])
Arrow uses Flatbuffers to encode serialized schemas. Using only the schema, we can compute the offsets of each value in the data blob without scanning through the data blob (unlike Pickle, this is what enables fast deserialization). This means that we can avoid copying or otherwise converting large arrays and other values during deserialization. Tensors are appended at the end of the UnionArray and can be efficiently shared and accessed using shared memory.
Note that the actual object would be laid out in memory as shown below.
The layout of a Python object in the heap. Each box is allocated in a different memory region, and arrows between boxes represent pointers.
The Arrow serialized representation would be as follows.
The memory layout of the Arrow-serialized object.
Getting Involved
We welcome contributions, especially in the following areas.
Use the C++ and Java implementations of Arrow to implement versions of this for C++ and Java.
Implement support for more Python types and better test coverage.
Reproducing the Figures Above
For reference, the figures can be reproduced with the following code. Benchmarking ray.put and ray.get instead of pyarrow.serialize and pyarrow.deserialize gives similar figures. The plots were generated at this commit.
A potential ban in China on software to avoid the country's censors could make it "impossible" to communicate privately online, the German ambassador warned Monday. German envoy Michael Clauss said the possible prohibition of virtual private networks (VPNs) and the recent blockage of WhatsApp have raised concerns among foreign businesses. China has one of the world's most restrictive mechanisms for online censorship, deleting content deemed politically sensitive while blocking certain Western websites and apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Google. Some businesses and individuals employ VPNs to bypass the so-called "Great Firewall" and access the unfettered web. But Beijing mandated in January that all developers must obtain government licences to offer such software, and there has been mounting concern that it might ban them outright. "It would be difficult if not practically impossible for individuals and companies alike to communicate in a safe and confidential electronic environment" if such a policy were enforced, Clauss said in a statement posted to the embassy website. "If digital communication was throttled, it could have detrimental effects for China's relationship with the outside world, including Germany," Clauss said. Clauss said the Communist Party's national congress, which opens Wednesday, will give signals "on whether the trend of further opening up is meant to continue or not." The intermittent blocking of Facebook's messaging app WhatsApp ahead of the party congress had also caused "growing concern" over China's intention to further restrict access to international information, Clauss added. Many Chinese activists favour WhatsApp over local messaging apps because of its end-to-end encryption function -- one likely viewed unfavourably by authorities. As well as the WhatsApp block, China enacted a new cybersecurity law this year, tightening restrictions on online freedom of speech and imposing new rules on service providers, including one requiring tech companies to store user data inside the country. Many in the foreign business community are complaining of the law's "extensive scope" and "unpredictable implementation," Clauss said. "In the 'offline' world, our overlapping economic and political interests bring us closer together, but this trend may not be sustainable if excessive cyber controls drive us apart," Clauss said. A 2016 report by US think tank Freedom House found that China had the most restrictive internet policies of 65 countries it studied, ranking below Iran and Syria.
JAKARTA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Indonesia's central bank said on Monday it will allow transaction settlement for bilateral trade between Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand to be conducted in local currencies.
The new regulation is aimed at reducing dependency on the U.S. dollar and limiting exposure to volatile foreign exchange rates.
The rule, which goes into effect on Jan. 2 next year, allows Indonesian exporters or importers to settle payments with their Malaysian or Thai counterparts using rupiah, ringgit or baht.
The three currencies are among the most volatile in the region.
Bank Indonesia, Bank of Thailand and Bank Negara Malaysia, will select banks that will be able to carry out such transactions, Indonesia's central bank said in a statement. (Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
Keeping a close watch at the global scenario of terrorism and the methods terrorists across the world have recently adopted, India's National Security Guard (NSG) commandos are preparing themselves for effective counter-terror operations.
NSG has studied the recent terror attacks in France & Germany as well as the London Tube blast.
By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: Our National Security Guard (NSG) commandos may have been out of action for a while, but not out of practice. Though the country has not seen a major terror attack in recent times, the counter-terror force is looking at new global challenges in the Indian perspective.
NSG commandos are being trained to deal with lone wolf attacks, especially huge vehicles being driven into unsuspecting crowds or machete attacks - growing trends of jihadis in the West. Sources in the force say the real danger is from individuals carrying out terror attacks in crowded places with 'minimum investment but maximum casualties'.
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The West has seen a number of lone wolf attacks such as the one in Nice, France, where a terrorist mowed down dozens of holiday makers driving a huge truck. On July 14, 2016, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had driven a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day, killing 86 people and wounding more than 100.
In India, it is the Black Cats who are trained to deal with such attacks. The counter-terror force has trained with commandos of several countries. Sources say the force has studied the recent terror attacks in France and Germany and even the planting of explosives at London Tube.
Earlier, in June this year, a terror suspect calling himself a 'soldier of the Caliphate' attacked a policeman on patrol outside Notre-Dame cathedral in the heart of Paris armed with a hammer and two knives as he shouted, "This is for Syria".
The December 19, 2016 terror attack in Germany, where a truck was driven into a Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, left 12 people dead and 56 injured.
Back home, security forces had been put on high alert in New Delhi and the National Capital Region following inputs about a possible lone-wolf attack by a terror outfit earlier this year.
"A machete attack or truck mowing into crowds are serious possibilities since they are global trends. We are developing our own techniques, and also using our association with foreign forces to know how personnel facing such an attack have dealt with them effectively. Also, several arrests of ISIS recruits and a recent arrest of an al-Qaeda operative have only made the resolve of the force stronger," a senior officer of the NSG said.
In the absence of a terror attack in the hinterland, NSG commandos have been training hard in the NCR and in their hubs. Sources said the force is likely to train with commandos in Japan as part of a recent cooperation measure.
--- ENDS ---
By Robin Emmott
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it was time to begin "serious negotiations" on Brexit, hours before Prime Minister Theresa May visits Brussels in an attempt to unlock the stalled talks.
"We think in the UK that it is time to get on with these negotiations ... for us to start some serious conversations about the future and the new relationship, the deep and special partnership we hope to construct," Johnson told reporters.
"I think we will work very much in the interests of both sides ... let's put a tiger in the tank, lets get these negotiations going and stop letting the grass grow under our feet. We hope very much that our friends and partners will take that message and really begin to do some serious negotiations."
Johnson, arriving for talks in Luxembourg with his European Union peers on Monday, also said London made a "very good" and "fair" offer on safeguarding expatriates' rights after Britain leaves the European Union.
May's office said on Sunday she would meet the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and the head of the bloc's executive Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, in Brussels on Monday.
(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Hillary Clinton Monday accused WikiLeaks of working with Russia to deflect attention away from an infamous tape of Donald Trump bragging about groping women in the run-up to the US presidential election. The former secretary of state's devastating election loss to Trump remains raw and she again lashed out at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his alleged role in damaging her candidacy. "Assange has become a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator," she said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin. "WikiLeaks is unfortunately now practically a fully-owned subsidiary of Russian intelligence." The US intelligence community concluded Putin ordered an influence campaign to discredit Clinton and had a "clear preference" for Trump in last year's poll. Clinton used the bombshell Trump tape as an example of how WikiLeaks allegedly tried to deflect attention away from a bad news story, resurrecting the incident in the wake of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein's fall from grace over his treatment of women. In the 2005 videotape, which surfaced in October last year, Trump brags about being able to get away with groping women. "When you're a star, they let you do it," he said. "Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything," Trump added. Trump said the comments were "locker-room banter". Several women subsequently accused him of sexual misconduct, which he denounced as lies. Within hours of the tape emerging, WikiLeaks published more than 2,000 hacked emails from the personal account of Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta, which she said blunted its impact. "WikiLeaks, which in the world in which we find ourselves promised hidden information, promised some kind of secret that might be of influence, was a very clever, diabolical response to the Hollywood Access tape," she said, referring to the Trump recording. "And I've no doubt in my mind that there was some communication if not coordination to drop those the first time in response to the Hollywood Access tape." Reacting on Twitter, Assange attacked Clinton as "creepy". "There's something wrong with Hillary Clinton. It is not just her constant lying. It is not just that she throws off menacing glares and seethes thwarted entitlement," the Australian tweeted with a link to the ABC interview. "Watch closely. Something much darker rides along with it. A cold creepiness rarely seen." Clinton claimed WikiLeaks' actions were motivated by Assange's personal dislike of her. "I had a lot of history with him because I was secretary of state when WikiLeaks published a lot of very sensitive information from our State Department and our Defence Department," she said. "If he's such a martyr of free speech, why doesn't WikiLeaks ever publish anything coming out of Russia? You don't see damaging, negative information coming out about the Kremlin on WikiLeaks," Clinton added. Assange, who has spent five years inside the Ecuador embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, has denied Russia was the source behind the leaked documents.
European Union Foreign Affairs Chief Federica Mogherini gives her remarks after attending a meeting of the parties to the Iran nuclear deal during the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 20, 2017. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
By Robin Emmott and Gabriela Baczynska
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday reaffirmed its support for a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers despite sharp criticism of the accord by President Donald Trump, and it urged U.S. lawmakers not to reimpose sanctions on Tehran.
Trump defied both U.S. allies and adversaries on Friday by refusing to formally certify that Tehran is complying with the accord, even though international inspectors say it is, and said he might ultimately terminate the agreement.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg said a failure to uphold an international agreement backed by the U.N. Security Council could have serious consequences for regional peace, and also undermine efforts to check North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
"As Europeans together, we are very worried that the decision of the U.S. president could lead us back into military confrontation with Iran," German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters.
After a closed-door meeting chaired by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on how best to proceed on the Iran issue, the ministers issued a joint statement saying the 2015 deal was key to preventing the global spread of nuclear weapons.
"The EU is committed to the continued full and effective implementation of all parts of the JCPOA," it said, referring to the 'Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action', the formal name of the accord with Iran agreed in July 2015 in Vienna.
Foreign ministers said the accord was crucial to opening up Iran's $400-billion economy and finding a new market for European investors. Unlike the United States, the EU saw relations with Iran flourish in the late 1990s until revelations about Tehran's nuclear plans in 2002.
"Non-proliferation is a major element of world security and rupturing that would be extremely damaging," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters. "We hope that Congress does not put this accord in jeopardy."
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Mogherini said she would travel to Washington early next month to try to muster support for the accord.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran is complying with its commitments under the accord, which Trump has branded "the worst deal ever negotiated".
The EU still has sanctions in place against members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a major target of Trump's criticism.
The EU ministers also discussed on Monday Iran's ballistic missile programme, which they want to see dismantled. Tehran says that programme is purely defensive.
Mogherini said the ministers did not discuss new sanctions on Iran over that programme.
While several EU governments, including the Netherlands and Britain, said Iran's ballistic missiles and Tehran's interventions in Syria and Yemen were a concern, ministers said the immediate focus had to be saving the 2015 deal.
NORTH KOREA SPILLOVER
Negotiated after 12 years of talks that EU diplomats helped to initiate and carry through, the accord with Iran is the most significant diplomatic success for the bloc in several decades.
Many worry that the EU's reputation as an honest broker in a host of future conflicts may not recover if the U.S. Congress reimposes sanctions on Iran and causes the deal - which had the strong backing of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama - to unravel.
Most U.N. and Western sanctions were lifted more than 18 months ago under the deal, though Tehran is still subject to a U.N. arms embargo, which is not part of the deal.
EU foreign ministers also approved a new batch of economic sanctions on North Korea after its atomic test last month that included an oil embargo and investment ban.
But some still hold out hope of repeating the Iran nuclear deal with Pyongyang at some future date.
Sweden is one of only seven EU countries with an embassy in Pyongyang and its foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, reiterated that Stockholm could be counted on to help negotiate if asked.
But Germany's Gabriel warned that Trump's decision not to certify the Iran accord could scupper such hopes, a position echoed by Mogherini, although she stressed that no such EU mediation was underway.
"My concern is that, if we want to talk to North Korea now, the possible end for the nuclear deal with Iran would jeopardise the credibility of such treaties," Gabriel said.
(Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen in Luxembourg and Lily Cusack in Brussels; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Scott Malone
MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - Since fleeing deadly violence in Indonesia two decades ago, Meldy and Eva Lumangkun built a life in suburban New Hampshire and raised four children, their illegal status long tolerated by U.S. immigration authorities.
But when they showed up at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Manchester in August for their regular check-in, they were told to buy one-way tickets back to Indonesia and get out of the United States in two months.
"We are afraid to go home. We fear for the safety of our children," Meldy Lumangkun said after an October meeting with ICE officials in Manchester. "Here our children can live safely."
The Lumangkuns are among about 2,000 ethnic Chinese Indonesian Christians who fled to New Hampshire to escape rioting in Southeast Asia's biggest economy that killed about 1,000 people in 1998 at the height of Asia's financial crisis.
They are also among tens of thousands of illegal immigrants in the United States now facing possible deportation after the Trump administration moved to reopen cases of people who, like the Lumangkuns, had been given a reprieve under past administrations.
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump said he would purge the country of millions of illegal immigrants. Since he moved into the White House in January, immigration arrests have tripled since the start of the year to an average of 142 people a day, though actual deportations are down from the rate under Trump's Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
The Lumangkuns and other Indonesian Christians in New Hampshire say they fear religious discrimination or violence if they return to Indonesia.
Resented for their wide control over trade and business, and suspected of loyalty to China, Indonesian-Chinese have often been the target of racial discrimination in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country. In 1998, rampaging mobs targeted Chinese-owned businesses and in some cases killed and raped Chinese-Indonesians, forcing hundreds to flee the country.
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Most of the Indonesians now facing deportation entered the United States legally, often on tourist visas, but overstayed them. They then failed to apply for asylum within a year of entering the country, a deadline many were unaware of, according to immigrants, as well as advocates and attorneys. They only later tried to seek legal status, and the ones now facing deportation failed.
Under the terms of a deal negotiated with ICE in 2012 with the help of U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the group was allowed to remain in the country if they surrendered their passports and appeared for regular check-ins set on varying schedules by ICE.
Beginning in August, members of the group including the Lumangkuns, were told to prepare to return home, a tougher line that ICE officials said was aligned with an executive order signed by Trump on Jan. 25 overturning many Obama-era immigration policies. Under the new guidelines, while criminals remain the highest priority for deportation, almost anyone in the country illegally is a potential target.
"The executive order that President Trump signed in January changed everything," said ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer.
"IT'S VERY STRESSFUL"
Many of the couples facing deportation have children, said Sandra Pontoh, pastor of the Madbury Maranatha Indonesian Fellowship in Madbury, New Hampshire.
"It's very stressful," said Jacklyn Lele, 37, who said she fled to the United States in 2006 after her brother was killed in the 1998 violence.
"My son does not really want to go over there, he keeps saying 'I'm American,'" Lele said as the 7-year-old boy restlessly played with a mobile phone.
The group is clustered in New Hampshire's seacoast region, where they have found work in small factories and raised families, enjoying life in the quiet, bucolic state. Some serve as church pastors.
"They are filling jobs that are important," Shaheen, a Democrat who has served in the Senate since 2009, said in a phone interview. "Replacing them is not easy."
The local Foster's Daily Democrat newspaper condemned the move to deport the New Hampshire group in an August editorial.
"Neighbors who have worked hard and followed the rules shouldn't be kicked out of the country," wrote the newspaper's editorial board, which despite the 144-year-old paper's name rarely leans liberal. "Neighbors who have committed no crime should not suddenly 'disappear' into ICE detention."
The ethnic Chinese community accounts for less than 5 percent of Indonesia's population, but has raised its profile in recent years and owns many of the country's biggest conglomerates.
The governor of Jakarta, a member of the same Chinese-Christian minority in the New Hampshire cases, was jailed for two years in May after being found guilty of blasphemy against Islam. His trial followed mass Islamist-led rallies and sent shockwaves through the secular state whose constitution protects religious freedom and diversity, though 85 percent of its people are Muslim.
Indonesia has not seen a repeat of violence on the scale of the 1998 rioting, though there have been some forced church closures and isolated attacks on places of worship.
TWO GROUPS
Under the 2012 deal with U.S. immigration authorities, some 69 Indonesians living in New Hampshire were allowed to stay. A similar cluster of 45 Indonesian Christians now live in New Jersey under terms of a similar deal independently negotiated and are also facing deportation.
ICE officials said they had no estimate of how many people could be affected, but 41,854 people nationwide without criminal histories are covered by so-called orders of supervision that require illegal immigrants to check-in regularly with authorities as a condition for staying in the country.
The New Hampshire removals have been temporarily halted by a U.S. magistrate judge in Boston, after a lawsuit filed late last month on behalf of 47 of the Indonesian immigrants.
The New Hampshire cases have drawn the support of other Democratic elected leaders, including U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan and Representative Carol Shea-Porter.
Shaheen says she believes the group's regular check-ins made them easy to target.
"It's totally inconsistent with American values," said Shaheen. "This is a country that was born of people that were fleeing religious persecution."
(Editing by Jason Szep and Mary Milliken)
Israel's military carried out an air strike on an anti-aircraft battery in Syria on Monday after it fired toward its planes, while vowing it sought no further escalation in the war-torn country. Israeli planes were on what the military described as a routine reconnaissance mission over neighbouring Lebanon when an anti-aircraft missile was fired in their direction, a military spokesman said. The planes returned safely, according to the spokesman, adding it was believed the anti-aircraft battery in Syria was destroyed. Syria's military said Israel's air force breached the country's air space, causing it to respond with its air defences. It claimed one of the Israeli planes was hit, "forcing it to flee". Israel then "launched several missiles ... on one of our military positions in the Damascus region, causing only material damage," Syrian state television quoted the military as saying. Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists "we hold the Syrian regime responsible for the anti-aircraft fire and any attack originating from Syria." He said Israel "will maintain its ability to thwart hostile intentions and activities endangering Israeli civilians". Syria's military said it "warns against the dangerous consequences of repeated attempts at aggressive by Israel". Conricus did not specify how many Israeli planes were involved in the reconnaissance mission, but described them as being "in proximity to the Syrian border". The battery targeted was located some 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of Damascus, he said. It was believed to be the first time since Syria's civil war began that Israeli planes were fired toward while in Lebanese airspace, said Conricus. However, Israel's military said it had no interest in any further escalation. "Israel has no intention to destabilise the situation," said Conricus. - Russian visit - Israel has sought to avoid becoming more directly involved in the six-year civil war in neighbouring Syria, though it acknowledges carrying out dozens of air strikes to stop what it calls advanced arms deliveries to Hezbollah. The Lebanese Shiite group is backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the conflict. Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating war in 2006. In March, Israeli warplanes struck several targets in Syria, drawing retaliatory missile fire in the most serious incident between the two countries since the start of the Syrian war. At the time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the air strikes targeted weapons bound for Hezbollah and that Israel would do the same again if necessary. Syria's military had said it launched anti-aircraft missiles at the aircraft, claiming it had downed an Israeli plane and hit another as they carried out pre-dawn strikes near the desert city of Palmyra. Israel denied any of its aircraft was hit. During the sortie, Israel fired its Arrow interceptor to take out what was believed to have been a Russian-made SA 5 missile. In the aftermath, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to destroy Syrian air defence systems "without the slightest hesitation" if they fired on Israeli planes in future. Monday's strike comes with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu due to visit Israel later in the day. Russia is also backing Assad in the Syrian conflict. Russia and Israel have established a hotline to avoid accidental clashes in Syria. "The Russians were notified in real time," Conricus said of the strike. Shoigu and Lieberman were expected to discuss Syria and Iran's presence there. Iran, Israel's main enemy, backs Assad in the war along with Russia and Israel is concerned Tehran will establish a permanent military presence along its border. jod-lal-ram-mjs/hkb
Reuters
India has asked state-owned firms to consider moving the country's insolvency court to shut loss-making units, hoping for speedier resolutions as the government looks to slim down its public sector holdings. Public sector companies will have to file an insolvency application under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for the resolution of a loss-making unit within three months of approval from a committee comprising top cabinet ministers, according to guidelines released by the government on Monday. The government is looking to close loss-making units in nearly nine months from the day a firm seeks approval to do so.
People wounded in the weekend's massive bombing in Somalia -- the deadliest ever attack to hit the conflict-torn nation -- were flown to Turkey on Monday for treatment, an AFP photographer said. The Turkish military plane carrying 35 wounded Somalis landed at an Ankara airport, where ambulances were at the ready to rush the victims to hospital. Turkey strongly condemned Saturday's bombing in Mogadishu which killed at least 276 people and left 300 injured. The blast occurred at a junction in Hodan, a bustling commercial district of the capital Mogadishu which has many shops, hotels and businesses. Turkey sent planes with medical supplies in the wake of the attack, and Health Minister Ahmet Demircan was in Mogadishu on Monday to coordinate the transfer of the injured. Turkey is a leading donor and investor in Somalia. In September, it inaugurated the largest foreign-run military training centre in Somalia, where local troops are due to take over the protection of a nation threatened by Shabaab jihadists. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Shabaab, a militant group aligned with Al-Qaeda, has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in its bid to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government.
The head of the Islamic State group in Southeast Asia, who figures on the US "most wanted terrorists" list, was killed on Monday in the battle to reclaim a militant-held Philippines city, officials said. Isnilon Hapilon's reported death came during a final push to end the nearly five-month siege of Marawi, a battle that has claimed more than 1,000 lives and raised fears that IS was seeking to set up a regional base in the southern Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte and security analysts say Hapilon has been a key figure in the jihadist outfit's drive to establish a Southeast Asian caliphate as they suffer battlefield defeats in Iraq and Syria. The military said the long-haired leader was killed in a dawn offensive alongside Omarkhayam Maute, one of two brothers who allied with Hapilon to plot the takeover of the city. "It's a big deal for us that they were killed," Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters, adding that Hapilon's death was a symbolic blow to regional militancy because he had been declared the local emir of the Islamic State group. Philippine military chief of staff General Eduardo Ano showed reporters a photo of what he said was Hapilon's bloodied face. The US government had offered a $5 million bounty for information leading to Hapilon's arrest, describing the 51-year-old as a senior leader of the southern Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf group, which the US considers a "foreign terrorist organisation". Ano said Philippine ground forces launched an assault before dawn, sparking a four-hour gun battle that lead to the two leaders' deaths. DNA tests will be carried out on the two bodies because of the reward offer from the US and Philippine governments, Lorenzana said. "The Marawi incident is almost over and we may announce the termination of hostilities in a couple of days," Lorenzana said. Philippine authorities have made several previous announcements on the imminent end of the conflict, but observers believe this time the forecast is likely to be accurate. Pro-IS gunmen occupied parts of Marawi, the Islamic capital of the mainly Catholic Philippines, on May 23 following a foiled attempt by security forces to arrest Hapilon, authorities said. Since then more than 1,000 people have been killed and 400,000 residents displaced. Duterte has imposed martial law across the southern third of the Philippines to quell the militant threat. - 'Centre of gravity' - The insurgents have withstood a relentless US-backed bombing campaign and intense ground battles with troops that have left large parts of Marawi in ruins. Defence chiefs last month said other Philippine militant leaders had been killed in the battle for Marawi. Troops were still pursuing dozens of fighters in the battle zone including Indonesians and Malaysians, Ano said, after rescuing 20 hostages over the weekend with a two-month-old baby among them. Malaysian militant leader Mahmud Ahmad was still in Marawi, with authorities describing him as the "conduit" between IS and local militant groups. There were still 22 hostages left along with 39 relatives of the militants, they added. The restive south of the mainly Catholic Philippines is home to a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency and to extremist gangs that have declared allegiance to IS including the Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups. Hapilon is believed to have been involved in the 2001 kidnappings of three Americans, two of whom were later killed. Hapilon was based in Basilan island in the strife-torn south but authorities said in January that he had moved to the Mautes' base in Lanao del Sur province, 300 kilometres (180 miles) east, to create an alliance and to establish an IS presence there. Marawi is Lanao del Sur's capital and largest city. The deaths of Hapilon and Maute signal the end of the militant groups, Ano said. "This means their centre of gravity has crumbled," he told reporters. "We just needed to get these two (leaders) to make sure the leadership, the centre of gravity falls, and elsewhere even the Maute-ISIS (fighters) in other areas would also crumble." However an analyst said the deaths of the leaders would likely prompt retaliatory attacks from their followers and allies, with young leaders seeking to take their place. "Terrorism will take a new form in the post-Marawi period because these terrorist groups linked to ISIS continue to innovate and their actions are evolving," Rommel Banlaoi, chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, told AFP. "It's going to be a new battle."
By PTI: Oct 18
(Eds: Updating with fresh inputs)
By Sajjad Hussain
Islamabad, Oct 16 (PTI) Pakistans embattled Finance Minister Ishaq Dars plea to be exempted from personal appearance in the anti-graft court was today rejected by the court, observing that the accused should be present when the witnesses record their statements and are cross-examined.
The Accountability Court had indicted Dar, 67, last month in a case pertaining to his owning "assets beyond his known sources of income".
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The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had registered three cases of corruption and money laundering against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his family members and Finance Minister Dar in the Islamabad Accountability Court.
The cases were registered weeks after the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif as prime minister on July 28 in the Panama Papers scandal.
Dar, who appeared for the fifth time in the Accountability Court today, amid tight security, was represented by his lawyer Khawaja Harris, who pleaded to exempt the finance minister from appearing in the court for todays hearing.
In the application, junior lawyer Kauseen Faisal Mufti said that Dar wished to be exempted from court in order to be able to concentrate on his duties as the countrys finance minister.
However, Judge Mohammad Bashir remarked that the lead counsel can present the exemption arguments when he appears in court. He observed further that the accused needs to be present when witnesses are recording statements [and thus cannot be exempted from appearance].
Judge Bashir initialy deferred the judgement on the matter and later adjourned until October 18.
In its case against the finance minister, the NAB has alleged that "the accused has acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his own name and/or in the name of his dependants of an approximate amount of Rs 831.678 million (approx)". PTI SH ZH AKJ AKJ
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Passengers recounted their panic Monday after a sudden loss of pressure on their AirAsia flight caused oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling and sent their plane into a steep drop. AirAsia said the Airbus A320, carrying 151 people, suffered a "technical issue", with Australian media reporting the aircraft, en route to Indonesia, had dropped from 32,000 feet (10,000 metres) to 10,000 feet 25 minutes after take-off. Video circulating online shows distressed passengers wearing oxygen masks with an alarm blaring and cabin crew calling for people to assume the brace position. "I picked up my phone and sent a text message to my family, just hoping that they would get it," one tearful passenger named Leah told Channel Nine television. We were all pretty much saying goodbye to each other. It was really upsetting. Another holidaymaker said not knowing what was going on heightened fears. "We didn't know what was happening because all the voice recordings on the plane were in every language but English," she said. AirAsia apologised for the scare on Sunday's Perth to Bali flight, blaming a "technical issue" without elaborating on the cause. "The safety of passengers and crew is our priority," the budget airline said in a statement. "AirAsia apologises to passengers for any inconvenience caused." Several flights have been forced back to Australia in recent months, including an AirAsia Gold Coast to Kuala Lumpur service in July that the carrier said was involved in a suspected bird strike. A Qantas flight en route to Dallas returned to Sydney in August after the wing flaps could not be retracted, while a Johannesburg-bound plane turned back to Sydney on the same day when a crack in the windscreen was discovered.
#JOBYPHOTO our favourites so far
Win Jobys Smartphone Gorillapod Range Plus 500 | Photo Competition
Use the hashtag #JobyPhoto to win three awesome products from Jobys new phone-friendly range, plus 500 in cash
Weve been running a contest over Instagram, Facebook and Twitter in association with Joby the brand behind the original Gorillapod to give you all a chance to win three products from their new phone-friendly range, plus 500 in cash.
Weve had a ton of great entries so far with all types of spots and skaters popping up and youve still got time to enter if you havent already winners will be selected and announced on October 23rd so if youve shot a skate photo that youre stoked on, nows the time to get involved.
Putting yourself in with a chance to win is simple just add the hashtag #JobyPhoto to your skate photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and we will pick our favourites. Get tagging!
Below youll find 5 of our favourites so far to give you an idea of what youre up against but this competition is open to everyone, pro or amateur alike, and youll only have a chance if you get involved. Good luck!
The war on coal is over. Coal lost.
Posted on 16 October 2017 by dana1981
Last week, Trumps EPA administrator Scott Pruitt announced, the war on coal is over. If there ever was a war on coal, the coal industry has lost. According to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, many old American coal power plants are being retired or converted to natural gas, and new coal power plants arent being built because theyve become more expensive than natural gas, wind, and solar energy:
The share of US electricity coming from coal fell from 51 percent in 2008 to 31 percent in 2016an unprecedented change. New UCS analysis finds that, of the coal units that remain, roughly one in four plans to retire or convert to natural gas; another 17 percent are uneconomic and could face retirement soon.
Natural gas has now surpassed coal to supply 32% of US electricity (up from 21% in 2008), and solar and wind are up to 10% (from 3% in 2008).
Evolution of the American power grid mix since 1960. Illustration: Carbon Brief
This trend will continue. As old coal plants continue to retire and be replaced by cheaper renewables and natural gas, their share of the US electricity supply will continue to plummet, and coal will become a fossil fuel in every sense of the word. Thats why American companies continue to invest in cheap, clean renewable energy. As a result, our air and water are becoming cleaner, Americans are becoming healthier, and our carbon pollution is falling.
The shift away from coal poses a challenge for regions in which the local economy depends on the fossil fuel, but the transition is inevitable. A wise economic policy would involve funding programs to help those regions adapt to the change (Hillary Clinton proposed one such plan during her presidential campaign). A recent study showed that Americans are willing to pay a carbon tax with some of the revenue going to assist displaced coal workers. The Trump administration has instead opted to try and slow coals inevitable decline.
Trump is desperate to burn more coal
The Trump administration seems hell-bent on causing as much global warming as possible. First there was the historically irresponsible decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, joining war-torn Syria as the only world countries to reject the treaty. Then just a few weeks ago, Trumps Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced a plan to effectively take coal out of the free market and instead subsidize it with taxpayer dollars to bail out the industry and keep uneconomical coal power plants open. The hypocrisy ran thick as Perry called for propping up the coal industry with increased taxpayer subsidies, Pruitt called for an end to subsidies for renewable energy:
I would do away with these incentives that we give to wind and solar. Id let them stand on their own and compete against coal and natural gas and other sources, and let utilities make real-time market decisions on those types of things as opposed to being propped up by tax incentives and other types of credits that occur
Soon thereafter, Priutt announced that Trumps EPA will repeal the Clean Power Plan. That policy represented Americas most significant effort to cut its carbon pollution, but had been mired in a legal battle over whether the plan exceeded EPAs regulatory authority under the Clean Air Act. Rather than let the courts decide the case, which many experts felt the EPA would win, Pruitt stopped defending the case in court and ended the program.
The problem is that according to the US Supreme Court, the EPA is legally required to regulate dangerous carbon pollution. Pruitts EPA may propose a dramatically weakened plan that probably wouldnt survive a court challenge, or he may just try to run out the clock on Trumps term. As with the disastrous Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they dont have a replacement plan. In the meantime, states and environmental groups will take his Clean Power Plan repeal to court.
Pruitts Clean Power Plan repeal justification is largely based on bogus economics, which the Trump administration is using to reduce government estimates of the social cost of carbon. This figure which estimates how much a ton of carbon pollution costs society in terms of damages caused by climate change is integral to many government policies. A majority of economists think the governments estimate is too low, but Pruitts EPA manipulated the math by ignoring the costs of Americas carbon pollution to the rest of the world, and by using a high discount rate, which essentially says we care more about saving money now than preventing climate damages and suffering for future generations.
However, because renewables and natural gas are now cheaper than coal, an analysis by the Rhodium Group found that the US will meet the Clean Power Plan target of cutting carbon pollution from electricity generation 32% below 2005 levels by 2030 despite its repeal.
US power sector carbon dioxide emissions projections without the Clean Power Plan in place. Illustration: Rhodium Group
That being said, with the Clean Power Plan in place, the US likely would have beat its targets. As this excellent tool created by Carbon Brief shows, many states like California and Idaho are ahead of the curve, but other states like Texas and West Virginia would have been forced to accelerate their transitions to clean energy, had the Clean Power Plan been enforced.
The ball is in Congress court
The good news is that none of the Trump administrations moves are permanent.
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The latest attempt to repeal Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), has failed. On July 28, 2017, the Skinny Repeal, which promised to eliminate the individual and small business mandates of Obamacare, was unsuccessful.
However, the new administration has vowed to continue working on the issue of healthcare. Whether new legislation will be introduced before the end of 2017, or what the fate of any such legislation would be, is hard to judge.
One thing is clear Obamacare is still legally the law of the land as of this writing. The law applies to employers with 50 or more full-time employees (as this is defined under the Affordable Care Act).
Unless and until the legislation is officially changed, employers are required to comply with the law, including employee tracking and reporting requirements, and its more likely than not those tracking and reporting requirements will continue for the foreseeable future. Therefore, its a good time for a refresher about the requirements for employers under the ACA law.
5 ACA Reporting Tips Every Small Business Needs to Know
Which Employers Are Subject to ACA Reporting?
Employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees must provide benefits under the ACA or face a fine.
To determine whether you have 50 full-time equivalent employees as required under the ACA law, you have to follow a formula. According to the IRS, To determine its workforce size for a year, an employer adds its total number of full-time employees for each month of the prior calendar year to the total number of full-time equivalent employees for each calendar month of the prior calendar year and divides that total number by 12.
See the formula on this page to calculate the number of full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) for a month.
What Type of Reporting Is Required?
The ACA requires employers subject to the law to complete forms 1095-C along with the 1094-C transmittal sheet. The forms are intended to confirm full-time and full-time equivalent employees are getting minimum essential care under the law.
There is a reporting requirement for sending 1095-C and 1094-C transmittals to the IRS. Under the law, employers are required to send 1095-C to all employees to provide information on their healthcare coverage. Form 1094-C is sent only to the IRS as a cover sheet for the 1095-C forms filed with the agency.
Specifically, Form 1095-C provides information about the type of healthcare provided to your employees, as well as information on whether employees might be eligible for a premium tax credit. The form also provides relevant information about periods employees may have gone without required health coverage.
Form 1094-C is a cover sheet providing additional information to the IRS, including the name of the employer, number of employees and the number of 1095-C forms sent to employees and the IRS.
If you file electronically, you get more time to file than you do if you file by paper.
What Are the Deadlines for Filing?
Deadlines for filing these forms in 2017 were actually moved up earlier than in 2016. The move caused considerable confusion in the small business community as many small businesses were unaware of the change.
For 2018, the deadlines are:
January 31, 2018 Send Form 1095 copies to recipients/employees
February 28, 2018 Paper filing of 1095s (and 1094 transmittals) to IRS
March 31, 2018 E-filing of 1095s (and 1094 transmittals) to IRS
What Are the Penalties for Missing Filing Deadlines?
Employers missing the filing deadlines with the IRS for forms 1094-C and 1095-C or who file forms containing inaccurate information could face penalties of up to $260 per filing. Employers could also face a fine of $260 per filing for failure to distribute forms to employees or file with the IRS.
Employers with more than 250 full-time or full-time equivalent employees are required to file electronically by the IRS, rather than by paper.
What is Employer Shared Responsibility?
Under the ACA, employers with 50 or more full-time employees (or full-time equivalents) are required to provide sufficient and affordable healthcare coverage to those employees. The Employer Shared Responsibility provision also requires employers to communicate key details of health insurance coverage to the IRS, including verification that the minimum essential coverage (MEC) is being met. Employers that fail to meet these requirements face a Shared Responsibility Payment ranging from $2,000-$3,000 for every full-time and full-time equivalent employee not covered.
Conclusion
This gives you a quick overview of some of the major requirements of the Affordable Care Act. There are many more nuances and details that employers need to comply with, as well.
Even a full repeal of the ACA may not eliminate the IRS reporting requirement. Though some lawmakers continue to press for full repeal and replacement, any new plan may still carry a tax-related component (e.g., tax subsidies or tax breaks) that could require some level of IRS reporting.
At this point, businesses cannot count on the requirement being eliminated entirely. In fact, any new legislation may add to the burden, if tracking and reporting requirements change significantly.
Learn more here about ACA reporting requirements from business compliance firm ComplyRight. Or download the printable simplified ACA primer (PDF) from efile4biz.com, a ComplyRight brand.
If you buy something through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.
Best Entrepreneur Books and Startup Books
Youve decided to take the leap toward becoming an entrepreneur. Weve got you covered. Here are the best books for entrepreneurs to read and the best startup books to get up and running fast. And they will help you with building a business.
The Art of the Start 2.0
Written by iconic entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start 2.0: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything is an unvarnished take on what every startup should keep in mind when starting a business. Art of the Start covers topics such as innovating, recruiting, fundraising, and branding.
The E-Myth Revisited
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Dont Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber is the updated version of his original groundbreaking book. The E-Myth assesses the most common problems faced by founders and co-founders. Michael Gerber guides small business owners through the process of embracing your why and then creating a process that shares that process and passion with team members.
Zero to One
In Zero to One: Notes on Start-Ups, or How to Build the Future, Peter Thiel and Blake Masters argue that as more and more businesses come into existence, innovation will be the gate to survival, and the monopoly may very well be the key. Peter Thiel and Blake Masters advise startups to think for themselves dont get caught up in culture or movements.
Escape From Cubicle Nation
Thinking about leaving your day job? Then read Escape From Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur by Pamela Slim. The book covers how to determine if you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur, how to recruit a team of advisors and tips on breaking free from your corporate job.
The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan
The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan (StartUp Series) by Tim Berry simplifies the planning process and reveals how to create business plans that grow with you. This book covers instructions to help you quickly build the type of plan that helps you take total control, improve profits, raise capital, operate a profitable enterprise, and stay ahead of the competition.
Lean Startup
The Lean Startup: How Todays Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries has become a classic. The Lean Startup gives entrepreneurs a way to test their vision, adapt, and adjust before its too late. Eric Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing a successful and lean startup in an age when companies need to innovate more than ever.
The $100 Startup
You dont need a ton of money to start your business. In The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future by Chris Guillebeau, youll learn how to connect your skills and interests with what people want and how to test pricing and positioning to generate the highest profits.
Grit
If theres anything that an entrepreneur needs, its grit; the ability to persevere in the face of obstacles, challenges, and rejections. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth gives entrepreneurs proof that you dont have to be a genius to start and build a successful venture.
Start Your Own Business
Start Your Own Business: The Only Startup Book Youll Ever Need by Rieva Lesonsky and the Editorial Staff of Entrepreneur Magazine is written with millions of freelancers in mind. This book will help you get through the first three years of being on your own. Find tips on everything from testing ideas to Facebook ads.
The Thank You Economy
The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk is like the B-side song that never became a big hit, but should have. Written in 2009, when Gary Vaynerchuk was more like everyone else than a celebrity. The Thank You Economy offers a customer-first strategy any entrepreneur can implement. This book is one of the best books for entrepreneurs because it gives practical, real life advice to use when building a business.
These are the best books for entrepreneurs that business owners can use to get real life advice that will help them on a business plan.
Best Books on How to Run a Small Business
Starting a business is easy. Running it takes commitment and discipline. Here is a list of the best books on running a small business.
Built to Sell
You want to work on your business and not in it, but how? Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrillow shows you how. This book is written as a parable. The main character, Alex is struggling to sell his advertising agency. Alex turns to Ted, an entrepreneur and old family friend, who helps him transform his company.
J.K. Lassers Small Business Taxes
J.K. Lassers Small Business Taxes 2021: Your Complete Guide to a Better Bottom Line by Barbara Weltman is a must-read for owners who want to understand business taxes. After all, its not just about how much revenue your company generates, but how much you keep to turn into big profits.
Simple Numbers 2.0
If you had to choose between investing in yourself or the stock market choose yourself. Simple Numbers 2.0 Rules for Smart Scaling: A Play by Play Analysis for Pure Growth by Greg Crabtree shows you how to generate big profits. This book provides advice from Greg Crabtree on how to use data to find hidden opportunities for maximum return on investment.
Fix This Next
According to author, Mike Michalowicz, the biggest problem owners have is not knowing what their biggest problem is. Fix This Next: Make the Vital Change That Will Level Up Your Business provides a simple problem-identification model that you can use to help you focus on the most important thing your company needs right now.
Legal Forms for Starting and Running a Small Business
Legal Forms for Starting & Running a Small Business: 65 Essential Agreements, Contracts, Leases & Letters by Fred S. Steingold is an ideal book that contains all the forms youll need to manage and run your company. Each document comes with thorough, plain-English, line-by-line instructions.
