriety. Around 1935, the group got mining fortune heiress Jessie Murphy to allow them to use her 55 acre ranch as their new fortified world headquarters, after of course, the expected fascist global conquest. Pelley ran for president of the U.S. in 1936 on a third party ticket, hoping to seize power in what he labeled a 'Silver Revolution'. It took the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler's declaration of war against the U. S. to signal the end of this movement... or did it? The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August was the largest, most violent assembly of white supremacists in decades. The rally and march was at first organized by ex-U of Va. student Jason Kessler, who had recently founded the far right Unity and Security. A new player in this neo-nazi revitalization in America is this Identity Evropa, an influential white supremacist group operating in our nation. They have been targeting college students with a sophisticated assortment of racist flyers. According to the Anti-Defamation League, in the first weeks of the 2017-18 school year, Identity Evropa posted fliers on 13 college campuses in seven states. These campuses are not just in the south. In addition to the University of Virginia, Lynchburg and Liberty in Virginia, Eastern Michigan, the University of California Irvine, and Bristol Community College in Mass. have been visited by this group. Added to this frightening mix of neo-nazi hate, another far right group are joined in this revival: American Resistance, led by Jared Taylor, using racist posters that have co-opted some of the most iconic images of the 20th Century, including that of WW2 anti-German Rosie the Riveter, which read " We can do it!" replacing it with "Don't apologize for being white!". Identity Evropa was founded in 2016 by ex-Marine Nathan Damigo, who was 'other than honorably discharged' from the Marines in 2007, and then served five years in prison for robbing a man he believed was Iraqi. Damigo read KKK leader David Duke's book, My Awakening while in jail, and you know the rest. The goal of these new neo-nazi groups is to not only look like white college frat boys, but recruit them, along with equally 'whitebread' women. What is interesting is the fact that these young people, like millions of their peers, do have reason to be angered and frustrated by this Military Industrial Empire. They have been foolishly diverted away from the real cause of their problems, and have resorted to scapegoating in the opposite direction. The August torchlight march in Charlottesville showed just how 'collegiate' many of these kids appeared to be. They began shouting 'Blood and Soil', which derives from the nazi use of the 'Blut und Boden' references to the 19th century German ideal of a racially defined nation. These young kids, who our president (recently called a moron by his Sec. of State) labeled as 'Nice', also shouted 'Jews won't replace us'. Nice kids, hah? Wonder how the far right wing Israelis digested all of that? What a sick joke! No, this was and is not a joke! This is real! This is what our Military Industrial Empire has spiraled down into: A beginning of a Fourth Reich! The real question is, who is really behind all of this madness? Who made sure that the Charlottesville marchers and the larger group of anti-nazi protestors were not properly separated from each other? Where is the outrage from the (most likely) millions of Jewish Americans who supported (and still support) Trump when he 'gave a pass' to the far right marchers? Where were the resignations from every Jewish member of his cabinet, and for that matter, every member of his administration, if they have even a segment of historical knowledge of the German Nazi movement? How can we ever reach those young white kids who are attracted to such nonsense, if not for our leaders to react with vigor? Evil flourishes when good men do nothing. CASTLETON, Vt., Oct. 10 -- U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)delivered the following speech at College for All town hall at Casleton University in Vermont I want to thank Castleton University for hosting this event, all of you who are here tonight and the many thousands of people on college campuses and at homes all across the country who are watching this via live stream. I don't have to tell anyone that this country faces enormous problems - economically, politically, environmentally and socially. Economically, over the last 40 years the middle-class of this country has been shrinking and we now have some 40 million people living in poverty. All across America we have people working two or three jobs just to put food on the table and pay the bills. Meanwhile, the gap between the very rich and everybody else is growing wider, and we have more income and wealth inequality than almost any other major country on earth. Politically, we have a corrupt political system which, as a result of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, allows billionaires to spend hundreds of millions each year to buy elections for candidates who represent the rich and the powerful. We also have President Trump and Republican Governors working overtime to suppress the vote, to make it harder for people of color, poor people and young people to vote. Environmentally, we face the global crisis of climate change. The planet is getting warmer and in the United States and all over theworld we face the threat of more drought, more floods, more acidification of the oceans, more rising sea levels and more extreme