Rich Dad Poor Dad
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert T. Kiyosaki highlights different attitudes towards money, work, and life and the need to build assets not debt. The author shares advice about what it takes to be financially literate something every owner needs.
Profit First
Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz shows you how to use the pay yourself first philosophy to guarantee that your company is profitable.
Atomic Habits
Dont let negative people drag you down. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
Best Business Biographies
Great leaders inspire everyone. The companies we admire and use daily often started as a vision. Weve curated what we think are the best biographic of all time. Our goal with all of these books is to provide value. Investing your time in understanding how these people turned into great leaders.
Shark Tales
Shark Tales: How I Turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran and Bruce Littlefield will inspire everyone to take action. After failing at 22 jobs, Corcoran borrowed $1,000 to start her real estate office in New York. In this book, she shares her common-sense advice on how to turn lemons into lemonade.
The Everything Store
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone tells the story of Amazon icon, Jeff Bezos. In July of 1995, Jeff Bezos started an online book store. But he wanted more than that. The Everything Store tells the story of Amazon and how it implements his vision of becoming the worlds most customer-centric company.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Experience a deep dive into controversial entrepreneur, Elon Musk. Written by Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future compiles more than forty hours of interviews into this fascinating history of one of todays most visionary entrepreneurs.
Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography
This Silicon Valley icon is just as popular today as he was decades ago. After hundreds of interviews with friends, family, and associates, Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson offers an unvarnished view of Steve Jobs and his obsessions, flaws, and genius.
Empire State of Mind
An inspirational biography of JayZ and how he went from being a rapper to entrepreneurial superstar. Written by Zack OMalley Greenburg Empire State of Mind: How Jay Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office tells Jay Zs story from the perspective of classmates, friends and the people who convinced him to focus on music.
Business the Bill Gates Way
Believe it or not, its hard to find a good biography about Bill Gates. After reviewing several, we chose Business the Bill Gates Way: 10 Secrets of the Worlds Richest Business Leader by Des Dearlove. This book highlights universal strategies and identifies lessons that can be applied to any career.
Shoe Dog
Have you ever wondered what made Nike the iconic brand it is today? Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight tells the story of how he took $50 that he borrowed from his father and started building a shoe empire.
Warren Buffett on Business
The name Warren Buffett is synonymous with success with common sense. Warren Buffett on Business: Principles from the Sage of Omaha is a practical management handbook. Before Warren Buffett was a billionaire, he was a small business owner. Youll learn how Warren Buffett incorporates his personal style and values into corporate governance: patience, perseverance, admitting mistakes, value-investing and having a sense of humor.
Losing My Virginity
Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way explains entrepreneurial icon Richard Bransons meteoric rise to success. The book outlines what made him the daring, adventurous, go-with-the-flow entrepreneur he is today and what lessons you can learn from him.
Grinding it Out
Youre never too old to start a business. Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonalds by Ray Kroc is the personal story of the man behind McDonalds meteoric growth.
And that concludes our list. If we had more room we would have included such classics as Business Adventures by John Brooks, which Bill Gates called one of the best business books ever.
How Do You Choose a Business Book?
The factors to choose a good book are not always what you think. Successful people go beyond big-name authors or books about well-known figures. Such books dont always have sufficient practical help for a startup entrepreneur or owners of smaller companies. We suggest you consider:
Your goals The business book category is broad, encompassing everything from Wall Street finance to marketing approaches, to stories about famous entrepreneurs. Pick the type of book to meet your need.
The business book category is broad, encompassing everything from Wall Street finance to marketing approaches, to stories about famous entrepreneurs. Pick the type of book to meet your need. Skill gaps You dont have to be an expert in everything. But you do need general knowledge about leadership, marketing, finance, management and more. Find your gaps and fill them.
You dont have to be an expert in everything. But you do need general knowledge about leadership, marketing, finance, management and more. Find your gaps and fill them. Inspiration What will get you fired up? One thing thats awesome about books is their ability to inspire and motivate.
Additional Reading Lists
See other best books for business people:
Images: Small Business Trends
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Microsoft Teams is a communication tool within Office 365 that gives small businesses a straightforward way to communicate and collaborate with employees. For those who havent used Microsoft Teams, it can help to get some valuable tips and insights from experts in order to make the most of it.
Microsoft Teams Tips
Simona Millham is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and a trainer for IT learning platform CBT Nuggets. She shared some valuable tips for making the most of Microsoft Teams for small businesses in an email interview with Small Business Trends.
Minimize Email Communications
One of the biggest benefits of Microsoft Teams is that it lets businesses keep all of their communication organized in one place, rather than relying on long email chains that can easily get lost in the shuffle. So if youre going to make the most of Microsoft Teams, use it instead of, not in addition to, email for internal communications.
Millham says, If somebody sends an email to the team asking a relatively trivial question, and everybody responds, that generates an awful lot of email. Conversations are at the heart of Teams, making it easy to see threads at a glance, and quickly respond where relevant.
Share Conversations with New Team Members
Microsoft Teams can also make onboarding new employees easier. When you make a new hire, or add an existing team member to a new project, you can share conversations from that thread or project with them so they can catch up easily, rather than forwarding them numerous emails or handing them cumbersome documents.
Stick with a Few Groups
Microsoft Teams allows you to designate different groups within your organization so that you can keep conversations with relevant team members. But dont go overboard creating groups for every possible combination of employees right away. Consider who works together on projects most often and create only those groups that make sense so as not to overwhelm everyone with tons of options. You can always add more later.
Have a Goal for Each Group
If youre struggling to determine what groups to start out with, consider what you want to achieve for each group. For example, you might want a group just for top-level management, which youd turn to when making big strategic decisions. But you may also want groups just for specific purposes like IT support and social media marketing.
Add Groups as You Go
From there, you can always add groups as specific projects call for them. Say youve got a special client project that involves people from several departments who dont normally work together. Create a group thats just for that instance so those workers dont have to communicate in a more general thread.
Set Up Audio Conferencing
Microsoft Teams also offers an audio conferencing feature so you can host voice meetings within specific groups or just with one or two team members. This can be an especially useful feature especially if you have some team members who work remotely. You can also use it to communicate with outside clients via a new guest access feature.
Create a Communication Strategy
Of course, Microsoft Teams isnt the only Microsoft product that offers communication features like chat and audio calls. But Millham warns not to get too caught up in using every single option available. Instead, create a specific plan that outlines in which situations youll use Microsoft Teams for communication versus other platforms.
Millham explains, I think one of the biggest challenges is helping business users to understand WHICH Microsoft Office 365 tool to use WHEN. There is overlap between the functionality of Teams, Yammer and Skype for Business which is really confusing for users, and they are likely to just default back to email without some guidance. So my recommendation is that the business takes some time to think through which tools will suit different parts of their organisation the best and run some pilots with different groups of users and then provide guidance and awareness to end users.
Test Communication Strategies
As Millham mentioned, it can be beneficial to actually test out different communication strategies within your organization to see what works best for your specific team. For example, you might find that it makes sense to use Skype for client calls if most of your clients already have Skype IDs and dont want to sign up for guest access with Microsoft Teams. But you could opt to keep all the internal calls within Teams for the sake of simplicity. Just stay open to employee input so you can optimize your plan to their needs.
Stay Up-to-Date with New Features
Microsoft Teams is constantly changing and adding new functionality that may benefit your team or change the way you use the platform. For example, Microsoft is currently in the process of integrating Skype for Business functionality into Teams. Millham recommends checking out Microsoft Teams documentation and practical guidance for more information and updates about any changes or new features.
Train Your Employees
Its also important to make sure that your employees understand how to make the most of Microsoft Teams. And there are plenty of resources available for that purpose. CBT Nuggets provides one option for Microsoft Teams training.
Millham says, For small business owners, it includes an overview of resources to consider when deploying Teams and encouraging user adoption. For employees, it covers how to use channels, conversations, meetings, file sharing, wikis and more.
Robert Gilpin, R.I.P. - The Washington Post : His greatest book was written in 1981, but the main theory in it is perhaps more trenchant now...
The German minority is aging, and despite efforts, not many young descendants affiliate themselves with their origins.
Hauerlandfest is one of the bigger regional events. (Source: Courtesy of the SNM Museum of Carpathian German Culture)
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National costumes, typical for Kunesov, are too small to be worn by our women, and we dont have money to alter them, said Viliam Neuschl from Kunesov, an originally German village near Kremnica, central Slovakia. But who will wear them when young people are not interested?
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That question of Neuschls sums up the concerns of those who care about the future of the German minority and its identity in Slovakia. Neuschl himself is an active pensioner involved in the local branch of the Carpathian Germans Club (KNS) in Kunesov. We should do our best to preserve our culture, he said, although he admits that the current situation does not guarantee us the cultural development.
A decreasing number of young people affiliated with the Germans as well as the ageing of the members remain the most serious problems identified by the minority itself in the recent reports prepared by the Office of the Governments Proxy for National Minorities. Listed among other problems are the perception by the society and low interest of Germans to take a more responsible attitude towards their organisations.
The minority, which was still tens of thousands strong a century ago, currently counts only 4,690 people, based on the numbers from the 2011 census.
How the minority shrank
For centuries, the German community was strong in Bratislava, in the Lower and Upper Spis regions (Gelnica, Levoca, Poprad, Stara Lubovna, Kezmarok), in the Bodva region (Kosice, Medzev) as well as in the Hauerland region in central Slovakia (Nitrianske Pravno, Kremnica, Handlova). Given the 2011 census, the highest number of Carpathian Germans lives in Bratislava (963), and Hauerland a group of 16 dispersed municipalities including Kunesov (730), Medzev (354), Chmelnica (184), and Mnisek nad Hnilcom (97).
The lives of about 150,000 Germans after a thousand, more or less tranquil, years on the territory of Slovakia rapidly changed before the end of WWII, when the authorities of the Nazi Third Reich began evacuating Germans from Slovakia. After the war, those who stayed in the new state, Czechoslovakia, faced another hardship.
One lawyer does not mean all EU lawyers; immigrants attacking a shepherd dog and HAARP causing hurricanes in the US are hoaxes, too.
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EU lawyers see Crimea annexation as legal
The recent internet story which claimed that the annexation of Crimea by Russia is legal, that in fact it was not annexation but an autonomous decision, is ascribed to lawyers of the European Union. It received hundreds, maybe thousands, of reactions although the post is in line with the Russian view of the situation and ignores the fact that the referendum on self-determination was organised only after the Russian army invaded Crimea.
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Hoax on EU lawyers supporting annexation of Crimea (Source: Facebook)
The story, which was also posted on Facebook by the Nove Zamky branch of the Sme Rodina party of Boris Kollar, became the focus of the manipulatori.cz website, which discloses and clarifies internet hoaxes.
Manipulatori.cz notes that this story is based on a real analysis which is authored by lawyer Christian de Fouloy, head of the Association of Accredited Lawyers for Relations with Public Bodies of the EU (AALEP). AALEP is a lobby, non-profit organisation that has nothing in common with EU bodies. EU lobbyist Oleg Rumyantsev, a Russian professor and advisor of the federal Russian service for intellectual property, appears on its website. Thus, this analysis is the work of a single lobbyist group connected to Kremlin, rather than that of EU lawyers.
Immigrants attacked two German shepherd dogs
An old video with a deceiving headline became the hit of disinformation websites.
The video now spreading on websites (e.g. Megazine.cz, Euportal.cz and foreign sites) and social networks claims that two immigrants attacked two German shepherds, who then bite one of them badly.
English subtitles on YouTube state that the two are immigrants in Europe.
video //www.youtube.com/embed/wYBgFqc9QOM
The videos appeared on Czech servers beginning in September 2017 and on YouTube in 2016. However, this video can be also found dated April 24, 2013. The headline of the original video ties it to Casablanca in Morocco, and a still older video is dated to April 23, 2013 on the Liveleak.com website. This and the date hint that the incident has nothing to do with the migration crisis in Europe.
The Czech websites spreading the video are openly spreading politically incorrect opinions, and are full of nationalist, xenophobic and anti-Western materials.
Hurricanes in America are created by HAARP, new hoax claims
Globalists issues and orders for geo-engineers to cause absolute shock and fear in America, with artificial hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
This sentence is from a story on the Czech disinformation website Tadesco.cz, but it is not the only internet source spreading conspiracy theories surrounding the recent hurricane season in the Atlantic. Several Facebook groups have spread a link to a British story on Yournewswire.com, which writes that famous scientist Michio Kaku has confirmed that HAARP was behind both hurricanes.
Hoax on HAARP and hurricanes (Source: Tadesco.cz)
Both stories are lies, however: Yournewswire wrote that Kaku confirmed in an interview for the CBS that HAARP was behind the current series of hurricanes. The interview video meant to prove this is over one year old (dated October 21, 2016) and the author writes that it dates back to 2013. Moreover, the HAARP system is not even mentioned in the interview; Kaku only talks about laboratories trying to impact weather with laser beams and notes that technologies to influence weather, e.g. to bring about rain, already exist.
The Tadesco.cz story is even worse, as it accuses unspecified globalists, geo-engineers or the new world order of influencing weather. Moreover, it makes claims like, Currently, everyone knows that Harvey was artificially directed at the Texas coast, and we can believe that Irma, similarly, will also be navigated to a specific target.
Facts and fiction
Citing an unknown authority and ad populum argument (currently, everyone knows) belong among classic logical mistakes that strive to add trustworthiness to information without citing a specific source.
HAARP has inspired many conspiracy theories, despite not officially functioning since 2014. It was launched in 1990 as a project to research the qualities of the ionosphere. Even now, conspiracy theories attribute it to natural disasters like earthquakes or extreme weather.
Although HAARP had strong transmitters, they were not strong enough to impact weather and were still too weak when compared to natural sources like lightning.
Sme
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with fresh inputs, date of next hearing)
By Sajjad Hussain
Islamabad, Oct 16 (PTI) Pakistans Finance Minister Ishaq Dar today again appeared before an anti-corruption court here to face trial in the Panama Papers scandal.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had registered three cases of corruption and money laundering against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his family members and Finance Minister Dar in the Islamabad Accountability Court.
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The cases were registered weeks after the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif as prime minister on July 28 in the Panama Papers scandal.
Dar, 67, appeared in the court but his chief counsel Khawaja Harris was not present due to some prior commitments.
The court was informed that Harris would come later in the day. The court also rejected an application by Dar to exempt him from hearing today.
The hearing was adjourned till October 18.
Three witnesses have already testified in the case, including Al-Baraka Bank Senior Vice-President Tariq Javed and Shahid Aziz of the National Investment Trust (NIT) asset management company during the previous hearing on October 12.
Dar was indicted last month in the case in which he is accused of making assets, which are not in accordance with his known sources of income. PTI SH ZH NSA
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Alexej Fulmek is the general director of Petit Press, the publisher of the Sme daily and the majority owner of The Slovak Spectator
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A big but inconspicuous man has left. The media have only a few pictures of him. He did not like to show off in front of cameras, even though he belonged among the most important entrepreneurs in Slovakia.
He never had the tendency to show off or to make a point of his power and wealth, even though it would not be completely accurate to call him modest. You will not find more than five interviews with him in the Slovak media.
If I should name what it was that made him exceptional, I would say it was mostly his innate sense of democracy, promoting equal opportunities for all and the sensitive way he handled his power. In many projects, he became the significant leader.
It was Peter Vajda who gave us the basic impulse to create a new newspaper in 1992. The Vladimir Meciar administration wanted to destroy the leadership and the critical spirit of the Smena daily and Peter Vajda offered financial aid to the then-leadership and editor-in-chief of the Smena daily, Karol Jezik, if most of the editorial team left for a new project.
There would be no Sme without him
Without the investment from his Prva Slovenska Investicna Spolocnost, the Sme daily would never have emerged and our publishing house would not have grown into one of the biggest in Slovakia. Peter Vajda stood at all the important decisions in the history of the Sme daily and I stood by him in all the difficult moments. He invested into the paper to help maintain the space for a free exchange of opinions.
He would say that scumbags and bandits can not win everything and he saw the future in a strong civil society. He admired President Vaclav Havel. He believed that creating a standard uncorrupted environment, without preferring interest groups and with just competition, was all it would take for the smartest people to win recognition, which would move society as a whole forward.
His presence in the Sme daily cost him his Slovak citizenship. He lived with his family in the Czech Republic since 1995, when he left under the pressure of Meciars Finance Ministry after he was stripped of his business licence.
Leader with a story
For almost 30 years he had been an important collector and patron of Slovak art. He invested his first profits into the works of Slovak artists who had been tabooed under socialism.
He created a collection of art that has passed through many cities of Europe and North America.
I remember him as a man in his forties, in full force, at the beginning of our cooperation. He was a man of analytical mind, with the ability to make fast and, most of all, right conclusions. He believed that if we worked hard enough, we had to be successful in the end, even if it did not look like that in our initial years.
Suddenly I remember many moments we shared, and our talks. For example I remember his almost child-like joy when he built his own wine brand, Sonberk, and founded a much-appreciated winery.
He also lived to earn the appraisal of the most prestigious London-based wine magazine Decanter, when it proclaimed the Palava wine to be the best dry aromatic wine in the world this summer. It was as if the worlds sommeliers paid him his last respects.
The story of the life of Peter Vajda is strong, and so is the story of the Sme daily, a newspaper that nobody can ever erase from the history of this country. Stories of companies are always a projection of the stories of their leaders. On Sunday, the protagonist of one of such story left, an ardent and friendly man. Peter was a fighter, which he also proved in the hard moments during his illness, when he fought and worked until the end.
Our 25-year-long cooperation has ended and I will miss him.
Who was Peter Vajda? Peter Vajda, aged 70, died following a serious illness in Prague on October 15. He was the director of board of Proxy Finance, an investor and co-founder of the Sme daily. Peter Vajda was born on April 7, 1947 in Bratislava. He graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Slovak University of Technology, and continued his studies at the University of Economics. He worked at the Economics of Industry Research Institute as system engineer. In 1991 Vajda and his partners founded the Prva Slovenska Investicna Spolocnost (First Slovak Investment Group), which became the most successful company in coupon privatisation. After assaults of the Meciar government on the company, he moved some of his activities to the Czech Republic and moved with his family to Prague, where he founded the Proxy Finance company in 1995. He was involved in finance, media, real estate, and restructuration companies. He was a person of vision and change, ready to be the first to adapt to new ideas. Under socialism, he worked in the first computer centre in Slovakia and was one of the first people to use computers in production and in business. In 1989 he founded the first private travel agency in Slovakia that organised trips to Caorle in Italy and to Cyprus. He also founded the first Slovak private insurance company without foreign capital, named Ergo. He supported the free and opposition newspaper, the Sme daily. His company BH Securities was one of the first Czech companies in the bone security business, and so was the leasing company B.O.F. He was the first one to found a corporate collection of modern Slovak art. In his Sonberk winery he used modern architecture aligned with the landscape, among the first to do so. His wines got a world prize from the Decanter magazine. Peter Vajda belonged among the most important Slovak entrepreneurs in the post-1989 era. He promoted equal opportunities for all, stood against protectionism and favouring close groups in business. In public life, Vajda promoted a free space for expressing diverse opinions, and mutual respect for all ideological streams. He leaves behind a wife, who is a literary scientist, and two adult children.
The recent Bratislava summit raised some suggestions on solving the problem, but it will be a long process.
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This piece has been replaced with a story written by the Spectators staff.
Several central and eastern European countries have claimed the discovery of different quality products of the same brand and in the same packages in their shops as their neighbours in western Europe. This number may be as high as one-third of the European Unions member states, according to European Commissioner Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jourova.
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To stop these practices, top representatives of the EU and its member states met in Bratislava on October 13 at the For equal quality of products for all summit.
The European Commission introduced ways of helping national authorities enforce existing EU legislation on unfair business practices, Zuzana Gabrizova, editor-in-chief of the Euractiv.sk website, told The Slovak Spectator about the outcome, adding that this will probably not tackle the entire problem.
The summit did offer some promises for the future though.
I consider the summit a positive start to halting the differentiation of consumers in EU member states, Lubomir Drahovsky, market analyst with the Terno market survey agency, told The Slovak Spectator.
Dual quality is not a new problem
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The more intensive debate on the dual quality of products began earlier this year when several countries carried out tests confirming this phenomenon. The problem goes back to the 1990s, according to Slovak PM Robert Fico. The different quality does not only apply to foodstuffs, but other consumer products.
A lot of work still lies ahead, and on behalf of the Slovak Republic at least, I wont have a clear mind until these unfair practices completely disappear from the internal EU market, claimed Fico, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
The problems run deeper than just double quality standards.
One of the most tragic road accidents in recent years saw seven caregivers and a van driver die in a truck crash.
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The fatal accident occurred near the village of Nitrica in Prievidza district (in western Slovakia) in the early morning hours of October 14. A truck collided with a passenger van that overturned after a front hit. Seven people instantly died, while a woman hospitalised with serious injuries died later in hospital, the Sme daily wrote.
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The victims of the accident were caregivers, and also the van driver. The cause has not been disclosed by the police, who are still investigating the accident.
The van was carrying nurses from Austria (the city of Graz) to Slovakia, Jozef Minar of the Emergency Health Service Operational Centre told the TASR newswire.
Potential reasons of the car crash
The fatal event emphasized the problem with transport services for Slovak caregivers who travel for work to Austria and Germany, and ignoring the issue of lengthy vehicle travel in the long term.
Also the state of roads, especially the Slovak ones, has been brought to focus by this accident. The government failed to rank the R2 expressway in Upper Nitra among its priorities, according to Sme.
Unfortunately, seven people between the ages 28-58 died instantly while two people were transported to a nearby hospital in Bojnice, Minar said. A 49-year-old woman suffered serious injuries [who died later in hospital], while a 35-year-old man suffered a concussion, he said.
The man was the truck driver whose condition was stable, according to the Bojnice-based Prievidza Hospital with Policlinics.
After travelling to the accident scene Police Corps President Tibor Gaspar stated that this was the most tragic accident he had experienced as a police officer.
In the biggest operation of recent years carried out by several units of armed forces, hundreds of officers raided several companies in four Slovak regions on October 13, while detaining 13 people.
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On October 15, a judge of the Specialised Criminal Court (STS) in Banska Bystrica decided that the 13 people detained during a raid carried out by the National Unit of the Financial Police, the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) and other Police Corps units two days earlier, will be remanded in custody, STS spokesperson Katarina Kudjakova told the TASR newswire.
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They have been charged with setting up and supporting a criminal group, insurance and tax evasion, as well as money laundering, the spokesperson said, adding that the reason for their being remanded in custody is the concern that they might continue their criminal activities. However, the ruling is not effective yet, as the accused have filed a complaint against it. The Supreme Court will decide on their complaints, Kudjakova said.
Extensive police operation
The police operation in which the 13 were detained was carried out in the Kosice, Presov, Banska Bystrica and Bratislava regions. The police reported that under the SHARK operation they searched over 40 buildings and other premises, striving to document serious economic crimes.
The operation was the biggest one in the recent years, the Plus Jeden Den daily wrote. More than 60 people were detained, suspected of tax evasion, money laundering, organising a criminal group and other crimes. The raid involved mostly companies active in advertising, marketing as well as organising cultural and social events, PJD wrote.
The Slovak cabinet plans to persuade its expats living and working in the UK with at least a bachelor degree to return home: a campaign offering specific jobs should help.
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The government has earlier declared its plans to attract Slovaks who preferred to leave for Great Britain, working and living there. Now a campaign worth thousands of euros should motivate several tens of thousands of the estimated 60,000-90,000 expats living there to return.
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The Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO), together with the labour, foreign ministries as companies should figure out a more specific project.
In summer, SARIO launched a test process to fine-tune the communication with Slovak expats as well as possible, the Sme daily wrote, and also prepare the right arguments to persuade them.
The project has not been completed yet, SARIO spokesperson Simona Ceresnikova told the daily.
Who should return to Slovakia?
The agency has already decided whom it wants to bring back home Slovaks with at least a bachelor degree who speak English or one more foreign language.
It wants to offer them jobs in company service centres, usually branches of foreign firms which seem to have allocated one part of their activities e.g. accounting, human resources, customer complaints to another country. For example, the Henkel company has had such a centre (focused on finances, accounting, taxes, data processing as well as marketing and sale, or market research) in Slovakia since 2006.
The campaign should cost around 15,000, according to estimates. This amount is the maximum possible, Ceresnikova added, as cited by Sme. The priority communication channels should be social networks.
Experts claim it would be a pity not to try and lure expats back home, especially educated and experienced professionals mostly in ITT and health care. The experts, however, are instead criticising the method the cabinet has followed until now, saying that the across-the-board measures are not good, and that the cabinet may instead spend the money in an ineffective way. It should instead introduce reforms to improve the business environment, lure investors or improve the quality of education and health care, while reducing corruption in the public sector.
It is also too early to say precisely how the UK will treat foreigners living there after it leaves the European Union, Sme summed up. Brexit may not impact those who have been living and working there for a longer time, suggest several statements from UK and EU officials.
Slovak consumers are growing economically stronger and will be an important stabilisation factor in the future
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The Slovak economy has recorded a 60-percent growth since the country joined the EU in 2004, according to European Commission Vice-president for Energy Union, Maros Sefcovic. He was one of the speakers at a conference entitled, 60 Years of European Integration: Successes and Challenges, hosted by the Economic University.
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I think this is the best evidence of the fact that EU membership has brought a lot of benefits to Slovakia, said Sefcovic as cited by the TASR newswire. Im confident that if closer cooperation took place, it would yield similar results. Certainly no one would force Slovakia into measures that would undermine its competitiveness. As we have already seen in recent years, Slovakia is closing the gap between itself and the most developed countries in terms of living standards.
Every individual is assessing Slovakias development through the lens of his own personal perceptions and thus sometimes they might feel that the statistics are not really accurate.
If we look at this through the prism of macroeconomic indicators, however, then we see that this reality is truly happening, said Sefcovic. For the first time in many years, I must say that the positive development of Slovakia doesnt hinge so much on exports but rather on the growth in domestic consumption. And that is the proof that even Slovak consumers are growing economically stronger and will pose as an important stabilisation factor in the future.
Sefcovic commented that Slovakia is an exceptionally industrialised country exporting most of its production into EU member countries.
Thus, better cooperation, for example, in combating tax evasion, carousel frauds or various abuse of cross-border cooperation would help, said Sefcovic, adding that this would be of benefit to Slovakia as well as the EU.
The following companies are subsidiares of PepsiCo: Alimentos Quaker Oats y Compania Limitada, Alimentos del Istmo S.A., Amavale Agricola Ltda., Anderson Hill Insurance Limited, Asia Bottlers Limited, BAESA Capital Corporation Ltd., BFY Brands, BFY Brands LLC, BFY Brands Limited, BUG de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Balmoral Industries LLC, Bare Foods Co., Barrhead LLC, Be & Cheery, Beaman Bottling Company, Bebidas Sudamerica S.A., Beech Limited, Bell Taco Funding Syndicate, Bendler Investments II Ltd, Bendler Investments S.a r.l, Beverage Services Limited, Beverages Foods & Service Industries Inc., Bishkeksut OJSC, Blaue NC S. de R.L. de C.V., Blue Cloud Distribution Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Arizona Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Arkansas Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Colorado Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Florida Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Georgia Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Illinois Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Indiana Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Iowa Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Kentucky Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Louisiana Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Minnesota Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Mississippi Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Missouri Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Nebraska Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Nevada Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of North Carolina Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Ohio Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Oklahoma Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Pennsylvania Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of South Carolina Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Tennessee Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Texas Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Virginia Inc., Blue Cloud Distribution of Wisconsin Inc., Blue Ridge Sales LLC, Bluebird Foods Limited, Bluecan Holdings Unlimited Company, Bokomo Zambia Limited, Bolsherechensky Molkombinat JSC, Boquitas Fiestas LLC, Boquitas Fiestas S.R.L., Bottling Group Financing LLC, Bottling Group Holdings LLC, Bottling Group LLC, Bronte Industries Ltd, C & I Leasing Inc., CB Manufacturing Company Inc., CEME Holdings LLC, CMC Investment Company, Caroni Investments LLC, Centro-Mediterranea de Bebidas Carbonicas PepsiCo S.L., Ceres Fruit Juices Pty Ltd, ChampBev Inc., China Concentrate Holdings Hong Kong Limited, Chipsy International for Food Industries S.A.E., Chipsy for Food Industries S.A.E., Chitos Internacional y Cia Ltda, Cipa Industrial de Produtos Alimentares Ltda., Cipa Nordeste Industrial de Produtos Alimentares Ltda., Cocina Autentica Inc., Comercializadora CMC Investment y Compania Limitada, Comercializadora Nacional SAS Ltda., Comercializadora PepsiCo Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., Compania de Bebidas PepsiCo S.L., Concentrate Holding Uruguay Pte. Ltd., Concentrate Manufacturing Singapore Pte. Ltd., Confiteria Alegro S. de R.L. de C.V., Copella Fruit Juices Limited, Copper Beech International LLC, Corina Snacks Limited, Corporativo Internacional Mexicano S. de R.L. de C.V., CytoSport Holdings Inc., CytoSport Inc., Davlyn Realty Corporation, Defosto Holdings Limited, Desarrollo Inmobiliario Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Dilexis S.A., Donon Holdings Limited, Drinkfinity USA Inc., Drinkstation Inc., Drinkstation Innovation Co. Ltd., Drinkstation Limited, Dutch Snacks Holding S.A. de C.V., Duyvis Production B.V., EPIC Enterprises Inc., Echo Bay Holdings Inc., Elaboradora Argentina de Cereales S.R.L., Enter Logistica LLC, Environ at Inverrary Partnership, Environ of Inverrary Inc., Eridanus Investments S.a r.l, Evercrisp Snack Productos de Chile S.A., FL Transportation Inc., FLI Andean LLC, FLI Colombia LLC, FLI Snacks Andean GP LLC, Fabrica PepsiCo Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Fabrica de Productos Alimenticios Rene y Cia S.C.A., Fairlight International SRL, Far East Bottlers Hong Kong Limited, Food Concepts Pioneer Ltd., Forest Akers Nederland B.V., Forty-Six Peaks Holding Inc., Fovarosi Asvanyviz es Uditoipari Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Freshwater International B.V., Frito Lay Gida Sanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Frito Lay Poland Sp. z o.o., Frito Lay Sp. z o.o., Frito Lay de Guatemala y Compania Limitada, Frito-Lay Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Frito-Lay Dip Company Inc., Frito-Lay Dominicana S.A., Frito-Lay Global Investments B.V., Frito-Lay Inc., Frito-Lay Investments B.V., Frito-Lay Manufacturing LLC, Frito-Lay Netherlands Holding B.V., Frito-Lay North America Inc., Frito-Lay Sales Inc., Frito-Lay Trading Company Europe GmbH, Frito-Lay Trading Company GmbH, Frito-Lay Trading Company Poland GmbH, Frito-Lay Trinidad Unlimited, Fruko Mesrubat Sanayi Limited Sirketi, GB Czech LLC, GB International Inc., GB Russia LLC, GB Slovak LLC, GMP Manufacturing Inc., Gambrinus Investments Limited, Gamesa LLC, Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Gas Natural de Merida S. A. de C. V., Gatorade Puerto Rico Company, General Bottlers of Hungary Inc., Golden Grain Company, Goveh S.R.L., Grayhawk Leasing LLC, Green Hemlock International LLC, Grupo Frito Lay y Compania Limitada, Grupo Gamesa S. de R.L. de C.V., Grupo Mabel, Grupo Sabritas S. de R.L. de C.V., Gulkevichskiy Maslozavod JSC, Hangzhou Baicaowei Corporate Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co, Hangzhou Haomusi Food Co. Ltd., Hangzhou Tao Dao Technology Co. Ltd., Health Warrior, Health Warrior Inc., Heathland LP, Helioscope Limited, Hillbrook Inc., Hillgrove Inc., Hillwood Bottling LLC, Hogganfield Limited Partnership, Holding Company "Opolie" JSC, Homefinding Company of Texas, Hudson Valley Insurance Company, IC Equities Inc., IZZE Beverage Co., Inmobiliaria Interamericana S.A. De C.V., Integrated Beverage Services Bangladesh Limited, Integrated Foods & Beverages Pvt. Ltd., International Bottlers Management Co. LLC, International KAS Aktiengesellschaft, Inversiones Borneo S.R.L., Inversiones PFI Chile Limitada, Inviting Foods Holdings Inc., Inviting Foods LLC, KAS Anorthosis S.a r.l, KAS S.L., KFC, Kevita Inc., Kinvara LLC, Kungursky Molkombinat JSC, Larragana S.L., Latin American Holdings Ltd., Latin American Snack Foods ApS, Latin Foods International LLC, Lebedyansky, Lebedyansky Holdings LLC, Lebedyansky LLC, Limited Liability Company "Sandora", Linkbay Limited, Lithuanian Snacks UAB, Mabel, Marbo Product d.o.o. Beograd, Marbo d.o.o. Laktasi, Matudis - Comercio de Produtos Alimentares Limitada, Matutano - Sociedade de Produtos Alimentares Lda., Mid-America Improvement Corporation, Mountainview Insurance Company Inc., Muscle Milk, NCJV LLC, New Bern Transport Corporation, New Century Beverage Company LLC, Noble Leasing LLC, Northeast Hot-Fill Co-op Inc., Office at Solyanka LLC, Onbiso Inversiones S.L., One World Enterprises LLC, One World Investors Inc., P-A Barbados Bottling Company LLC, P-A Bottlers Barbados SRL, P-Americas LLC, PAS Luxembourg S.a r.l, PAS Netherlands B.V., PBG Canada Holdings II LLC, PBG Canada Holdings Inc., PBG Cyprus Holdings Limited, PBG Investment Partnership, PBG Midwest Holdings S.a r.l, PBG Soda Can Holdings S.a r.l, PCBL LLC, PCNA Manufacturing Inc., PR Beverages Cyprus Holding Limited, PR Beverages Cyprus Russia Holding Limited, PRB Luxembourg S.a r.l, PRS Inc., PSAS Inversiones LLC, PSE Logistica S.R.L., PT Quaker Indonesia, Papas Chips S.A., Pei N.V., Pep Trade LLC, Pepsi B.V., Pepsi Beverages Holdings Inc., Pepsi Bottling Group Global Finance LLC, Pepsi Bottling Group GmbH, Pepsi Bottling Group Hoosiers B.V., Pepsi Bottling Holdings Inc., Pepsi Bugshan Investments S.A.E., Pepsi Cola Colombia Ltda, Pepsi Cola Egypt S.A.E., Pepsi Cola Panamericana S.R.L., Pepsi Cola Servis Ve Dagitim Limited Sirketi, Pepsi Cola Trading Ireland, Pepsi Logistics Company Inc., Pepsi Northwest Beverages LLC, Pepsi Overseas Investments Partnership, Pepsi Promotions Inc., Pepsi-Cola Advertising and Marketing Inc., Pepsi-Cola Bermuda Limited, Pepsi-Cola Bottlers Holding C.V., Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company Of St. Louis Inc., Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Ft. Lauderdale-Palm Beach LLC, Pepsi-Cola Company, Pepsi-Cola Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Pepsi-Cola Far East Trade Development Co. Inc., Pepsi-Cola Finance LLC, Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers Poland Sp. z o.o., Pepsi-Cola Industrial da Amazonia Ltda., Pepsi-Cola International Cork, Pepsi-Cola International LLC, Pepsi-Cola International Limited, Pepsi-Cola International Limited U.S.A., Pepsi-Cola International Private Limited, Pepsi-Cola Korea Co. Ltd., Pepsi-Cola Management and Administrative Services Inc., Pepsi-Cola Manufacturing Company Of Uruguay S.R.L., Pepsi-Cola Manufacturing International Limited, Pepsi-Cola Manufacturing Mediterranean Limited, Pepsi-Cola Marketing Corp. Of P.R. Inc., Pepsi-Cola Mediterranean Ltd., Pepsi-Cola Metropolitan Bottling Company Inc., Pepsi-Cola Mexicana Holdings LLC, Pepsi-Cola Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Pepsi-Cola National Marketing LLC, Pepsi-Cola Operating Company Of Chesapeake And Indianapolis, Pepsi-Cola Sales and Distribution Inc., Pepsi-Cola Technical Operations Inc., Pepsi-Cola Thai Trading Co. Ltd., Pepsi-Cola de Honduras S.R.L., Pepsi-Cola of Corvallis Inc., PepsiAmericas Nemzetkozi Szolgaltato Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, PepsiCo ANZ Holdings Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Alimentos Antioquia Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos Colombia Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos Ecuador Cia. Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos Z.F. Ltda., PepsiCo Alimentos de Bolivia S.R.L., PepsiCo Amacoco Bebidas Do Brasil Ltda., PepsiCo Asia Research & Development Center Company Limited, PepsiCo Australia Financing Cyprus Limited, PepsiCo Australia Financing Limited Partnership, PepsiCo Australia Financing Partner 1 LLC, PepsiCo Australia Financing Partner 2 LLC, PepsiCo Australia Financing Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Australia Holdings Pty Limited, PepsiCo Australia International, PepsiCo Austria Services GmbH, PepsiCo Azerbaijan Limited Liability Company, PepsiCo BeLux BV, PepsiCo Beverage Sales LLC, PepsiCo Beverage Singapore Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Beverages Bermuda Limited, PepsiCo Beverages Hong Kong Limited, PepsiCo Beverages International Limited, PepsiCo Beverages Italia Societa' A Responsabilita' Limitata, PepsiCo Canada Finance LLC, PepsiCo Canada Holdings ULC, PepsiCo Canada Investment ULC, PepsiCo Canada ULC, PepsiCo Captive Holdings Inc., PepsiCo Caribbean Inc., PepsiCo China Limited, PepsiCo Consulting Polska Sp. z o.o., PepsiCo De Bolivia S.R.L., PepsiCo Del Paraguay S.R.L., PepsiCo Deutschland GmbH, PepsiCo Eesti AS, PepsiCo Euro Bermuda Limited, PepsiCo Euro Finance Antilles B.V., PepsiCo Europe Support Center S.L., PepsiCo Finance Americas Company, PepsiCo Finance Antilles A N.V., PepsiCo Finance Antilles B N.V., PepsiCo Finance South Africa Proprietary Limited, PepsiCo Financial Shared Services Inc., PepsiCo Food & Beverage Holdings Hong Kong Limited, PepsiCo Foods A.I.E., PepsiCo Foods China Company Limited, PepsiCo Foods Group Pty Ltd, PepsiCo Foods Guangdong Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Foods Nigeria Limited, PepsiCo Foods Private Limited, PepsiCo Foods Sichuan Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Foods Taiwan Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Foods Vietnam Company, PepsiCo France SAS, PepsiCo Global Business Services India LLP, PepsiCo Global Business Services Poland Sp. z o.o., PepsiCo Global Holdings Limited, PepsiCo Global Investments B.V., PepsiCo Global Investments S.a r.l, PepsiCo Global Mobility LLC, PepsiCo Global Real Estate Inc., PepsiCo Global Trading Solutions Unlimited Company, PepsiCo Golden Holdings Inc., PepsiCo Group Finance International B.V., PepsiCo Group Holdings International B.V., PepsiCo Group Spotswood Holdings S.a r.l, PepsiCo Gulf International FZE, PepsiCo Hellas Single Member Industrial and Commercial Societe Anonyme, PepsiCo Holding de Espana S.L., PepsiCo Holdings, PepsiCo Holdings LLC, PepsiCo Holdings Toshkent LLC, PepsiCo Hong Kong LLC, PepsiCo Iberia Servicios Centrales S.L., PepsiCo India Holdings Private Limited, PepsiCo India Sales Private Limited, PepsiCo Internacional Mexico S. de R. L. de C. V., PepsiCo International Hong Kong Limited, PepsiCo International Limited, PepsiCo International Pte Ltd., PepsiCo Investments Europe I B.V., PepsiCo Investments Ltd., PepsiCo Ireland Food & Beverages Unlimited Company, PepsiCo Japan Co. Ltd., PepsiCo Light B.V., PepsiCo Logistyka Sp. z o.o., PepsiCo Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., PepsiCo Management Services SAS, PepsiCo Manufacturing A.I.E., PepsiCo Max B.V., PepsiCo Mexico Holdings S. de R.L. de C.V., PepsiCo Nederland B.V., PepsiCo Nordic Denmark ApS, PepsiCo Nordic Finland Oy, PepsiCo Nordic Norway AS, PepsiCo Nutrition Trading DMCC, PepsiCo One B.V., PepsiCo Overseas Corporation, PepsiCo Overseas Financing Partnership, PepsiCo Panimex Inc, PepsiCo Products B.V., PepsiCo Products FLLC, PepsiCo Puerto Rico Inc., PepsiCo Sales Inc., PepsiCo Sales LLC, PepsiCo Services Asia Ltd., PepsiCo Services CZ s.r.o., PepsiCo Services LLC, PepsiCo Twist B.V., PepsiCo UK Pension Plan Trustee Limited, PepsiCo Ventures B.V., PepsiCo Wave Holdings LLC, PepsiCo World Trading Company Inc., PepsiCo Y LLC, PepsiCo de Argentina S.R.L., PepsiCo de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., PepsiCo do Brasil Industria e Comercio de Alimentos Ltda., PepsiCo do Brasil Ltda., PepsiCola Interamericana de Guatemala S.A., Pet Iberia S.L., Pete & Johnny Limited, Pine International LLC, Pine International Limited, Pinstripe Leasing LLC, Pioneer Food Group Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods Groceries Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods Group Ltd., Pioneer Foods Holdings Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods Pty Ltd, Pioneer Foods UK Ltd, Pioneer Foods Wellingtons Pty Ltd, Pipers Crisps Limited, PlayCo Inc., Pop corners, PopCorners Holdings Inc., Portfolio Concentrate Solutions Unlimited Company, Premier Nutrition Trading L.L.C., Prestwick LLC, Prev PepsiCo Sociedade Previdenciaria, Productos Alimenticios Rene LLC, Productos S.A.S. C.V., Productos SAS Management B.V., Punch N.V., Punica Getranke GmbH, Q O Puerto Rico Inc., QFL OHQ Sdn. Bhd., QTG Development Inc., QTG Services Inc., Quadrant - Amroq Beverages S.R.L., Quaker Development B.V., Quaker European Beverages LLC, Quaker European Investments B.V., Quaker Foods, Quaker Global Investments B.V., Quaker Holdings UK Limited, Quaker Manufacturing LLC, Quaker Oats Asia Inc., Quaker Oats Australia Pty Ltd, Quaker Oats B.V., Quaker Oats Capital Corporation, Quaker Oats Europe Inc., Quaker Oats Europe LLC, Quaker Oats Limited, Quaker Sales & Distribution Inc, Raptas Finance S.a r.l., Rare Fare Foods LLC, Rare Fare Holdings Inc., Reading Industries Ltd, Real Estate Holdings LLC, Rockstar Energy Drink, Rolling Frito-Lay Sales LP, S & T of Mississippi Inc., SIH International LLC, SVC Logistics Inc., SVC Manufacturing Inc., SVE Russia Holdings GmbH, Sabritas LLC, Sabritas S. de R.L. de C.V., Sabritas Snacks America Latina de Nicaragua y Cia Ltda, Sabritas de Costa Rica S. de R.L., Sabritas y Cia. S en C de C.V., Sakata Rice Snacks Australia Pty Ltd, Sandora Holdings B.V., Saudi Snack Foods Company Limited, Sea Eagle International SRL, Seepoint Holdings Ltd., Senselet Food Processing PLC, Senselet Holding B.V., Servicios GBF Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Servicios GFLG y Compania Limitada, Servicios Gamesa Puerto Rico L.L.C., Servicios SYC S. de R.L. de C.V., Seven-Up Asia Inc., Seven-Up Light B.V., Seven-Up Nederland B.V., Shanghai PepsiCo Snack Company Limited, Shanghai YuHo Agricultural Development Co. Ltd, Shoebill LLC, Simba (Proprietary) Limited, Simba Proprietary Limited, Sitka Spruce, Smartfoods Inc., Smiles and Bites Holdings S.de R.L. de C.V., Smiths Crisps Limited, Snack Food Investments GmbH, Snack Food Investments II GmbH, Snack Food Investments Limited, Snack Food-Beverage Asia Products Limited, Snacks America Latina S.R.L., Snacks Guatemala Ltd., So Spark Ltd., Soda-Club CO2 Atlantic GmbH, Soda-Club CO2 GmbH, Soda-Club CO2 Ltd., Soda-Club Switzerland GmbH, Soda-Club Worldwide B.V., SodaStream, SodaStream Australia Pty Ltd, SodaStream CO2 SA, SodaStream Canada Ltd., SodaStream Enterprises N.V., SodaStream France SAS, SodaStream GmbH, SodaStream Iberia S.L., SodaStream Industries Ltd., SodaStream International B.V., SodaStream International Ltd., SodaStream Israel Ltd., SodaStream K.K., SodaStream New Zealand Ltd., SodaStream Nordics AB, SodaStream Poland Sp. z o.o., SodaStream SA Pty Ltd., SodaStream Switzerland GmbH, SodaStream USA Inc., SodaStream Osterreich GmbH, South Beach Beverage Company Inc., South Properties Inc., Spitz International Inc., Sportmex Internacional S.A. de C.V., Springboig Industries Ltd, Spruce Limited, Stacy's Pita Chip Company Incorporated, Star Foods E.M. S.R.L., Stokely-Van Camp Inc., Stratosphere Communications Pty Ltd, Stratosphere Holdings 2018 Limited, Streamfoods Ltd, TFL Holdings LLC, Tasman Finance S.a r.l, The Gatorade Company, The Good Carb Food Company Ltd., The Pepsi Bottling Group Canada ULC, The Quaker Oats Company, The Smith's Snackfood Company Pty Limited, Thomond Group Holdings Limited, Tobago Snack Holdings LLC, Tropicana Alvalle S.L., Tropicana Beverages Limited, Tropicana Europe N.V., Tropicana United Kingdom Limited, Troya-Ultra LLC, United Foods Companies Restaurantes S.A., V-Water, VentureCo Israel Ltd, Veurne Snack Foods BV, Vitamin Brands Ltd., Walkers Crisps Limited, Walkers Group Limited, Walkers Snack Foods Limited, Walkers Snacks Distribution Limited, Walkers Snacks Limited, Whitman Corporation, Whitman Insurance Co. Ltd., Wimm-Bill-Dann Beverages JSC, Wimm-Bill-Dann Brands Co. Ltd., Wimm-Bill-Dann Central Asia-Almaty LLP, Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods LLC, Wimm-Bill-Dann Georgia Ltd., Wimm-Bill-Dann JSC, and Wimm-Bill-Dann Ukraine PJSC.
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By PTI: From Sajjad Hussain
Islamabad, Oct 16 (PTI) Pakistan has told the Afghan Taliban leadership to form a team for peace negotiations, as pressure mounted on Islamabad to persuade the militants for talks, a media report said today.
The Daily Times newspaper reported quoting a Taliban leader familiar with the development that Pakistani officials conveyed the message to the Taliban in a recent interaction.
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"However, the Taliban leaders have not yet responded to the call," according to the paper.
The Afghan Taliban had earlier refused to accept Pakistans call to join the political dialogue when a similar message was conveyed to them in a face-to-face meeting between several senior Taliban leaders and Pakistani officials in March.
Weeks later, Taliban launched their annual spring offensive codenamed Omari Operations after then chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was killed by a US drone last year.
?Although Taliban have yet not responded to Pakistan?s appeal, this time Pakistan could go tough on the Taliban if they refuse to come to the negotiation table,? a former Taliban minister told Daily Times, requesting anonymity.
?There is a possibility that some Taliban members are arrested, expelled or even handed over to Afghanistan if Taliban leadership declines to join the peace process,? he further said.
The report said most of the Taliban military commanders, including military chief Ibrahim Sadr, are in southern Afghanistan to lead the war from there. All Taliban leaders, who are considered to be in Mansours camp, have already left Pakistan and are now in Helmand, Kandahar and Urozgan.
A Taliban official, who had joined fighting in eastern part during spring offensive, said that the Taliban now freely move from one stronghold to another and even from the south to the relatively peaceful north where they have many areas under their control.
Pakistan has pressed the Taliban to join the peace talks amid diplomatic efforts to find out a peaceful solution to the Afghan problem.
Senior Afghan, Chinese, Pakistani and US officials also met in Muscat, Oman today at the Quadrilateral Coordination Groups meeting, which will be their first sitting after they met in Islamabad in May last year.
The QCG process had been dysfunctional after Mansours death, an attack Pakistan had described as a serious setback to the peace process.
However, now the Americans are believed to have taken the lead to revive the grouping, which is one of the best options available to push for the political negotiations, the report said.
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Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua will lead Pakistans delegation in the QCG consultations.
Pakistan had earlier insisted that it is not its responsibility to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table and all QCG members should use their influence in this regard.
Pakistani officials now say the reconciliation with the Taliban has got further complicated as Russia and Iran are now completely involved in the process and they have strong contacts with both countries. PTI SH KUN
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Cenovus Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in Canada, the United States, and the Asia Pacific region. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, Offshore, Canadian Manufacturing, U.S. Manufacturing, and Retail segments. The Oil Sands segment develops and produces bitumen and heavy oil in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. This segments Foster Creek, Christina Lake, Sunrise, and Tucker oil sands projects, as well as Lloydminster thermal and conventional heavy oil assets The Conventional segment holds assets primarily located in Elmworth-Wapiti, Kaybob-Edson, Clearwater, and Rainbow Lake operating in Alberta and British Columbia, as well as interests in various natural gas processing facilities. The offshore segment engages in the exploration and development activities. The Canadian Manufacturing segment includes the owned and operated Lloydminster upgrading and asphalt refining complex, which upgrades heavy oil and bitumen into synthetic crude oil, diesel fuel, asphalt, and other ancillary products, as well as owns and operates the Bruderheim crude-by-rail terminal and two ethanol plants. The U.S. Manufacturing segment comprises the refining of crude oil to produce diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, asphalt, and other products. The Retail segment consists of marketing of its own and third-party refined petroleum products through retail, commercial, and bulk petroleum outlets, as well as wholesale channels. Cenovus Energy Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a rally as part of BJP's 'Gujarat Gaurav Mahasammelan' in Gandhinagar today.
By India Today Web Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting his home state Gujarat today. The PM is expected to address a gathering of BJP workers at a village near Gandhinagar.
As part of his visit, the prime minister will address the 'Gujarat Gaurav Mahasammelan' which is being organized by the state BJP to mark the conclusion of its 'Gujarat Gaurav Yatra'. The prime minister is expected to announce sops.
I bow to the people of Gujarat for blessing BJP for decades. We will always fulfil the dreams of every Gujarati with full strength & vigour- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 15, 2017
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Earlier the prime minister said that the two Gujarat Gaurav Yatras displayed the spirit of people's faith in Gujarat's development and good governance.
PM Modi addressed the centenary celebrations of Patna University on Saturday and praised Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the progress of the state.
Senior leaders of the party joined the 15-day march, which was launched on October 1. The march covered a distance of around 4,471 kilometres, spread over 149 of the 182 Assembly constituencies in the state, Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani said.
"Tomorrow, the prime minister will give his guidance to around seven lakh BJP workers at the Gujarat Gaurav Mahasammelan to be held in Bhat village," he said.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, BJP national president Amit Shah and many other leaders of the party would be present, he added.
Last week, Modi had visited Gujarat to inaugurate and lay foundation stones of various projects in Rajkot, Vadnagar, Gandhinagar and Bharuch. He had also held a roadshow in his hometown Vadnagar on October 8.
Assembly elections are due in Gujarat later this year.
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Micro Focus International plc operates in the enterprise software business in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Canada, France, Japan, and internationally. It offers infrastructure software products that are managed on a portfolio. The company's product portfolio includes sector-agnostic products, such as application modernization and connectivity solutions that help customers to unlock the value from core business applications for modernization, which enable a transformational journey to deliver ongoing value and flexibility from IT investments, on or off the mainframe; application delivery management solutions that helps customers to increase velocity, remove bottlenecks, and deliver high-performing applications to support their digital business; and IT operations management solutions for service assurance, automate the service fulfilment life cycle, and strengthen IT service governance. It also offers CyberRes, a security solution that helps enterprises to create cyber resilience through detecting threats, securing data and applications, and protecting identities, which enables customers to adapt and evolve for the future; and information management and governance solutions that helps customers to analyze, understand, and control data to derive value and manage enterprise risk. The company was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Newbury, the United Kingdom.
The following companies are subsidiares of Vodafone Group Public: 360 Connect S.A., 3@ Telecom, A-ccelerator B.V., A-ccelerator Holding B.V, AAA (Euro) Limited, AAA (MCR) Limited, AAA (UK) Limited, Acorn Communications Limited, Africonnect (Zambia) Limited, Ag Mercantile Company Private Limited, Al-Amin Investments Limited, Amsterdamse Beheer- en Consultingmaatschappij B.V., Apollo Submarine Cable System Limited, Array Holdings Limited, Asian Telecommunication Investments (Mauritius) Limited, Aspective Limited, Astec Communications Limited, Autoconnex Limited, Aztec Limited, BelCompany BV, Bluefish Apac Communications Pte. Ltd, Bluefish Communications, Bluefish Communications Limited, Business Serve Limited, C&W Worldwide Nigeria Limited, C.S.P. Solutions Limited, CCII (Mauritius) Inc., CGP India Investments Ltd., CGP Investments (Holdings) Limited, COOP Mobil s.r.o, CT Networks Limited, CWGNL S.A., CWW Operations Limited, Cable & Wireless Access Limited, Cable & Wireless Americas Systems Inc., Cable & Wireless Aspac Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Services Limited, Cable & Wireless CIS Svyaz LLC, Cable & Wireless Capital Limited , Cable & Wireless Communications Data Network Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Starclass Limited, Cable & Wireless Communications Technical Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd (Beijing Branch), Cable & Wireless Europe Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless GN Limited, Cable & Wireless Global (India) Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Business Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Holding Limited, Cable & Wireless Global Telecommunication Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Holdco Limited, Cable & Wireless Networks India Private Limited, Cable & Wireless Trade Mark Management Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless UK Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Waterside Holdings Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Pension Trustee Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Services Limited, Cable & Wireless Worldwide Voice Messaging Limited, Cable & Wireless a-Services Inc, Cable & Wireless a-Services Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited, Cable and Wireless (India) Limited Indian Branch Office, Cable and Wireless Nominee Limited, Cable and Wireless Worldwide South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Cavalry Holdings Ltd, Celfocus Solucoes Informaticas Para Telecomunicacoes S.A, Cellops Limited, Cellular Operations Limited, Central Communications Group Limited, Central Telecom (Northern) Limited, Centurion GSM Limited, Chelys Limited, City Cable (Holdings) Limited, Cobra do Brasil Servicos de Telematica ltda., Commnet Cellular Inc., Complete Network Technology, Connect (India) Mobile Technologies Private Limited, Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited, Dataroam Limited , Device Insight, Digital Island (UK) Ltd, Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, East Africa Investment (Mauritius) Limited, Emtel Europe Limited, Energis (Ireland) Limited, Energis Communications Limited, Energis Holdings Limited, Energis Local Access Limited, Energis Management Limited, Energis Squared Limited, Erudite Systems Limited, Esprit Telecom B.V., Eudokia Limited, Euro Pacific Securities Ltd., Eurocall Holdings Limited, Europolitan Holdings AB (now Europolitan Vodafone AB), FB Holdings Limited, FM Associates (UK) Limited, FinCo Partner 1 B.V., FireFly Networks Limited, Flexphone Limited, GS Telecom (Pty) Limited, Gateway Communications Africa (UK) Limited, Gateway Communications Tanzania Limited, General Mobile Corporation, Generation Telecom Limited, Ghana Telecommunications, Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited, Global Cellular Rental Limited, Globe Limited, GrandCentrix GmbH, Grupo Corporativo ONO S.A.U., H3ga Properties (No 3) Pty Limited, HBO Nederland Cooperatief U.A., HBO Netherlands Channels sro, HBO Netherlands Distribution B.V., Hellas Online, How2 Telecom Limited, Hutchison Essar Ltd, Indus Towers Limited, Intercell Communications Limited, Internet Network Services Limited, Invitation Digital Limited, Ipergy Communications NV, Isis Telecommunications Management Limited, Jaguar Communications Limited, Jaykay Finholding (India) Private Limited, Jupicol (Proprietary) Limited, KABELCOM Braunschweig Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, KABELCOM Wolfsburg Gesellschaft Fur BreitbandkabelKommunikation Mit Beschrankter Haftung, Kabel Deutschland, Kabel Deutschland Holding, Kabel Deutschland Holding Erste Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Holding Zweite Beteilgungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Neunte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabel Deutschland Siebte Beteiligungs GmbH, Kabelfernsehen Munchen Servicenter GmbH & Co. KG, LG Financing Partnership, LGE HoldCo V B.V., LGE HoldCo VI B.V., LGE HoldCo VIII B.V., LGE Holdco VII B.V., LLC Vodafone Enterprise Ukraine, Le Bunt Holdings Limited, Legend Communications Limited, Liberty Global, Liberty Global Content Netherlands B.V., London Hydraulic Power Company, M-PESA Foundation, M-PESA Holding Co. Limited, ML Integration Group Limited, ML Integration Limited, ML Integration Services Limited, MV Healthcare Services Private Limited, Mannesmann AG, MetroHoldings Limited, Mezzanine Ware Proprietary Limited (RF), Mirambo Limited, Misrfone Trading Company LLC, MobiFon S.A., Mobile Commerce Solutions Limited, Mobile Phone Centre Limited, Mobile Wallet VM1, Mobile Wallet VM2, Mobile by Sainsburys Limited, Mobiles 4 Business.com Limited, Mobileworld Communications Pty Limited, Mobileworld Operating Pty Ltd, Mobilvest, Motifpros 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Multi Risk Indemnity Company Limited, Multi Risk Limited, ND Callus Info Services Private Limited, Nadal Trading Company Private Limited, Nat Comm Air Limited, National Communications Backbone Company Limited, Navtrak Ltd, Netforce Group Limited, Netgrid Telecom SRL, Number Portability Company (Proprietary) Limited, ONO, Omega Telecom Holdings Private Limited, Oni Way Infocomunicacoes S.A, Oskar Mobil S.R.O., Oxygen Solutions Limited, P.C.P. (North West) Limited, PPL Pty Limited, PT Network Services Limited, PTI Telecom Limited, Peoples Phone Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Group Limited, Pinnacle Cellular Limited, Plex Limited, Plustech Mercantile Company Private Limited, Prime Metals Ltd., Project Telecom Holdings Limited, Quickcomm Software Solutions, Radio Opt GmbH, Rian Mobile Limited, SBC SMART CITY 1517 B.V., SMMS Investments Pvt Limited, Safaricom Limited, Safenet N.P A., Sarmady Communications, Scarlet Ibis Investments 23 (Pty) Limited, Scorpios Beverages Pvt. Ltd, Silver Stream Investments Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Limited, Singlepoint (4U) Ltd., Singlepoint Payment Services Limited, Siro Limited, Spar Aerospace (Nigeria) Limited, Sport TV Portugal S.A, Starnet, Stentor Communications Limited, Stentor Limited, Storage Technology Services (Pty) Limited, T.W. Telecom Limited, T3 Telecommunications Limited, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern Beteiligungs GmbH, TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern GmbH & Co. KG, TNAS Limited, TSM NZ Limited, Talkland Airtime Services Limited, Talkland Australia Pty Limited, Talkland Communications Limited, Talkland International Limited, Talkland Midlands Limited, Talkmobile Limited, Tele2 Italia SPA, Tele2 Spain, Telecom Investments India Private Limited, Telecommunications Europe Limited, Ternhill Communications Limited, The Cobra Group, The Eastern Leasing Company Limited, The Old Telecom Sales Co. Limited, Thus Group Holdings Limited, Thus Group Limited, Thus Limited, Thus Profit Sharing Trustees Limited, TnT Expense Management LLC, Tomorrow Street GP S.a r.l., Tomorrow Street SCA, Torenspits II B.V., Townley Communications Limited, Trans Crystal Ltd., UMT Investments Limited, UPC Nederland Holding I B.V., UPC Nederland Holding II B.V., UPC Nederland Holding III B.V., Unified Communications, Uniqueair Limited, Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH & Co.KG, Usha Martin Telematics Limited, VAPL No. 2 Pty Limited, VBA (Mauritius) Limited, VBA Holdings Limited, VBA International (SL) Limited, VBA International Limited, VEI S.r.l., VM SA, VND S.p.A, VSSB Vodafone Shared Services Budapest Private Limited Company, Verwaltung Urbana Teleunion Rostock GmbH, Victus Networks S.A., Vizzavi Finance Limited, Vizzavi Limited, Voda Limited, Vodacall Limited, Vodacash s.p.r.l., Vodacom (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business (Angola) Limitada, Vodacom Business (Ghana) Limited, Vodacom Business (Kenya) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa (Nigeria) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Business Africa Group Services Limited, Vodacom Business Cameroon SA, Vodacom Business Cote Divoire S.A.R.L., Vodacom Congo (RDC) SA, Vodacom Financial Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Group Limited, Vodacom Insurance Administration Company (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Insurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom International Holdings (Pty) Limited, Vodacom International Limited, Vodacom Lesotho (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Life Assurance Company (RF) Limited, Vodacom Payment Services (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No 1 (Proprietary) Limited, Vodacom Properties No.2 (Pty) Limited, Vodacom Tanzania Limited Zanzibar, Vodacom Tanzania Public Limited Company, Vodacom UK Limited, Vodafone (NI) Limited, Vodafone (New Zealand) Hedging Limited, Vodafone (Scotland) Limited, Vodafone 2, Vodafone 4 UK, Vodafone 5 Limited, Vodafone 5 UK, Vodafone 6 UK, Vodafone Albania Sh.A, Vodafone Alternatif Telekom Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Americas 4, Vodafone Americas Virginia Inc., Vodafone And Qatar Foundation L.L.C, Vodafone Asset Management Services S.a r.l., Vodafone Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Automotive Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Automotive Electronic Systems S.r.L, Vodafone Automotive France S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Iberia S.L, Vodafone Automotive Italia S.p.A, Vodafone Automotive Japan K.K, Vodafone Automotive Korea Limited, Vodafone Automotive SpA, Vodafone Automotive Technologies (Beijing) Co Ltd, Vodafone Automotive Telematics Development S.A.S, Vodafone Automotive Telematics S.A, Vodafone Automotive UK Limited, Vodafone Belgium SA/NV, Vodafone Benelux Limited, Vodafone Bilgi Ve Iletisim Hizmetleri AS, Vodafone Business Services Limited, Vodafone Business Solutions Limited, Vodafone Canada Inc, Vodafone Cellular Limited, Vodafone Central Services Limited, Vodafone China Limited (China), Vodafone China Limited (Hong Kong), Vodafone Connect 2 Limited, Vodafone Connect Limited, Vodafone Consolidated Holdings Limited, Vodafone Corporate Limited, Vodafone Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Czech Republic A.S., Vodafone DC Pension Trustee Company Limited, Vodafone Dagitim Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Data, Vodafone Distribution Holdings Limited, Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications S.A.E., Vodafone Elektronik Para Ve Odeme Hizmetleri A.S., Vodafone Empresa Brasil Telecomunicacoes Ltda, Vodafone Empresa Mexico S.de R.L. de C.V., Vodafone Enabler Espana S.L., Vodafone Enterprise Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Austria GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Bahrain W.L.L., Vodafone Enterprise Bulgaria EOOD, Vodafone Enterprise Chile SA, Vodafone Enterprise Communications Technical Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Corporate Secretaries Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Denmark A/S, Vodafone Enterprise Equipment Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited Czech Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Europe (UK) Limited DubaiI Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Finland OY, Vodafone Enterprise France SAS, Vodafone Enterprise Germany GmbH, Vodafone Enterprise Global Businesses S.a r.l., Vodafone Enterprise Global Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network HK Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Global Network Pte. Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Hong Kong Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Italy S.r.L, Vodafone Enterprise Korea Limited, Vodafone Enterprise Luxembourg S.A., Vodafone Enterprise Netherlands BV, Vodafone Enterprise Norway AS, Vodafone Enterprise Regional Business Singapore Pte.Ltd., Vodafone Enterprise Singapore Pte.Ltd, Vodafone Enterprise Spain S.L.U. Portugal Branch, Vodafone Enterprise Spain SLU, Vodafone Enterprise Sweden AB, Vodafone Enterprise Switzerland AG, Vodafone Erste Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Vodafone Espana S.A.U., Vodafone Euro Hedging Limited, Vodafone Euro Hedging Two, Vodafone Europe B.V., Vodafone Europe UK, Vodafone European Investments, Vodafone European Portal Limited, Vodafone Finance Limited, Vodafone Finance Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Finance Sweden, Vodafone Finance UK Limited, Vodafone Financial Operations, Vodafone Financial Services B.V., Vodafone Fixed Ltd, Vodafone Foundation, Vodafone Foundation Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Gestioni S.p.A, Vodafone Ghana Mobile Financial Services Limited, Vodafone Global Content Services Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Hong Kong) Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise (Italy) S.R.L., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Japan) K.K., Vodafone Global Enterprise (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Vodafone Global Enterprise Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Russia LLC, Vodafone Global Enterprise Taiwan Limited, Vodafone Global Enterprise Telecommunications (Hellas) A.E., Vodafone Global Network Limited, Vodafone Global Network Limited Slovakia Branch, Vodafone Global Services Private Limited, Vodafone GmbH, Vodafone Group (Directors) Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Pension Trustee Limited, Vodafone Group Services GmbH, Vodafone Group Services Ireland Limited, Vodafone Group Services Limited, Vodafone Group Services No.2 Limited, Vodafone Group Share Trustee Limited, Vodafone Hire Limited, Vodafone Holding A.S., Vodafone Holdings (Jersey) Limited, Vodafone Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Holdings Europe S.L.U., Vodafone Holdings Luxembourg Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Australia Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Finance Pty Limited, Vodafone Hutchison Receivables Pty Limited, Vodafone IP Licensing Limited, Vodafone India Digital Limited, Vodafone India Limited, Vodafone India Services Private Limited, Vodafone India Ventures Limited, Vodafone Institut fur Gesellschaft und Kommunikation GmbH, Vodafone Intermediate Enterprises Limited, Vodafone International 1 S.a.r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone International 1 S.a r.l., Vodafone International 2 Limited, Vodafone International Holdings B.V., Vodafone International Holdings Limited, Vodafone International M S.a r.l., Vodafone International Operations Limited, Vodafone International Services LLC, Vodafone Investment UK, Vodafone Investments (SA) Proprietary Limited, Vodafone Investments Australia Limited, Vodafone Investments Limited, Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Ireland Distribution Limited, Vodafone Ireland Ltd., Vodafone Ireland Marketing Limited, Vodafone Ireland Property Holdings Limited, Vodafone Ireland Retail Limited, Vodafone Italia S.p.A., Vodafone Jersey Dollar Holdings Limited, Vodafone Jersey Finance, Vodafone Jersey Yen Holdings Unlimited, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Field Services GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland GmbH, Vodafone Kabel Deutschland Kundenbetreuung GmbH, Vodafone Kenya Limited, Vodafone Leasing Limited, Vodafone Libertel B.V., Vodafone Limited, Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg 5 S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l., Vodafone Luxembourg S.a r.l. Luxembourg Zweigniederlassung Bern, Vodafone M-PESA SH.P.K., Vodafone M-Pesa S.A, Vodafone M.C. 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NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypriot banks need to apply "additional and persistent" efforts to wrestle down a stockpile of non-performing loans (NPLs), ECB's Daniele Nouy said in an interview published on Monday. Nouy, who heads banking supervision at the European Central Bank, said there had been uneven progress across banks on handling the problem. "Notwithstanding some progress in NPL resolution, the very high level of NPLs remains a key vulnerability of the Cypriot economy and banking system, and weighs on the ability of banks to carry out their credit intermediation function. "It is, therefore, essential that NPL resolution be accelerated," Nouy said in an interview with the semi-official Cyprus News Agency. Toxic loans account for more than 40 percent of the total loan book in the Cypriot banking sector, among the highest in the European Union. The country required an international bailout in 2013. Recent proposals by the ECB on how to tackle future soured loans has triggered disagreement in the bloc, particularly from countries whose banks are already sitting on mountains of toxic debt. The ECB, she said, had put into place a "rigorous framework" for all banks it supervised. "... With the addendum on quantitative expectations for newly classified NPLs, which is currently under public consultation, we are reinforcing this framework even further," she said. "Work is still in progress regarding the best way to deal with the stock of NPLs," Nouy said. In Cyprus, an effective foreclosure framework was needed to deter strategic defaulters and encourage other lenders to engage in voluntary debt restructuring agreements with the banks. An important measure to step up the use of the foreclosure framework would be a reform of the justice system to cut down on the time required in dealing with legal claims, she said. Asked whether a system of electronic auctions could be introduced as in the case of Greece, Nouy said because it was not operational yet, it was early to draw conclusions from it. "Experience shows that the longer it takes to deal with high NPL levels, the higher the cost is in terms of losses for financial institutions," Nouy said. (Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Alison Williams)
SWNS
An incredible back garden boozer made entirely from recycled materials has been crowned Britain's best Pub Shed of the Year.
John Simmons, 50, spent more than a year and constructing the amazing DIY man-cave in his garden in Portsmouth, Hants.
It features its own dart board, wooden decor, countryside-pub style seating, a roof covered in fairy lights and even its own outdoor beer garden and decking area.
He built the miniature pub - called The Dog & Ball - from as much reclaimed material he could find from salvage yards and a Facebook page for pub shed enthusiasts.
John sourced, cut, sanded and fixed every timber and tting himself as well all 4,500 screws.
The dad-of-three beat off more than a thousand entries to be named the owner of Britain's best Pub Shed 2022.
He celebrated the win in his garden pub last night (12/11) with friends and said he was thrilled to be crowned the winner.
John started building the boozer last year and said he wanted a 'haven at home' he could enjoy that was cheaper than the pub.
Avid DIY-er John, a safety management consultant, said the pub cost four figures to build but would have been much more expensive had he not used reclaimed materials.
Wife Anita, 49, put the finishing touching to the Dog & Ball - named after their Labradoodle Bertie, aged seven and the pair enjoyed celebrating with kids Libby, 23, Jacob, 19, and Evie, 12.
John said: It has all been rather overwhelming, but I am chuffed to bits.
We had 18 friends over last night to celebrate the final and it was fantastic to find out I won - I was really thrilled.
I started building it last year and wanted to have it completed this summer for my 50th birthday.
Sourcing the reclaimed material took the biggest chunk of time.
I am an avid DIY-er and love a project.
Lots of people had been doing this sort of thing over lockdown so I took inspiration from that, and I wanted a haven at home that was cheaper than the pub.
Its somewhere I can go and enjoy being with my friends and family, which was really the whole purpose.
It cost about four figures, which is much cheaper than it would have been had I done a proper build and had to go to shops for the materials.
John, who was in the Royal Navy for 22 years, said his favourite part of the pub is the oak beams which make up the main structure.
The three-metre-long bits of wood remarkably came from an old dock yard building John used to work in.
He said: My favourite part is the main oak beams.
They are from an old dock yard building that I used to work in years ago before it was demolished.
These three-metre-long beams that form the main structure of the pub had sat in a yard for 20 years and then I managed to buy them.
It is a remarkable story.
All my family and friends have been so supportive of the project, and it has been great having everyone round to enjoy it.
My wife Anita put all the finishing touches to the pub to make it look as amazing as it does.
I took the name from my Labradoodle Bertie who just loves to play with his ball, I really wanted him to be part of it all.
The Dog & Ball beat off two other finalists, a mini countryside-style pub called The Tiger, in Somerset, and The Stagger Inn, in Manchester - a nightclub-themed bar
They were whittled down from more than a thousand entries - many of which were built during lockdown.
John said: "Doing it all from salvage was of course a challenge thank goodness for FB marketplace, advice from the fantastic members of the GSPN UK Facebook page and a very understanding wife who I dragged around local reclaim yards sifting through old timbers.
"With the exception of the main roof joists, every other part of the build is made from reclaim, re-used or recycled timber and materials.
"Each piece has a different story, from the bar ironmongery that belonged to my late father-in-law from his days as an RAF engineer, to the main oak upright timbers.
It is believed more than two million back garden pubs are now in operation in Britain after their popularity exploded during the coronavirus pandemic.
They have continued to grow amid a cost of living crisis after the average price of a pint rose to 4 across the UK and 5 in London.
As a result, Two Fat Blokes bar signs, Pub Shed Radio and the Facebook group Garden Shed Pubs & Nightclubs began running the national competition.
The winner was announced live on Pub Shed Radio on Saturday (12/11).
Ashley Turner, the owner of Two Fat Blokes Bar Signs, said: "The quality of bars and diversity of the entries has been phenomenal.
"We ran the competition to showcase the amazing community of pub sheds in the UK.
"The community has exploded during the pandemic and now with the cost of a pint heading north of 6 the trend looks set to continue.
"The Dog & Ball is a perfect example of an amazing pub shed and deserved to win with his amazing hand-built pub.
Tommy Funka, who runs, Pub Shed Radio added: Pub Shed of the year has been a great way for the pub shed community to come together and celebrate the growing army of back garden boozers".
Pub Shed Radio's DJ Mupps said: "It was brilliant to knock on the door of the winners bar live on Pub Shed Radio.
"John & Anita were totally gobsmacked to find out they had won. We then went live from the bar broadcasting with a real party atmosphere."
Nick St John, the owner of Facebook group Garden Shed Pubs and Nightclubs, added: "Being involved Pub Shed of the year has been the culmination of our ethos to promote and help people build their own back garden pubs.
"With over 280,000 members our group has really got on board with the competition.
"Judging the entries was so difficult The Dog & Ball is a great example of a proper pub shed."
By PTI: Srinagar, Oct 16 (PTI) Clashes broke out today between protesters and security forces in Maisuma area of Srinagar as local residents took to streets against the rising incidents of braid chopping in Kashmir, police said.
Dozens of local residents of Maisuma locality in the commercial hub of Srinagar city held a protest demonstration against the continued incidents of braid chopping in the Valley, a police official said.
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He said the protesters turned violent when police asked them to disperse peacefully and started pelting stones at the law enforcement personnel.
Police fired several tear smoke shells to chase away the protesters, he said.
The clashes caused disruption in normal activities as shopkeepers downed their shutters while traffic along the Maulana Azad Road-Budshah Chowk axis was diverted through other routes.
The recent mysterious braid chopping episodes have triggered panic in the Valley. The incidents are being claimed by the separatists as the handiwork of central agencies to divert attention from their anti-national agenda and demand of Azadi.
However, in a number of cases the police have found that people have used the excuse to escape from their own troubles.
According to the police, nearly 103 such incidents have taken place, out of which 63 are related to people who are either taking treatment for mental illness or under the influence of local god-men. PTI MIJ MRJ
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By Clement Uwiringiyimana KIGALI (Reuters) - A critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame asked him to free her and her detained mother and sister as she stood in court on Monday charged with forgery and inciting insurrection. Diane Shima Rwigara, who was barred from running against Kagame in August elections, moved to comfort her mother Adeline and sister Anne as they cried during the hearing. "I request the president release me and my family, she said. She told court she was "being victimized ... because I have political ambitions". The 35-year-old accountant is accused of faking the registration papers she filed to stand in the election that Kagame went on to win with 98.8 percent of the vote. Rwigara has regularly said Kagame stifles dissent and has criticised the Rwandan Patriotic Front's (RPF) tight grip on power since it fought its way to power to end a genocide in 1994. In court, Rwigara said the government had threatened and attempted to silence her family and supporters since she announced her plan to contest the presidency in May. "Some of the supporters were told that they would be accused of working with terror groups. Some were tortured," Rwigara said. Prosecutor Michel Nshimiyimana told the court that he had 70 witnesses who would prove that Rwigara faked their signatures.He said some of the signatures belonged to dead people. "Diane said she was being prosecuted because of her political ambitions but we have 70 witnesses. They said they didn't sign for her nor did they know her," he told the court. Rwigara's mother and sister are also charged with inciting insurrection. The prosecution on Monday played audio clips and videos that it said recorded the mother talking to relatives abroad and accusing the Rwandan government of killing its people. The family's defence attorney said the conversations were private and did not constitute crimes. Last week Rwigara's mother and sister told the court all three of them had been tortured and deprived of food as they were held in jail awaiting trial. They said they were "handcuffed day and night" and kept in solitary confinement. Their lawyer Buhuru Pierre Celestin told the court then that their confinement violated international conventions, while prosecutors said that the defendants' rights were respected. The trial will resume on Wednesday. (Editing by Maggie Fick and Andrew Heavens)
A Santa Rosa man recorded the moment he discovered his familys missing dog in the ruins of parents fire ravaged home.
Jack Weaver and his brother-in-law Patrick Widen hiked out to the home of Kathy Weaver, Jacks mother, in Wikiup Bridgeway, Santa Rosa, northern California, to search for Izzy, who had bolted when Kathy was evacuated. Weaver and Biden found that the house had been leveled but Izzy, a Bernese Mountain dog, had been hiding in the ruins.
Weaver captured the rescue on video and a version shared by his sister on Facebook has been viewed over 1.1 million times. Credit: Jack Weaver via Storyful
An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier keeps watch at a checkpost in Logar province, Afghanistan February 16, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani (Reuters)
By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States met in Oman on Monday to try to find ways of reviving peace talks with Afghan Taliban militants, two officials in Pakistan's foreign ministry said.
It was not clear whether any Afghan Taliban had joined the talks, which have so far failed to restart a tentative process that collapsed in 2015.
Taliban sources had previously said they would stay away from the discussions in Muscat, casting doubt on prospects for reviving the long-stalled negotiations.
The Pakistani officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information, said the talks had resumed on Pakistan's initiative. The Pakistani team was led by Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua.
In Washington, a State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the meeting took place, but declined to provide any details. There was no immediate comment from China or Afghanistan about the talks resuming.
The four-nation Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QGC), which last met in Islamabad early last year, has been trying to ease the path to direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, with little success.
Amin Waqad, a close aide to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and a senior member of the High Peace Council (HPC), said last week his country would participate in the Muscat meeting, and that the Taliban representatives would also be there.
The Taliban denied that they had received any invitation.
Efforts to kick-start negotiations have failed due to the Taliban's refusal to attend after their last leader Mullah Akhtar Mansur was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan last year.
The United States wants Pakistan, which it accuses of harbouring Afghan Taliban commanders, to exert more influence on the group to bring them to the negotiating table.
Pakistani officials deny sheltering Taliban militants and say their influence on the group has waned.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Richard Balmforth and James Dalgleish)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's internet restrictions have struck a "new blow" against foreign companies working there, Germany's ambassador said on Monday, warning that such moves could undermine Beijing's political and commercial ties with the world.
China's ongoing clampdown on cyberspace has seen WhatsApp, the messaging service run by Facebook, periodically unavailable in the past few weeks ahead of twice-a-decade Communist Party Congress that opens on Wednesday.
The government also has been tightening control over virtual private networks (VPNs) that allow users to tunnel through China's "Great Firewall" system, which blocks outlawed online content.
And its controversial Cybersecurity Law adopted late last year has been criticised by foreign business and governments for unclear provisions mandating security reviews and for data to be stored on servers in China.
"Unrestricted internet access via VPN is vital if China wants to take maximum advantage of international cooperation in research and development as well as academic and cultural exchange," German Ambassador Michael Clauss said in a statement.
The higher the digital wall grows, the less attractive living and working in China will be for professionals, researchers or artists, Clauss said, adding that repeated requests to discuss the issue with Chinese authorities "have not led to meaningful dialogue so far".
"In the 'offline' world, our overlapping economic and political interests bring us closer together, but this trend may not be sustainable if excessive cyber controls drive us apart," Clauss said.
The Cyberspace Administration of China, which regulates the internet, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chinese officials say the country has a sovereign right to govern the internet as it sees fit, and that its expansive national security and cybersecurity regulations are needed to address threats such as hacking and terrorism.
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China's cyber law also mandates companies store crucial data within China and pass security reviews. Critics say such measures could unfairly target foreign firms or put business secrets at risk.
After pushback from overseas business groups, China agreed to an 18-month phase-in period from June, but fundamental concerns about the law remain.
Clauss's comments come at a sensitive time for China, as President Xi Jinping looks to consolidate his power for a second five-year term as the nation's leader during the upcoming congress.
Beijing has tightened controls on Chinese society since Xi assumed power, from online censorship to a crackdown on activists and non-governmental organisations.
(Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Nick Macfie)
By Chris Scicluna
VALLETTA (Reuters) - Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta's best-known investigative journalist, was killed on Monday when a powerful bomb blew up her car, police said, in a case that stunned the small Mediterranean island.
Caruana Galizia, 53, ran a hugely popular blog in which she relentlessly highlighted cases of alleged high-level corruption targeting politicians from across party lines.