weather disturbances like what we have recently seen in Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, the Virgin Islands and elsewhere. This is a monumental crisis. Socially, as a result of President Trump's efforts to divide us up, we are seeing more overt displays of racism and anti-Semitism. We are seeing a rise in right-wing extremism, more religious bigotry against Muslims and other religious minorities and a very intentional effort to arouse hatred against undocumented immigrants - Latinos and others. We are also seeing the President try to turn back the clock on women's rights and the needs of the LGBT community. I raise these issues because I don't believe we are going to solve any of these problems, and a lot more that I didn't discuss, unless we address the topic I want to speak to you about tonight: the need for the United States to have the best educated population in the world, the need to make public colleges and universities tuition free and the need to significantly lower the outrageous level of student debt that currently exists. Today, as a result of rapidly rising college costs, stagnant or declining income for the middle class and major cutbacks in state and federal aid for higher education, hundreds of thousands of bright young Americans are unable to afford to go to college. These young people have the ability, they have the desire, but their families lack the money for a higher education. How tragic is that? Not only will these young people not be able to fulfill their personal dreams, but the overall economy suffers as well. How many great scientists, doctors, educators, businesspeople are not being created because these young people do not receive the education they want and need? But this crisis impacts not only those people who are unable to afford to go to college, it impacts millions of Americans who have attended college and graduate school - and who leave school with outrageous levels of student debt, debt that they sometimes spend a lifetime paying off. Unbelievably, in America today there are 44 million Americans who owe more than $1.3 trillion in debt. This $1.3 trillion in student debt is now higher than either credit card debt or auto loan debt. Now what does that debt mean to the individual - especially those people who are working at jobs that do not pay them decent wages? It means that after you pay off your student debt every month you might not be able to afford a car, or buy a house or have kids. But here's what it also means that might be even more important. It means that millions of Americans may not be doing the jobs that they want to do, the jobs that they dreamed about doing, because of the burden of this student debt. We have a major crisis in this country in terms of early childhood education. We desperately need excellent childcare workers to provide the emotional and intellectual sustenance that our young children need and to make sure they are prepared for school. But who can make childcare into a career, earning $14 an hour or less, and pay off a large student debt? It can't be done without great sacrifice. What about someone graduating law school and wanting to go into public law - perhaps as a public defender, a legal aid lawyer, an immigration lawyer or an environmental lawyer? How do you do that on a salary of $40,000 a year? We are in desperate need of primary care physicians in medically underserved areas throughout rural America and in our inner cities. How can you become a primary care doctor with a student debt of $300,000? It's possible, but it's not easy. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). The US Constitution's Eighth Amendment forbids "excessive bail" in criminal prosecutions. That prohibition seems somewhat vague. I guess we're just expected to know excessive bail when we see it. Two current cases demonstrate not just excessive bail, but abuse of the whole idea of bail for the purpose of holding un-convicted defendants as political prisoners. In August, podcaster Christopher Cantwell of Keene, New Hampshire traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia to join his fellow white nationalists in a violent race riot. Cantwell ended up as the central figure in a Vice documentary on the event -- and under arrest for felony assault. Cantwell's bail was initially set at $25,000, but on appeal from the prosecutor it was revoked entirely and Cantwell was slapped into solitary confinement ("protective custody") at the Albemarle County jail until his trial, scheduled for November. Why the sudden turnabout? The prosecutor claimed that Cantwell a) was a flight risk, and b) had evil political views. Cantwell was clearly not a flight risk. He turned himself in on demand, having stayed in Virginia and in touch with police in anticipation of doing so once he heard rumors of a warrant for his arrest. And Cantwell's political views should under no circumstances have been treated as relevant to bail. The purpose of bail is to incentivize a defendant to appear at trial, full stop. Meanwhile in Georgia, Reality Leigh Winner languishes in the Lincoln County jail, also denied bail since her June arrest for "removing classified material from a government facility and mailing it to a news outlet." The initial bail denial was premised on the possibility that she might have taken, and might disclose, more classified information. But in a second bail hearing, as in Cantwell's case, the judge's denial of bail was obviously conditioned solely on the content of Winner's supposed political beliefs. Winner