"There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate," she wrote in a blog published on her site just half an hour before an explosion tore into her car.
Locals said Caruana Galizia had just left her house and was on a road near the village of Bidnija in northern Malta when the bomb detonated, sending her car flying into an adjacent field.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who faced accusations of wrong-doing by Caruana Galizia earlier this year, denounced her killing, calling it a "barbaric attack on press freedom".
He announced that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had agreed to help local police investigate the killing and was flying experts to the island as soon as possible.
"I will not rest until I see justice done in this case," he said in a statement, calling for national unity.
Around 3,000 people held a silent, candle-lit vigil on Tuesday evening in Sliema, just outside Valletta.
The hashtag Je Suis Daphne circulated widely among social media users on the island of 400,000 people, the European Union's smallest state.
"Everyone knows Caruana Galizia was a harsh critic of mine, both politically and personally, but nobody can justify this barbaric act in any way," Muscat said. "The only remedy for anyone who felt slandered was through the courts."
Muscat sued Caruana Galizia after she wrote blogs earlier this year saying his wife was the beneficial owner of a company in Panama, and that large sums of money had been moved between the company and bank accounts in Azerbaijan.
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Both Muscat and his wife denied the accusations.
Looking for a vote of confidence to counter the allegations, Muscat called snap elections in June which he easily won. Recently, Caruana Galizia's outspoken blog had turned its fire on opposition politicians.
Malta Television reported that Caruana Galizia had filed a complaint to the police two weeks ago to say she had received threats. It gave no further information.
"POLITICAL MURDER"
Opposition leader Adrian Delia said the blogger was the victim of a "political murder".
"Caruana Galizia revealed the Panama Papers and was the government's strongest critic," he said, calling for a independent probe of her killing.
"We will not accept an investigation by the Commissioner of Police, the Army commander or the duty magistrate, all of whom were at the heart of criticism by Caruana Galizia," he said.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he would offer a 20,000 euro ($23,578.00) reward for information leading to the conviction of Caruana Galizia's killers, and European politicians expressed dismay at her death.
Frans Timmermans, first vice president of the European Commission, tweeted that he was "shocked and outraged", adding that "if journalists are silenced our freedom is lost".
Manfred Weber, head of the conservative bloc in the European Parliament, said the killing marked "a dark day for democracy".
Caruana Galizia took aim at politicians and senior officials from across Malta, seeing the island as a hotbed of corruption.
"Malta's public life is afflicted with dangerously unstable men with no principles or scruples," she wrote last year.
Her family asked that the magistrate assigned to investigate the case, Consuelo Scerri Herrera, be substituted because of an alleged conflict of interest, court documents showed. Herrera had sought libel damages after Caruana Galizia attacked her in her blog.
(Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Brussels and Gavin Jones in Rome,; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Catherine Evans)
The Iraq government on October 15 launched an operation to secure military bases in Kirkuk.
The operations aim was to retake K1 airbase from Peshmerga forces, according to Lieutenant Colonel Salah el-Kinani of the Iraqi armys 9th armored division.
Hemin Hawrami, senior assistant to Kurdish President Masoud Barzani, tweeted that Peshmerga forces ambushed four advancing Iraqi army Humvees near Taza Khurmatu, south of Kirkuk. Storyful cannot independently confirm reports of the forces engaging.
Both the Iraq and Peshmerga forces were ordered to refrain from fighting where possible. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told Iraqi forces to cooperate with Kurdish Peshmerga forces, who control Kirkuk. Hawrami tweeted that Peshmerga forces were ordered not to initiate fighting but to defend themselves.
This video shows forces with Kurdistans Task Force Black (Heze Reseke) in Kirkuk.
The oil-rich and majority Kurdish region of Kirkuk has become a flashpoint in tensions between the Baghdad government and Erbil following the September 25 Kurdish independence referendum. Kurdish forces took formal control of the city and surrounding oil fields after Iraqi army units fled advancing Islamic State forces in 2014. Credit: Facebook/Rudaw English via Storyful
Iraqi forces entered central Kirkuk and seized the government buildings in the city on October 16.
Local Kurdish reports = said Iraqi forces had seized a number of key positions in an advance northwards towards Kirkuk. The locations included the headquarters of the North Oil Company and the K-1 military base.
Brig Gen Bahzad Ahmed, a spokesman for Kurdish forces, told the Associated Press there had been lots of casualties. Credit: Facebook/Iraqi Federal Police via Storyful
By Sam Nussey TOKYO (Reuters) - Under the once-vaunted "keiretsu" system of close, trust-based ties between manufacturers and suppliers, "Made-in-Japan" became a byword for industrial quality and reliability. That reputation has eroded over recent years. Kobe Steel <5406.T> is just the latest in a string of corporate scandals involving data tampering and other methods of cheating to tarnish the Japan Inc quality stamp. It may be a sign that the government's push to improve corporate governance is seeing greater disclosure of wrongdoing. But the root cause is more likely that Japanese manufacturers are failing modern compliance standards as they grapple with a shrinking domestic market and increased global competition. As the focus has shifted to market mechanisms instead of cosy relationship-based arrangements, Japanese manufacturers have had to compete on price and expand their client base. "Growing global competition has forced Japanese manufacturers to cut costs to be more efficient, while fulfilling a production quota which is often difficult to achieve," said Motokazu Endo, a lawyer at Tokyo Kasumigaseki law office. The "keiretsu" system was the bedrock of Japan's automotive industry. As the market has become more competition based, those automakers now invest less money in their suppliers and spend less time checking what those suppliers' factories are producing, says Hitoshi Kaise, an auto industry consultant and partner at Roland Berger. Beyond that, Japan's economy has suffered decades of anaemic growth, bogged down in deflation with its population shrinking and with growing competition from its Asian neighbours. Those pressures have potentially whittled away at Japanese firms' ability to compete, says Hideaki Miyajima, a Waseda University professor and corporate governance expert. "GONE TOO FAR" The list of manufacturer miscreants is long, and growing. Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> has had to recall every new car it sold in Japan in the last three years after it falsified safety checks. Both Suzuki Motor Corp <7269.T> and Mitsubishi Motors Corp <7211.T> have faced scandals over fuel economy tests on their vehicles, and there was wrongdoing by the now bankrupt air bag maker Takata, Toyo Tire & Rubber Co <5105.T> and Asahi Kasei Corp <3407.T>. "While focusing on targets was right in the beginning it has gone too far, with companies that can't hit their targets resorting to deception," says Hiroshi Osada, a production quality expert and Bunkyo University professor. Over the last 15 years compliance rules have become stricter but many Japanese companies have carried on with practices common in the past, says Nobuo Gohara, a lawyer specialising in compliance, who took part in an audit of Olympus Corp <7733.T> after its accounting scandal in 2011. "There are many of these problems lying dormant on the factory floor," he said. Japan runs the risk it will "lose out as other Asian economies, including China, progressively raise their standards of quality and reliability," said Professor Thomas Clarke, a corporate governance expert at the University of Technology in Sydney. BETTER BOARDS And it's not just dodgy data. Conglomerate Toshiba Corp <6502.T> is still battling an accounting scandal, and there is a litany of wrongdoing at Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) <9501.T>, the operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex. Just this week, Japan's nuclear regulator said Japan Nuclear Fuel had violated safety rules at its Rokkasho site by fabricating records to say safety checks had been carried out. The plant's start data has been delayed 23 times. Even when moves are taken to strengthen external monitoring of companies, "it's not possible to conduct checks day in, day out," said Osada at Bunkyo University, who sat on an external panel that audited Toyota during its 2010 recall crisis. Companies must do more to develop a culture in which workers are able to raise concerns and say 'no' to their bosses, and in which teamwork is used to catch wrongdoing by other employees, Osada added. More attention should be focused on Japan's board members, who are not active enough in engaging with scandals when they occur, says Shin Ushijima, lawyer and president of the Japan Corporate Governance Network, noting a tendency for companies to be over-reliant on appointing outside panels that are not truly independent. Corporate governance reforms are having some impact, says Ushijima. At Toshiba, he said, "the board, while not perfect, was improved after it was reshuffled." For a graphic on 'Kobe Steel one of the biggest decliners vs. other scandal-hit companies', click http://pdf.reuters.com/pdfnews/pdfnews.asp?i=43059c3bf0e37541&u=2017-10-16T023237Z_GFXEDAG072DF9_1_RTRGFXG_BASEIMAGE.jpg (Reporting by Sam Nussey, with additional reporting by Naomi Tajitsu, Yuka Obayashi and Aaron Sheldrick; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today took a swipe at PM Narendra Modi ahead of his visit to his home state today.
By India Today Web Desk: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Gujarat ahead of Assembly election in the state. Modi is slated to address a public rally near Gandhinagar in his home state today.
Rahul Gandhi, in a tweet posted from his office's handle, said, "Mausam ka haal: Chunav se pahle Gujarat me aaj hogi jumlon ki bearish (Weather report: It will rain jumlas today in Gujarat ahead of election)
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The election to Gujarat Assembly is expected to be over before the results of the Himachal Pradesh polls are declared on December 18. The Election Commission last week announced date for Himachal Pradesh election but defer the same for Gujarat for the first time since 1998.
The Congress has criticised the decision of the Election Commission alleging that the poll body buckled under the pressure from PM Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. The Congress alleged that the Election Commission has given the Centre and the BJP government of Gujarat to announce sops for the state on the eve of the Assembly polls.
MODI IN GUJARAT TODAY
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is is visiting his home state Gujarat today where he would address a gathering of BJP workers at a village near Gandhinagar. The prime minister will address the 'Gujarat Gaurav Mahasammelan' being organised by the state BJP to celebrate the conclusion of the saffron party's 'Gujarat Gaurav Yatra' (march for Gujarat's honour).
"I bow to the people of Gujarat for blessing BJP for decades. We will always fulfil the dreams of every Gujarati with full strength and vigour," Modi tweeted ahead of his visit.
Modi, who has been frequently visiting the poll-bound state, said in another tweet the two 'Gujarat Gaurav Yatras' "showcased the spirit of Jan Shakti & reflected Gujarat's strong faith in politics of development & good governance".Senior leaders of the party joined the 15-day march, which was launched on October 1. The march covered a distance of around 4,471 kilometres, spread over 149 of the 182 Assembly constituencies in the state, state BJP chief Jitu Vaghani said.
"Tomorrow, the prime minister will give his guidance to around seven lakh BJP workers at the Gujarat Gaurav Mahasammelan to be held in Bhat village," he said. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, BJP national president Amit Shah and many other leaders of the party would be present, he added.
Last week, Modi had visited Gujarat to inaugurate and lay foundation stones of various projects in Rajkot, Vadnagar, Gandhinagar and Bharuch. He had also held a roadshow in his hometown Vadnagar on October 8.
(With PTI inputs)
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Politicians from North and South Korea will not hold direct talks in Russia on Monday about Pyongyang's nuclear and missile program despite attending the same event and being urged to do so by Moscow, Russian news agencies said on Sunday. Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, is due to discuss the missile crisis in separate talks with a deputy head of North Korea's legislature and the head of South Korea's parliament on the sidelines of a congress of parliamentarians in St Petersburg on Monday. Moscow has called on the two countries to use the opportunity to have their own direct talks to try to narrow their differences. But the RIA news agency on Sunday cited Piotr Tolstoi, the deputy speaker of the Russian lower house of parliament, and an unnamed member of North Korea's delegation as saying there would not be any direct talks. The unnamed North Korean delegate was quoted as saying that U.S. pressure on Pyongyang and U.S. and South Korean military exercises meant preconditions for such talks had not been met. Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the upper house of parliament's foreign affairs committee, said Moscow would try again on Monday to encourage the two delegations to hold face-to-face talks despite the lack of progress. Russian news agencies quoted him as saying that the North Korean delegation had so far declined to hold such talks, while the South Korean delegation had said it was ready for such a meeting. "We will definitely not try to coerce or talk somebody into anything," the Interfax news agency cited Kosachyov as saying. "(But) it will be pity, both on the human and political level, if another opportunity to de-escalate tensions in relations between North Korea and South Korea is missed." North Korea's nuclear tests and missile launches have stirred global tensions and prompted several rounds of international sanctions at the U.N. Security Council. A de-escalation plan, backed by Russia and China, would see North Korea suspend its ballistic missile program and the United States and South Korea simultaneously call a moratorium on large-scale missile exercises, both moves aimed at paving the way for multilateral talks. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
By Jason Patinkin KAMPALA (Reuters) - South Sudanese opposition groups tried to forge a united front on Monday ahead of an expected resumption of peace talks, in the first such meeting since the start of their country's civil war nearly four years ago, attendees told Reuters. South Sudan's civil war, triggered by a feud between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, has plunged parts of the world's youngest nation into famine and forced a third of the population - some four million people - to flee their homes. Representatives of South Sudan's many armed and unarmed opposition groups met in the Kenyan town of Nyahururu, said Kosti Manibe, a former government minister who was briefly jailed and represents a group of ex-political prisoners. "I call it like-minded groups who are opposed to the policy that the regime of Salva in (South Sudan's capital) Juba is pursuing," Manibe said. The gathering, expected to last three days, comes after diplomats from the regional bloc IGAD held talks with Kiir in Juba at the weekend to press the government to participate in the planned peace talks in December. "The opposition is speaking in a cacophony of voices. There is a need to harmonise these voices," said Majak D'Agoot, another member of the former prisoner group. Manibe said Kenya's government had "graciously allowed" the opposition groups to meet in their country, without elaborating. Kenyan foreign affairs ministry spokesman Edwin Limo said he was not aware of the meeting. The United Nations says South Sudan's civil war has resulted in ethnic cleansing and other war crimes. A Western-backed peace deal between Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar collapsed last year, spawning the creation of new armed and political groups opposing the government. Machar's SPLA-IO rebel group, the country's largest which still controls swathes of territory in the south and northeast of South Sudan, declined to attend the Nyahururu meeting, according to Nathaniel Oyet, a senior member of the group, saying it may distract from the December talks. Oyet also cited security concerns in Kenya where SPLA-IO officials have disappeared in the last year, including Machar's spokesman who was arrested and deported to Juba in 2016. Among those attending Monday's meeting in Kenya were representatives of former army general Thomas Cirillo, who is waging an insurgency in the southern region of South Sudan, and other former government officials Lam Akol, Gabriel Changson, and Joseph Bakosoro, all of whom live in exile. South Sudanese government officials were unavailable for comment on the Kenya meeting. (Editing by Maggie Fick)
The Raqqa Civil Council addressed a group of Syrian Islamic State fighters who had surrendered to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on October 15 as part of an agreement which aims to end the fighting in Raqqa, Syria.
In this video, members of the Raqqa Civil Council said they hoped the fighters would live a very different life than they before. Several of the fighters used crutches and had other visible injuries.
Local news sources said the SDF moved them from a prison in Raqqa to al-Tabqa, a city located to the west.
A young man in the video says he joined the Islamic State because they had religion.
On October 14, the Raqqa Civil Council said they called on the SDF to allow local Syrian fighters from the Islamic State to leave Raqqa under their protection in order to end the fighting and save the lives of the remaining civilians stuck inside the city. The following day, they said only Syrian fighters were included in the surrender agreement.
The US operation in Raqqa, Operation Inherent Resolve, said on October 14 that convoys were preparing to transport Syrian Islamic State fighters out of Raqqa after the Raqqa Civil Council, local leaders, and the Islamic State reached an agreement on October 12. The US coalition said it was not a party to the negotiations, but it believes it will save innocent lives. Credit: YouTube/Furat FM via Storyful
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is ready to cooperate fully with the central Iraqi government to end the presence of the outlawed Kurdish militant group PKK in Iraq, the foreign ministry said on Monday. In a statement, the ministry also said Ankara would stand by Baghdad to provide peace and stability in the country, as Iraqi forces captured several positions near Kirkuk from Kurdish fighters, following Kurdish northern Iraq's independence referendum last month. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Fire services were battling dozens of blazes across Portugal and Spain on October 15 and 16. This video was recorded on October 13, and shows fires burning near the A17 motorway outside Vagos.
Authorities said they were still fighting 145 fires in Portugal and another 100 in Spain. At least 30 people were reported to have died.
The Portuguese government asked for international help and declared a state of emergency. Credit: Joao Pico via Storyful
Altria Group Inc. has donated an additional $500,000 to Virginia Techs Presidential Scholarship Initiative, bringing the total company contribution to $1 million.
The initiative provides full tuition, fees, room, and board annually
to dozens of in-state students from low-income families.
The Richmond, Virginia, based companys latest gift follows a $500,000 donation in 2014.
The Presidential Scholarship Initiative helps connect talented Gen1s those who are the first in their families to attend college with high-quality college opportunities, said Kathryn Fessler, director of corporate citizenship at Altria. As a Fortune 200 company based in Virginia, we see that keeping our most promising students close-by is good for Altria, for the commonwealth, and for other companies doing business here. Were proud to partner with Virginia Tech to support these talented students.
The Presidential Scholarship Initiative was created in 2008 to help keep Virginia Tech accessible to high-achieving students regardless of family income. It targets first-generation students in particular. In 2016, the program was expanded to help more than 80 incoming students a year, up from 55. Overall, 272 students were in the program at the start of the fall 2017 term.
Virginia Tech has set a goal of doubling underrepresented minority enrollment by 2022. Fueled by philanthropy, programs like the Presidential Scholarship Initiative, the Beyond Boundaries Scholars initiative, the InclusiveVT Excellence Scholarship, and the recently announced A. James Clark Scholars Program help the universitys recruiting among underrepresented communities.
The leadership and vision demonstrated by Altrias support of Virginia Techs Presidential Scholars Initiative is extraordinary, said Menah Pratt-Clarke, the universitys vice president for strategic affairs and vice provost for inclusion and diversity. It reflects their recognition of the importance of corporate giving to promote inclusion and diversity in higher education within Virginia.
This scholarship has meant so much, said Presidential Scholarship Initiative beneficiary Felicia Haynes, of Portsmouth, a senior majoring in accounting and information systems within the Pamplin College of Business. My background isnt the best, financially, so getting it was the only way I could come to this school.
Haynes said the Presidential Scholarship Initiative not only brought her to Virginia Tech, it allowed her to maximize her education by participating in extracurricular programs. She is on the executive board of the universitys American Red Cross Club, is treasurer of the Virginia Tech chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants, and studied abroad in the Dominican Republic this past summer.
Scientists have observed a huge cosmic crash that could help reveal secrets of how, among other elements, gold was formed in the universe.
By AP: It was a faint signal, but it told of one of the most violent acts in the universe, and it would soon reveal secrets of the cosmos, including how gold was created.
Astronomers around the world reacted to the signal quickly, focusing telescopes located on every continent and even in orbit to a distant spot in the sky.
What they witnessed in mid-August and revealed Monday was the long-ago collision of two neutron stars - a phenomenon California Institute of Technology's David H. Reitze called "the most spectacular fireworks in the universe."
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"When these things collide, all hell breaks loose," he said.
Measurements of the light and other energy emanating from the crash have helped scientists explain how planet-killing gamma ray bursts are born, how fast the universe is expanding, and where heavy elements like platinum and gold come from.
"This is getting everything you wish for," said Syracuse University physics professor Duncan Brown, one of more than 4,000 scientists involved in the blitz of science that the crash kicked off. "This is our fantasy observation."
It started in a galaxy called NGC 4993, seen from Earth in the Hydra constellation. Two neutron stars, collapsed cores of stars so dense that a teaspoon of their matter would weigh 1 billion tons, danced ever faster and closer together until they collided, said Carnegie Institution astronomer Maria Drout.
The crash, called a kilonova, generated a fierce burst of gamma rays and a gravitational wave, a faint ripple in the fabric of space and time, first theorized by Albert Einstein.
The signal arrived on Earth on Aug. 17 after traveling 130 million light-years. A light-year is 5.88 trillion miles.
NASA's Fermi telescope, which detects gamma rays, sent out the first alarm. Then, 1.7 seconds later, gravity wave detectors in Louisiana and Washington state that are a part of the LIGO Laboratory , whose founders won a Nobel Prize earlier this month, detected the crash. It issued a worldwide alert to focus telescopes on what became the most well-observed astronomical event in history.
Before August, the only other gravity waves detected by LIGO were generated by colliding black holes. But black holes let no light escape, so astronomers could see nothing.
This time there was plenty to see, measure and analyze: matter, light, and other radiation. The Hubble Space Telescope even got a snapshot of the afterglow.
"The completeness of this picture from the beginning to the end is unprecedented," said Columbia University physics professor Szabolcs Marka. "There are many, many extraordinary discoveries within the discovery."
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The colliding stars spewed bright blue, super-hot debris that was dense and unstable. Some of it coalesced into heavy elements, like gold, platinum and uranium. Scientists had suspected neutron star collisions had enough power to create heavier elements, but weren't certain until they witnessed it.
The kilonova in NGC4993 fading away, as seen from our South Africa telescopes #GravityAndLight pic.twitter.com/AnTkqPwrxy- Las Cumbres Obsv (@LCO_Global) October 16, 2017
"We see the gold being formed," said Syracuse's Brown.
Calculations from a telescope measuring ultraviolet light showed that the combined mass of the heavy elements from this explosion is 1,300 times the mass of Earth. And all that stuff - including lighter elements - was thrown out in all different directions and is now speeding across the universe.
Perhaps one day the material will clump together into planets the way ours was formed, Reitze said - maybe ones with rich veins of precious metals.
"We already knew that iron came from a stellar explosion, the calcium in your bones came from stars and now we know the gold in your wedding ring came from merging neutron stars," said University of California Santa Cruz's Ryan Foley.
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The crash also helped explain the origins of one of the most dangerous forces of the cosmos - short gamma ray bursts, focused beams of radiation that could erase life on any planet that happened to get in the way. These bursts shoot out in two different directions perpendicular to where the two neutron stars first crash, Reitze said.
Light & #GravitationalWaves, together at last! What did our telescopes and @LIGO see when two dead stars collided? https://t.co/9d2U5bkGzH pic.twitter.com/EW4feLk1oC- NASA (@NASA) October 16, 2017
Luckily for us, the beams of gamma rays were not focused on Earth and were generated too far away to be a threat, he said.
Scientists knew that the universe has been expanding since the Big Bang. By using LIGO to measure gravitational waves while watching this event unfold, researchers came up with a new estimate for how fast that is happening, the so-called Hubble Constant. Before this, scientists came up with two slightly different answers using different techniques. The rough figure that came out of this event is between the original two, Reitze said.
The first optical images showed a bright blue dot that was very hot, which was likely the start of the heavy element creation process amid the neutron star debris, Drout said. After a day or two that blue faded, becoming much fainter and redder. And after three weeks it was completely gone, she said.
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Scientists involved with the search for gravitational waves said this was the event they had prepared for over more than 20 years.
The findings are "of spectacular importance," said Penn State physicist Abhay Ashtekar, who wasn't part of the research. "This is really brand new."
WATCH | NASA's animation of the cosmic crash (Video courtsey: YouTube/NASA Goddard)
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Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. provides natural gas compression services and equipment to the energy industry in the United States. It fabricates, manufactures, rents, and sells natural gas compressors and related equipment. The company primarily engages in the rental of compression units that provide small, medium, and large horsepower applications for unconventional oil and natural gas production. As of December 31, 2021, the company had 2,023 natural gas compression units in its rental fleet with 418,041 horsepower. The company also engages in the design, fabrication, and assembly of compressor components into compressor units for rental or sale; engineers and fabricates natural gas compressors; and designs and manufactures a line of reciprocating compressor frames, cylinders, and parts. In addition, it is involved in the design, fabrication, sale, installation, and service of flare stacks and related ignition and control devices for the onshore and offshore incineration of gas compounds, such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gases. Further, the company offers customer support services for its compressor and flare sales business; and exchange and rebuild program for small horsepower screw compressors. Its primary customers are exploration and production(E&P) companies that utilize compressor units for artificial lift applications; E&P companies that focuses on natural gas-weighted production; and midstream companies. Natural Gas Services Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Midland, Texas.
By PTI: New Delhi, Oct 16 (PTI) Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani tonight targeted Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi after a media report claimed that absconding arms agent Sanjay Bhandari had "booked tickets" for his brother- in-law Robert Vadra.
"Eagerly awaiting Rahul Jis poetic explanation for #VadraTicketGate," Irani tweeted.
The ministers tweet came after Times Now channel claimed that "the absconding arms dealer Bhandari (had) booked business-class tickets for Vadra in 2012."
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Vadras reaction to the report was not available.
Times Now said Vadra and his lawyers had earlier denied having any links with the absconding arms dealer.
Iranis swipe at Gandhi, asking for his "poetic explanation", came two days after the Congress leader targeted the government over the Global Hunger Index by citing a poem in a tweet.
Irani had hit back then in a similar fashion.
Gandhi had tweeted a news report on the Global Hunger Index along with a Hindi couplet by poet Dushyant Kumar which read: "bhookh hai to sabr kar, roti nahi to kya hua, aajkal dilli mein hai zer-e-behas yeh mudda (if you are hungry, be patient, what if bread is not available, the issue is being discussed in Delhi."
Hitting back, Irani had tweeted:
"Ae satta ki bhookh, sabr kar, aankde sath nahi to kya, khudgarzon ko jama kar, mulk ki badnami ka shor toh macha hi lenge (hey hunger for power, be patient, what if you dont have the numbers, you can collect selfish people, noise can be made to malign the country)."
In another tweet, the Information and Broadcasting Minister had said, "Not surprising that in his keenness to run down Hon PM, Rahul Gandhi maligns the Nation."
Along with this tweet, Irani posted a statement by Health Minister J P Nadda which read: "Facts vs Fiction on Global Hunger Index to enlighten people who are keen to run down our country by twisting facts." PTI AKK AKK
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Aberdeen looking to shift focus to retail business development
The city of Aberdeen has been discussing the hiring of an economic development manager. Here's a little more about that plan.
Sangeet Som called Taj Mahal a blot on India culture but, here is why Mughals and their monuments are and always will be a great part of Indian history.
By India Today Web Desk: Sangeet Som, a BJP lawmaker, during one of his speeches, said that Taj Mahal is a blot on Indian culture and should not be a part of India's history.
He also said that Taj Mahal was built by traitors.
Taj Mahal, a 17th century marble mausoleum, was excluded from a Uttar Pradesh tourism booklet which was recently released by the government to mark its 6 month completion.
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During the rally held in Meerut, Som also said that people should not be worried that Taj Mahal wasn't there on the list. He said, "If this is history, then it is very unfortunate and we will change this history, I guarantee you."
Many people, irrespective of their religion, were angered by this insensitive hate-speech because many found his comment to be illogical. Taj Mahal is also one of the highest earning monuments in India when it comes to tourism generating revenue.
'Taj Mahal a blot, built by traitors,' says BJP lawmaker Sangeet Som.He must be against marbles, having lost his.- Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) October 16, 2017
If threatening teens for memes can make one free speech warrior, I hope Time magazine writes how Sangeet Som is the UNESCO ambassador.- Rahul Roushan (@rahulroushan) October 16, 2017
Sangeet Som is a blot on India. Why has Mr. Prime Minister not expelled him from the party despite assurance of no communalism for 10 years- indohistoricus (@indohistoricus) October 16, 2017
Idiots like Sangeet SOM should create history by doing something remarkably great for the people. They shouldnt be busy trying to erase it!- SUHEL SETH (@suhelseth) October 16, 2017
BJP's Sangeet Som "Taj Mahal is a blot on Indian culture" So does this mean no flag hoisting from Red Fort?Shah Jahan made that too...?- Rajiv Kunwar Bajaj (@rkbnow) October 16, 2017
Going by Sangeet Soms logic, even Red Fort, Parliament and Rashtrapati Bhavan were built by traitors or colonisers.- IbneBattuta (@ibnebattuta) October 16, 2017
These Mughal marvels are an important part of India's history and are a mirror of Indian tourism.
According to Press Information Bureau's 2013-14 report, Taj Mahal topped the list of the highest earning places in India's tourism list and attracts millions of tourists every year.
Here are the following reasons why Mughals are and always will be a great part of Indian history:
Language: Mughals are somewhat responsible for the development of Urdu and Hindi language. Mughals also gave us great poets like Mirza Ghalib etc.
Military: Babar was credited with the first use of canons in India which he used as a means of countering the Sultanate's elephants. The Mughals also pioneered the use of rockets (which Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan later improved upon).
Religious tolerance: Akbar established a great degree of religious tolerance. He built alliances with Rajputs and allowed Hindus to rise up to political positions in his court.
Shah Jahan's dream: Even though, all the Mughal monuments were built with utmost perfection, Shah Jahan wanted his monuments to stand apart. He created marvels like the Taj Mahal, Red Fort etc in a hope to make Agra an Urban centre as a rival city to Istanbul (Constantinople).
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Mughals also started new trade routes to Arab and Turk lands.
Persian art and culture amalgamated with native Indian art and culture is one of the major reasons why India's art and history is so rich.
Many can debate on the importance of the Mughals and Mughal monuments when it comes to Indian history but, one should never forget that India is where it is supposed be as a result of history itself.
Here's all you should know about the Taj Mahal, an architectural marvel:
When was it built: between 1632 and 1653 AD
Who built it: Shah Jahan, 5th Emperor of the Mughal dynasty
Time taken: 21 years Where is it located: Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Why was it built: As a memorial to Shah Jahan's beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal after her death in 1631
Dimensions: situated in a 170000 sq. m complex; 57 m at the base; 68 m in height and raised platform height 6 m
Materials used: White Marble for the main mausoleum, Red Sandstone for fortifying structure and accents
Architect: Ustad Ahmed Lahori
Architectural Style: Mughal
Cost of Construction: 32 crore rupees
Maintained by: Archeological Survey of India (ASI)
Special Recognitions: Declared UNESCO World Heritage site in 1983 and winner of the New 7 Wonders of The World List Initiative between 2000 and 2007.
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Want to know how many New Mexicans get to work by carpooling? (9.4 percent)
How many residents in the state have Lithuanian heritage? (0.1 percent)
What about the percentage of New Mexico households with a broadband internet subscription? (73.7 percent, compared to 81.4 percent nationwide.)
The American Community Surveys one-year estimates as of 2016 that were released last month are a trove of such details, providing a snapshot of the demographics, economics, education, housing particulars and other details about residents in every state, plus Puerto Rico.
Of course, drawing the most attention, especially in a poor state like New Mexico, is how people are faring economically.
Several legislators and the president of nonprofit CHI St. Josephs held a news conference last month when the figures came out, highlighting New Mexicos new No. 1 status as having the most children under age 5 living in poverty, at 36.2 percent.
Among the other figures that paint a dismal portrait of poverty in New Mexico is this one: Nearly 62 percent of single women who have children under 5 years old had incomes below the poverty level during the past year. Thats a sharp increase from the 49 percent five years ago.
While economists and others who study Census data dont draw conclusions from the one-year estimates, the figures help show trends over several years.
Its not definitive, it doesnt predict the future well necessarily, but its certainly worth looking at, said Jim Peach, New Mexico State University economist.
For example, you can learn that the carpooling figure has actually declined slightly since 2012: 11.3 percent shared a ride to work that year compared to the 9.4 percent in 2016.
As for housing, five-room units are the most common size in New Mexico at 24.9 percent of all units. And, the figures show, the largest percentage of householders moved in between 2000 and 2009.
Rent? If youre a tenant, you are most likely paying somewhere between $500 and $999.
The numbers also reveal how New Mexico fares compared to the rest of the nation, although some data might appear to be less useful than others.
For example, New Mexico is tied with Hawaii for second-to-last place when it comes to complete plumbing facilities; 0.8 percent of occupied housing in the state lacks such facilities. Alaska is at the bottom at 4 percent.
From 2012 to 2016, the nations rate of reported robbery dropped by 9 percent, according to FBI figures. In Albuquerque over the same time frame, by contrast, the rate rose by a whopping 75 percent. Last year, city residents reported 1,957 robberies, an average of 5.3 per day.
Armed robbery is the most dangerous of small-potatoes crimes. The average haul is just $1,170, according to the FBI. For that relative pittance, the lives of clerks, customers and robbers are put at risk. The business itself may be endangered, too, because in retail, risk of injury means risk of civil liability.
Recently, an Albuquerque convenience store clerk turned the tables, shooting a would-be robber (who, it turned out, was wielding a toy gun). The clerk said in interviews afterward that she was carrying the gun for her own self-protection and was suspended by the store after the shooting.
That incident, and the community outpouring it prompted, might encourage other clerks and store owners to think about arming themselves. Please think twice. In the movies and TV, the good guy always wins the gunfight. Real life isnt always so accommodating.
And after the ambulance leaves and the crime scene technician packs up, the potential for legal liability lingers. There are many ways in which a violent confrontation inside a store can lead to the owner writing a big check.
First, some basics. Robbery is theft accomplished by force or threats. In New Mexico, the basic sentence for armed robbery is half again longer than that for manslaughter. A subsequent armed robbery conviction is punished more severely than second-degree murder. The recent spike is not due to low penalties.
All New Mexico store owners should understand the potential legal consequences of encouraging their employees to fight crime physically. Thirty years ago, a Circle K clerk confronted shoplifters and was severely beaten by them. The jury concluded that the clerk acted in accordance with company policy and hit Circle K with an $11.7 million damage award. A New Mexico business owner who sends employees into battle is responsible for any injuries they suffer.
A smart armed robber waits until the store is empty before striking. Unfortunately, smart armed robber is almost an oxymoron. If a clerk shoots at a robber but misses, hitting a customer instead, the store is highly likely to be held liable for the customers injury or death. All businesses open to the public have a duty to protect their customers from foreseeable harm. If a clerk starts blasting, everyone in the store is foreseeably within range.
Then there is the nightmare scenario of a simple but tragic mistake. The horrifying fate of John Crawford III serves as a warning about what can go wrong. Crawford, shopping in an Ohio Walmart, grabbed an air rifle from the rack and continued shopping. A police officer, called to the store by a false report of an armed man threatening people, ordered him to drop it. Crawford, on the phone, didnt immediately realize the officer was addressing him. When he failed to comply, the officer fired. In the ensuing stampede, a second shopper died of a heart attack.
That officer made a split-second decision on imperfect information. For all his training and experience, he made the wrong decision. A sales clerk with a gun, lacking an officers background, is far more likely to jump to a wrong conclusion. And if an employee wrongfully shoots an innocent customer, the employer faces potentially ruinous civil liability.
But even if the clerk makes no mistake and shoots a guilty armed robber, the possibility of liability remains. This might strike some people as outrageous, but its useful to consult your own attitude about the death penalty. When is it permissible for the state to execute criminals? Many say never. Others say only as punishment for the most serious of homicides. But if death isnt an appropriate punishment for robbery following a fair trial, how can it be appropriate without any trial at all?
New Mexico law justifies killing in self-defense when a person reasonably believes he or she faces the immediate danger of death or great bodily harm. That standard is obviously met when a robber points a gun at a clerks head but not when the robber is running out the door or driving away. In other words, its not the robbery but the threat to human life that justifies shooting in self-defense. Once the immediate danger ends, so does the legal justification. And an unjustified shooting can lead to a big damage award.
From a tort liability standpoint, guns in stores are just a terrible idea. Store owners are well-advised to concentrate instead on target-hardening, contracting with a security service, assisting police and keeping their insurance up to date.
Joel Jacobsen is an author and has recently retired from a 29-year legal career. If there are topics you would like to see covered in future columns, please write him at legal.column.tips@gmail.com
The pop-up retail trend has helped many artists and entrepreneurs sell products and launch businesses in cities throughout the country. Pop-up shops allow artists and retailers to use temporarily donated commercial space to sell wares and land new customers.
Albuquerques WESST Enterprise Center hosted a holiday pop-up shop last year to showcase its artisan and maker clients as part of Manufacturing Day activities. The event was so successful that the nonprofit business development and training organization has scheduled the second incarnation for Friday.
We use the pop-up shop as a way to cap off our Creative P.I.E. program, said Julianna Silva, managing director of the Enterprise Center. Creative P.I.E., which stands for practice, innovation and enterprise, offers packaged-up training and consulting to local business owners and entrepreneurs to give them a way to promote their products and get their name out in the public.
The pop-up shop is the highlight of the Creative P.I.E. program and a way to have our artists get in front of people for the holidays, said Silva.
Twenty artists participated last year, and Silva expects 23 to join this year.
Kymberlie Martin, owner of Reuseful Candles, is one. Martin repurposes bottles and jars into receptacles for high-quality handcrafted candles.
These types of events are very important for my business, said Martin. Since I make scented candles, selling online can be quite difficult. Selling in person, where people can see and smell the product, really goes a long way.
Erin Kleymann is another entrepreneur who will be selling at the event. The owner of willajunejewelry crafts bronze, copper and silver into necklaces, brooches, earrings, money clips and more. Kleymann also leads WESSTs Etsy Craft Entrepreneurship program, teaching clients how to set up and optimize shops on the popular e-commerce website where many handcrafted products are sold.
Ive been in business for seven years, and (have worked) with WESST since 2014. I started my business online through Etsy, but it has since evolved to also include my own website, in-person sales events, and wholesale accounts, she said.
Kleymann is looking forward to her second year at WESSTs pop-up shop.
I love in-person events like these, she said. They are a great opportunity to market your business, but also to engage with your customers and see what they are responding to. I love that locals can come out and see what there is in the community and support the local economy.
Many other unique products are expected at the event, including handmade Moroccan items, locally made magnetic domino sets, traditional hand-punched tin art and contemporary Day of the Dead fine art.
Vendor contracts are finalized and entries are closed, at least for this year. But according to Silva, client learning opportunities havent stopped there. As they are getting ready to participate, we offer them training and consulting around things like insurance, working with the fire marshal and getting prepped, she said.
The WESST holiday pop-up shop runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday at the WESST Enterprise Center, 609 Broadway NE in Albuquerque. For more information, visit wesst.org.
Finance New Mexico connects individuals and businesses with skills and funding resources for their business or idea. To learn more, go to www.FinanceNewMexico.org.
Albuquerque City Councilor Dan Lewis came out swinging during Congregation Alberts mayoral debate on Sunday, accusing his opponent of operating a sweat shop in Cambodia, referring to his crime fighting proposal as a hug a thug plan that coddles criminals, and calling his vote to block cities from having a say on where sex offenders can live dangerous and disgusting.
But State Auditor Tim Keller fought back just as hard, accusing Lewis of latching onto President Donald Trumps divisive playbook, calling his criticism of his work in Cambodia ignorant, and pointing out that the police and firefighters unions were backing him and not Lewis.
It was a tense 60 minute match in front of hundreds of people, and it was later broadcast by KANW 89.1 public radio.
Keller, a Democrat, and Lewis, a Republican, are going head to head in a Nov. 14 mayoral runoff. Early voting begins Oct. 25.
The punches started flying about 15 minutes into the debate, with Lewis taking aim at Kellers work as president of Digital Divide Data in Cambodia. The company, which Keller got off the ground, employed land mine victims and members of other economically disadvantaged groups.
Ive created jobs in our city. I didnt create jobs in Cambodia, sweatshop jobs in Cambodia like Tim did, Lewis charged. It took away union jobs from America. Its a company that his brother started; he didnt start it. The only job that Tim Keller has created is his own job paid for by public taxpayers. We need somebody in the city who actually understands how jobs are created and has created private jobs in the city.
I got to help hundreds of land mine victims in Cambodia learn how to use the computer and learn how to do coding, Keller responded. For any one of those hundreds of folks literally with no limbs and no hope, to call that a sweatshop is an absolute injustice, and it shows a lot of ignorance also about what actually happened in Cambodia, the genocide there. So Im proud of that. It changed my life. It made me a progressive. It made me someone who believes in social justice, and it made me want to come back home and make a difference.
The candidates also clashed over sanctuary cities, with Keller saying Albuquerque should embrace it and do everything it can to protect every resident. He criticized the citys current policy of giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement space at the citys transport center to check the immigration status of people who have been arrested and about to be booked into the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center.
Whats scary about that, whats dangerous about that is were talking about violent offenders that are in our MDC right now, and were talking about no limitations whatsoever is what Tims talking about, Lewis said. He said he prefers a common sense policy that protects the constitutional rights of people, that welcomes people in this city and also complies with the law of the land.
Keller fired back several minutes later.
There was an equation made between immigrants and violent criminals, Keller said. That is absolutely wrong; that is coded language; that is national talking points from the president.
Lewis most pointed attacks against his opponent came in response to a question about Albuquerques rising crime rate, an issue that voters have identified as their top concern in this election. Lewis invoked the Bad Timmy ads, which accused Keller of choosing to protect sex offenders over children.
The ads referred to a bill Keller voted for as a state senator in 2011 that would have taken away the rights of local governments to restrict where sex offenders can live. The 2011 bill failed, but a subsequent bill approved by the legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez in 2013 contains a similar prohibition, which remains in effect today. Several victim advocates rallied behind Keller after the ads hit the television and radio airwaves.
A heckler interrupted Lewis when he described Kellers proposal to fight crime as a hug a thug plan. The heckler shouted at Lewis for his use of the word thug.
Tims crime plan puts the criminals of the city before the law abiding citizens of this city, Lewis said after the heckler had been escorted out. Hes got a record of voting on something thats absolutely dangerous and disgusting. Limiting the ability for the city of Albuquerque to keep sex offenders from living close to The end of his sentence was drowned out by rowdy audience members, many of whom appeared taken aback that Lewis had brought up the matter.
Tim voted on that bill. He regrets it, Lewis argued. I appreciate it that hes trying to run away from his record. This is a record that coddles and puts criminals in this city before law abiding citizens. I will not do that.
Keller countered that hes proud of that vote and said he will never run away from his record.
The reason why I voted for that is because it was about consistent policy statewide, he said. And thats also why law enforcement supported it. And thats why now its the current law, and even Gov. Martinez supported that law. Im proud to say that that law has nothing to do with anything that Dan just talked about.
Keller said the bill was about good governance.
There is a reason why the police officers in this town are supporting my crime plan, he said. There is a reason why firefighters are supporting our crime plan. There is a reason why the West Side chamber of commerce is supporting our crime plan. There is a reason why Our Revolution is supporting our crime plan. Because it is the right plan for our city and because they believe that I have the right experience set of getting things done, of accountability and of actually having experience managing a department and managing people and turning things around. Thats what we need in our police department. Not just talking points about national issues or about hiring more cops.
The final clash came during the candidates closing remarks, with Lewis latching onto the ethics complaint that has been filed against Keller for in-kind contributions to his campaign. He also referenced the political action committee that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Kellers bid. Lewis noted that he isnt financing his campaign with public dollars.
Tim is taking public dollars, and then hes got a private slush fund with hundreds of thousands of dollars, and hes taken cash in-kind donations to pay off his political consultants, Lewis said. This auditor needs to be audited. We dont need somebody who starts in office already under ethics charges dealing with ethical issues. We want an honest mayor who is willing to get in and get started and to be able to make the changes
Keller countered that he made a difficult choice back in February.
I said that I was not going to participate in the big money political system that is a cancer on our entire country and on our democracy. And Ive tried every step of the way to do that differently, he said. I want to thank the 6,000 people in Albuquerque who gave us $5 to actually give us a chance to get to City Hall a different way, in a way that isnt beholden to contractors and special interest. And so for me, that is the only choice that I can own.
Keller said the in-kind contributions his campaign accepted were allowed, and he called the ethics complaint a partisan cheap shot.
During the Oct. 3 election, Keller received 39 percent of the vote. Lewis came in second, with nearly 23 percent.
Truth or Consequences is about to get in on the beer craze. On Friday, Me Gusta World Street Food and Truth or Consequences Brewing Co. will host a joint Oktoberfest Grand Opening in downtown Truth or Consequences.
The event concludes on Sunday with Smokeys barbecue roasting a full pig.
The brewery opened its 4,000-square-foot facility in mid-June, according to owner Marianne Blaue, but the celebration marks the completion of renovations on the taproom space and the launch of TorC Brewing Co.s own line of beers.
The brewery will serve five of its own beers to start, including its signature offering, the Cosmic Blonde Ale.
Blaue said the brewery elected to forgo a food license to allow in food from surrounding businesses. Thats where the collaboration with Jasna and Gaelan Brown, owners of Me Gusta World Street Food, began.
Me Gusta is a food truck that has something of a permanant home near the brewery. Though still operating out of a truck, Me Gusta has set up an outdoor seating area and really made the area into a good place to eat, Blaue said.
Blaue is excited to be adding TorCs first brewery to the downtown landscape of the hot springs town.
Weve already got our first soakers, she said. Its a town where people just go anywhere in their bathrobes cause the springs are right there. Blaue said the presence of soakers enjoying a pint in their robes makes for the perfect relaxed atmosphere.
Ettin Games and Hobbies
Whether you are Level 5 dragon with adamantium armor or a Level 1 elf from Morrowind searching for a golden sword, Ettin Games and Hobbies has just the thing for you.
Ettin Games and Hobbies will be taking over the space formerly occupied by Tandy Leather in Hoffmantown Shopping Center at Wyoming and Menaul NE. The store will have role-playing games, board games, tabletop games, card games, such as Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon, and much more.
Owners Sein Bynum and Sally Jewell want it to be more than a place to buy the latest games and accessories. This is really more of a place for people to meet, Bynum said.
Bynum says the store will offer a library where customers can check out a game and play it with friends at the store for as long as they like before deciding to purchase.
The store is roughly 1,700-square-feet and has a loft where Bynum plans to set up a space for events and for customers to host games like Dungeons and Dragons.
Bynum, who has traveled all over the country, came to Albuquerque two years ago. He said he recognized the need for an extensive games shop right away. When I got here, I saw there was an opportunity in this community for a different kind of store, he said.
Ettin Games and Hobbies, which has a licensing agreement with the original Ettin Games in Houston, plans to open Nov. 1.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Tropical Smoothie Cafe is beginning its expansion with a second location at Holly and San Pedro NE.
Co-owner Jacob Miller, who owns the franchise rights in Albuquerque with his brother, Nathan, said the new 1,800-square-foot space is only the start of what will be a five-store expansion throughout the Albuquerque area.
Jacob and Nathan opened the first New Mexico Tropical Smoothie Cafe last year, and Jacob said business has been very strong.
Miller said the new retail center on Holly made perfect sense. It fits everything that we want, he said. It has a lot of traffic, its kind of the food destination of the area. Plus, (the Tropical Smoothie Cafe space) has a drive-thru.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe, based in Atlanta, has over 600 locations nationwide, according to Miller. Besides smoothies, the restaurant also offers sandwiches, wraps, flatbread dishes and a full breakfast menu.
Jacob Miller moved to Albuquerque 10 years ago as a manager for Coca-Cola and then Pepsi but quickly realized he wanted to branch out on his own. He and Nathan began searching for a franchise to purchase and landed on Tropical Smoothie Cafe. Miller said they decided on the national brand because of its fast growth and strong earnings but also because they wanted something that offered healthy choices.
We are very conscientious about eating healthier and living healthier, Miller said.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe on Holly has already begun renovations of its space at the east end of the new Holly retail development. Miller said he plans to open the store in late November.
In other news:
Ross Dress for Less opened its new location on Paseo del Norte and Wyoming on Oct. 6. The new location at La Cueva Shopping Center is the sixth Ross location in the Albuquerque area.
Sprouts Farmers Market has confirmed reports from earlier this year that it will be opening a new store at Coors and Montano in early 2018. According to a news release, the new location will add approximately 120 jobs. The announcement also included plans to open a new location in Las Cruces.
The new Albuquerque store will mark the sixth Sprouts location in the Albuquerque area.
Antonella Riega, a Rio Rancho resident attending Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque, recently finished the NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars program that included a visit to NASAs Johnson Space Center last month.
She was one of 304 community college students from across the U.S. to be part of the program.
The five-week program culminated at the end of September with a four-day on-site event at Johnson Space Center, where students interacted with NASA engineers and others to learn more about careers in science and engineering, organizers said in a news release.
Students formed teams and established fictional companies interested in Mars exploration. Each team was responsible for developing and testing a prototype rover, forming a company infrastructure, managing a budget, and developing communications and outreach.
The experience at NASA included a tour of facilities and briefings by NASA subject matter experts.
The annual program is funded in part by the Minority University Research and Education Program, or MUREP, which is committed to engaging underrepresented and underserved students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in authentic learning experiences, according to a news release.
NCAS not only inspires community college students to advance in STEM fields, but it also opens doors for future careers at NASA, said Joeletta Patrick, MUREP manager, in a statement. It is rewarding to see the progression of a student from NCAS participant to NASA colleague.
For more information on the program, email JSC-NCAS@mail.nasa.gov, call 281-483-0493, or visit http://ncas.aerospacescholars.org or www.nasa.gov/education/murep.
A 505 Southwestern New Mexico True Scholars scholarship program will support one student a year with a passion for agriculture in New Mexico. The program is a partnership between Flagship Food Groups 505 Southwestern brand and New Mexico True.
This new scholarship will award $5,000 to one New Mexico high school senior graduating from a state high school. Applicants must plan to attend an accredited college or university in New Mexico full time beginning fall 2018. They must also demonstrate a commitment to making an impact in the agricultural industry or overall economy of food and agriculture of New Mexico.
Were delighted to help young people dedicated to New Mexico agriculture pursue higher education, Gov. Susana Martinez said in a news release.
Scholarship applications are open and due by March 19, 2018; the recipient will be announced late April.
Find the application online at NewMexico.org/505TrueScholars.
The Albuquerque Journal recently provided a series of articles regarding high-crime areas within Albuquerque. One area reported was the International District. The article reminded me of past efforts at eradicating crime in my Atrisco community from the late 1980s through the early 2000s.
The criminal activity centered around three public nuisance liquor establishments: Five Points Dance Hall, Club Latino and the Drift Inn Lounge. We had similar crime statistics: worst homicide rate, worst in property crimes, worst DWI intersections. We were able to close these establishments and eradicate a dozen drug dealers with a unified coalition of neighborhood associations, churches, small businesses and law enforcement residents from the area. Upon taking out that criminal element, our crime rate dropped 90 percent.
We, the people of the Albuquerque metro area, have failed our neighbors in the International District by making crime the primary focus. We have defaulted all solutions to the problem onto the shoulders of law enforcement and judicial institutions, while the major crime-fighting element goes unnoticed and undeveloped the empowering of its residents to organize themselves into being the major force to quell and prevent crime.
While eradicating crime in Atrisco, we realized the need to create organized groups of people where none existed. Of the area (targeted) by the criminal element, only one neighborhood association existed, representing 25 percent of the area. We sought out conscientious neighbors from those unorganized areas and set up house meetings. Eventually, we assisted in creating five new associations. Overnight, these organized neighbors became the eyes and ears of our law enforcement entities. They became the support source on the street for scared and reluctant neighbors fearful of reporting crimes. The International District needs a similar strategy.
In Atrisco, the crime suppression efforts of the core residents were voluntary. This is what distinguishes the International District from Atrisco. Nonprofit organizations and philanthropic foundations need to step up and help create a paid core of residents on every block of the International District, with their sole purpose being to organize their community in eradicating crime.
The greater church community has a role to play in bringing harmony to the International District. The initial organizing core of Atrisco started with six parishioners at Holy Family Catholic Church in 1989. I was part of that group. One of our actions was a traditional Hispanic procession in August 1995, starting at the church on Atrisco Drive and weaving through the streets, making sure the route passed in front of the drug houses and the liquor establishments. It was led by recently installed Archbishop Michael Sheehan. We had planned four descansos prayer/altar stops along the route. When word got out that Archbishop Sheehan was leading the procession, 10 parishioners offered to place descansos, some right next door to the drug dealers.
A similar strategy would instill hope in the hearts of International District residents. When church congregations engage a community in defying the criminal element, criminals lose their power to rule by fear and intimidation. A criminal is not intimidated by a police car parked all day by their front yard, but they will scamper at the sight of 40 or 100 residents having a prayer vigil, on the street, in front of their house.
Phil Chacon Park, named after a distinguished Albuquerque Police Department officer killed in the line of duty, should be a vibrant site of community empowerment in the International District. It lacks resources and has no integrated programming of building community spirit. The mayor and police brass should have their officer commendation ceremonies at Phil Chacon Park. It brings dignity to officer Chacons sacrifice in the name of protecting the public safety of the International District.
Fighting crime is hard work, but most rewarding in the end. Failures and mistakes are evident, but as my deceased dad would say, If at first you dont succeed, pray the rosary and try again.
By PTI: surrender
Srinagar, Oct 16 (PTI) Three militants have been arrested in Kashmir, police said today and made a renewed offer to the local militants that they would be rehabilitated if they surrender.
Two militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and one associated with Hizbul Mujahideen were arrested over the past three days from south Kashmir, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Munir Khan said.
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"On October 14, two terrorists, with the intention to snatch weapons of personal security guards of a protected person, fired a few rounds at Kund in Qazigund area. But they had to beat a retreat due to hue and cry raised by locals," Khan told reporters here.
He said on receipt of this information, a joint party of the police, the Army and the CRPF established a check point and nabbed the two militants, who were riding a mnotorcycle.
"They were identified as Khursheed Ahmad Dar and Haziq Rather. One pistol, some ammunition and a live grenade were recovered from their possession. They belong to LeT," he added.
Later, an overground worker of militants Rameez Yatoo, who works in a medical agency in Kulgam, was arrested, Khan said.
"Arms and ammunition were recovered from his home. He had helped the militants in carrying out the attack on the police vehicle at Damhal Hanjipura on Saturday in which one cop lost his life," the IGP said, adding the attack was carried out by militants of Hizbul Mujahideen.
Khan said the offer of surrender to local militants still holds good.
"They should lay down their arms and we will provide all support in rehabilitating them," the official said.
He said the security forces will accept surrender by local militants even during encounters.
Police on Friday last had arrested a Jaish-e-Mohammad militant, who was involved in an attack on the motorcade of Works Minister Naeem Akhtar last month in which three civilians were killed. PTI MIJ DV AKK
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Why cant we have nice things?
Thats the question, if not exactly the phrasing, so many conservatives are asking these days.
Despite controlling the White House and both branches of Congress, the GOP cant get much done. Oh, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have talking points pushing back on this widespread impression. Ryans argument has some merit: The House has passed a good deal of legislation 305 bills, according to GovTrack.us. Admittedly, a lot of it is minor, but theres some meaty stuff as well, including Obamacare repeal-and-replace.
The problem is that very little of it can get through the narrowly Republican-controlled Senate, the burial ground where the GOP elephant goes to die.
Much of the blame goes to McConnell, particularly when the blame is being cast by President Trumps biggest supporters. Whether thats fair is the subject of much debate. While McConnell has made his share of mistakes, the scapegoating is often wildly overblown.
As Sen. Ben Sasse. R-Neb., recently explained on my new podcast, The Remnant, the GOP simply is not an ideologically unified party. There is not one GOP but several. In a sense, thats always been true of Republicans and Democrats.
Political parties always have different ideological and regional factions. The late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone used to claim he was from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, by which he meant he was an authentic progressive. FDRs coalition included progressive and socialist Jews and African-Americans as well as segregationist Democrats and progressive Republicans. Ronald Reagan unified movement conservatives and traditional East Coast Republicans as well as big swaths of conservative Democrats and even a few libertarians.
Part of the problem is that we dont think of parties as coalitions of disparate ideological and geographic interests anymore. For much of American history, if you asked someone whether they were a Republican or Democrat, youd have to ask a follow-up question to learn whether they were a liberal or conservative.
Thanks to the trend of political polarization, we now expect ideological conformity to go hand in hand with party identification. And it does more than ever. For the first time in American history, party ID is more predictive of behaviors and attitudes than race, according to political scientists Shanto Iyengar and Sean Westwood (of Dartmouth and Stanford, respectively).
Partisanship, for a long period of time, wasnt viewed as part of who we are, Westwood told The New York Times earlier this year. It wasnt core to our identity. It was just an ancillary trait. But in the modern era we view party identity as something akin to gender, ethnicity or race the core traits that we use to describe ourselves to others.
So from one perspective, dysfunction in Congress is a good sign because it shows that partisanship doesnt override all other concerns. But thats cold comfort for Republicans, whod like to fulfill the promises they campaigned on for years now that they control Washington.
But control requires consensus. The simple fact is that Republicans disagree for good reasons and bad on how to reform the tax code, fix health care and deal with immigration. In a Senate where Democrats are unified by nothing save their Trump hatred and where Republicans have only a two-seat majority, its virtually impossible to get agreement on any significant legislation.
Ousted White House adviser Steve Bannon is trying to turn McConnell into a bogeyman so that nationalist congressional challengers can topple Republican incumbents in primaries.
I think that effort will fail. But even it were successful, it would only perpetuate the dysfunction, because that agenda doesnt unify the party.
Nice things arent on the horizon.
Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review. E-mail goldbergcolumn@gmail.com, Twitter @JonahNRO. Copyright, Tribune Media Services Inc.
Copyright 2017 Albuquerque Journal
Right-to-work proponents, after failed attempts at the state Legislature, are now turning their attention to Sandoval County.
County Commissioners Jay Block and David Heil are sponsoring the proposal, which, if approved, would make Sandoval County the first county in New Mexico to have a right-to-work law.
Under right-to-work legislation, employees in unionized workplaces cannot be forced to join a union or pay union dues, while receiving the same benefits as union members who do contribute.
A similar move is planned in Bernalillo County. Commissioner Wayne Johnson said he will also propose right-to-work legislation, although he doesnt have a draft yet and doesnt have a timetable for introducing it.
Block and Heil say the legislation would help Sandoval County lure more businesses to the area and improve the local economy. Block said they based the measure on a similar ordinance approved by Hardin County, Ky.
Block, pointing to Sandoval Countys unemployment rate of 6.7 percent, said the measure is needed in an area that has seen the loss of thousands of jobs at the Rio Rancho Intel plant.
However, Jon Hendry, with the New Mexico Federation of Labor, says less union representation would mean lower-paying jobs.
His union promises to take the county to court if the commission approves the measure barring unions from imposing mandatory fees on workers.
The proposed ordinance is set to be introduced Thursday, Block said. It exempts public employee unions and existing private-sector union contracts.
An initial draft was discussed earlier this month at a raucous commission meeting that drew a capacity crowd.
Through the years, right to work has been a hotly contested issue in the state Legislature. Just this year, a Republican-backed effort to make New Mexico the nations 29th state with a right-to-work law failed.
A similar measure won House approval in 2015 but stalled in the Senate.
Pushing right-to-work legislation in Sandoval County is the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a Virginia-based group that is promoting similar legislation around the country.
The national group was founded by and has received funding from billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch. State director Burly Cain said chapter members are native New Mexicans and the effort is boosted by local donors.
Heil said he hopes the proposal would put Sandoval County on a more equal footing with nearby states that have right-to-work laws.
We here in New Mexico are kind of an island of poverty, high unemployment and low pay, Heil said.
Nationally, 28 states have passed some version of right-to-work laws. Among neighboring states, Arizona, Texas, Utah and Oklahoma have right-to-work laws. Colorado does not have a right-to-work law, but employees at most workplaces are not required to join a union or pay dues, even though they enjoy the same compensation and benefits as union members, according to Findlaw.com. Non-union workers there are not covered by other union protections, such as legal representation in employment disputes. And workers there can override right-to-work provisions by becoming an all-union shop.
Block said Sandoval County relies on the Sandoval Economic Alliance development group to attract jobs but is hobbled by lack of a right-to-work law. Not having such a law is a disincentive for companies to locate in Rio Rancho and the surrounding area, he said.
Hendry argued that unions are key to negotiating higher wages.
We dont need more cheap jobs, he said. We need more better-quality jobs that pay taxes and put money into the system.
Opponents point to a federal court ruling in 1990 that blocked the city of Clovis from imposing a right-to-work measure, saying it could only be done at the state or federal level.
Hendry said the current move is a waste of money for Sandoval County because it will take years to litigate, costing taxpayers money in legal fees.
In the meantime, he said, other cases working their way through the court system likely will be decided sooner by the state Supreme Court.
Despite the expense of litigation, Block said he saw the move as an investment toward a better job picture in Sandoval County.
Its worth the fight, Heil said. We want more jobs in New Mexico.
WASHINGTON A key moderate Republican is urging President Donald Trump to support a bipartisan Senate effort to reinstate insurer payments, calling his move to halt the subsidies an immediate threat to millions of Americans who could now face rising premiums and lost health care coverage.
What the president is doing is affecting peoples access and the cost of health care right now, said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who has cast pivotal votes on health care in the narrowly divided Senate. This is not a bailout of the insurers. What this money is used for is to help low-income people afford their deductibles and their co-pays.
Congress needs to step in and I hope that the president will take a look at what were doing, she added.
Her comments Sunday came amid rising attention on the bipartisan bid led by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., to at least temporarily reinstate the payments.
Congressional Republicans are divided over the effort. And White House budget director Mick Mulvaney has suggested that Trump may oppose the agreement unless he gets something in return such as a repeal of former President Barack Obamas health care law or funding of Trumps promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The insurer payments will be stopped beginning this week, with sign-up season for subsidized private insurance set to start Nov. 1.
The president is not going to continue to throw good money after bad, give $7 billion to insurance companies unless something changes about Obamacare that would justify it, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who golfed with Trump Saturday at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.
Its got to be a good deal, Graham said.
In his decision last week, Trump derided the $7 billion in subsidies as bailouts to insurers and indicated he was trying to pressure Democrats into negotiating an Obamacare repeal, a bid that repeatedly crashed in the GOP-run Senate this summer.
The subsidies are designed to lower out-of-pocket costs for insurers, which are required under Obamas law to reduce poorer peoples expenses about 6 million people. To recoup the lost money, carriers are likely to raise 2018 premiums for people buying their own health insurance policies.
Alexander and Murray have been seeking a deal that the Tennessee Republican has said would reinstate the payments for two years. In exchange, Alexander said, Republicans want meaningful flexibility for states to offer lower-cost insurance policies with less coverage than Obamas law mandates.
On Sunday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., described Trumps demand for a sit-down with congressional Democratic leaders as a little far down the road, noting that nothing in Trumps proposals to repeal Obamacare indicates what would replace it. Pelosi pointed to the bipartisan effort in the Senate and said ultimately it will be up to a Republican-controlled Congress and executive branch whether the federal government can avert a shutdown by years end.
The government faces a Dec. 8 deadline on the debt limit and government spending.
Were not about closing down government. The Republicans have the majority, Pelosi said. In terms of the health care, were saying Lets follow what Sens. Murray and Alexander are doing.'
Theyre trying to find common ground, and that should be encouraged, she added.
The scrapping of subsidies would affect millions more consumers in states won by Trump last year, including Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, than in states won by Democrat Hillary Clinton. Nearly 70 percent of the 6 million who benefit from the cost-sharing subsidies are in states that voted for the Republican.
Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio said Sunday his state had anticipated that the insurer payments would be halted, but not so quickly. He called for the payments to be reinstated right away, describing a hit to Ohio a state also won by Trump last November for at least the first two or three months.
Over time, this is going to have a dramatic impact, Kasich said. Who gets hurt? People. And its just outrageous.
Nineteen Democratic state attorneys general have announced plans to sue Trump over the stoppage. Attorneys general from California, Kentucky, Massachusetts and New York were among those saying they will file the lawsuit in federal court in California to stop Trumps attempt to gut the health and well-being of our country.
Collins appeared on ABCs This Week and CNNs State of the Union, Pelosi spoke on ABC, Graham appeared on CBS Face the Nation, and Kasich was on NBCs Meet the Press.
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Follow Hope Yen on Twitter at https://twitter.com/hopeyen1
BARCELONA, Spain Spains confrontation with its independence-seeking region of Catalonia intensified Monday when a judge ordered the leaders of two pro-independence groups jailed while they are investigated on possible sedition charges for organizing demonstrations before the regions disputed secession vote.
The jailing of Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, the heads of grassroots organizations Catalan National Assembly and Omnium Cultural, sparked an immediate outcry in Barcelona, Catalonias capital. People banged on pots and pans, honked car horns and clapped in the streets.
The judges order came nearly 12 hours after a Monday morning deadline passed without the president of Catalonia clarifying whether he has declared independence from Spain.
The Spanish government Catalan President Carles Puigdemont now has until Thursday to backtrack on any steps the region has taken toward secession. If he refuses, the government has said it would invoke constitutional authority to restrict or revoke the areas of self-governance Catalonia has now.
The judge ordered Sanchez and Cuixart jailed while their roles in organizing Sept. 20-21 demonstrations in Barcelona are investigated. Spanish police arrested several Catalan officials and raided offices on those two days to prevent an independence referendum from taking place on Oct. 1.
In Mondays court ruling, the Spanish National Court judge said Sanchez and Cuixart led the demonstrations, ignored some police recommendations for maintaining safety, and helped form a cordon to keep Spanish police from carrying out their duties, among other actions.
If indicted, tried and convicted of sedition, they could face prison terms of up to 15 years.
The actions of Catalonias police chief and a senior deputy during the September demonstrations also are being investigated. However, the judge ruled Monday that police chief Maj. Josep Lluis Trapero and Lt. Teresa Laplana, could remain free with restrictions, including revocation of their passports and orders to appear come back to court every two weeks.
Earlier, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy exchanged letters but made no headway in the solving the regions conflict, one of the deepest political crises the country has faced in the four decades since democracy was restored.
Catalonias government held the Oct. 1 referendum over the Spanish governments insistence the vote was illegal and a court suspending it so its constitutionality could be considered. Those who voted were overwhelmingly in favor of secession, but fewer than half of eligible voters cast ballots.
Based on the referendum results, Puigdemont made an ambiguous declaration of independence last week, but said he would not immediately move to put it into effect to allow time for talks and mediation.
Responding to the Spanish governments demand to state explicitly by Monday morning whether he had declared independence, Puigdemont instead sent a four-page letter seeking two months of negotiations and mediation.
The priority of my government is to intensively seek a path to dialogue, Puigdemont said in his letter. Our proposal for dialogue is sincere and honest.
The conservative prime minister, in a response less than two hours later, lamented that Puigdemont declined to answer the question and said he had until Thursday morning to fall in line.
To extend this situation of uncertainty is only favoring those who are trying to destroy civic concord and impose a radical and impoverishing project in Catalonia, Rajoy wrote in his letter.
Spain has repeatedly said its unwilling to sit down with Puigdemont if calls for independence are on the table. Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Puigdemonts request for dialogue was not credible.
It wasnt very difficult to say yes or no, Saenz de Santamaria told reporters in Madrid. That was the question that was asked, and the response shouldnt be complicated.
After the judges decision in the sedition case, Puigdemont described the jailing of the pro-independence group leaders as very bad news.
They try to imprison ideas but they make stronger the need for freedom he tweeted.
Catalonia is home to 7.5 million people and contributes a fifth of Spains 1.1 trillion-euro ($1.3 trillion) economy. Polls have shown about half of the people in the wealthy region dont want to break away from Spain.
The Spanish government is lowering the countrys economic growth forecast for 2018 from 2.6 to 2.3 percent, blaming the political uncertainty in Catalonia for the slowdown.
The more modest growth target appears in the budget plan that Spains conservative government has submitted to European authorities. It was shared with The Associated Press early Tuesday.
In the plan, Spanish authorities also forecast a public deficit level of 2.3 percent, 0.1 percent higher than earlier estimates. Authorities blame the revisions both on a slower global economic cycle and less consumer spending domestically as a result of the deadlock in Catalonia
___
Giles reported from Madrid.
Associated Press writer Frank Griffiths in London contributed to this report.
BRUSSELS European Union foreign ministers on Monday backed the Iran nuclear agreement, saying the accord is working and is a key part of non-proliferation efforts despite U.S. President Donald Trump withdrawing his support for it.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, whose team has been a key player in drawing up the deal to curtail Irans nuclear ambitions, suggested that domestic U.S. politics was at play in Trumps decision.
Trump decertified the deal Friday, angrily accusing Iran of violating the 2015 international nuclear accord, and directed the U.S. Congress to make it more stringent. But he did not pull the U.S. out or re-impose nuclear sanctions.
The EU is committed to the continued full and effective implementation of all parts of the agreement, the European ministers said in a statement. They noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency has certified eight times that Iran was living up to its commitments. The deal has also been certified twice in the United States since Trump took office.
At a time of acute nuclear threat the EU is determined to preserve the (agreement) as a key pillar of the international non-proliferation architecture, they said, underlining that they saw Trumps move as being in the context of an internal U.S. process.
Mogherini said the ministers understand the politics around it, but she noted that what is of crucial importance for us is that our European security interests are taken into consideration.
The ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, also underlined their hope that the U.S. Congress, which has around two months to decide what action to take, will come to the rescue and safeguard the 104-page agreement, which is part of a U.N. Resolution and has been backed by the U.N. Security Council.
We hope Congress will not call this agreement into question, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters. His Dutch counterpart Bert Koenders said the agreement concerns the safety of the world. I hope also that the U.S. Congress will realize this and take the right decisions.
Belgiums foreign minister, Didier Reynders, said that walking away could compromise any chances of encouraging North Korea to negotiate on its nuclear program.
We must be able to demonstrate that when a nuclear agreement has been concluded that we respect it, Reynders said.
SAN ANTONIO A 38-year-old San Antonio woman has been arrested on charges alleging that she used an aluminum bat to beat two teenage brothers in her home and locked them in a garage.
Authorities say Marissa Monica Cano was arrested Sunday and charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
An arrest affidavit obtained by KSAT-TV says a 15-year-old boy escaped from the house Saturday and went to a fast-food restaurant where police were called.
The teen had severe injuries and Bexar (bayr) County Sheriff Javier Salazar told the station he was emaciated, weighing only about 70 pounds (32 kilograms).
Authorities say the teens parents dont live in the area and theyre often left with Cano.
Cano was no longer being held Monday and its not clear if she has an attorney.
Red-light-emitting quantum dots could soon help greenhouse growers improve crop yields, thanks in part to a new $350,000 investment in Los Alamos-based startup Ubiquitous Quantum Dots.
UbiQD announced the investment today from Breakout Labs, a San Francisco-based fund set up by the the Thiel Foundation to provide early-stage financing to companies taking new, hard-science-based technologies to market. Its the first funding commitment by Breakout Labs for a New Mexico company.
Research development from scientists-turned-entrepreneurs is often under-supported when it comes to commercialization, said Breakout Labs Executive Director Lindy Fishburne. We want to help fill this void by providing companies like UbiQD with funding and business support.
UbiQD will use the money to equip some greenhouses in New Mexico and possibly neighboring states with red-light-emitting quantum dots as pilot projects to demonstrate their ability to improve crop growth, said UbiQD founder and CEO Hunter McDaniel. It also will pay for needed equipment, manufacturing, and continued product development of things like quantum-dot-coated windows for solar electric generation.
Were signing up greenhouse pilot projects now, McDaniel said. Well use Breakout Labs money to scale up in-house manufacturing to supply those pilots.
UbiQD launched in 2014 to fully develop and market a proprietary process for manufacturing quantum dots with technology licensed from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Quantum dots are tiny, three-dimensional structures measuring about 10,000 times smaller than a human hair. The structures manipulate light in unique ways, absorbing it and emitting it back out in different colors. Theyre used in everything from transistors and sunscreen to LCD televisions, tablets and smart phones. But traditionally, theyve been extremely expensive to make, and theyre usually composed of toxic materials.
UbiQDs process, however, uses low-cost and low-toxic materials, substantially cutting the price and broadening potential application of quantum dots in new products like electricity-generating coatings for windows to power homes and buildings. The company won a $225,000 National Science Foundation grant last year to continue developing that technology.
While exploring window coatings for greenhouse generation, UbiQD began to also consider helping growers improve crop yield, since quantum dots can be structured to specifically emit red light.
Plants absorb certain colors more efficiently, and that tends to be red, so we can coat greenhouses with red dots, McDaniel said. We already compiled data that supports its ability to improve crop growth.
Thats now become UbiQDs first target market while it continues to develop more products like solar generation for homes and buildings.
The company recently received a $325,000 interest-free loan from Los Alamos County to buy and remodel a 9,000-square-foot facility it was leasing in Los Alamos, where it employs 10 people.
Alaska Airlines is adding a flight from Albuquerque to San Diego and a second daily non-stop flight to Seattle, according to a news release from the city.
The San Diego flight leaves the Sunport daily at 1:30 p.m., arriving in San Diego at 2:30 p.m.; a return flight leaves San Diego at 4:37 p.m. and arrives in Albuquerque at 7:19 p.m.
The new Seattle flight leaves Albuquerque at 7:59 p.m. and arrives in Seattle at 10:11 p.m.; a return flight leaves Seattle at 9:35 a.m. and arrives in Albuquerque at 1:50 p.m.
The new routes begin Wednesday.
Alaska Airlines is thrilled to add San Diego to our growing list of non-stop destinations from Albuquerque, John Kirby, Alaskas vice president of capacity planning, said in the news release.
The new San Diego and Seattle flights will be operated by Horizon Air 76-seat Embraer 175 jets, according to the news release.
Alaska started service between Albuquerque and Seattle in 2014 and now has six daily flights including Portland, Ore.; Orange County, Calif. and soon San Diego.
New Mexico State Universitys Arrowhead Center has received a two-year, $350,000 grant to support entrepreneurship education from the Colorado-based Daniels Fund.
The funding will help expand the reach of Arrowhead Centers education and training programs, according to a news release from NMSU.
For example, Arrowheads Innoventure educational program grade school students will get new modules on financial literacy and ethics and its Innoventure Jr. K-5 program will expand from 35 schools to 140.
Studio G, Arrowheads student and alumni business accelerator, will support additional student business incubators at colleges throughout New Mexico, according to the release.
CROWNPOINT The New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division will now accept a Certificate of Indian Blood and an affidavit of birth issued by the Navajo Nation Office of Vital Records in lieu of a birth certificate when obtaining a drivers license, identification card or driving authorization card.
The announcement was made by tribal and state officials at a town hall meeting Friday at Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint.
Another change is that the motor vehicle division will accept utility bills that include physical location of residences, such as those sent by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, officials said.
The changes were the result of consultation between the two governments to address issues tribal members had in complying with regulations set by the Real ID Act.
New Mexico started issuing drivers licenses and identification cards in November 2016 that comply with the federal Real ID Act of 2005 in addition to issuing noncompliant driving authorization cards.
Speaker LoRenzo Bates said council delegates started meeting with Motor Vehicle Division officials to address drivers license and identification card issues.
The opportunity also helped the tribe in sharing information with the state about the tribes vital records office, which issues the Certificate of Indian Blood and affidavits of birth.
Weve made a huge accomplishment as a result of sitting down, discussing and exchanging information, Bates said.
The purpose of the town hall meeting was to share information about the Real ID Act and provide an opportunity for tribal members to share their concerns.
Jerry Valdez, deputy director for the Motor Vehicle Division, said complying with the Real ID Act is a statewide issue, including questions about required documentation and addressing name changes.
A drivers license now goes beyond authorizing a person to operate a vehicle due to the Real ID Act, he said, with a license now a requirement to enter federal buildings or to pick up a prescription at a pharmacy.
Its everything. Your credential is who you are, Valdez said.
By PTI: By Lalit K Jha
Washington, Oct 16 (PTI) President Donald Trump will travel to Japan, South Korea, China, and east Asian nations next month to underscore his commitment to longstanding American alliances and partnerships, the White House said today.
The November 3-14 tour would be Trumps maiden trip to the region as president.
"The presidents travel will underscore his commitment to longstanding United States alliances and partnerships, and reaffirm United States leadership in promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific region," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.
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Leaving White House on November 3 and with a stopover in Hawaii, Trump will commence his visit to Asia beginning with Japan on November 5.
While in Japan, Trump will meet with American and Japanese service members, and participate in bilateral meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who will also host him for a meeting with the families of Japanese citizens abducted by the North Korean regime, Sanders said.
During his visit to South Korea on November 7, Trump will participate in a bilateral meeting with President Moon Jae-in and visit American and South Korean service members.
He will speak at the National Assembly, where he will celebrate the enduring alliance and friendship between the US and the Republic of Korea, and call on the international community to join together in maximising pressure on North Korea.
"On November 8, President Trump will arrive in Beijing, China for a series of bilateral, commercial, and cultural events, including meetings with President Xi Jinping," Sanders said, adding that Trump will then travel to Danang, Vietnam, on November 10.
There, he will participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting and deliver a speech at the APEC CEO Summit.
"In the speech, the president will present the United States vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region and underscore the important role the region plays in advancing Americas economic prosperity," Sanders said.
On November 11, Trump will travel to Hanoi, for an official visit and bilateral engagements with President Tran Dai Quang and other senior Vietnamese leaders.
Trump will arrive in Manila, on November 12 to participate in the Special Gala Celebration Dinner for the 50th Anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
On November 13, the US president will celebrate the 40th anniversary of US-ASEAN relations at the US-ASEAN Summit and participate in bilateral meetings with President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines and other leaders, said the presidential spokesperson. PTI LKJ KUN
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NEWPORT, R.I. The owner of a tall ship that crashed into four other boats after a seafood festival is blaming the crash on a dock line that became entangled on its two propellers.
The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry crashed Sunday in Newport Harbor. No one was injured.
On Monday, the 200-foot (61-meter), three-mast ship was still blocking a channel into the Newport Yacht Club, preventing a cruise ship from disembarking passengers. The vessel was moved back to its permanent berth with the help of two tugboats later that afternoon. It is now safely docked in its berth at Fort Adams State Park in Newport.
The ship is operated by Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island, a nonprofit that runs educational programs. The group said Monday the engine lost power after its propellers became entangled but did not run aground. The Coast Guard had said shortly after the crash that the ship had grounded.
Jessica Wurzbacher, the groups executive director, said the ship was leaving its berth at the seafood festival to cross the harbor to its permanent berth at Fort Adams. The propellers then became entangled in one of the ships own dock lines off the edge a dock, she said.
The crew dropped two anchors and tied the ship with lines to rope it into place, and while they were doing that it struck four boats, Wurzbacher said.
She said she did not believe the hull was damaged. They were working Monday to untangle the propellers and check them for damage so they can move the ship.
Alex Keller, yacht manager and captain of the 60-foot (18-meter) small yacht Jessica, said his ship was pinned against a dock and used as a fender by the tall ship. The smaller vessel was finally freed Monday morning and needs to be checked at a shipyard to see whether there is structural damage, he said.
He said that he was surprised the captain of the tall ship was trying to operate it in winds that were blowing at 25 knots and that he would not have done it himself unless it was an emergency.
Wurzbacher said it is a 500-ton (454-metric ton) vessel that regularly operates in windy conditions and the captain determined it was safe.
I dont think the weather affected the incident, she said.
The captain of the Trade Wind, Darius Dupey, was on the small wooden yacht when it was struck by the Oliver Hazard Perry. In cellphone video of the accident, Dupey tells the Oliver Hazard Perry crew to go forward, then yells Oh, my God! and Whoa as the tall ship gets closer and wood crunches on impact.
He said they wont know the full extent of the damage until the yacht is hauled out of the water and inspected.
The tall ship is named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, a hero in the War of 1812, whos remembered for his command: Dont give up the ship.
It was built of steel at a cost of $16 million and in 2016 became the first ocean-going, full-rigged ship to be built in the U.S. in more than 100 years. Its main mast is 13 1/2 stories high. It is the largest civilian sail training vessel, accommodating 49 people overnight, and serves as Rhode Islands official sailing education vessel.
SAN ANTONIO The driver of a semitrailer packed with at least 39 immigrants, 10 of whom died, pleaded guilty Monday to making the deadly smuggling run.
James Matthew Bradley Jr., 61, pleaded Monday in federal court in San Antonio to one conspiracy count and a count of transporting the immigrants resulting in death. He faces up to life imprisonment when hes sentenced on Jan. 22.
The Clearwater, Florida, man could have faced the death penalty had he gone to trial.
Authorities say at least 39 immigrants, most of them Mexicans, were packed into the sweltering trailer found by San Antonio police last July in a Walmart parking lot, although court records show that surviving immigrants estimated that between 70 and 180 to 200 people were carried in the trailer during the transport. The trucks refrigeration system wasnt working, and investigators say passengers had difficulty breathing as temperatures climbed.
Temperatures in San Antonio topped at 101 degrees that day.
A co-defendant, Pedro Silva Segura, 47, still faces two conspiracy counts, including one of conspiracy to transport and harbor undocumented immigrants for financial gain resulting in death. The Laredo, Texas, man also is charged with two counts of transporting undocumented immigrants resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy. He remains in custody in Laredo without bond awaiting transfer to San Antonio. No trial date has been set.
Todays admission of guilt by Mr. Bradley helps to close the door on one of the conspirators responsible for causing the tragic loss of life and wreaking havoc on those who survived this horrific incident, said Shane Folden, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in San Antonio.