was not a significant flight risk. She had no criminal record, her passport had been confiscated, and her mother had offered to move to Georgia to act as her pre-trial custodian. The prosecutor's only real argument for denying bail was the claim that Winner's admitted admiration for fellow whistle-blowers Edward Snowden and Julian Assange indicated "contempt for our country and our security." The judge bought that argument. Again: The sole legitimate purpose of bail is to ensure that the defendant shows up for trial so as to not forfeit some significant amount of money or property. Conditioning bail on the defendant's political beliefs -- or, worse, denying it entirely over those beliefs -- is by definition "excessive." Judges who commit such violations of the Eighth Amendment in particular and of due process in general should be removed from the bench -- and possibly given a taste of confinement themselves. From Paul Craig Roberts Website The question before us is not whether people were shot or not, but if they were shot, why the crisis actors carrying pretend wounded into a hospital and why unrealistically quick recoveries from gunshot trauma? I have the names and email addresses of the respondents, but do not publish their names as helpful information should not be repaid by bringing them controversy. This from a person in a hospital trauma unit: "Regarding trauma patients hit by gunfire from high-powered rifles -- I work at the local hospital and most gunshot victims are hit by lower-powered small arms fire (pistols, birdshot, buckshot) versus military (5.56 or 7.62 NATO) calibers, and most of these patients are in the trauma ICU for at least 1-2 weeks and sometimes up to a few months. Many of these also end up dying or at the very least becoming even more acutely ill from hospital-acquired infections, many of which are acquired during surgeries or from mechanical ventilators." This from the UK: "As a retired anesthesiologist, my observations of the victims shown in the media/online videos concur with those of the military surgeon's in his letter. I cannot say whether anyone was shot in Las Vegas but the victims we have been shown in the media are unreal." MD, DCH, FRCA, FFPM (UK) Below is a reader's report on the effect on US Rep. Steve Scalise of being shot once in the hip. Compare this reality to the young woman chatting away with the presstitute three days after being shot in the hip and "nearly paralyzed." "Hip and femur were shattered from the bullet. Scalise almost bled to death lying right there on the ground. I read previously that he was already in shock when he arrived at the hospital. He had several surgeries to control bleeding and infection, do reconstruction of his innards, etc., and these surgeries continued for some time, i.e., they all weren't all done the next day or several days after. He has steel and metal plates inside his body now holding bones together. He also spent months in rehabilitation, and now walks with a walker." Note that these extensive injuries, which he almost died of several times over weeks, were caused BY A SINGLE GUNSHOT WOUND, A SINGLE BULLET. Here is a short excerpt from a CNN article. "Scalise was in critical condition after suffering damage to internal organs, and his injuries will require additional operations, according to a MedStar Washington Hospital Center medical update late Wednesday. 'Congressman Steve Scalise sustained a single rifle shot to the left hip. The bullet traveled across his pelvis, fracturing bones, injuring internal organs, and causing severe bleeding,' MedStar said in a statement put out by Scalise's office. 'He underwent immediate surgery, and an additional procedure to stop bleeding. He has received multiple units of blood transfusion. His condition is critical, and he will require additional operations. We will provide periodic updates.'" Here is an excerpt from a Wikipedia article. Note that it says that weeks after the shooting, he had to be readmitted to intensive care: "Scalise was shot in the hip and was evacuated by medical helicopter to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where he underwent surgery. The hospital reported that after the bullet struck his hip, it traveled across his pelvis -- fracturing bones, injuring internal organs, and causing severe bleeding.[29] His condition was initially listed as 'critical.' He received multiple blood transfusions and underwent several surgeries to repair internal damage and stop the bleeding.[30][1] His condition was changed to 'serious' on June 17.[31] It further improved to 'fair' on June 21,[32] though he was readmitted to intensive care on July 5 due to concerns of infection."[33] Here are other articles from Washington Times and CBS News. To sum up, if the acoustic evidence is correct of bullets hitting the ground, then bullets were fired. Therefore, it is likely people were hit. Why then are what clearly seem to be crisis actors employed? Is it possible that the alert part of the population is being given counter-factual information in order to condition us to accept official stories despite unresolved contradictions? In other words, are the contradictions intentionally introduced? Is the real conspiracy one of establishing official stories as fact regardless of evidence? The result would be to classify appeals to evidence as a "conspiracy theory." I believe that, when the history of the debacle that is the Donald Trump presidency is written, we may finally learn of the true role played by the U.S. Intelligence Community in