Bradley initially had denied knowing anyone was inside the trailer, telling investigators that the trailer had been sold and he was transporting it for his boss from Iowa to Brownsville, Texas. But he said he had driven to Laredo, Texas, and stopped twice there before driving back to San Antonio, in the opposite direction from Brownsville.
LONDON, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Global Yacht Charter Market: Overview
Yachts are motor-driven or sail-driven vessels that are used for primarily for recreational purposes. Yachts available for chartering can be privately owned or can be owned by the companies that lend yachts for chartering. Generally, yachts are big enough to contain a cabin. They can be multihulled or monohulled vessels. Yacht charter is basically renting a yacht for recreation. Yacht owners usually charter their yachts when these are not being used by them.
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There is a basic difference between a boat and a yacht, the length and expense of the vessels. However, the primary difference is that a boat is essentially a watercraft used for residential, commercial, or recreational purposes whereas a yacht is only associated with recreation and luxury.
This report on the global yacht charter market highpoints the present scenario of the market coupled with expected growth of the global yacht charter market during the forecast period. Various social, political, technological and economic factors have been analyzed which are likely to impact the demand of yacht charter in the coming years.
An exhaustive study of the market dynamics i.e. global market drivers, restraints and opportunities has been included under the purview of the report.
Global Yacht Charter Market: Segmentation
The global yacht charter market has been segmented on the basis of yacht type into sailing yachts, motor yachts and catamarans yachts. These types are further divided into classic yachts, open yachts and others. Sailing yacht accounted for a maximum share in the global yacht charter market.
However, motor yachts are likely to grow at a significant pace owing to many reasons including high occupancy space, ease of use, and availability. On the other hand, open yachts are likely to increase their market share in the coming years.
Global Yacht Charter Market: Drivers and Trends
Travelling has become one of the key trends in the recent times. Consumers looking for holidaying nowadays choose their destinations very wisely. As the number of destinations for yacht chartering is increasing at a steady pace, so is the demand for yacht chartering. As consumer preference towards yacht chartering is rising, there is an increasing popularity of charter destinations especially among the young population.
Moreover, the growing inclination of corporate consumers for yacht chartering is also on the rise. As businesses and corporate houses look for destinations that are serene and peaceful, yet happening, therefore, they prefer yacht chartering for spending their vacations.
Additionally, owing to a shift in lifestyle, sailing destinations have also been observed to break off from the traditional Caribbean and Mediterranean waters to less familiar destinations of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Antarctic. Thus, growing inclination of consumers to explore new destinations and rising number of destinations globally is likely to consequently increase the number of yachts available for charter, thereby boosting the overall yacht charter market.
Global Yacht Charter Market: Competitive Analysis
Additionally, the key players that are operating the yacht charter market have been thoroughly profiled and the competitive landscape is comprehensive of these companies' recent developments associated to yacht charters and the divergent business strategies followed by them. To analyze their market positioning further, SWOT analysis for each of the players has been provided. Furthermore, the report includes market attractiveness analysis of the segmentation, by yacht size, for offering a deep insight into the major yacht size that is governing the global yacht charter market.
Some of the major players operating in the global yacht charter market include Yachtico, Inc. (U.S.), Zizooboats GmbH (Germany), Boat International Media Ltd.(U.K.) and Charterworld Limited (U.K.). Other players operating in the global market are Burgess (U.K.), Incrediblue Limited (U.K.), Boatbound Inc. (U.S.), Martello Yachting and Company (China), Northrop & Johnson (U.S.), Fairline Yachts Ltd. (U.K.), SuperYacht Logistics (Japan), Fraser Yachts (U.S.) and West Coast Marine Yacht Services Pvt. Ltd. (India) among others.
The global yacht charter market has been segmented into:
Yacht Charter Market, by Yacht Type
Sailing Yachts
Classic Yachts
Open Yachts
Others
Motor Yachts
Classic Yachts
Open Yachts
Others
Catamaran Yachts
Classic Yachts
Open Yachts
Others
Yacht Charter Market, by Yacht Size
Small
Medium
Large
Yacht Charter Market, by Consumer Type
Corporate
Retail
Others
Yacht Charter Market, by Geography: The market is broadly segmented on the basis of geography into:
North America
U.S.
Rest of North America
Europe
U.K.
Croatia
Greece
France
Spain
Rest of Europe
Asia Pacific
China
Japan
Thailand
Malaysia
Australia
Rest of Asia Pacific
Middle East and Africa
Qatar
Dubai
Oman
Africa
Rest of Middle East and Africa
Latin America
Brazil
Rest of Latin America
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Google has done some interesting things with Google Photos over the past few years. With things like shared albums, allowing you to share an album with others and have them add to that album as well, of course theres Auto-Awesome, which is a holdover from Google+ Photos. But now the team has done something great for those that are pet owners and/or pet lovers. Google Photos can now identify your pets as if they were people. And you can even give them names as well, so if you have multiple pets, you can see all of your pictures of those pets right there in Google Photos.
Now, when you go into the search section of things in Google Photos, you will see People & Pets instead of just People. There you can select a person to search for, or a pet. Youll see all of the people and pets in your library, which is a neat thing for Google Photos to do here. Now this is all being done with an update to the Google Photos app, however Google did not mention whether it would be an actual app update or a server-side change, but most people are figuring itll be an app update also, Google hasnt pushed one out in quite some time. So its about time for a Google Photos app update.
This is all part of Google making sure that its Photos solution can meet all of your needs. Google wants users to keep all of their photos within Photos, many may wonder why? Well it keeps you in the Google ecosystem, and likely to use other Google products which is their whole reason for offering other products. Google also collects data from your photos, however it does not share your photos with others, or even other teams within Google. It collects parts of the photo to offer better services and improve its AI algorithm to offer things like pet searching that it has announced today. So while it does sound a bit creepy, it actually helps to provide some rather interesting and useful features for Google Photos users.
The always-on music recognition service Now Playing supported by the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL uses a technology called AmbientSense to work in a maximally power-efficient manner, as suggested by a number of system apps pre-installed on Googles new Android flagships. AmbientSense was detailed by a number of European scientists and engineers in 2013 as part of a research paper describing an experimental service for smartphones capable of identifying musical patterns with and without an internet connection. The former was referred to as the apps server mode, whereas the latter scenario denoted it working in an autonomous mode, the very same one that appears to be supported by the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, both of which are capable of identifying songs without being connected to the World Wide Web.
The authors of the research were able to compile the service as a standard APK file and tested them on a number of now-obsolete devices like the Nexus One and Samsung Galaxy SII which were able to run it for over 12 and 13 hours, respectively. With the first Nexus device having a battery of 1,400mAh and Samsungs 2011 offering coming with a 1,650mAh cell, AmbientSense proved to be an extremely power-efficient solution, its creators concluded. The technology which was apparently further refined by Google now relies on a 53MB database called LevelDB for identifying songs without an internet connection, then writes its findings directly to the Ambient Display of Googles 2017 flagships. As the database is part of regular system files found on the devices, it can be expanded with a standard over-the-air (OTA) update, though its still unclear how many songs the Pixel 2-series smartphones are capable of recognizing offline.
The Now Playing feature is advertised as one of the unique capabilities of Googles latest offerings and may be portable to the original Pixel and Nexus devices, as well as third-party handsets. The service constantly listens to the sounds in your surroundings and analyzes anything it recognizes as a song, then puts its basic information on the always-on display of your Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL. Google has yet to go into many details on how the functionality works and its still unclear how the company ended up with a license to use AmbientSense given how none of its six creators appear to have a direct connection to the Mountain View, California-based tech giant.
The Chinese division of Motorola Mobility debuted a new smartphone in the form of the Moto Green Pomelo, a compact device meant to compete in the mid-range market segment, sporting a price tag of 1,599 yuan, which translates to just over $240 by todays currency exchange rates. The Moto Green Pomelo is equipped with a 5.2-inch LCD panel boasting a Full HD resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels amounting to a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9. The handset is powered by the Snapdragon 430, Qualcomms mid-range SoC equipped with the Adreno 505 GPU and a quad-core CPU clocked at a maximum operating frequency of 1.4GHz. Its silicon is backed by 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal flash memory which can be expanded via a dedicated microSD card slot by up to 128GB. The Moto Green Pomelo also comes with two Nano SIM card trays and is compatible with contemporary 4G LTE networks, as well as Bluetooth 4.2.
Motorolas new offering is characterized by a somewhat conventional design, featuring regularly sized bezels, rounded corners, and a convex rear plate meant to make the device easier and more comfortable to hold. Its name appears to be a reference to a pomelo logo found near the bottom of its back panel. The smartphones bottom bezel features a physical Home button which also doubles as a fingerprint reader, with its top one accommodating a 16-megapixel camera with a pixel size of 1.0m mounted behind a lens featuring an f/2.0 aperture and being accompanied by a regular LED flash. The rear camera setup of the Moto Green Pomelo is largely identical, except that it also comes with autofocus support. The Android mid-ranger is 150 x 73.4 x 8.24mm in size and weighs 157g, being designed to have a small physical footprint.
A 3,000mAh battery is also part of the package and while it isnt removable, it ships with support for 15W Turbo Fast Charging, according to the Lenovo-owned original equipment manufacturer. The Moto Green Pomelo runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box with ZUI 3.1 on top of it, suggesting that this particular model will never make its way outside of the Far Eastern country, the only market where ZUI is a somewhat popular choice among consumers. Motorolas new smartphone is offered in Cool Black and Rose Gold color options and can be purchased directly from the phone maker.
Researchers at Ohio State Universitys ElectroScience Laboratory led by Assistant Professor Nima Ghalichechian are developing a new type of a cellular antenna, as close to being suspended in the air with no support as possible, in the hopes of providing a significant signal boost for future 5G deployments. The antenna design hopes to use new 3D printing technologies and Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems to create a substrate that can safely hold an antenna up while interfering with the signal in a manner far less significant than seen in some past iterations of the technology. Using that tech, Ghalichechian and his team hope to mount up a high-gain antenna with a special lens that can beam millimeter wave spectrum further and faster than ever before.
The antenna design has yet to be tested in the field, but Ghalichechian has stated that the goal is to create one capable of transmitting data at 50 times higher frequency than traditional antennas which use a silicon substrate that causes severe signal loss because it partially blocks the actual antenna. The compact design is being built out with the goal of an 85 percent or higher efficiency, meaning that the substrate must hold the antenna securely in place and the lens must properly direct the antennas waves, all while keeping at least 85 percent of the original signal strength and speed. Essentially, the antenna must practically levitate, held in place with only a very small portion covered by the substrate, and the lens must be able to direct and amplify waves without reducing their speed and power.
This technology, should Ohio State University perfect and release it, could spark a connectivity revolution. With such efficiency and stability in a millimeter wave setup, there would be little reason to fall back on a traditional wired network. This means that fixed wireless points, smartphones, and other direct-connection devices, and even home and business connections could all run off of 5G networks with absolutely no installation work beyond the fabrication and installation of the transmitting antennae somewhere nearby. Naturally, this opens the way for 5G-driven self-driving cars, massive citywide IoT deployments, and other technological leaps that all depend on a speedier and more stable internet connection than todays industries can provide.
The AIADMK faction led by TTV Dhinakaran claims that the affidavits submitted by the other half of AIADMK are fake and requested that the EC freeze the party symbol permanently.
By Shalini Lobo: TTV Dhinakaran's faction of AIADMK today requested the Election Commission to freeze the coveted two leaf symbol permanently. This was the second hearing of the AIADMK party symbol. The next hearing will be held on October 23.
Former law minister Ashwini Kumar advocated the case for TTV Dhinakaran and Sasikala.
He also raised claims that many affidavits submitted by the EPS-OPS council are forged.
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"We asked the EC to cross examine all the affidavits that have been filed by the EPS-OPS camp and we believe many of them are forged," said Ashiwini Kumar while addressing the media.
The EC however rejected the request to cross examine all the affidavits and stated that only written objections before the EC will be allowed.
However, advocate Vaidyanathan arguing the case on behalf of OPS refuted the charges stating that the Dhinakaran faction should have filed an FIR if they had noticed forgery.
"The TTV faction is doing this solely to buy time and nothing else. We are the majority. They came here with a few MPs and MLAs, which is the strength of their party. We have filed 1877 affidavits from the general council alone. We are confident of winning the symbol," said V. Maitreyen an AIADMK MP.
The next hearing in the case is on October 23 at 3 PM. The Madras High Court has given the EC time till November 10 to decide on the two leaf symbol case.
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Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) will approve AT&Ts proposed acquisition of Time Warner on Wednesday, local media outlet Valor Economico reported earlier today. The antitrust watchdog investigated the merger over the summer, seeking to determine whether the deal would contain elements of monopolistic behavior because AT&T already holds a majority stake in Sky Brasil which it acquired as part of its 2015 purchase of DirecTV for $48.5 billion. As the Brazilian Sky network and Time Warner both hold a significant share of the local market, Cade was investigating the legality of demanding AT&T to sell the majority or entirety of its 93 percent stake in the media company before taking over another, even larger entity.
The agency now reportedly decided against such a course of action and wont try to force the second largest mobile service provider in the United States to make significant divestitures before completing its purchase of the media conglomerate. Cade is still expected to seek significant concessions on AT&Ts part but none of its requirements will necessary warrant the sale of the pay-TV service thats presently the second biggest in Brazil in terms of subscribers and is only behind an America Movil-owned duo entailing Net and Claro TV, according to most industry trackers. If Cade is to truly go through with greenlighting the deal on Wednesday, such a turn of events would bring AT&T closer to concluding its lobbying efforts to get the merger approved in Latin America, with the wireless carrier previously acquiring the necessary approvals in Mexico and Chile which it also had to obtain due to its stakes in local Sky units.
The Dallas, Texas-based telecom giant recently said its hoping to have its proposed consolidation approved by all competent government agencies by the end of the year, with some industry watchers speculating the transaction will mark the beginning of a major wave of mergers in the U.S. wireless sector, with Sprint and T-Mobile being just the first of several companies that are expected to propose a tie-up in the near future. The U.S. Department of Justice has yet to officially clear the deal, though its review of the matter is reportedly in its final stages, according to recent reports.
By PTI: By Shirish B Pradhan
Kathmandu, Oct 16 (PTI) The US has provided Nepal a financial assistance of USD 100,000 for the restoration of a 16th century Hindu temple which was badly damaged in the 2015 earthquake that jolted the Himalayan nation.
The US Embassy in Nepal, through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP), provided the amount to the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT) for the restoration of the historic Char Narayan temple.
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"Built in 1566, the temple demonstrates a significant and highly-developed expression of Newari architecture," according to a statement issued by the embassy.
"Our work through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation serves as a symbol of the strong, vibrant partnership between our nations, as well as our respect for Nepals diverse and rich heritage," said Ambassador Teplitz.
Teplitz and Director General of the Department of Archaeology Bhesh Narayan Dahal jointly inaugurated the restoration of the temple a ceremony in Patan Durbar Square in the capital Kathmandu.
"As we celebrate the 70th year of diplomatic relations between our two countries, I am pleased to inaugurate the restoration work on Char Narayan as a tangible symbol of our mutual friendship," Teplitz said.
Combined with other donors, the funding will support the seismic strengthening and restoration of the Malla-era temple belonging to Lord Vishnu.
The restoration work is expected to be completed within two years.
Nepal was hit by a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake in April 2015 that left nearly 9,000 people dead and as many as 22,000 injured.
According to a UN report, more than 3,00,000 houses were damaged in the earthquake. PTI SBP MRJ
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The biggest global names in the alternative legal services market have been named by research firm Acritas.In its inaugural survey of senior in-house counsel regarding the law brands, excluding law firms, that first come to mind and are most favoured, the firm has identified the strongest brands in the fast-growing alternative legal market.Topping the list is Thomson Reuters which was the most favoured brand although not the most recognised. That accolade went to second-ranked PwC Legal , with EY and Deloitte taking the next two places and Axiom completing the top 5.Thomson Reuters investment in technology is coming through strongly as the underlying reason why senior in-house counsel are attracted to their offer. Their products and services are enabling legal departments to innovate and drive efficiency in how they organize and conduct their legal work, explained Acritas CEO Lisa Hart Shepherd.KPMG is in sixth place, completing the appearance of the Big Four accountancy brands in the index.The Big 4 are managing to leverage their vast and sophisticated global relationships to fulfil legal and associated advisory work in one holistic solution. Their sophisticated global brands provide an expectation of quality which creates a powerful platform from which to deliver rapid growth and innovation in the legal services space, added Hart Shepherd. LexisNexis , LOD (Lawyers on Demand), management consultants Wolters Kluwer and legal software firm CPA Global all make the top 10.Three law firms have advised the partners in a consortium on the acquisition of around $1.3 billion worth of shares in Philippines-based energy firm EDC.The consortium includes Macquaries Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) division, and Arran Investment Pte. Ltd. and the deal involved around 31.7% of the voting shares in the Energy Development Corporation. Hogan Lovells advised the consortium while King & Wood Mallesons separately advised MIRA while Allen & Gledhill were advisers to Arran.Its the largest ever voluntary tender offer in the power sector in Asia and the largest single foreign direct investment into the Philippines under the administration of President Duterte.The Hogan Lovells team was led by corporate finance partner Mark Cooper in Singapore and included lawyers in Hong Kong, Beijing, Amsterdam, London and Washington D.C.Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram have been served with cease and desist notices claiming infringement of patent from its use of two popular features of its services.The Facebook Frames and Instagram Geostickers geolocation features infringes on a patent for iFramed technology granted to Miami firm UnitedCorp by the US Patent Trademark Office on 3rd October 2017.A Canadian patent was granted to UnitedCorp in 2016 and there are patents pending in several jurisdictions including Australia and China.Snapchat parent Snap Inc. has also been served with a cease and desist notice over its use of Geofilters."Both Facebook and Instagram take intellectual property seriously and provide their users with tools and recourses to protect what they own ," stated Benoit Laliberte, UnitedCorp's President. "Now that they are aware of the iFramed patent, we hope that they will act just as responsibly. Going forward we will give them every opportunity to be able to use the technology legally."Facebook, Instagram and Snap have yet to comment.
According to TMZ , the crash happened as a car cut Gerard off while riding his bike around LA. He was immediately taken to the nearest hospital and treated. Luckily, he only suffered minor injuries, mainly cuts and bruises.This means that Butler will be able to continue to promote his upcoming film Geostorm, which is set to be released in cinemas this Friday.The story sees the actor starring as the architect behind an elaborate natural disaster defense system made up of several climate-controlling satellites around Earth, centered around the International Climate Space Station.A malfunction in the system generates an incredibly big storm down on Earth and scientists have to team up and work against the clock to save humanity.Gerard Butler is known for his love of motorcycles and can often be seen riding various models on the streets of LA. These include an oldschool BMW, a Harley-Davison chopper, as well as a custom Triumph He likes danger, and he also has a history of other hospitalizations. Last year, he could barely walk after being injured while filming for the action sequel London Has Fallen. On the set of 2013, he broke some bones in his neck shooting the Olympus Has Fallen movie, and he was also trapped underwater during the Chasing Mavericks surfing drama.Although having played several other roles at the beginning of his career, Gerard Butler became famous ofter portraying King Leonidas in Zack Snyders fantasy war film 300. The role earned him nominations for an Empire Award for Best Actor and a Saturn Award for Best Actor, while also winning the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight.In 2018, he will also be starring in Hunter Killer and Den of Thieves.
A post shared by Laura Thornton (@lauraannethornton) on Oct 12, 2017 at 7:05am PDT
A post shared by Laura Thornton (@lauraannethornton) on Oct 15, 2017 at 1:57am PDT
A post shared by Laura Thornton (@lauraannethornton) on Oct 7, 2017 at 1:12am PDT
The British saleswoman, who works for a British dealer, describes herself as a "wannabe racing driver and overall motor woman". Meanwhile, Laura is happy to give us the Weissach Package-wielding Rennsport Neunelfer we have here.We've added a few photos from her Instagram account below, with the sales executive having also taken the time to talk about the supercar."Some points on the GT2 RS... in my opinion the red roof lining/interior is a must for that extra special feel from within the driver's seat. I also just wanted to comment on how comfortable the full bucket seats are, not sure what theyve done differently but they are so comfy. Im a fan of the gold wheels too... theyve definitely picked the best spec for the launch cars, but I am also keen to see something different!" Laura said.Speaking of unusual 911 GT2 RS configurations, we have a few examples for you. For instance, here's one that caused a stir online for not packing those bucket seats.Then we have this model, which comes dressed in Miami Blue , the kind of hue that could make a base Carrera shine like a supercar.As for those of you who are curious about the Panda GT2 RS , you can find the machine here.So, even though we're talking about the current holder of the Nurburgring production car lap record (the 911 lapped the track in 6:47.3, remember ?), the proper sales attitude can make a difference. Make sure to use the slide feature of the posts below for the complete experience.
The Swedish brand has made a name for itself based on two things: reliability and safety . They weren't the most beautiful cars to look at (even though some people enjoyed their boxy, no-frills design) and they didn't offer the same level of luxury as their German counterparts, but one thing you could be sure of was that you'd be feeling safe in your Volvo Apparently, somebody took those words a little too literally and turned a Volvo V70 from the 2000s into something that bears some resemblance to a tank. It won't fool anyone into wasting an armor piercing round on it, but it sends the message across.What message, you ask? Well, we'd sure like to know that ourselves since there is no backstory here. WE can only imagine the vehicle was made for promotional purposes. Given it has British license plates, the Union Jack on one of its sides, and two very visible "CarDealer" stickers, we tried accessing that website and, guess what, it's opening this month.That still doesn't explain why chose a tank to advertise a website that will most likely sell cars, nor does it shed any light on what it was doing in the very neutral Switzerland, where these images were snapped.As for the conversion itself, let's just say it's more funny than anything else. We particularly like the wholes left in the "spaced armor" through which one can reach the door handles, but the cherry on top (somewhat literally) has to be the roof box turned turret. The protective mesh over the rear side window is also totally unnecessary.Our biggest regret is that we don't get to see this thing's front end as well. However, we can totally understand those who took the pictures: we wouldn't want to be sitting in front of a gun that could possibly shoot socks, underwear, or whatever it is that people keep in their roof boxes these days.UPDATE:The car has just shown up on eBay , and it turns out it's being auctioned for a charity. The bid currently stands at 1,500 British pounds (roughly $2,000), so do the right thing and bid on it. Below you can find the entire text description.This Volvo has been converted for a charity run for the best 5 driving roads in the Alps, it is a powerful car that has just faultlessly covered 3000 Miles averaging over 30 mpg, it was the winning car out of 40 other cars in the Bangers for Ben 2017 charity run. ALL PROCEDES WILL GO TO THE BEN CHARITY, a secure well made conversion, with a pop up tank commander that can wave, ideal promo car, or wedding car . Drives exstreamly well with everything working, please contact for more details and pics if needed. You are bidding to buy. There is no buy now price. As it is a unique car. And we want to raise as much money for our charity. Happy bidding, please view if required
A Minnesota man is facing attempted murder charges after a Cessna Skywagon that overflew his property took a gunshot in the fuselage. The Pioneer Press reported the criminal complaint against Chad Lynndell Olson, 51, of Fertile in northwest Minnesota, which alleges the shot that hit the Skywagon on Oct. 7 was the latest in a series of shooting incidents by the man who told a witness he believed the aircraft flying over his home to the nearby airport are engaged in terrorism. The witness said he had seen Olson shoot at four planes and the accused told him hed fired his 30-06 rifle at three others earlier this year.
In the Oct. 7 incident, the unidentified pilot told police he heard an unusual twang as he approached the Fertile Airport and discovered a bullet hole while washing the plane the next day. He told authorities the bullet came close to cables and pulleys and the damage will cost about $20,000 to fix. Olson appeared in court on Friday charged with second-degree attempted murder, one count of second-degree assault and two counts of criminal damage to property, and could face more than 20 years in prison.
American Airlines is taking their turn in the hot seat over an incident last week where a pilot intervened to have a passenger removed. Prior to boarding her flight from Miami to New York, Tamika Mallory had a disagreement with the gate agent over whether she was to be seated in a middle or aisle seat, but thought the dispute was behind her as she walked down the jetway with her boarding pass in hand. Mallory says she was stopped by the pilot who reprimanded her over a conversation with the gate agent. Then he said to me, Can you get on this flight? Are you going to be a problem on this flight? I said No, Im not. Actually, Im fine. But I will write my complaint down. He looked at me and said, Youre going to get yourself a one-way ticket off this plane.'
After taking her seat, Mallorys name was called and she was asked to come up to the front of the aircraft where the captain identified her, and she was removed from the flight along with a person travelling with her. Mallory says she has been told by airline representatives that the pilot mishandled the matter: He had no business getting involved in a seat dispute, said Mallory on Twitter. American Airlines has not been forthcoming with an apology or alternative course of events. Although lacking video, Mallorys ejection from the flight has been getting media attention in part because she is a well-known gun control and civil rights activist.
If I were an airplane salesman, I would starve to death. Airplanes that I think have no prayer of selling fly out of the factory almost faster than they can be produced. One of these was Diamonds DA42, which I thought was a long shot. The DA62, one of the best GA airplanes ever, in my view, is also selling briskly, despite a price point well north of $1 million.
On the other hand, considering the price of new airplanes, I thought that with retrofit avionics matching the capability of new stuff, refurbing or remanufacturing older airplanes to new standards would be a cant-miss industry. Well, not exactly. Several remanufacture projects are established with varying degrees of success, but theres nothing like the volume I figured would materialize.
The latest of these projects is from Premier Aircraft, a well-known brokerage and mod house in Fort Lauderdale. Theyre doing a spinner-to-tail remanufacture of the Piper Dakota and I flew the first one on Friday. Ill have a full video report on it in a few days. The Premier Edition Dakota is exactly what youd expect it to be. Its an older airframe stripped to bare metal, painted, fixed and tarted up with the latest in avionics, plus a new leather interior, so it smells new. It doesnt have Garmins G1000 NXi, but the G500 Premier offers functionally similar capability. Prices of this vary with avionics and options selected, but range between $259,000 and $329,000. Premiers Barry Rutheiser told me Friday that the company has gotten a lot of nibbles on this project.
The Dakota is an interesting choice. When Piper launched it, it replaced the 180-HP four-cylinder Lycoming in the Cherokee with a six-cylinder O-540, boosting the power from 180 to 235 HP. The result is 1100 to 1200 pounds of useful and a cruise speed of up to 140 knots. For owners who want to haul a lot of stuff and want a low wing to do it, the Dakota is a perfect fit. Its also a niche. Piper built some 32,000 Cherokees of various types, but fewer than 3000 are the PA-28-235/236 that constitute the six-cylinder line.
So far, other remanufacture products havent hit impressive strides. Premier did a Skyhawk with the Continental diesel conversion and found little traction. Redbird did better with its Redhawk conversion, the same basic idea, but they now wont say how many theyve sold. My guess is around 20. Africair, another Florida company, has converted about 60 Skyhawks to diesel, but theyve been at it for more than 10 years, so thats an airplane every couple of months. Yingling Aviation did a nice job on its remanufacture of the Skyhawk called the Ascend 172. Sales have been sluggish.
If I knew why, I wouldnt be a candidate for becoming a starving airplane salesman. These airplanes are typically priced at about $250,000 or $150,000 less than a new version. Even though Ive always felt this to be a good value against new, maybe the price delta isnt enough. Maybe it needs to be half the price of new or maybe the people selling these need to have Kenny Ditchters view of where value resides in airplanes. Or maybe theyre worried about or dont understand how paying two-thirds the price of new for an airplane thats 30 years old will depreciate or how banks will loan on it. Maybe nearly new just isnt quite good enough as actually new.
Or maybe no one has hit the sweet spot of asking price against some unique capability or performance. New, used or remanufactured, a Skyhawk is just a Skyhawk and Cessna is still building them. But Piper isnt building Dakotas and if they did, they would probably cost every bit of $500,000, if not nearer to $600,000.
Well see how Premier makes out with its Dakota project. With a few minor exceptions, it presents as new. If I liked low wings and needed to fill the seats and the tanks, Id certainly give it a serious look.
Got a Blog in You?
As most of you know, this blog casts a vast and influential shadow over general aviation, if not the western world in its entirety. Im often told that hardly an executive in general aviation starts the day without consulting the penetrating and insightful analysis found on these pages and fortunes have been won and lost by heeding or ignoring its advice. Im pretty sure none of this has to do with the psychotropic medications Im on.
Nonetheless, in the coming weeks, youll see more voices writing in this space as other staffers contribute their own analysis of events in aviation. Ill continue to lend a hand from time to time. Well also be opening the pages up to guest blogs, so if you have your own commentary or analysis, fire off a message to the newsteam and let us know what you have in mind. Well get back to you.
A New Yorker profile of Vice President Pence by Jane Mayer gets 16 pages in the new issue ... "The Danger of President Pence: Trump's critics yearn for his exit. But Mike Pence ... poses his own risks":
"Two sources ... recalled Trump needling Pence about his views on abortion and homosexuality. During a meeting, ... [a] legal scholar had said that, if the Supreme Court did so, many states would likely legalize abortion on their own. 'You see?' Trump asked Pence. 'You've wasted all this time and energy on it, and it's not going to end abortion anyway.'"
When Elwood Adams Hardware Store first opened its doors, the bestselling items were clock bells and pinions. That was 1782. Now, on October 20th, the oldest continuously run hardware store in America will close its doors for good, CBS reports, a victim of Amazonization.
The big picture: Elwood Adams, established in Worcester, Massachusetts, survived two wars on U.S. soil, the Great Depression and the Great Recession. But those were less damaging than the shift to online shopping. "I think Amazon or the larger big-box stores have probably just been too much to compete against," city manager Ed Augustus told CBS.
America has built a booming solar industry thanks largely to cheap Chinese solar panels, helping to create jobs and cleaner energy. But one part of the sector -- U.S.-based manufacturers -- has been decimated by the overseas competition.
Why it matters: That conflicting dynamic reflects America's open-trade policies that President Trump has said he wants to reverse. It's also at the heart of an effort by two solar manufacturers urging Trump to issue tariffs or other remedies against a flood of cheap imports, a move he's likely to take. The protectionist measures by themselves are unlikely to alter what are decades-long policies pushed by politicians from both parties that have driven manufacturing of all kinds out of the United States.
"You could argue the whole world has benefited from China's over-exuberance in building out manufacturing capacity for photovoltaic solar," said Ethan Zindler, head of Americas for Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "On the flip side, the actual manufacturing capacity and the jobs that come with it have accrued disproportionately in China. So while in the U.S. many people want to rebuild a manufacturing economy, that doesn't sit right and I get that."
Driving the news: The International Trade Commission is considering what type of trade remedy to recommend Trump employ to address the cheap imports. The independent federal agency unanimously voted in September that those imports have economically injured two U.S.-based but foreign-owned solar manufacturers. Trump will ultimately decide whether to impose tariffs or another kind of remedy, and most expect he will given his protectionist bent.
How China has helped American solar deployers
China has dominated the crystalline silicon photovoltaic manufacturing industry, the world's most common solar technology, since at least 2010. It has employed the same low-cost labor and technology strategy here as it has with other products ranging from iPhones to DVDs. It has also propped up its solar companies with subsidies.
That model has worked for the U.S. solar industry by three metrics: Cost, deployment and jobs, according to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association, a U.S. trade group.
The cost to install solar has dropped by more than 70% since 2010. The U.S. solar market nearly doubled the amount of capacity it added in 2016 compared to the prior year. Nearly 260,000 Americans work in solar, double the number in 2012.
The solar group opposes the trade remedy request. A spokesman did not address questions by Axios about how China's cheap solar panels affect the U.S. industry.
"SEIA believes that we should maintain and grow the 260,000 jobs we have in this country that are installing and engineering solar," said Jigar Shah, co-founder of Generate Capital, which finances clean-energy technologies including solar. "Getting affordable solar panels from China is the way we do that."
How China has hurt American solar makers
In a report issued as part of its proceedings, the ITC found that nearly 30 U.S.-based manufacturers of photovoltaic solar panels have gone out of business since 2012.
One of the companies asking for trade protections, Suniva, filed for bankruptcy protection in April. This Georgia-based company is, ironically, majority owned by a Chinese company, but it was nonetheless trying to manufacture in the United States. The other firm is SolarWorld Americas, an Oregon-based but German-owned company that has won two narrower trade protections against cheap Chinese panels.
"For a while, these trade cases stabilized the market, but Chinese-owned companies simply built even more capacity in other countries around the world, primarily in Asia," said Tim Brightbill, trade counsel for SolarWorld Americas.
Last week the CEO of one of the largest U.S.-based solar manufacturers, First Solar, broke its silence in the case, and sided with the pair of companies. First Solar makes a different kind of panel that wouldn't be affected by the remedies and could stand to benefit.
"The Commission should reject the notion that the US CSPV industry must be left to die so that the downstream solar industry may live," First Solar CEO Mark Widmar wrote to the ITC.
Suniva and SolarWorld are asking the U.S. government for a mix of trade remedies against photovoltaic panel imports. These include tariffs, quotas and price floors. Any action would be temporary based on the 1974 law that sets the remedies.
"Will this one set of remedies over the next four years change the entire American solar manufacturing industry forever?" said Matt Card, executive vice president of Suniva's commercial operations. He was implying that the answer was no but he suggested that these remedies should be the starting point to a longer process. "It's one battle at a time," Card said.
The remedies would "have some price effects," Card said, adding that they would have a minimal short-term effect on demand over the next few years because it would entice manufacturing to the United States.
Others say that could happen.
"We have heard from some manufacturers that they are quietly considering moving some capacity onto U.S. soil and these are Asian companies," Zindler said. But even if that happens, he said, "it's not going to create an enormous number of jobs because of the automated nature of manufacturing."
Making it work
California-based but foreign-owned SunPower is an example of how a manufacturer has made America's current policy and economic system work -- by making its panels abroad, including in Malaysia and the Philippines.
These regions are known for making low-cost manufactured goods at scale, said CEO Tom Werner. He said the United States is best for its higher-paid white collar jobs, which represent about 15% of its more than 7,000 employees.
Werner is bullish on solar power, but he added: "It's just not making solar cells in America."
Joe Rannazzisi, former deputy assistant administrator at the Drug Enforcement Agency, sounded the alarm on Congress, lobbyists and the drug industry in an interview with 60 Minutes for their roles in allowing the opioid crisis to escalate.
Key quote: "This is an industry that's out of control. What they want to do, is do what they want to do, and not worry about what the law is. And If they don't follow the law in drug supply, people die. That's just it. People die."
On the companies at fault: "The three largest distributors are Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. They control probably 85 or 90 percent of the drugs going downstream."
"The three largest distributors are Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. They control probably 85 or 90 percent of the drugs going downstream." On the drug distribution industry: "These weren't kids slinging crack on the corner. These were professionals who were doing it. They were just drug dealers in lab coats."
"These weren't kids slinging crack on the corner. These were professionals who were doing it. They were just drug dealers in lab coats." On Congress' lobbied decision to limit the DEA's abilities: "[T]he drug industry the manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and chain drugstores have an influence over Congress that has never been seen before. And these people came in with their influence and their money and got a whole statute changed because they didn't like it."
Go deeper: Congress derails the DEA's opioid crackdown; the deadliest of the deadly opioids
After Iraqi forces moved in to oil-rich Kirkuk over the weekend, Kurds have started fleeing the disputed area, some heading for the Kurdish capital of Erbil, 60 miles to the north, per NPR. Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said it was necessary to send in troops to "protect the unity of the country, which was in danger of partition" this comes about a month after Kurds voted overwhelmingly for independence, a vote al-Abadi said was unconstitutional.
The U.S. factor: The U.S. supports both the Kurdish forces, the Peshmerga, and Iraqi government forces in the fight against ISIS, and has provided both sides with weapons. The U.S., like Baghdad, opposed the Kurdish referendum vote and today the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad stuck to the State Department line, urging all parties to remember "ISIS remains the true enemy of Iraq."
Big picture: Recall, the Peshmerga took over Kirkuk in 2014 after ISIS knocked out the Iraqi army in the area. The latest developments indicate that areas captured from ISIS are ripe for conflict over territorial control, per the BBC's Jonathan Marcus. Baghdad can say it's returning things to the way they were before ISIS, but the Kurds can claim majority support.
What's happening:
Bloomberg looked at the rise of dollar stores across rural America, which are replacing the mom-and-pop grocery stores of old and entering communities where big-box retailers like Walmart don't see an opportunity for profit.
Why it matters: The biggest dollar store chains like Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar all tend to operate in poorer, older, less-educated towns where residents are more likely to receive some sort of federal assistance. Their stores often are one of the only food options for rural residents who would otherwise have to travel miles to a supermarket.
Dollar General is implementing a $22 billion plan to open 1,000 new stores in poor, rural communities, across the U.S., calling the firm's yellow-and-black logo "the small-town corollary to Starbucks' two-tailed green mermaid."
U.S. investigators are probing whether Russia relied on clandestine American help to identify political soft spots and pressure points in its campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. But experts say that, even without local assistance, Russia's own history of exploiting animosities and jealousies across its empire gave it unusual know-how to stir up existing American tensions.
Be smart: Russia's divide-and-rule advantages do not mean it had no local help. But they may better explain how, given the raw data and tools, it managed to so skillfully execute its efforts on social media and elsewhere.
Russia targeted America's soft underbelly: Congressional and FBI investigations are not over, but data collected and collated by Columbia University's Jonathan Albright give us the shape and some of the granularity of a Russian social media campaign apparently designed to inflame some of America's greatest national sensitivities.
Facebook pages that turned into hundreds of millions of interactions combined the subjects of nationalism, Trump, illegal immigration, and law.
In the week of Aug. 8-15, 2015, a page called "Being Patriotic" used the words:
Illegal" 584 times, "alien" 200 times, and the combined phrase "illegal alien" 156 times.
Border" 214 times; "Trump" 247 times; and "law" 231 times.
Criminal alien" (19 times); "sharia law" (21 times); "country illegally" (19 times); and "alien leech" (five times).
The intrigue: One thread of the U.S. election investigation is whether someone connected to the Trump campaign, or any other American, helped the Russians. The reason: although Americans generally were aware of the strong nationalist emotions in their midst, few thought they could or would turn the election.
Except, that is, for the Trump campaign, which carried out an unprecedented micro-targeting program that sought simultaneously to stoke anger, fear and other emotions, and to get Hillary Clinton voters to stay home on election day.
Russia, however, is pre-disposed to such awareness: Going back to the Czarist era, ethnicity, race and religion whether Ukrainian, Jewish, Chechen, and so on played a prime role in Russian politics.
In the Soviet period, and the rule of Josef Stalin, Moscow particularly turned divide-and-rule into a central policy.
Stalin stoked ethnic tensions by establishing pockets of certain national groupings right in the middle of antagonistic republics. That helped to keep Armenians and Azeris preoccupied with their mutual hatred.
The same strategy applied to Georgians and Abkhazians; Uzbeks and Kyrgyz; and so on.
This Russian policy endures through today under President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer.
So did Russia have help? I canvassed experts on Russia. Some didn't rule out American help, but there was no dismissing that Russia was naturally prepared for this operation.
Charles King, a professor at Georgetown University and former chairman of its School of Foreign Service:
"Russians were very practiced in seeing the world through an 'ethnicist' lens the whole Soviet system was built on top of a particular understanding of the role of ethnicity (which translates as 'race' in American) and ethnic cleavages in their own society. If what they were doing was basically exporting this to America, the irony is that it happened to accord pretty well with some core cleavages in this society."
Stephen Kotkin, professor at Princeton University and author of a thus-far two-volume biography of Stalin:
"'Swing states' and 'swing voters' are ubiquitous in open-source discussions. I do not think it takes sophistication, or even their domestic experience, to understand these basic issues of American political life."
Jonathan Elkind, former director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian Affairs on the U.S. National Security Council:
"No way to micro-target the messaging as they did without contractual or other help."
Richard Kauzlarich, a former U.S. ambassador, deputy assistant secretary of state, and National Intelligence Officer for Europe:
"My sense (speculation) is that there is a KGB playbook that applies generally to influence operations. I'm sure their own experiences in the near abroad are part of that. Still, I'm not sure they understand our political system well enough to do what they did in the presidential campaign without American 'consultants.'
The bottom line: Putin may have had help answering that question is a priority of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation for the Justice Department. But, instinctually himself and institutionally within the Russian system, Putin also knew what he was doing.
If tax reform doesn't get done, "it'll be the end of Mitch McConnell as we know it," Sen Lindsey Graham told CBS's Face the Nation Sunday.