helping to contain and finally derail the train wreck that is his administration. In my estimation, Trump was already a marked man when he took his oath of office. A year and a half earlier, he had denounced Sen. John McCain, saying he was not a war hero because he had been a prisoner of war. Later, he insulted a Gold Star family whose son had died in combat, saying they didn't deserve his respect because "they sacrificed nothing." These remarkably disrespectful and unpatriotic comments must have been offensive to the tens of thousands of men and women who risk their lives every day -- and sometimes lose it -- in the service of their country. These people --unsung American heroes --expect, in the very least, that their country's leaders would always recognize and honor them for their acts of valor. Trump's words were the ultimate affront. His comments must have been especially galling because he himself had notoriously avoided military service by claiming five deferments, four for college and one for bad feet. Building a Wall When Trump compared the U.S. Intelligence agencies to Nazi Germany, falsely accusing them of leaking a scandalous dossier on him to the media, the agencies must have started making phone calls to one other. In the days following his inauguration, they set their plans in motion after a speech he gave before the CIA's sacred Memorial Wall that commemorated 117 members killed in the line of duty. Rather than acknowledging their comrades' ultimate sacrifices, Trump praised himself and bragged about the size of his inauguration crowd, never once apologizing for having insulted all of the men and women standing before him, who had sacrificed and even died for their country. A disgusted CIA Director, John Brennan, who had resigned days earlier after Obama left office, called the speech, a "despicable display of self-aggrandizement in front of CIA's Memorial Wall of Agency heroes." But Trump continued to insult at every turn, openly questioning the competency of the Intelligence Community over their reports of Russian meddling in the U.S. 2016 Presidential election. He fired and subsequently insulted their former leader, FBI Director James Comey, calling him a "nut job" to the very people who were confirmed enemies of America: Russian officials who were suspected spies. Worse, he did it in the Oval Office, where he also clumsily revealed highly sensitive military secrets, endangering the United States and its allies -- and he had a good laugh over it with them. 'Un-Presidented' Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). From Wallwritings (Image by trailer addict) Details DMCA The film, Queen of the Desert, begins with a distant image of a small group of travelers moving across a vast desert. Two sentences flash across the screen, setting the stage for what is to follow: "The onset of the First World War hastened the demise of the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled the Middle East for five centuries. The colonial powers set their eyes on dividing the spoils." The film then moves to a small room in which British army officers gather around a table with a minister from the War office, the future British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. The officers and Churchill are looking at a map of the colonial "spoils." Churchill asks: "How do we delineate the borders?... Who knows best about the tribes? ...Who knows best about the Bedouin tribes?" The officers reluctantly agree among themselves, "That woman." "That woman" is Gertrude Bell (above, left), a British archaeologist, writer, traveler, and a diplomat, who worked in a time of intense Western colonialism. After a delay of two years, the public finally has a limited DVS access to a motion picture that rescues Bell from the history books and should introduce her to a wider public. The film is Queen of the Desert, based on the real-life story of Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) (Nicole Kidman), a humanitarian among those human colonialist scorpions who were roaming the deserts in search of prey and profits. To the indigenous people of the region, Bell is better known, and far more appreciated, than T. E. Lawrence, portrayed by Peter O'Toole in David Lean's 1962 film, Lawrence of Arabia. The difference between the two? Bell was a woman and a natural diplomat, while Lawrence was a male warrior, glamorized through David Lean's film. Lean's film rescued Lawrence from oblivion, which Queen of the Desert should have done for Gertrude Bell. It has failed to do so, not because of its lack of merit, but because the film industry determines what it thinks will sell. Our popular understanding of history is shaped through popular culture, where films, television and now, social media, play definitive roles. Military exploits have a greater popular appeal than diplomacy, while a film depicting Arab history as it really was, colonial exploitation of indigenous populations, goes against the popular narrative. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). After reading and hearing wildly contradictory accounts of Ken Burns & Lynn Novick's Vietnam War documentary on PBS, I decided I had to watch the thing. I agree with some of the criticism and some of the praise. The documentary begins with the ludicrous idea that the U.S. government had good intentions. It ends with praise for the memorial in DC and its tragic list of names, without mention of the greater number of U.S. veterans of that war who have since died from suicide, much less the vastly greater number of Vietnamese who were killed. The size of a memorial for all the dead would dwarf the current wall. The film treats "war criminal" as a nasty insult uttered only by enemies or immature peaceniks who come to regret it -- but never actually addresses the question of the legality of war. The ongoing horrors of Agent Orange birth defects are almost brushed aside as controversial. The toll of the war on soldiers is given tremendously disproportionate space in comparison with the much larger actual toll on civilians. Truly wise voices that opposed the war on moral and legal grounds from start to finish are missing, thereby allowing a narrative in which people make mistakes and learn from them. Alternative proposals of what might have been done instead of the war don't arise. No coverage is given to those who profited financially from the war. The lying of Secretary of "Defense" Robert McNamara and President Lyndon Johnson at the time that the Gulf of Tonkin incident did not happen is minimized. Etc. All of that being said, the film benefitted from including many voices I disagree with or whose opinions I find reprehensible -- it's an account of people's points of views, and we should hear lots of them, and we learn from hearing lots of them. The 10-part movie also reports very openly and clearly how much the U.S. government lied about its motivations and its prospects of "success" during the course of the war -- including by showing footage of network TV journalists reporting on the evil of war in a manner that they simply could not do today and keep their jobs (admittedly, often with a focus on the problem of U.S. deaths, which remains the one problem U.S. audiences are still told to care about today). The film does report on the deaths of Vietnamese, albeit with rigorous adherence to the orthodox practice of always reporting the relatively tiny number of U.S. deaths first. It does report on particular atrocities and even on their illegality. It does frame the Gulf of Tonkin incidents as provoked by the United States off the coast of Vietnam. In short, it does an adequate enough job so that any sane viewer would demand that there never again be a war like that one. However, the pretense that some other war could be totally justifiable is carefully left standing. I want to call particular, and grateful, attention to one item that the PBS film does include, namely Richard Nixon's treason. Five years ago, this story showed up in an article by Ken Hughes, and others by Robert Parry. Four years ago it made it into The Smithsonian, among other places. Three years ago it gained notice in a corporate-media-approved book by Ken Hughes. At that time, George Will mentioned Nixon's treason in passing in the Washington Post, quite as if everyone knew all about it. In the new PBS documentary, Burns and Novick actually come out and state clearly what happened, in a manner that Will did not. As a result, a great many more people may indeed actually hear what happened. What happened was this. President Johnson's staff engaged in peace negotiations with the North Vietnamese. Presidential candidate Richard Nixon secretly told the North Vietnamese that they would get a better deal if they waited. Johnson learned of this and privately called it treason but publicly said nothing. Nixon campaigned promising that he could end the war. But, unlike Reagan who later sabotaged negotiations to free hostages from Iran, Nixon didn't actually deliver what he had secretly delayed. Instead, as a president elected on the basis of fraud, he continued and escalated the war (just as Johnson had before him). He once again campaigned on the promise to finally end the war when he sought re-election four years later -- the public still having no idea that the war might have been ended at the negotiating table before Nixon had ever moved into the White House if only Nixon hadn't illegally interfered (or might have been ended at any point since its beginning simply by ending it). The fact that this crime existed and that Nixon wanted it kept secret sheds light on lesser crimes generally lumped under the heading "Watergate." The PBS documentary does point out that Nixon's desire to break into a safe in the Brookings Institution was probably part of the effort to cover up his original treason. Burns and Novick fail to mention that Nixon thug Charles Colson also plotted to bomb the Brookings Institution. I cannot answer what the U.S. public would have done had Nixon's sabotage of peace negotiations been known at the time it happened. I can answer what the U.S. public would do if the current U.S. president sabotaged peace negotiations with North Korea, had the Secretary of State call him a moron, and had the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee declare that he had hurt the United States, was risking World War III, and lacked a grasp on reality. Basically, people would kick back and watch -- at best -- a movie about Vietnam from way back in the day when there were things to worry about. Even if the U.S. Constitution were obeyed 100%, it would not prevent some people from becoming enormously rich compared to most others. It would not stop our society from being one in which money is power. It would not prevent a very wealthy upper class from having far more power--over both the private sector and the government--than ordinary people have, despite the fact that ordinary people have "one man one vote" and the rights in the Bill of Rights. It would not, therefore, prevent class inequality. And class