Why it matters: With each legislative failure, the stakes get higher for the Republican Party. Graham said he believes GOP candidates will lose across the board in the midterms and President Trump will not get re-elected if they can't keep promises of ACA repeal and tax reform. Graham also called Bannon "a symptom of the problem," saying "If we do cut taxes, and we do repeal and replace Obamacare, it doesn't matter what Bannon [does] because we'll win."
Jamie McGoldrick, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, recently told NPR that the war in Yemen has led to "the largest humanitarian crisis in the world." Widespread hunger has contributed to a massive cholera outbreak, per the Guardian, and Saudi-led airstrikes have continuously led to civilian casualties, including children.
Why it matters: The U.S. has backed Saudi Arabia throughout the war in Yemen, and in June the first installment of a $110 billion arms deal with the Saudis was approved after they assured the U.S they were making changes to avoid civilian casualties.
But: According to a September Human Rights Watch report, 39 civilians 26 of them children were killed in airstrikes between June 9 and August 4. Foreign Policy reports "there is no evidence that Saudi Arabia has reined in its air campaign."
Saudi Arabia's assurances to the U.S., per the HRW report:
Abiding by stricter rules of engagement.
Taking civilian harm estimates into consideration when targeting enemies.
Allowing U.S. advisers to sit in on air operations.
Bringing the total number of locations on the "no-strike list" to 33,000.
Engaging in a multiyear training program with the U.S., costing $750 million, on avoiding civilian casualties, human rights issues, and more.
Why you'll hear about this again: The House voted in July on amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that would require the administration to cease aerial refueling for Saudi and coalition aircraft, sharing intelligence, and lending other military support. While the NDAA was passed through the senate, these particular amendments are not yet confirmed to be included in the final bill.
The bottom line: Both the Trump and Obama administrations have continued support of Saudi Arabia engaging in arms deals and training programs despite longstanding criticisms of the Saudi's actions in Yemen. Retired CIA officer, Bruce Riedel, told Foreign Policy that for every administration, Yemen hasn't mattered enough: "It's more important to them to have good relations with the Saudis, and the Yemenis get sacrificed on this."
A U.S. defense official told Foreign Policy the U.S. was no longer involved with coordinating airstrikes.
Austria's conservative People's Party, which is center-right but has shifted further right on immigration recently, is set to win the country's general election (at about 31% of the vote) and launch 31-year old Sebastian Kurz as the world's youngest national leader, the BBC reports.
Why it matters: This continues the global tide that produced Brexit and President Trump, and was seen just last month in Germany, with an electoral breakthrough by the far right that stunned Merkel. It also would set Austria to the right after years of centrist leaders in power.
Who he is: "Kurz served as Europe's youngest-ever foreign minister, after he was appointed in 2013 aged just 27. ... Nicknamed 'Wunderwuzzi' (very roughly translated as 'wonder hotshot'), he has been compared to the young leaders of France and Canada, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau."
"Kurz served as Europe's youngest-ever foreign minister, after he was appointed in 2013 aged just 27. ... Nicknamed 'Wunderwuzzi' (very roughly translated as 'wonder hotshot'), he has been compared to the young leaders of France and Canada, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau." The main issue: "Immigration ... Kurz moved his party to the right in the wake of Europe's 2015 refugee crisis. ... He [pledged] to shut down migrant routes to Europe, cap benefit payments to refugees, and bar immigrants from receiving benefits until they have lived in Austria for five years."
Go deeper: What to know about Austria's election
President Trump, situated between Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis during his Monday morning Cabinet meeting, said he "feels strongly" about his decision to decertify the Iran nuclear deal, stating that he's "tired of being taken advantage of."
Trump also revealed that he is not giving up on health care, stating: "Obamacare is finished, it's dead, it's gone...There is no such thing as Obamacare anymore." He added that Senate Republicans are currently working on a short-term fix to insurance markets after he "cut off the gravy train" by ending subsidies a move that has threatened to throw the Affordable Care Act markets into chaos.
Future of Iran deal: Trump said Congress and the deal's member countries will either find a solution that would improve the agreement, or else "total termination" will be "a very real possibility."
More on health care: Trump said he wants to "help the poor people" get better health care, and believes congressional Republicans will agree to a long-term fix for the ACA by March or April. Trump acknowledged that Democrats are unlikely to support that effort.
Other highlights:
They swear he's not joking. Sources who've spoken to the president about the Supreme Court say he tells them he thinks he'll have appointed four justices by the end of his first term.
"It's all about the numbers for him," one source said.
Asked how he comes to that jaw-dropping number, Trump mentions the obvious: he's already replaced Antonin Scalia with Neil Gorsuch, and there are rumors Anthony Kennedy will retire.
"Ok," one source told Trump, "so that's two. Who are the others?"
"Ginsburg," Trump replied. "What does she weigh? 60 pounds?"
"Who's the fourth?" the source asked.
"Sotomayor," Trump said, referring to the relatively recently-appointed Obama justice, whose name is rarely, if ever, mentioned in speculation about the next justice to be replaced. "Her health," Trump explained. "No good. Diabetes."
Sotomayor has opened up about her struggles with type-1 diabetes, but she's managed it successfully since childhood.
The White House and spokespeople for the Supreme Court didn't respond to requests for comment.
President Trump had a busy morning on Twitter, blasting everyone from the Democrats and their position on his tax reform plans, to Chuck Schumer's changing attitudes on the Iran deal.
Nod to 2020: Trump, who filed the paperwork for his re-election campaign on the day of his inauguration, also took aim at "Crooked" Hillary Clinton, tweeting that he hopes she'll run against him again.
The tweets:
Trump made it clear he was watching Fox News while firing off his tweets this AM, pointing to the former Reagan economic adviser, Art Laffer, who joined the network this morning to sell Trump's tax reform plan.
More context: Sen. Chuck Schumer also issued a statement today arguing that the "fake math" on Trump's tax cuts is a "deliberate manipulation of numbers and facts" and he said companies are already sitting on a lot of cash.
Schumer also called out Trump for his frequent touting of the stock market: "As the president likes to point out, the stock market is at record highs and companies are raking in unprecedented profits, yet wages have remained relatively flat," said Schumer. "That's proof positive that companies already have a cash windfall, but they're not using it to boost wages."
Trump then tweeted about the success of the stock market under his presidency:
He also targeted Hillary Clinton, who Nigel Farage criticized for "making a sad, sorry spectacle of herself" on Fox & Friends this morning, stating he hopes she'll run in 2020.
(Then) U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia, Joseph Y. Yun, right, listens to the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister during a press conference in 2015. Photo: Joshua Paul / AP
The U.S. envoy to North Korea, Joseph Yun, is going to Seoul this week to meet with South Korea's top nuclear envoy, Lee Do-hoon, a State Department spokesperson confirmed to Axios. Lee was just appointed last month, and it will be their first meeting.
Backdrop: The meeting comes in advance of Trump's visit to the region next month, and as U.S.-South Korean naval drills are further ramping up tensions in the region. The North Korean regime interprets the drills as rehearsal for invasion, and could respond with provocative measures. Just today a North Korean official said Pyongyang won't come engage in diplomacy until it can hit the East coast of the U.S. with a nuke.
The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan reportedly agreed to intensify the protracted search for a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and bolster the ceasefire regime in the conflict zone when they met in Geneva on Monday.
The meeting took place in a constructive atmosphere, read a joint statement issued by the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers as well as the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the Minsk Group after the talks.
The Presidents [Serzh Sarkisian and Ilham Aliyev] agreed to take measures to intensify the negotiation process and to take additional steps to reduce tensions on the Line of Contact, it said.
The Co-Chairs expressed their satisfaction with these direct talks, which took place after a long interval As a next step, the Co-Chairs will organize working sessions with the Ministers in the near future, added the statement.
The talks began at the official residence of Switzerlands permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva in the presence of the U.S., Russian and French mediators. They continued in a tete-a-tete format about an hour later.
Aliyev and Sarkisian then spoke one-on-one for over 45 minutes, according to Vladimir Hakobian, the Armenian presidential press secretary. In a series of tweets, Hakobian also posted a photograph that showed the two presidents seated around a round table placed in the courtyard of the Swiss diplomatic compound.
We have no concrete agreements on variants of resolving the problem, Sarkisian told members of Switzerlands Armenian community shortly after the summit. But we agreed to take measures to further ease tensions so that we have no casualties on the frontlines. I must say that both the president of Azerbaijan and I are deeply interested in that.
God willing, [Aliyev] will always think so, Sarkisian said. He too realizes the complexity of the problem very well and obviously so do I, but the problem is such that there will never be an easy solution to it.
Sarkisian went on to again rule out any solution that would restore Azerbaijani control over Karabakh. No Armenian leader will ever take and implement such a decision, he said.
Aliyev and other Azerbaijani officials did not make public statements immediately after the talks.
Neither Sarkisian nor the joint statement by the two foreign ministers specified the agreed steps aimed at preventing ceasefire violations along the line of contact around Karabakh and the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
The two presidents previously met in May and June last year shortly after four-day deadly hostilities around Karabakh that nearly denigrated into an all-out war. The negotiation process again stalled later in 2016. Aliyev and Sarkisian blamed each other for the deadlock when they addressed the UN General Assembly in New York last month.
16 October 2017 10:10 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend
Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 118 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on October 16.
Armenians were using large-caliber machine guns.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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16 October 2017 17:28 (UTC+04:00)
By Rashid Shirinov
For years, many environmental experts have been noting that the Metsamor nuclear power plant (NPP) in Armenia is the main threat to the regional environment and peoples lives. Unfortunately, the plant that outlived its usefulness still continues its operation as the Armenian government refuses to close it despite the constant calls from international organizations.
The need for the closure of the Metsamor NPP has recently been once again noted by the Council of the European Union.
The Council published the text of the Comprehensive and Extended Partnership Agreement between Armenia and the EU, which will presumably be signed in November during the summit of the Eastern Partnership. The 357-page agreement includes mainly general provisions of a political nature. However, it also touches upon the future fate of the Metsamor NPP.
Thus, the part of the agreement concerning the nuclear safety notes the importance of compliance with high level standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and specifically the need for closure and safe decommissioning of the Metsamor NPP. It also notes the need to replace the plant with new ways of ensuring Armenias energy security.
Since the 1990s, international experts have constantly noted that the NPP poses a threat to the region and that it is, in fact, a historical anomaly, as it was built on the line of the seismic fault.
Back in 2013, head of the EU delegation to Armenia Traian Hristea stressed that the issue of the exploitation of the Metsamor NPP is one of the main issues on the agenda of the Armenia-EU relations. In 2014, the European Commission again urged Armenia to close the plant as soon as possible. In 2015, Hristea once again stated that the closure of the Metsamor NPP and its decommissioning remains among main goals of the European Union.
The construction of the Metsamor NPP started in 1970. The plant was closed after a devastating earthquake of 1988 in the town of Spitak. However, in 1995, despite numerous protests of international community, the Armenian government renewed the operation of the NPP.
A number of international experts have repeatedly urged that due to its deplorable state, the Armenian Metsamor NPP could repeat the fate of the Chernobyl NPP, thus threatening the lives of the Armenians and citizens of adjacent countries. The possible tragedy will also jeopardize the environmental state of the region. Moreover, its consequences will be felt in Europe and the Middle East.
It is noteworthy that while addressing the Council of Europe, Armenia undertook closure of the station, but has not fulfilled this commitment. Moreover, the European Union offered 200 million Euro to Armenia for the closure of the plant. Despite this, the NPP is still functioning as no alternative sources of energy exist in Armenia.
Thus, the inclusion of the demand to close the plant into the new Armenia-EU agreement is, of course, not surprising for the country. However, the Armenian government will likely try to find yet another way to delay the closure of the old NPP.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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16 October 2017 12:13 (UTC+04:00)
By Laman Ismayilova
DokuBaku Film Festival is underway in Baku.
The festival aims to encourage Azerbaijani filmmakers to create documentary films and participate in festivals.
Three movies, including "Harmony" by Lidia Sheinin, "The Swedish Theory of Love" by Eric Gandini and "Oleg and the Rare Arts" by Andres Duque have been already screened at the festival, Trend Life reported.
The movie "Harmony" by Lidia Sheinin was demonstrated on October 13.
The movie tells a story of an old Russian lady who has to share her apartment with her niece and four children.
The festival was followed by the screening of the movie "The Swedish Theory of Love", that digs into the true nature of Swedish life style.
Famous Italian-Swedish director Erik Gandini attended the event.
His visit to Baku aroused great interest of the youth. The screening was held at a full house, and then Eric Gandini answered numerous questions.
The screening of "Oleg and the Rare Arts" movie was hosted by professor of Baku Musical Academy Zumrud Dadashzade.
"Oleg and the Rare Arts" is about the legendary composer, author of music for many films and plays Oleg Karavaychuk conquered the audience with its sincerity wonderful music.
DokuBaku is the first international documentary film festival in Azerbaijan, which takes place in Baku on October 12-20.
The idea of the first ever international documentary film festival in Azerbaijan belongs to director Imam Hasanov and producer Veronika Janatkova.
The theme of this years festival is Testing the Reality. The festival consists of main and competition programs.
The audience are presented 15 domestic films and 17 foreign films from Germany, Italy, Russia, the Czech Republic and other countries.
The 4-day international workshop "My street films", organized in frames of DokuBaku will be concluded with screening of 2 movies made during the workshop by the participants.
Film screenings are taking place in cinema halls and cafes around Baku.
Media partners of the event are Trend.az, Day.az, Milli.az, Azernews.az.
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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova
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16 October 2017 11:45 (UTC+04:00)
By Rashid Shirinov
The recent approval of Russias credit line worth $100 million for Armenia for the purchase of weapons has caused great concern in the expert circles of both Azerbaijan and other countries. They note that this decision of the Russian side will, for sure, negatively affect the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
A well-known Azerbaijani political scientist Fikret Sadikhov has also shared his thoughts on the matter.
Russias supply of weapons to Armenia threatens security of the region and further stimulates the growth of tension, he told Trend on October 15.
The expert noted that by providing Armenia with weapons Russia shows its desire to turn the country into its outpost. Sadikhov also believes that this decision of Russia is contrary to the principles of friendship, good neighborliness and strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and Russia.
It is noteworthy that Russia, along the U.S, and France, is a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is working to find a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Sadikhov noted that the main issue for the OSCE Minsk Group-chairing countries should be the liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
Armenia for many years keeps under occupation the Azerbaijani lands and Russia is well aware of this. In this case, the neighboring country should intensify steps in this direction as an intermediary, the expert noted.
He added that Armenia has repeatedly made territorial claims to many countries, and today it already claims to the territories of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia.
By providing Armenia with a loan worth $100 million to purchase arms Russia violates its obligations as co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group and does not comply with the principle of neutrality, which is of utmost importance for a just resolution of the conflict.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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16 October 2017 16:26 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend
The Turkish society is poorly informed about the visit of a number of Turkish citizens to the occupied Azerbaijani territories, Ekrem Kiziltas, head of the Turkish Media Association, expert, columnist of Turkeys Takvim newspaper told Trend on October 16.
Kiziltas noted that the visit of Turkish citizens to Azerbaijans occupied territories is primarily directed against Ankara.
As it is known, there was an MP from the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) among those who illegally visited the occupied Azerbaijani lands, he said.
The HDP policy is directed not only against Turkey, but also against the friends of the country, which is a kind of norm for this party, said Kiziltas.
It should be reminded that in September 2017, Turkish MP Garo Paylan visited Armenia, where he called on Turkey to recognize the so-called Armenian genocide.
On September 22, Turkish citizens Ufuk Uras, Ali Bayramoglu, Said Cekinoglu and Erol Katircioglu illegally visited Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region, occupied by the Armenian armed forces.
Earlier, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the illegal visit of Turkish citizens to the occupied Azerbaijani territories did not reflect Ankaras official policy.
Grave Crimes Investigation Department of the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office filed a criminal case under the Criminal Codes Article 318.2 (illegally crossing Azerbaijans state borders). All four individuals are accused under the abovementioned article. A measure of restraint in the form of arrest was chosen against them. They were declared internationally wanted.
An appeal was sent to the Turkish law enforcement to detain the four individuals.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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16 October 2017 17:49 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend
Impunity of persons, who illegally visited Nagorno-Karabakh, may negatively affect the Azerbaijan-Turkey relations, Elman Nasirov, member of the Azerbaijani parliament, told Trend on October 16.
The MP noted that the illegal visits by four Turkish citizens to Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region, occupied by the Armenian armed forces, holding of numerous meetings there, anti-Azerbaijani and anti-Turkish statements, as well as speeches about this trip on Turkish TV channels when the relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey are at the level of strategic alliance is a circumstance that casts shadow on friendship and brotherhood between Azerbaijan and Turkey.
On September 22, Turkish citizens Ufuk Uras, Ali Bayramoglu, Said Cekinoglu and Erol Katircioglu illegally visited Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region, occupied by the Armenian armed forces.
Earlier, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the illegal visit of Turkish citizens to the occupied Azerbaijani territories did not reflect Ankaras official policy.
Grave Crimes Investigation Department of the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General's Office filed a criminal case under the Criminal Codes Article 318.2 (illegally crossing Azerbaijans state borders). All four individuals are accused under the abovementioned article. A measure of restraint in the form of arrest was chosen against them. They were declared internationally wanted.
An appeal was sent to the Turkish law enforcement to detain the four individuals.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
15 October 2017 10:11 (UTC+04:00)
Attacks by international organizations against countries are a tool of political pressure. It is a political game, member of the Polish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Dominik Tarczynski has told AZERTAC as he commented on biased anti-Azerbaijani resolutions adopted by the PACE.
I know how it is to be criticized, to be attacked, and I know how these attacks and international institutions are using their positions to play their political games.
Tarczynski said Poland is also attacked by international organizations. Democracy is beautiful for these elites when they are winning. When they are losing there is no democracy. When they are losing, youve got dictatorship. They do not allow us to be sovereign. They dont allow us to be free. Obviously, there are differences, cultural differences, political differences, historical experiences. Every country is different and every country has its own problems. But we cannot be treated like children. Sometimes I have a feeling that Azerbaijan and Poland are treated like small children. We are not children. We are partners. So we want to be part of the European Union, we want to be part of the Council of Europe as partners. Not as children, he said.
Touching upon OCCRPs allegations against Azerbaijan, he said: Im a lawyer. Until its not proved, youre innocent. Prove it. You see in politics for ages you have had two very powerful tools, weapons: corruption and sex. Its been used all throughout the ages. And nothing has changed. If someone is trying to tell you that you are corrupt, let him prove it. If you do not prove it, you are going to pay for these accusations. If they do not prove it, they have to pay the consequences. Democracy is not a perfect system. But it is the best, which was invented so far. And always in democracy youve got someone who can really sell himself, who can be corrupted, but you cannot judge the whole country for some people who are corrupted.
Im the chairman of the Polish-Azerbaijani parliamentary friendship group. By the chance, really, Ive never asked for it. I was thinking Azerbaijan - where is it? In a way mentally and politically, not geographically. When we came to Azerbaijan, my complete imagination changed. Everyone has a different, I would say, progress and the speed of changes. But you have to respect the mentality. You have to respect the culture of your country, Polish and others. So, dont tell us that your democracy, your direction is the best and we have to do the same. We are the members of the council of Europe, and the fact itself that you are discussing it that proves that you are open for it. Youre coming here, youre open, you are receiving constructive criticism. But there are the borders of this constructive criticism. So, we have to look for the dialogue, but we have to keep our dignity as well, he said.
As the head of Azerbaijani-Polish group I have never encountered any such rumor about bribing let alone the actual proposal on it. That would have to be reported to the prosecutor straight away or to the judge. If I would not report it, I would be myself in trouble. So, its ridiculous, Tarczynski added.
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16 October 2017 12:26 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend
Royal Dutch Shell continues to study the possibility of its participation in Iranian oil and gas projects, a source in the company told Trend.
"We continue to explore the role Shell can play in developing Iran's energy potential within the boundaries of the law," said the source.
However, the source declined to comment on whether the company will remain interested in Iranian oil and gas industry in the case if the US abandons the nuclear deal.
It was earlier reported that the US President Donald Trump is expected to announce soon he will decertify the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.
Under the agreement, limits were put on Irans nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.
Iranian oil ministry is preparing to hold a tender for the development of Azadegan oil field over the current year.
It was earlier announced that Invitations were sent to 29 international companies, including Frances Total, Royal Dutch Shell, Italys Eni, Lukoil and Gazprom of Russia, Danish conglomerate Maersk, Chinas CNPC and Sinopec, Austrias OMV and Schlumberger, which approved a bid in the countrys oil and gas tenders to participate in the tender for developing South Azadegan oilfield.
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16 October 2017 12:56 (UTC+04:00)
By Kamila Aliyeva
The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Uzbekistan have signed a framework agreement in Washington.
The EIB will now be able to support public and private sector projects in such areas as public infrastructure, energy and energy efficiency and small business development, podrobno.uz reported.
"I welcome the accession of Uzbekistan to the family of countries in which the bank operates. The signed Framework Agreement is a symbolic document which allows us to start financing projects that are mutually beneficial for Uzbekistan and the European Union. This will improve the living standards of citizens and strengthen the country's competitiveness. We are determined to move quickly from this important official step in our bilateral relations to concrete support for projects," vice-president of the European Investment Bank Vazil Hudak said.
The republic attaches significant importance to the signing of the agreement, which opens additional opportunities for attracting European investments and technologies to Uzbekistans economy, according to Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Jamshid Kuchkarov.
"We hope that the interaction with the EIB within the framework of the document will allow the implementation of investment projects with practical impact on the promotion of reform of various sectors of the economy, including the use of advanced European technologies. The development of cooperation with the bank corresponds to the priorities of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyevs reforms aimed at improving the business investment climate in the framework of Strategies for the development of Uzbekistan in 2017-2021," he said.
The launch of the bank's operational activities in the country will be a new stage of the EU Strategy for Partnership with Central Asia, according to the experts. This strategy reflects the growing importance of the region for the European Union and aims to strengthen the ties between the EU and the Central Asian countries by promoting prosperity, stability and security.
"The launch of EIB activities in the country, which is a strategically important partner of the European Union in Central Asia, will be a positive moment for relations between Europe and Uzbekistan. The EU is ready to provide technical assistance and join efforts with European and international financial institutions in order to attract additional funding for promotion of private sector development and corporate governance improvement as well as to promote the use of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency, Peter Burian, EU Special Representative for Central Asia, said.
In his opinion, close cooperation with the bank will allow the authorities of the country to provide more effective support to the extensive reform processes, which will directly benefit the people of the republic.
Uzbekistan is the fourth state in Central Asia cooperating with the EIB. Similar agreements have already been signed with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. These signatures were followed by financing in the amount of more than 700 million euros.
The EIB is the only bank owned by and representing the interests of the EU member states. It works closely with other EU institutions to implement EU policy. More than 90 percent of the banks activity is in Europe. The bank is also are a big investor around the world.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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16 October 2017 13:58 (UTC+04:00)
By Kamila Aliyeva
The second session of the Arab Economic Cooperation Forum with Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan kicked off in Dushanbe on October 16.
Tajik President Emomali Rahmon noted the great importance of this high-level event while addressing a welcoming speech, Avesta reported.
In particular, the president proposed the creation of a special Fund, which should be replenished by contributions from developed Arab countries.
The collected funds should be directed to support the developing Muslim countries if necessary, said Rahmon.
The head of Tajikistan noted that the billions of dollars of rich Arab countries are in European and American banks. He called for sending a small portion of these funds to support developing Muslim countries. However, "this support should be disinterested," he said.
Rahmon drew the attention of the forum participants on the rich resources of Tajikistan, inviting the developed Arab states to invest in the country.
"The business and investment circles of the Arab countries, as reliable development partners, using the above opportunities and privileges, could establish constructive cooperation with public and private companies in Tajikistan in various fields. Rich natural resources and unique nature of Tajikistan can be a good source of income for Arab investors," he stressed.
Representatives of 28 countries at the level of foreign and economy ministers participate in the work of the Arab Economic Cooperation Forum in Dushanbe.
The forum is expected to issue the Dushanbe Declaration.
The idea to organize the Arab Economic and Cooperation Forum with Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan was firstly initiated at the 130th session of the Council of the League of Arab States in 2008.
The first session of the Forum of foreign, economy and finance ministers level was held in Riyadh in 2014 under the theme of Investment prospects and trade exchange. The Riyadh Declaration was adopted as the final act and the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the League of Arab States with Central Asian countries and Azerbaijan.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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16 October 2017 17:38 (UTC+04:00)
By Kamila Aliyeva
Kazakhstan has banned imports of dairy products from five Kyrgyz milk processing enterprises due to a violation of phytosanitary norms.
This was stated in a message published on the official website of Kazakh Agriculture Ministry.
The Ministry reported that since October 10, 2017 veterinary control at the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border has been strengthened. Currently, 32 inspectors are involved in the work of six border veterinary checkpoints.
It was also instructed to strengthen control and supervision at the posts to identify prohibited and polluting substances in imported Kyrgyz products (antibiotics, microorganisms, salts of heavy metals, etc.).
An enhanced laboratory control was assigned for two types of goods imported from Kyrgyzstan, the statement added.
At present, there are 25 Kyrgyz enterprises have the right to supply their products to Kazakhstan, according to the ministry.
These enterprises include fifteen milk processing plants, eight fish processing plants and two producers of finished meat products, the message said.
The problem of veterinary control on the border with Kazakhstan is maintained from the moment of Kyrgyzstan's entry into the EAEU. To fully participate in its activities, the country was set to create bio-laboratories designed to issue certificates of compliance of agricultural products with all-Union standards.
In January-May 2017 the supply of Kyrgyz dairy products to Kazakhstan increased by 37.1 percent and vegetables by 28.2 percent.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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16 October 2017 19:26 (UTC+04:00)
By Kamila Aliyeva
Energy-rich Kazakhstan, which strives to increase its gas export and transit potential, has launched its gas supplies to China on October 16.
The Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline is the most powerful in Central Asia, Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said commenting on the issue.
He recalled that the agreement on the construction and operation of the gas pipeline between the two countries was concluded in 2007.
"The realization of this site has made it possible to create a powerful transit corridor for the transportation of Central Asian gas to China as well as to increase the revenues of the Kazakh side from gas transit. Since the beginning of its operation, about 200 billion cubic meters of gas have been transported through this pipeline, thereby making it the most powerful gas transportation system in Central Asia," Bozumbayev said.
The minister also spoke about the second section of the gas pipeline - Beiney-Bozoy-Shymkent.
"This gas pipeline made it possible to ensure the energy security of gas supplies to the south of our country from the resources of Western deposits. Over 7 billion cubic meters of gas for the domestic market has already been transported through this pipeline. The possibility of gasification has been received by more than 500 settlements of the country along the route of the pipeline," he noted.
The minister also stressed that the construction of the main gas pipeline - Beiney-Bozoy-Shymkent not only allowed to ensure the reliability of gas supply to the domestic market of the country, but also connected all strategically important gas pipelines of Kazakhstan to a single system.
He further talked on the profits of Kazakh enterprises from the gas export deal to China.
The revenues of KazTransGas JSC and companies of subsoil users producing gas will additionally make over $900 million from the export of 5 billion cubic meters of gas, according to Bozumbayev.
"I include both the cost of gas, profits and tariffs that joint ventures will receive for their share, he said.
The Minister underlined the historical importance of today's gas export launch to China.
In addition, Bozumbaev expressed confidence that the gas pipelines capabilities exceed the transportation of 5 billion cubic meters.
"This is due to the fact that we have a new direction for the export of our gas. Historically, Kazakh gas was supplied to Europe through Russia, and it is very important that we have an alternative today. As many as 5 billion cubic meters is only the first step, as, in general, Kazakhstan has the technical capacity to supply 10 billion cubic meters," he said.
Today, the ceremony of the launch of gas exports to China took place in Astana. Chinese side will receive gas at the Khorgos border point. The export route of natural gas through the territory of Kazakhstan will be about 3,000 km long with more than 10 compressor stations used.
Kazakhstan holds 0.8 percent of the worlds natural gas proven reserves, and produces 0.6 percent of the worlds total gas output, according to the BPs statistics 2015.
The country serves as a major transit country for gas exports from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan that are destined to Russia and China. Volumes from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are transported through the Central Asia-China gas pipeline network that links with CNPC's Second West-East Pipeline in western Xinjiang province at the border with Kazakhstan.
The volume of gas exports rose by 7.9 percent in 2016 to 13.7 bcm.
Kazakh gas is expected to face strong competition from Turkmen, Uzbek and Russian gas supplies under long-term contracts with China.
A majority of Kazakhstans proved natural gas reserves and natural gas production is possible thanks to the Karachaganak field. The Karachaganak field's gas reserves are estimated at 1.35 trillion cubic meters while oil and liquid condensates around 1.2 billion tons.
About 49 percent of Kazakhstan's gas production and 18 percent of its produced oil are extracted from this field.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
16 October 2017 19:12 (UTC+04:00)
By Kamila Aliyeva
The global efforts to prevent Pyongyang from developing its nuclear ballistic missile program by putting pressure on the economy of the country continue as the European Union imposes a new set of unilateral sanctions against North Korea.
This was announced in a statement on North Korea, adopted at a meeting of the EU Council at the level of the foreign ministers in Luxembourg, TASS reported.
The new restrictions target oil trade, financial transactions and the establishment of joint ventures. Exports of European oil will be stopped and a ban on EU investment in North Korea will be expanded.
The new sanctions also put three officials and six organizations on the black list. They will be targeted by asset freezes and travel bans.
The banned luxury goods list will be reviewed and personal payments sent to the rogue state will be capped at 5,000 euros, down from the current 15,000 euros. There will also be tougher restrictions on North Korean citizens working in the EU member countries.
Sanctions come into effect immediately.
The EU action follows sanctions announced by the UN last month, which came after nuclear tests, missile tests and war-like rhetoric from the North Korean regime.
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously imposed a set of sanctions against North Korea on September 11 over the countrys hydrogen bomb test which was conducted on September 3.
The sanctions included limits on import of crude oil and oil products, a ban on textile exports and new visas for North Korean oversees workers.
However, North Korea tested another missile on September 15 in response to the latest set of sanctions imposed by the UN.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
16 October 2017 18:56 (UTC+04:00)
By Trend
Policymakers, diplomats and experts from the research institutes and economic sectors representing the countries of Central, South and Southwest Asia participated in an OSCE-supported academic forum held as part of the Seventh Regional Economic Co-operation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA VII), OSCE said in a message on October 16.
The forum discussed opportunities and new tools to further enhance regional economic co-operation in Central, South and Southwest Asia. The event was organized by the Centre for Strategic Studies of Afghanistans Foreign Ministry in partnership with the Institute of International Relations of Turkmenistans Foreign Ministry and the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat.
The speakers focused on enhancing regional co-operation in the field of energy, assessing regional and inter-regional connectivity and the potential for regional trade and transit facilitation. The forum participants exchanged views on how regional economic initiatives and projects can contribute to regional security and stability, and explored new areas for economic co-operation and integration in the region with a focus on the role of Afghanistan.
The OSCE has been making continuous efforts to assist Afghanistan through various activities and the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat supported todays event within the framework of its extra-budgetary project aimed at facilitating dialogue on regional infrastructure among stakeholders of the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process, said Natalya Drozd, head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat.
Todays forum offered an excellent opportunity for enhancing dialogue on strengthening economic co-operation on Afghanistan among different international, regional and national stakeholders, she added.
It is expected that key outcomes of the academic forum will contribute to the main forum and working group sessions of RECCA VII, which are planned to be held in November in Ashgabat.
Since 2005, the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA) has served as a leading platform for cross-border economic dialogue, trust building, and action in Central, South and Southwest Asia. The RECCA Academic Forum is a platform for scholars, policy analysts and policymakers from across the region to identify opportunities and challenges and respond to the barriers that hinder economic co-operation across the wider region.
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Here are nine anesthesiologists that made headlines in September 2017.
Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine appointed Andrew Rosenberg, MD, its inaugural system-wide CIO.
The Chicago Medical Society appointed anesthesiologist Vemuri Murthy, MD, its 169th president.
The North Carolina Medical Society appointed anesthesiologist John Reynolds, MD, its 164th president at its annual meeting Sept. 16 in Raleigh, N.C.
Top Doctor Awards named Lincoln-based University of Nebraska Medical Center anesthesiologist David Marti, MD, its 2017 Top Doctor in Omaha.
Lexington-based University of Kentucky named anesthesiologist Mark Newman, MD, its new executive vice president for health affairs.
Top Doctor Awards bestowed Kevin Gerold, DO, with 2017 Top Doctor in Baltimore honors.
Noted anesthesiologist Ronald F. Albrecht, MD, 80, died.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University tapped Kyla Terhune, MD, to serve as a 2017-2018 Chancellor's Higher Education Fellow.
Milton-based Orthopaedic Associates of Southern Delaware added Dale Sutherland, MD, to its staff.
Many patients with high-deductible health plans are struggling to pay their hospital bills. The traditional "pay-and-chase" collection model no longer is effective for most healthcare providers.
A majority of American adults reported being unable to afford an unexpected $500 medical bill without borrowing. When patients have to weigh paying their cell phone bill or car insurance against a medical balance, a majority choose the former. In fact, 64 percent of patients will leave their hospital balances unpaid after six months.
In an Oct. 5 webinar sponsored by Naples, Fla.-based ACI Worldwide and hosted by Becker's Hospital Review, Michael Trilli, senior analyst at Boston-based market research firm Aite Group, Mark Archer, co-founder of Buffalo, N.Y.-based Noggintechs, and Steve Kramer, vice president of ACI Worldwide, shared techniques and strategies on how hospitals can increase patient collections.
More payments coming out of patients' pockets, providers must redesign their revenue cycle
Under HDHPs, many consumers need help paying larger medical bills. At the same time, patients expect the same streamlined financial experience in healthcare as they do in other consumer-driven industries. This means providers must design a payment experience with financial engagement in mind.
"The environment is moving from a copayer type of environment to a medical bill payment type of environment, and that's a drastic change," says Mr. Trilli. "This is a trend that is going to continue to escalate as we move forward in the years."
In 2016, consumers paid $423.8 billion toward medical bills. Mr. Trilli expects this number to increase to $445.7 billion by the end of 2017 and ultimately reach a total of $515.1 billion by the end of 2019.
"This shift requires providers consider two new areas that impact their collection strategy as this trend continues to move forward," he adds. First, providers have to figure out how to get medical bills to be a priority for consumers, and then, they must figure out how to create a sustainable collection model.
The new proposed payment model
Patients receive on average 3.3 billing statements before paying an outstanding expense, and 30 percent of patients leave their healthcare provider without paying anything, presenting a disengagement problem.
Consumers find medical bills confusing and difficult to understand compared to other bills, such as utilities or internet, ultimately driving down their desire to pay, Mr. Trilli says. Those other bills are often listed on one single, consolidated bill and offer consumers the option to pay in installments, compared to healthcare, whose bills are lengthy or may require they pay in full.
Mr. Trilli proposes a three-part patient engagement model in which the point-of-service goal changes from collecting a copayment to receiving a commitment to pay. The idea behind his model is to turn a one-time payment event into recurring events. He recommends a personalized and digital approach that gives patients more options.
According to Mr. Archer, whose company, Noggintechs, uses patient payment analytics tools to boost patient revenue, organizations should engage patients in the financial component of their care throughout the entire episode of care, from when the appointment has been made until the bill has been paid. Payment models thrive when providers know how to communicate effectively. For example, collection rates could be 25 percent higher if providers communicate with their patients on the channel they prefer.
Specifically, providers should contact patients about their financial responsibility and set up payment plans as early as possible, including before the appointment.
"Remember you are competing for the consumers' disposable income, and it's a zero-sum game. There's only so much to go around," Mr. Archer says, adding that "pre-appointment is also an opportune time to communicate balances owed from previous services." Following up with emails, text messages or messages on patient portals also contributes to increased payments made.
A propensity payment model, which calculates the odds a patient will pay, works best when it considers how a patient paid his or her past medical bill against how the patient pays his or her other bills. The model uses statistical analytics and machine learning to score patients from more to less likely to pay so collection strategies can be more focused and personalized. It considers variables like balance due, past behavior and demographics.
Personalize your collections messages
Mr. Archer says it is important to use data to segment patients based on their past financial behaviors and ability to pay to fine-tune collection strategies. Patients are then divided into four subsets forgetful, entitled, struggling and problem. For example, when dealing with an entitled patient, or someone who is able to pay but does not wish to pay anymore than his or her premium, communication should emphasize rewards for paying the medical bill in full. Contacting this group via mail and text messages with medium to high frequency and offering them multiple payment options reaps the most benefits.
Once an array of data is collected, machine learning can more accurately guide and accelerate these analytics-driven segmentation models.
"The overarching idea is to find the right message with the right tone [and] send it through the best channel at the right frequency with compelling reason or offer at the right time," he says, adding that this communication should ensure "all patients [are still] treated with respect."
When getting ready to deploy new collection strategies, Mr. Archer recommends starting with the things that "have the lowest level of effort but good impact" begin by building communication channel functionality, then vary the tone and frequency of billing messages. Mr. Archer recommends offering rewards for early payments and payment plans, all while using analytics to determine how to offset the money spent with the returns. The last step may involve using live operators to work on unique segments that respond well enough to offset the higher costs.
Satisfying patient demands
Patients (88 percent) want easier to read, more straightforward healthcare bills according to an Aite Group survey cited by Mr. Kramer. They also want convenience, multiple funding options or customized payment plans, as well as increased security, speed and payment confirmation.
"There are all kinds of challenges that healthcare bills give you that those other bills don't," says Mr. Kramer, whose company, ACI Worldwide, provides patient financial engagement technology to raise patient revenue by 27 percent.
Mr. Kramer recommends first determining your return on investment because simple calculations show it can be well worth adding predictive analytics and machine learning to segment and communicate with patients about paying medical bills.
"The status quo just isn't an option anymore you have to start thinking about [patient payments] as a bill payment," says Mr. Kramer. "Are you reaching the consumer where they live? Are you giving them the options they need? Are you reaching them the appropriate way and offering them ways to pay it if they don't have it today? [This] can drive those payments and interactions."
Keep learning
The key is to better understand how patients want to pay. See the survey results of how Americans pay for healthcare.
To view the webinar recording, click here.
To view the webinar slides, click here.
Start your week off right by taking a look at some of Becker's Hospital Review's top stories from last week.
1. The 2 actions Trump took on healthcare Thursday: 9 things to know
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday morning to ease restrictions on association health plans, short-term insurance coverage and health reimbursement agreements. Later in the day, he ended cost-sharing reduction subsidies to insurers a move that will take effect immediately with no transition period.
2. Dignity Health's operating loss widens to $66.8M with loss of state provider-fee revenues
Dignity Health, a 39-hospital system based in San Francisco, saw its operating loss widen in fiscal year 2017 even as it booked higher revenue and held expenses in check. However, like many systems, it benefited from higher investment income.
3. CMS revokes Medicare funding, imposes $63k penalty to nursing home where 14 residents died
CMS cut off Medicare funding and imposed an approximately $63,000 penalty to Hollywood, Fla.-based Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills where 14 residents died after the facility lost power when Hurricane Irma made landfall in the state.
4. Dr. Scott Gottlieb: Hospitals could see drug shortages in 2 to 3 weeks
The U.S. could see several drug shortages within the next two to three weeks due to manufacturing issues in Puerto Rico, according to Scott Gottlieb, MD, head of the Food and Drug Administration.
5. AHA report: Community benefits from tax-exempt hospitals outweigh tax revenue foregone by an 11-1 ratio
The community benefit from nonprofit hospitals far outweighs the federal revenue forgone due to the tax-exempt status of these nonprofit facilities by an 11-1 ratio, according to a report conducted by Ernst and Young commissioned by the American Hospital Association.
6. Tenet sells hospital to Loyola with eye on exiting Chicago market
Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare has reached a definitive agreement to sell MacNeal Hospital, a 368-bed community hospital in Berwyn, Ill., and its affiliated operations to Chicago-based Loyola Medicine.
7. Dignity Health hospital to cover all of Las Vegas shooting victims' medical bills
While some Las Vegas hospitals said they plan to use the influx of donations they have received to help pay for some of the medical costs incurred by victims of the Oct. 1 shooting, one area hospital claimed it would foot the entire bill for all injured victims.
The following healthcare mergers, acquisitions, partnerships and general transactions took place or were announced during the past week.