inequality is the root of our worst problems. As is acknowledged by academics who study the question rigorously and even by the business press, the United States presently is an oligarchy (or plutocracy--same idea), not a republic or a democracy. In other words a small number of very rich people make the important government decisions and ordinary people have virtually no say in the matter either directly or even indirectly by means of representatives that truly represent them (as some people say would be the case in a republic). This is the conclusion of a widely cited academic paper reporting on a study with an enormous data base, online here and also here(Business Insider: "Major Study Finds the US is an Oligarchy") and here (TPM: "Princeton Study: US No Longer an Actual Democracy") and here (BBC: "Study: US Is an Oligarchy, Not a Democracy"). Additional proof is provided here. Some people say that yes, this is the case today, and it is the source of many of our worst problems, including Orwellian wars of social control based on lies (wars that also enrich the plutocracy) and much suffering by the many for the benefit of the few. In order to make things right, they say, we need to make things be the way the U.S. Constitution, which is unfortunately being ignored, says things should be: a "representative democracy" otherwise known as a republic. The problem with this "solution" is that it doesn't eliminate the root of the problem, which is class inequality. Class inequality in our present United States takes the form of some people being very rich compared to most people, and our society being one in which money is power. Billionaires thus have the power to shape society by their values (inequality and using divide-and-rule to keep things unequal); regular people do not have the power to shape things by their contrary values. The power of money makes one-man-one-vote a meaningless right. Big Money dominates the decisions the government makes. Elected representatives are influenced by Big Money, not their constituents. This is a fact that is plain to see. Why is it that the poorest people do the hardest work and enjoy the benefits of socially produced wealth the least, while the richest do the easiest work in great luxury or do no work at all, and enjoy the lion's share of these benefits? It's not because poor people don't have "one man one vote"; it's not because poor people are not "represented" by congressmen and senators the way that the Constitution spells out (for what it's worth, which obviously is not very much!); it's not because poor people lack the rights of free speech and freedom to assemble, etc., in the Bill of Rights. It's because these rights count for diddly-squat in any contest between people with billions of dollars versus people whose net worth (assets minus debts) is close to zero--less than zero for one in five families! Why is it that when the rich want to wage a war, they do it regardless of the majority of the population opposing it? This was the case with the Vietnam War, which went on until the refusal of GIs to fight it forced Nixon to withdraw in 1975, seven bloody years after a majority of Americans came to oppose that war. The billionaires can do this because when they want to do something, their Big Money gives them the power to do it regardless of the fact that the vast majority who disagree have all of the useless rights in the Constitution. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution or the Bill of Rights or the (legally ignorable) Declaration of Independence that prohibits some people from being extremely rich and, thus, having far more actual power (over government decisions as well as private-sector decisions) than other people despite the fact that everybody gets only one vote. In fact, the Constitution protects the right of the very rich to remain very rich. Here is how it does it, as reported by PBS: "The Fifth Amendment protects the right to private property in two ways. First, it states that a person may not be deprived of property by the government without 'due process of law,' or fair procedures. In addition, it sets limits on the traditional practice of eminent domain, such as when the government takes private property to build a public road. Under the Fifth Amendment, such takings must be for a 'public use' and require 'just compensation' at market value for the property seized. But in Kelo v. City of New London (2005), the Supreme Court interpreted public use broadly to include a 'public purpose' of economic development that might directly benefit private parties. In response, many state legislatures passed laws limiting the scope of eminent domain for public use." The reason that the rich can ignore the Constitution when they feel like it is because they are powerful, and nothing in the Constitution prevented them from becoming powerful or prevents them from being MUCH more powerful than regular people. Honoring the Constitution to the letter would be, at most, a nuisance and an inconvenience for the rich. It would not prevent billionaires from running the show; it would simply mean they would have to be more careful and creative about how they used the power of money to get what they wanted. (A wonderfully insightful cartoon shows some corporate managers sitting around a table and one of them says to the other, "These new regulations will fundamentally change the way we get around them.") The U.S. Constitution HELPS the Rich Dominate the Rest of US Indeed the U.S. Constitution, far from being an impediment to the power of the rich, makes the U.S. government one that is extremely useful for the rich to dominate the entire American population. How so? It does this by making the government one that is based on the authoritarian principle. The authoritarian principle says that one must obey the highest body of government no matter what. In our republic (which is what the United States Constitution makes the United States) when the members of Congress write a law and the President signs it, everybody in the United States must obey it. Ditto when the members of a state legislature write and the Governor signs a law, everybody in the state must obey it, no matter what. The authoritarian principle (if the population accepts it as legitimate, which is unfortunately often the case) is a veritable "welcome mat" for rich people to dominate the entire population merely by using the power of their money to control a relatively small number of individuals who constitute the highest body of the government. (The authoritarian principle was also a "welcome mat" for the Bolshevik Party leaders to dominate the entire population of the Soviet Union by controlling--by hook or by crook--the relatively few people at the top of the Soviet government.) Oppressive ruling elites LOVE the authoritarian principle, and the U.S. Constitution is pure authoritarian principle! Why do people accept the authoritarian principle? (They sometimes don't, as you can read about here.) In the United States a big part of the reason why people accept the authoritarian principle is that people have a misunderstanding about democracy (including representative government, a.k.a. republics). The misunderstanding is the false belief that there can exist today in the United States a democracy (or a republic, if you will, and now I'll just use the word "democracy" if you don't mind, OK?) of ALL the people. By a democracy of all the people I mean a system of government in which all conflicts and disagreements among the entire population of citizens are resolved peaceably by mutual agreements and compromises according to some agreed-upon method of decision-making (such as the principle of a majority vote of elected representatives) without the use of violence or even the credible threat of violence by either side when there is a conflict. The fact is that there CANNOT exist today in the United States such a democracy of ALL the people, for the reason discussed in the following paragraphs. What purports to be a democracy of ALL the people is in fact a fake democracy that is really an oligarchy. The authoritarian principle derives its legitimacy from the idea that we really have a democracy of ALL the people, in which the laws written by the government reflect peacefully made mutual agreements and compromises among ALL Americans, and should therefore be obeyed. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). OpenPR is clearly structured and remains true to its principle of confining itself to the essential parts. OpenPR has proven to be a very good and reliable partner to our media agency: Within the shortest time the releases are online and go down well with the media representatives. The success of OpenPR is reflected in the steadily increasing number of press releases. It is good that OpenPR exists! Ursula Koslik, Director Marketing & PR, F+W Hamburg Impression Standalone Scanner Market Extensive Report 2017-2022 Dentsply Sirona, Planmeca, Danaher, Carestream Health Impression Standalone Scanner http://bit.ly/2g8J6RY http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-impression-standalone-scanner-sales-market-research-report-2017-demand-key-players-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022 http://www.spiremarketresearch.com Impression Standalone Scanner Market Research 2017A market study Global Impression Standalone Scanner Market will help you understand, formulate and implement strategic decisions by offering critical data, insights and analysis from technology as well as commercial perspective on the Impression Standalone Scanner market. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Impression Standalone Scanner market state and the competitive landscape globally. 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We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com Future Perspective of ICT Spends in Retail Banking Sector Market 2019 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/784602/europes-ict-spends-in-retail-banking-sector-future-perspective-to-2019-market-research-reports https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/784602 https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/784602 http://www.marketresearchreports.biz/ The Report Europes ICT Spends in Retail Banking Sector - Future Perspective to 2019 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.bizEurope's ICT Spends in Retail Banking Sector - Future Perspective to 2019; report is a comprehensive outlook built using Kables extensive market research covering spends across ICT markets in Europe. The statistics within the report provides a top-level overview and detailed insights into the operating environment of the Technology and Retail Banking sector in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom).Kable has considered buying behavior / ICT spends across hardware, software, services, communications and staff. It acts as an essential tool for companies active across the ICT market and for new players considering entering the market; ensuring right business decision making.View Report @Key Findings"Europe's ICT Spends in Retail Banking Sector - Future Perspective to 2019" provides the readers with potential spends value on ICT within Retail Banking sector of Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom) during the period 2016 through to 2019In particular, it provides information of potential spends by individual countries for the following categories at segment level:BPO ServicesCloud ServicesEnterprise Communications ServicesIT HardwareIT ServicesSoftwareGet Sample Copy Of This Report @SynopsisEurope's ICT Spends in Retail Banking Sector - Future Perspective to 2019; is an exhaustive research report outlaying future perspectives of ICT project spends in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom). The report provides year on year opportunity spends value within the Retail Banking sector; split across BPO Services, Cloud Services, Enterprise Communications Services, IT Hardware, IT Services, and Software categories and further at segment levels for the period 2016 to 2019.ReasonsToBuyUnderstand the opportunities for ICT market in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom) Retail Banking sector and how it is set to change in future.Make effective business decisions by recognizing the opportunities within each of the core areas of ICT sectorRealign your sales initiatives by understanding the current strategic objectives of the Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom) ICT Sector.Enhance your market segmentation with detailed breakdown of opportunities within selected technology categories.Send An Enquiry Request @Table of Contents1 Introduction1.1 What is this Report About?1.1.1 Definitions1.2 Methodology2 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector: Europe2.1 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector by Value2.2 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector by Category: Europe3 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector: Austria3.1 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector by Value3.2 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector by Category: Austria3.3 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector by Category and Segments3.3.1 BPO Services Market Value3.3.2 Cloud Services Market Value3.3.3 Enterprise Applications Market Value3.3.4 Enterprise Communications Market Value3.3.5 Enterprise Mobility Management Market Value3.3.6 Information Management Market Value3.3.7 IT Hardware Market Value3.3.8 IT Security Software Market Value3.3.9 IT Services Market Value3.3.10 Software Infrastructure Market Value4 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector: Belgium4.1 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector by Value4.2 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector by Category: Belgium4.3 ICT Market Opportunity in the Retail Banking Sector by Category and Segments4.3.1 BPO Services Market Value4.3.2 Cloud Services Market Value4.3.3 Enterprise Applications Market Value4.3.4 Enterprise Communications Market Value4.3.5 Enterprise Mobility Management Market Value4.3.6 Information Management Market Value4.3.7 IT Hardware Market Value4.3.8 IT Security Software Market Value4.3.9 IT Services Market Value4.3.10 Software Infrastructure Market Value5 ICT Market Opportunity in Retail Banking Sector: Denmark5.1 ICT Market Opportunity in Retail Banking Sector by Value5.2 ICT Market Opportunity in Retail Banking Sector by Category: Denmark5.3 ICT Market Opportunity in Retail Banking Sector by Category and Segments5.3.1 BPO Services Market Value5.3.2 Cloud Services Market Value5.3.3 Enterprise Applications Market Value5.3.4 Enterprise Communications Market Value5.3.5 Enterprise Mobility Management Market Value5.3.6 Information Management Market Value5.3.7 IT Hardware Market ValueAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.biz Market Study: IVD Market in China 2017-2021 - Roche Diagnostics, Abbott, Siemens Healthineers https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1069451 https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid=1069451 http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG IVD procedures are conducted outside of a living organism in a test tube, petri dish, or culture dish. Whereas, in vivo diagnostics are carried out inside a living organism. IVD products are intended to collect biological samples such as blood, sputum, urine, spinal fluid, and DNA from a patient's body. They are analyzed in hospitals, clinics, and laboratories. IVD products are reagents and instruments that help in the diagnosis of diseases.The in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) market in China to grow at a CAGR of 14.39% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) market in China for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the new installations/shipments/sales/volume/value.Click to get sample PDF with TOC:Technavio's report, In-vitro diagnostics (IVD) Market in China 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Roche Diagnostics- Abbott- Siemens HealthineersOther prominent vendors- Atlas Link Biotech- Autobio Diagnostics- Bioneovan- Bioptik Technology- Bio-Rad Laboratories- Boson Biotech- C&G Biotech- Cepheid- Changchun Wancheng Bio-elect- Changsha City Epower Electronics & Science- Chongqing Haray International Business- Cusabio Biotech- Dako- Fudakang Ind'l- GE Healthcare- Grifols................Enquiry:Key questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. 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