1. Jefferson, Monell Center sign letter of intent to merge
Philadelphia-based Jefferson university (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) signed a letter of intent to merge with the Monell Center, an independent nonprofit scientific institute dedicated to the interdisciplinary research on the senses of taste and smell, also based in Philadelphia, Oct. 12.
2. Arizona medical centers merge under Summit Health name
Fifty-one Arizona medical providers currently affiliated with Peoria-based Arizona Primary Care Physicians will form a new physicians group Summit Medical Group Arizona under a partnership agreement with Summit Health Management of New Jersey.
3. Tenet sells hospital to Loyola with eye on exiting Chicago market
Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare reached a definitive agreement to sell MacNeal Hospital, a 368-bed community hospital in Berwyn, Ill., and its affiliated operations to Chicago-based Loyola Medicine.
4. CoxHealth to acquire Missouri hospital
CoxHealth, a five-hospital system in Springfield, Mo., signed a letter of intent to acquire Barton County Memorial Hospital in Lamar, Mo., Oct. 10.
5. Catholic Health expands partnership with Buffalo Medical Group
Catholic Health System, a five-hospital system in Buffalo, N.Y., expanded its partnership with Buffalo Medical Group, a group physician practice with four main New York locations in Buffalo, Williamsville and Orchard Park.
6. Temple University Hospital, St. Luke's form strategic partnership for transplant services
Temple University Hospital, a 722-bed academic medical center in Philadelphia, entered into a strategic partnership Oct. 10 with Bethlehem, Pa.-based St. Luke's University Health Network to streamline coordination of care for select transplant services.
7. HCA offshoot to lease East Jefferson General Hospital
Metairie, La.-based East Jefferson General Hospital's board of directors signed a letter of intent Oct. 10 to lease the facility to New Orleans-based University Healthcare System.
8. KentuckyOne Health transfers ownership of clinic for $0
Rather than permanently shutter one of its clinics, Louisville-based KentuckyOne Health transferred ownership of Westside Medical Center Primary Care Clinic to Family Health Centers, both in Louisville, at no charge.
9. BJC HealthCare to consider severing 30-year operating lease early if Boone Hospital joins MU Health Care
St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare will consider terminating its 30-year operating lease with Columbia, Mo.-based Boone Hospital Center early if the hospital successfully finalizes its partnership with University of Missouri Health Care, also in Columbia.
10. Stanford Health Care partners with California hospital for heart surgery
Dameron Hospital, a 200-plus-bed hospital in Stockton, Calif., partnered with Stanford (Calif.) Health Care Oct. 5 to improve its cardiothoracic surgery program.
11. Adventist, Rideout Health finalize affiliation agreement
Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health reached an affiliation agreement with Marysville, Calif.-based Rideout Health.
Baltimore police charged a woman with first degree murder for fatally stabbing her husband during an altercation at Baltimore-based The Johns Hopkins Hospital, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Investigators reported to the hospital just before 2:15 p.m. Friday following reports of a death at the hospital. Johns Hopkins staff told police Anita Jones, 30, and her husband Christopher Yancey Sr., 33, had been arguing as they waited for their son to undergo a procedure at the facility. Hospital administrators claimed Ms. Jones came out of the room and told staff Mr. Yancey had cut himself, CBS News Baltimore states.
Hospital staff reportedly went into the room and found Mr. Yancey with cuts to his upper body. Officials pronounced him dead "a short time later," according to CBS News Baltimore.
Upon arrival, police conducted an investigation and determined Mr. Yancey's injuries were "not consistent with an apparent suicide," CBS News Baltimore states. Police did not find a weapon at the scene. Administrators told police Ms. Jones had left the hospital just before investigators arrived.
Police obtained a warrant and arrested Ms. Jones Saturday and charged her with the murder of Mr. Yancey. Investigators have still not located the murder weapon as of Oct. 16.
"Baltimore City Police are investigating the death of a visitor that occurred in a patient room today. This was an isolated incident and at no time were patients, staff or other visitors in danger. We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of the deceased. Since this is a police investigation, we must defer all inquiries to them," a spokesperson for The Johns Hopkins Hospital told CBS News Baltimore.
More articles about legal and regulatory issues:
VA: West Virginia facility manipulated wait times, patient data
Former Cleveland Clinic executive pleads guilty in $2.7M fraud scheme
California sues federal government over birth control decision
Congress passed a law in April 2016, which effectively eliminated the Drug Enforcement Administration's ability to freeze suspicious shipments of opioids from drug distributors, according to a joint investigative report conducted by The Washington Post and "60 Minutes."
Here are seven things to know.
1. The investigation's primary source is Joe Rannazzisi, former chief of the DEA's Office of Diversion Control. Under Mr. Rannazzisi, the office took a more aggressive approach to reducing the number of opioids that made it into the illicit drug market by targeting the companies supplying the numerous pill mills cropping up nationwide.
2. When the DEA suspected drug distributors were ignoring suspicious orders of opioids, the agency, under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, filed an order requiring companies to explain within 30 days why they should not have their registration revoked. When the orders were particularly outlandish, the DEA implemented suspension orders, which halted shipments of the drugs under the implication the narcotics represented imminent danger to the community.
3. Over a 10-year period, the DEA brought at least 17 cases against 13 drug distributors and one drugmaker. The actions resulted in $425 million in fines, which represents a fraction of the industry's annual revenue.
4. During this time, political action committees on behalf of drug companies contributed $1.5 million to 23 lawmakers who sponsored or co-sponsored four versions of a bill to reduce the DEA's ability to investigate the industry. Under pressure from Congress, the DEA and the Department of Justice eventual ceded to the idea of a more industry-friendly drug law. This pressure also allegedly led DEA administrators to relieve Mr. Rannazzisi from his position in 2015.
5. Drug industry lobbyists specifically delivered $100,000 to Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., and $177,000 to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the congressional leaders who sponsored the 2016 law known as the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act. Mr. Marino refused to be interviewed for the article, as did the majority of drug companies and distributors mentioned in the piece.
6. In a statement emailed to The Washington Post, Matt Whitlock, a spokesman for Mr. Hatch, wrote, "We worked collaboratively with DEA and DOJ . . . and they contributed significantly to the language of the bill DEA had plenty of opportunities to stop the bill and they did not do so."
7. From 2000 to 2015, more than 500,000 people died of opioid-related overdoses, according to the CDC. The DEA hasn't issued a suspension order against a drug distributor in two years. Mr. Marino is President Donald Trump's current nominee for drug czar.
To read the full report from The Washington Post, click here.
To watch the "60 Minutes" investigation, click here.
More articles on opioids:
10 actions the government should take to address the opioid crisis, according to 2 experts
2 Michigan counties file joint opioid lawsuit against drugmakers, distributors
10 recent opioid epidemic lawsuits
Florida Hospital Oceanside, an 80-bed hospital in Ormond Beach, remains closed more than a month after Hurricane Irma damaged the facility, and it is unclear when the hospital will reopen, according to The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
"Florida Hospital Oceanside sustained significant damage both to the exterior and interior of the facility," Ed Noseworthy, CEO of Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center in Daytona and Florida Hospital Oceanside, told The Daytona Beach News-Journal. "We've received all reports and are reviewing the assessments and evaluating the necessary repairs."
While Florida Hospital Oceanside is shut down, the hospital's staff has transitioned to Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center. Both hospitals are part of Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Adventist Health System.
More articles on patient flow:
Ohio hospital forced to evacuate patients, staff after fire breaks out
Community hospitals in crisis mode after wildfires shut down Kaiser, Sutter hospitals
Puerto Rico's healthcare system in dire condition 3 weeks after hurricane: 5 things to know
Eight of the 20 Medicare Advantage plans selected as five-star policies by U.S. News & World Report for 2018 were Kaiser Permanente brands.
To determine the best plans, U.S. News & World Report examined CMS data, including its 2018 Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage. Plans included in U.S. News & World Report's list earned an average of at least four and a half out of five stars, with all of its plans earning at least three stars in a given state.
Here are the 20 plans earning five stars for 2018, listed by state.
California
Kaiser Permanente (Oakland)
Colorado
Kaiser Permanente (Denver)
District of Columbia
Kaiser Permanente (Rockville, Md.)
Florida
HealthSun Health Plans (Coconut Grove, Fla.)
Optimum Healthcare (Tampa)
Georgia
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield (Columbus)
Hawaii
Kaiser Permanente (Honolulu)
Iowa
Senior Preferred (Part of Gundersen Health Plan in Onalaska, Wis.)
Maryland
Kaiser Permanente (Rockville)
Massachusetts
Tufts Health Plan (Watertown)
Minnesota
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Eagan)
Oregon
Kaiser Permanente (Portland)
Providence Health Assurance (Beaverton)
Texas
Kelseycare Advantage (Pearland)
Virginia
Kaiser Permanente (Rockville)
Washington
Kaiser Permanente (Portland)
Providence Health Assurance (Beaverton, Ore.)
Wisconsin
Dean Advantage (Madison, Wis.)
Medical Associates Clinic Health Plan of Wisconsin (Dubuque, Iowa)
Senior Preferred
Note: This article was updated Oct. 19 because of an error in the data provided by CMS.
The Department of Justice called off its lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group claiming the Minnetonka, Minn.-based insurer submitted false claims to increase Medicare payments, Reuters reports.
The government dropped the claims after a federal judge rejected the lawsuit last week, but said it could be amended. U.S. District Judge John Walter in Los Angeles ruled last Thursday the government's lawsuit failed to name UnitedHealth officials who signed documents confirming the accuracy of information submitted to the government. Judge Walter also ruled the lawsuit did not allege any individuals knew the information was inaccurate, and that the claims failed to show the government would not have paid UnitedHealth if federal officials knew about the inaccuracies.
UnitedHealth spokesperson Matt Burns told Reuters the payer is "pleased with the government's decision to dismiss these meritless claims." The DOJ declined to comment on the decision.
Earlier this year, the DOJ intervened in two whistle-blower lawsuits against UnitedHealth over Medicare Advantage reimbursement under the False Claims Act. The lawsuit Judge Walter rejected, which the DOJ filed in May, concerned a whistle-blower lawsuit filed in 2009 by James Swoben, a former employee of a California-based managed care plan. The second lawsuit, claiming UnitedHealth defrauded Medicare of at least $1 billion in false claims, is still pending.
The U.S. could see several drug shortages within the next two to three weeks due to manufacturing issues in Puerto Rico, according to Scott Gottlieb, MD, head of the Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Gottlieb told Reuters Wednesday drug companies are working to resume normal operations at manufacturing sites following Hurricane Maria. The drugmakers are struggling to find a reliable power source for the Puerto Rican sites, as only 16 percent of the island's electricity services have been restored since the hurricane hit nearly three weeks ago.
"A lot of companies say they're online, but they basically have one of five lines running at 20 percent or 80 percent or 50 percent," Dr. Gottlieb told Reuters. "They are not manufacturing at full capacity. They are manufacturing well short of that."
It is unclear when the drugmakers will be able to reach full manufacturing capacity, according to Dr. Gottlieb.
Last week, the FDA head said about 40 drugs and medical devices could experience national shortages due to the manufacturing disruptions. Under the present circumstances, Dr. Gottlieb said hospitals and pharmacies could see shortages for a few drugs within the next two to three weeks.
More articles on supply chain:
Express Scripts to acquire eviCore for $3.6B: 4 things to know
Lupin earns FDA approval for generic blood pressure drug
4 drug, devicemakers in the headlines
Arthrex is set to build a $30 million manufacturing plant in Anderson County, S.C.
Here are five insights:
1. The 200,000 square foot surgical device and manufacturing plant will begin construction in the early 2018 and is project to be completed the following year.
2. Arthrex expects to create 1,000 jobs for machinists, assemblers, engineers and operations management over the next five years with the expansion. The company also plans to develop advanced manufacturing training programs, according to Naples News.
3. The medical device company plans to work with Tri-County Technical College in Anderson, Fla., to recruit potential employees. Arthrex chose Anderson County due to its advanced manufacturing training programs, including Tri-County Technical College.
4. This is the fourth U.S. Arthrex location with its global headquarters in North Naples, Fla. The company has 3,000 employees in the U.S.
5. Arthrex specializes in designing, developing and manufacturing minimally invasive orthopedic surgery devices. The company has more than 11,000 devices under its domain.
When IP does battle with competition - fur goes
a flying
discussion about the intersection of intellectual property and competition at Panel Session IV: The business of IP IP and competition. Clare Cunliffe reports:The panel was chaired by Erick Ficks (a Stockholm-based Partner and Head of Roschier's Intellectual Property, Brand Protection, Marketing & Consumer, and Public Procurement practices division). The panel members were Annabelle Bennett AO SC (a retired judge of the Federal Court of Australia), Damian Wasserbauer of Wasserbauer IP, a specialists in patent strategy, litigation, prosecution, and licensing, and Christian Vollrath of the European Commissions enforcement commission (appearing in a private capacity).The panel explained that the interface between intellectual property and competition has been apparent for a long time. The interface exists because intellectual property and competition pursue the same objective, of incentivising innovation. Specific aspects of that objective are safeguarded by competition law, where one player in the market possesses market power, or where there is collusion between players in the market. The basic principles of the interface are therefore well established, although new situations arise with the development of new technology. The panel observed that competition law does not treat cases involving intellectual property any differently to other cases. That is to say, the existence of intellectual property rights does not dictate the outcome of litigation. The most significant consideration in every case is whether the intellectual property holder is dominant in the market.The Honourable Annabelle Bennett explained that the interface between IP and competition is the subject of scrutiny in Australia since Australia's Productivity Commission gave a report on its inquiry into Australia's Intellectual Property Arrangements to the Government in September 2016. The report arose from a recommendation in an earlier competition law review (the Harper Review) which suggested that Australia's IP regime needed to be viewed through a competition prism. The final Productivity Commission report recommended sweeping changes to all aspects of Australia's IP system. In August 2017, the Australian Government released its response, which accepted some of the recommendations, rejected others, and indicated the need for further consultation on others. Although the response suggested that intellectual property and competition share the purpose of furthering innovation, the relation between them is complicated. For example, the Government accepted that it should incorporate an objects clause into the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) describing the purpose of the legislation as enhancing the wellbeing of Australians by promoting technological innovation, transfer and dissemination, and that in so doing, the patent system should balance the interests of producers, owners and users of technology. Ms Bennett explained that it is not clear how this clause should be applied by Courts in determining the outcome of patent proceedings. This will need to be elucidated by judges. In another example, the Government accepted the recommendation that section 51(3) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (which provides an exception to some of the restrictive trade practices provisions of that Act in relation to intellectual property licensing) should be repealed, but noted that where anti-competitive conduct in this space is nonetheless in the public interest, authorisation will be available from Australias competition watchdog, the ACCC . However, it remains to be seen how those provisions will work in practice (in response to a later question from the audience, Mr Ficks suggested that block exemption s, which are available in the EU, were a useful tool in helping companies comply with competition law in their settlement agreements).Mr Wasserbauer noted that unfair competition law is well settled in the US, and that the major issues which arise relate to mega-mergers and issues around FRAND licensing (for example, the patent pools which are covered by FRAND licences, and the issue of whether the terms offered by essential patent holders are unfavourable). The consistent challenge for regulators is to respond to creative attempts by companies with market power to avoid regulation.In the EU, the interface between intellectual property law and competition recognises the importance of intellectual property, but also recognised that competition fosters innovation. The panel gave the example of pay-for-delay cases, where a settlement agreement restricts generic market entry in exchange for benefits transferred from the originator to the generic company. Such agreements (which have been the subject of scrutiny in the EU and the US), most often relate to formulation patents, and result in delayed market entry of cheaper generic medicine.Mr Wasserbauer agreed that pay for delay had a significant effect on the market. He observed in the case of patent pools, where licence fees are tiered to reflect the expiry of patents, pay for delay could have the effect of keeping licence fees higher for longer. Mr Wasserbauer noted that competition laws were an important consideration in the context of IP harmonisation, because where IP laws are harmonised but competition laws are not, transaction costs will be increased. The panel noted that the formal harmonisation of IP laws was likely to be very difficult, but that there was an indirect drive to harmonise, with many jurisdictions having introduced competition laws. Ms Bennett noted that when adjudicating local disputes concerning global agreements, the local market conditions were likely to be significant. The panel noted that this was a particularly significant consideration in the context of trade secrets, where the law of trade secrets differs markedly between different jurisdictions, with the effect that a global agreement might be differently construed in different places.Mr Ficks asked what issues the Internet of Things might raise for competition. The panel responded that although the question of interoperability posed interesting issues in the context of competition, the key question is still likely to be whether any player in the market is dominant. If they are, competition considerations will apply. If they are not, then they will have freedom to operate. The difficult issue is ascertaining whether and when a particular player is dominant. Ms Bennett observed that clear guidelines for assessing dominance might be of more assistance that, for example, objects clauses. Mr Wasserbauer noted the Internet of Things has not yet been built. However, he highlighted one significant issue in the context of interoperability requirements. In the US context, compulsory licensing schemes have previously been rejected in light of the US Constitutions takings clause . Without a way to ensure that interoperability requirements are not a barrier to entry, the Internet of Things may have detrimental effects on competition.We wait with interest to see how the regulation of competition in the context of intellectual property will unfold in these jurisdictions
Indian River County officials charged 51-year-old orthopedic spine surgeon Johnny Benjamin, MD, with felony fentanyl trafficking, robbery and grand theft, according to TC Palm.
Here are seven things to know.
1. Officials received a report from an individual who claimed Dr. Benjamin grabbed the man's cellphone at Vero Beach, Fla.-based Pro Spine Center and proceeded to place the phone in a peanut jar filled with cotton balls, according to TC Palm. Police arrested Dr. Benjamin for the allegations related to the phone.
2. In addition to the two felonies related to the phone, the state's attorney's office also charged Dr. Benjamin with attempting to traffic fentanyl. Assistant State Attorney Ryan Butler did not comment on the fentanyl charge. Regarding the cellphone's relation to the fentanyl charge, Mr. Ryan said, "Don't assume that one stemmed from the other."
3. Sebastian Daily reports Dr. Benjamin said during an interview with police he did not know anything regarding the phone incident.
4. Dr. Benjamin is a past chairman of Indian River Medical and the director of Medical Specialties Surgery Center, both located in Vero Beach.
5. He completed his orthopedic surgery residency at Philadelphia-based Temple University Hospital and his spine fellowship at Clearwater-based Florida Spine Institute.
6. Dr. Benjamin practices out of Pro Spine Center a 5,000-square-foot ASC. The company owning the building housing Pro Spine Center tried to evict Dr. Benjamin in December 2015. In 2013, Dr. Benjamin faced malpractice changes as well as a wrongful death suit in 2011.
7. Dr. Benjamin's hearing is scheduled for Oct. 20.
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* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati received the 2022 Adepi Award
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* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018.
* IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.
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Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008.
India is among the fastest growing medical tourism destinations in Asia: Teaotia Ayurveda, yoga and wellness industry in India set it apart from other medical tourism destinations in the world, the official said.
The government of India recently, has been proactively pushing the idea of medical tourism. Now since the wheels of this concept have churning rapidly, the government estimates it will reach a US $9 billion mark by 2020, making India the fastest growing medical tourism destinations in Asia.
During the early days of medical tourism, the attention was always given to developed countries, said Rita Teaotia, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce.
It has now shifted to Asia, and India is among the fastest growing medical tourism destinations in Asia, she said, addressing the third edition of Advantage Healthcare India 2017 summit, being held by FICCI.
Medical tourism, wherein people travel outside their countries for medical treatment, is estimated to be a $3 billion-worth industry.
Ayurveda, yoga and wellness industry in India set it apart from other medical tourism destinations in the world, the official said.
Ayurveda has managed to catch the attention of many countries, especially European countries. The government will continue to focus on global acceptance of Ayurveda on the lines of Chinese medicine, she said.
Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary of Department of IT, Biotechnology and Tourism for Karnataka, said: Karnataka, with direct connectivity to world capitals, and 56 medical colleges, and 19 National Accreditation for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) accredited hospitals, is soon going to come out with a medical and wellness tourism policy.
India can be a $9 billion-worth medical tourism destination by 2020, Gupta said.
According to a recent FICCI report, over 500,000 foreign patients seek treatment in India every year.
The international summit on medical tourism is being organised by Ficci, along with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and its Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC).
The three-day summit has over 700 delegates taking part in it from over 50 countries like the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, among others.
Pic- Maps Of India
All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA) is the first medical institute under Ministry of AYUSH to hold the coveted status of NABH accreditation
India will get its first ever All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA)on Ayurveda Day on 17th October, 2017.
This institute has been set up along the lines of AIIMS. This apex institute under the Ministry of AYUSH will bring synergy between the traditional wisdom of Ayurveda and modern diagnostic tools and technology.
Shripad Yesso Naik at a press conferences in New Delhi said, Within the short duration of its establishment, AIIA has gained a wide national and International recognition. It has started working to facilitate quality patient care, research and bridging the gaps in the scientific information about quality, safety and efficacy of Ayurveda products and developing benchmarks of Ayurvedic education, research and healthcare.
In the first phase, the AIIA has been set up within a total campus area of 10.015 acres with a budget of Rs.157 Crores. It has an NABH Accredited Hospital and an Academic Block. Out Patient Services are being provided in the hospital block of AIIA and medicines are given free of cost. Currently, the clinical specialties running in the hospital block are Neurological & Degenerative Disease Care Unit, Rheumatology & Musculoskeletal Care Unit, Diabetes & Metabolic/Allergic Disorders Care Unit, Yoga, Panchakarma Clinic, Kriya Kalpa, Diabetic Retinopathy Clinic, Kshara Evum Anushastra Karma and Infertility Clinic. It also has pathology, biochemistry, microbiology and Radiology laboratories/Diagonosis facilities. The indoor patient department has provision for 200 beds, he added.
Giving more details, the AYUSH Minister said that, The Post Graduate programme (MD/MS) in Ayurveda at AIIA started from the academic session 2016-17 and the Ph.D courses started from the session 2017-18. The AIIA has been awarded with NABH Accreditation, therefore becoming the first medical institute under the Ministry of AYUSH to hold the coveted status provided for its clinical services. The AIIA has already signed MoU with NICPR- Noida (ICMR), AIIMS New Delhi, MDNIY and EAA (Germany). It has developed standard treatment guidelines for diabetes and SOP for various procedures.
This year, Second Ayurveda Day will be organised at the All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), Sarita Vihar, New Delhi.
The Prime Minister of India will be the chief Guest of the function and will dedicate the AIIA to the Nation. The Ayurvedic Standard Treatment Guidelines developed by the Ministry will also be released on this occasion.
MATTOON (JG-TC) -- One person was injured as the result of a structure fire Monday morning on South 16th Street.
The Mattoon Fire Department reported in a press release that firefighters responded at 6:45 a.m. to this fire at 705 S. 16th St. Upon arrival at the scene, fire crews reported finding smoke throughout the residence and an active fire in an upstairs bedroom. Fire crews entered the structure and worked to extinguish the fire, which was contained to the upstairs bedroom.
Two occupants were home at the time of the fire and one them was subsequently treated at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center for burns and smoke inhalation, according to the fire department. Firefighters determined that the fire originated in the upstairs bedroom and was accidentally caused by lit candles that had been left unattended, the department reported.
Smoke damage was noted throughout the residence, with heat and water damage inside the upstairs bedroom. The Mattoon Fire Department was assisted by the Charleston Fire Department, Mattoon Police Department, and Mitchell-Jerdan Ambulance service. Fire department personnel cleared the scene at 7:30 a.m.
The Mattoon Fire Department has issued a reminder for community members to blow out all candles before they leave a room or go to bed. They should also make sure to maintain a working smoke alarm, authorities noted.
Greenpeace activists have delivered about 100 bags of coal to the entrance of the Commonwealth Bank's headquarters in Sydney in protest against its refusal to rule out future investment in new coal projects.
Protesters wearing hazmat suits pushed trolleys bearing the slogan "#Coalbank" to the bank's doorstep.
Greenpeace activists deliver a load of coal to the front of the Commonwealth Bank's Harbour Street office in Sydney on Monday to highlight the consequences of its fossil fuel lending policies. Credit:Greenpeace/James Alcock
Greenpeace spokesman Jonathan Moylan said the bank promised to support a transition to net zero emissions by 2050 but its actions made a mockery of that promise.
"By failing to exclude highly polluting fossil fuel projects like coal mines, CommBank are funding projects that destroy our environment, take a catastrophic toll on the health of communities, and accelerate climate change," he said.
Support money has been slashed, paperwork is regularly lost and some Canberrans with disabilities are left in limbo or not consulted about their needs under the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
These are some of the failings outlined by the ACT government in a recent submission to a federal parliamentary inquiry into the scheme, as the territory struggles to absorb the ballooning costs of the roll-out and wait times climb.
A lack of support for equipment and assistive technology like prosthetic limbs was a key concern highlighted in the ACT government's submission.
The ACT provides almost 60 per cent of the scheme's funding for local participants, but said it was regularly picking up extra costs even after the full scheme came into effect last year.
By 2019-20, government spending on the scheme will jump more than 30 per cent to $167 million, though the Commonwealth is also expected to lift its funding to $175 million.
Fur. Whatever, right? Australia is a beach country with relatively mild winters. Fur is simply not part of our fashion culture in the way that it is in places like New York and Milan. Or Russia. Oh God, Russia. I once went to Moscow during winter, and the entire population seemed to be swathed in unholy amounts of the stuff. But, what does Australia, about to head into bikinis-and-boardies season, care if Gucci bans fur?
In fact, fur-trimmed accessories do seem quite popular here, and I saw a lot of puffer coats with fur trimmed hoods and rabbit fur gilets this winter. The Rome-based fur house Fendi entered the Australian market this year, opening stores in Westfield Sydney and Melbourne's Chadstone. While they sell ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes and accessory collections, fur remains the brand's raison d'etre. There are Fendi evening gowns made from shaved mink cut to resemble flower petals, and Fendi coats made from 'Persian lamb' (also known as astrakhan, it's the tightly-curled fleece of a fetal or newborn lambs; gross), rare sable and lynx fur.
Not being modern is the kiss of death for fashion. Credit:AP
I know fur is fur, and cruel is cruel, but it seems particularly abhorrent to me that anyone could dream of wearing the pelt of the near-threatened lynx.
By saying fur is "not modern" last week, as the house pledged to ditch it by 2018, Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele has done something wonderful for those who disapprove of fur. He has rendered it instantly, devastatingly uncool. And cool matters desperately to fashion. Cool is what underpins the entire thing.
A "very brave" six-year-old girl managed to break free from the clutches of a mystery man and scream for help during a "disturbing" home invasion in Logan on Monday morning, according to police.
The young child's screams caused her attacker to flee, but not before he punched her in the face in an attempt to keep her quiet, as she lay on the lounge in her Pinelands Street home in Loganlea.
CCTV vision of the man police would like to speak to over the assault of a six-year-old Loganlea girl. Credit:Queensland Police Service
Detective Senior Sergeant Grant Ralston said the male offender broke into the house through a back door just before 5am and made his way upstairs to the child's bedroom.
He picked her up from her bed, carried her downstairs to the lounge and laid her on the couch.
A pedestrian is fighting for life after a driver lost control in the wet, knocking him into a Brisbane creek, paramedics say.
The incident came as rescuers were combing a waterway near Gympie for another man who was swept away in floodwater on Monday evening while his wife watched.
Paramedics rushed to Norman Creek, Woolloongabba, about 6.35am after a passerby found the pedestrian and the car in the creek, just off Turbo Drive.
A car plunged into Norman Creek at Woolloongabba, reportedly knocking a pedestrian into the creek.
The pedestrian, believed to be in his 40s, was rushed to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in a critical condition with significant chest and pelvic injuries plus signs of "post-immersion", a Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said.
Anticipating a visit to Israel by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for centenary commemorations of the charge of the Light Horse at Beersheba on October 31, the Times of Israel has reproduced a re-enactment photograph showing horsemen bearing the Australian and Israeli flags side-by-side.
Quite apart from anything else the image is historically inaccurate since no such Israeli flag existed in 1917, nor the State of Israel itself. That would come 31 years later.
Ben Chifley said it "was not a matter of choosing between the bad and the good, but of choosing the least of a number of evils". Credit:National Archives of Australia
Why such an ahistorical embellishment of a sacred event in Australian military history should be necessary is a matter for the organisers, but it is difficult to escape a conclusion politics is involved at some level.
I'm with former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer when he says: "Historical recreations of the charge of the Light Horse at Beersheba are inaccurate if either the flag of Israel or the flag of the Palestinian Authority is incorporated."
Washington: A man arrested this week after authorities said they found child pornography on his mobile phone worked for US President Donald Trump's voter fraud commission, according to a senior administration official.
Ronald Williams II, 37, of Suitland, Maryland was a researcher for the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss a personnel matter.
Kris Kobach, Kansas secretary of state, at the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Credit:Bloomberg
Trump launched the commission after making unfounded claims that millions of fraudulently cast ballots cost him the popular vote in last year's election against Democrat Hillary Clinton. The commission is chaired by Vice President Mike Pence and co-chaired by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Williams was on secondment to the commission from the Office of the Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency. His work with the voting commission was abruptly terminated this week, the senior administration official said. A spokeswoman for the Office of the Special Counsel declined to comment on Williams' status with that agency.
CHARLESTON -- The newly formed chapter of the Sweet Adelines singing group is set to debut with a public performance on Sunday.
The performance will begin at 3 p.m. and take place in Salsbury Church, 2350 E. Madison Ave., Charleston, and will also feature other four-part harmony singing groups, Sweet Adelines chapter organizer Patti Murphy said.
Murphy said the group is now ready for public performances after receiving its membership charter last month from the international Sweet Adelines organization.
"It's mostly to celebrate a cappella music and to celebrate our getting our charter," she said.
Tickets for Sunday's performance are $12 for adults and $10 for children, students and senior citizens.
Murphy said the chapter, called the East Central Harmony Chorus, is non-profit and ticket proceeds will cover its director's traveling expenses and go to music purchases.
She said Sunday's audience can expect to hear a wide variety of a cappella singing. There will also be separate and joint performances from other groups during the show, she said.
Murphy said those groups include the Coles County Barbershop Chorus and and the Toast of Champaign Sweet Adelines chapter, both of which have helped support the East Central Harmony Chorus.
The Eastern Illinois University Euphonics group and a newly formed girls quartet from Charleston High School will also perform, she said.
Murphy said tickets purchases will make audience members eligible for door prize drawings that will take place between acts on Sunday. There will also be caked served after the performance, she said.
Tickets will be available at the door, which will open at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Murphy said Salsbury Church isn't charging the group for the use of its space.
Tickets can be purchased in advance by calling Murphy at 217-345-9558. She said anyone interested in joining the chorus or wanting more information can call her at that number as well.
There are currently 17 members of the East Central Harmony Chorus. Murphy said the group rehearses at 6:30 p.m. each Thursday at Otterbein United Methodist Church in Charleston, which also provides its space free of charge.
The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar T.D. and Michael Creed T.D., Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine announced last week that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is to fund the development of a new National Food Innovation Hub at the Teagasc Moorepark Campus in Fermoy.
The primary objective of the National Food Innovation Hub is to create a business innovation network involving dairy companies, Moorepark Technology Ltd (MTL), incubator companies and public-private partnership based R&D programmes with a research focus on food processing, quality and nutrition.
It involves constructing up to 12 customer application suites containing office and laboratory space, so that each company can have an on-campus presence to conduct new-product development etc.
The Hub will be directly linked to both the Teagasc Food Research Centre and MTL to engender close collaboration between the research centres and the companies located on the Moorepark campus. It is envisaged that this unique food cluster will stimulate intensive collaboration between companies and Teagasc researchers to create a platform for innovation, economic growth and job creation.
The investment in the National Food Innovation Hub comes on top of a 10 million investment by Teagasc and the dairy industry in MTL (Moorepark) to expand and upgrade its pilot processing facilities - this upgrade is currently underway.
Speaking from the launch of the National Food Innovation Hub in Cork on Friday, An Taoiseach said, "Small and medium sized agri-food businesses are already preparing for Brexit by taking an innovative approach and opening up new European and international markets outside of the UK. This new National Food Innovation Hub will help Irish businesses to innovate and expand, keeping our agri-food sector competitive and attracting investment in a post-Brexit world."
Minister Creed added, "The National Food Innovation Hub project is part of a broader strategic framework funded by my Department to encourage research and development in the agri-food sector. The inclusion of a large number of topics relating to food in my Departments recent Call for Research Proposals very much underscores my commitment to this effort. Publicly funded research is now even more necessary to help drive innovation, competitiveness and long-term sustainability in the food sector as we prepare for Brexit. The food topics included in the Call have been carefully selected to help meet these pressing needs."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
It was announced today that Deloitte will be partnering with NUI Galway on the Universitys new BComm (Global Experience) course. As part of the partnership, Deloitte will provide funding over five years to support students while studying abroad.
The new Bachelor of Commerce (Global Experience) course at the J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics in NUI Galway offers the opportunity of a work placement and a study abroad in the same year. The global experience is fundamental to the educational experience and offers students the opportunity to experience new cultures and to work in new environments.
NUI Galway partners with universities in a variety of countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Sweden, the UK and the USA, amongst others.
The first Deloitte Global Scholars will be travelling abroad in September 2018. NUI Galway anticipates that in excess of 500 students will avail of the Deloitte funding over the five years of the partnership.
Speaking at the launch, Dean of the College of Business Public Policy and Law at NUI Galway, Professor John McHale said, "We are delighted to announce this exciting partnership with Deloitte. We are very proud for our BComm (Global Experience) students to have the title Deloitte Global Scholars, a title representative of the high academic calibre of our students, and the endorsement shown by Deloitte in supporting students reach their full potential."
Managing Partner at Deloitte, Brendan Jennings added, "At Deloitte, we see first-hand, and on a daily basis, the ever increasing need for international experience and an ability to work across borders. Our clients are operating in a more globally connected way than ever before, and therefore we need to work this way also. We are delighted to support the NUIG Deloitte Scholars in gaining this important and valuable experience. We very much believe that it will equip them well in their future business careers."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
A majority of Irish consumers do not think the Public Health (Alcohol) Bill should be introduced in its current form, according to a new poll from Independent Research Agency, iReach.
The poll, commissioned by the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland (ABFI), found that Irish consumers are not in favour of a number of measures proposed in the Bill, including advertising restrictions.
As part of this survey, consumers were also asked if they believe the Governments proposed measures - structural separation, advertising restrictions and health warnings on alcohol labels - are going too far, or are the best way to target alcohol misuse. The poll found that 47% believe the Governments proposed measures are too strict, with just 27% saying they are the right thing to do.
This study was conducted as part of the iReach Consumer Omnibus Survey, with fieldwork undertaken from the 5th to the 11th of October 2017 with a sample size of over 1,000 interviews.
ABFI claims the Alcohol Bill will make Ireland one of the most restrictive countries in the world for marketing alcohol products. It will ban images of people, animals, scenic shots of Ireland and scenes in pubs from appearing in alcohol advertisements.
The Federation claims the iReach poll found that the majority of people (62%) are opposed to these restrictions, with only 17 per cent in favour of the measures. Furthermore, 72% of respondents said they dont think these image-banning measures will reduce alcohol misuse, with just 12% believing they will work.
Speaking this week, Director of ABFI, Patricia Callan said, "While the drinks industry supports the objectives of the Bill - to tackle harmful and underage drinking in Ireland - we are concerned that certain proposals in the Bill are poorly targeted and are not based on evidence. This means that they are unlikely to actually reduce alcohol misuse."
She added, "Furthermore, these measures will have unintended negative consequences on jobs and businesses across the country, from grain to glass. Its vital that the Government does not damage a thriving Irish industry when introducing legislation to achieve public health objectives."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
It was announced last week that AIB is inviting students from third level institutions to enter the fourth annual AIB DataHack, with a prize fund of 6,000 available.
DataHack Participants are invited to build an app or solve a problem based around making Ireland's cities smart. Two separate programming competitions a Datathon and a Hackathon - will take place on November 18th in AIB Bankcentre, Ballsbridge.
Students will have the chance to show their technical abilities in a fun and friendly environment, with activities, music, food and spot prizes on the day. Last year, 94 teams comprising 188 students from over 50 different Universities and Institutes of Technology took part over 12 hours.
The winning team from each competition will take home 2,000 each while the second placed teams will win 1,000.
AIB has partnered with Sustainable Nation and Smart Dublin to help set the Datathon and Hackathon challenges. They will also participate in the judging process. This year, for the first time, AIB is also running a pilot Webathon competition for second level students. Twenty students from schools around Ireland will take part in this 5 hour competition to build a great website around the theme of Smart Cities.
Speaking last week, AIB Chief Operating Officer, Tomas OMidheach said, "Smart cities should be easy to navigate, sustainable and clean. They integrate information and communication technology as well as internet of things technology securely to manage a citys assets. At AIB we are committed to innovative solutions that make life easier for our customers. We are devoted to sustainability, having won Large Green Organisation of the Year at the Green Awards two years running."
He added, "AIB recruits up to 200 students from colleges across the island of Ireland across areas like computer science, maths, physics and data analytics. The DataHack gives the next generation a chance to show their talents."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
Prime Minister Theresa May travels to Brussels on Monday for talks over dinner with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker after deadlock in Brexit appeared to dash her hopes a summit this week could launch negotiations on future trade ties.
May's office said the meeting was long planned but gave no details. A dinner was not on Juncker's agenda published on Friday, however, and EU officials said it had also not been on the schedule for Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who will be at the dinner along with his British counterpart, David Davis.
After talks with Davis last week, Barnier said negotiations were deadlocked, notably over London's refusal to detail what it was offering to pay Brussels. This followed an attempt by May last month to revive talks by promising Britain would honour its EU commitments.
As a result, Barnier told European Union leaders not to launch the talks on a future relationship that May has demanded. As time ticks down to withdrawal in March 2019, concern is rising across Europe that the process may collapse.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said at an EU meeting in Luxembourg: "We made a very good offer ... Let's get these negotiations going and stop letting the grass grow under our feet."
But EU leaders say May has been too vague in her offer of a financial settlement -- something many diplomats believe is due to a fear that to agree even a very rough a figure would spark a backlash from hardline Brexit supporters such as Johnson.
In response to suggestions from Barnier, EU governments have agreed, however, that the summit on Thursday and Friday should give him a green light to explore a possible post-Brexit transition period - although only in internal discussions within the EU, not with the British negotiators themselves.
Even that has run into resistance, notably from heavyweights Germany and France. They insist further progress in the British divorce package is required for any such gesture to be made to May, who is struggling to unite her own government behind her plan to reach a deal on a two-year transition during which Britain could stay in the single market and customs union.
A statement by the 27 other EU states, planned for Friday when their leaders will meet after May has left, is being redrafted to harden the conditions under which Barnier will be allowed to explore the options for the transition.
Aside from the money, where Juncker has said Britain may owe something like 60 billion euros ($70 billion), the EU says there has not been "sufficient progress" on two other critical divorce issues - the rights of expatriate citizens and how to avoid a new EU-UK border disrupting a fragile peace in Northern Ireland.
Without meeting those three tests, the Union says there can be no opening of talks on what happens after March 29, 2019. The leaders have been expected to say they hope that they can launch that second phase of talks after their next summit in December.
With time running short, and hardline pro-Brexit ministers urging May to be prepared to walk out without reaching a deal to limit the legal uncertainties of withdrawal, continental governments have stepped up planning for a collapse in talks.
Business leaders on both sides of the English Channel have said that without clarity by the new year, they will increasingly have to take investment decisions to reflect uncertainty over British access to EU markets.
On Friday, May's spokeswoman said there would be "more to say" on Britain's financial offer at the summit on Thursday.
The dinner will involve only May, Juncker, Davis, Barnier and one other official from either side. After a similar meeting at 10 Downing Street in late April, leaked accounts of Juncker's "shock" at what he said were unrealistic British expectations irritated May. (Reuters)
Source: www.businessworld.ie
Liu Fucai, the former state-asset watchdog in Guangdong, played an important role in facilitating Guangdong Risings investments in Australia starting in 2008, sources said. Photo: Visual China.
A former state-asset watchdog in Chinas southern industrial hub, Guangdong province, has stayed abroad while facing graft inquires about his involvement in a local companys loss-making investments in Australia, sources close to the matter told Caixin.
Liu Fucai, the director of the Guangdong provincial State Asset Supervision and Administration Commission (Guangdong SASAC) between 2004 and 2012, is under scrutiny for backing a series of investments by state-owned Guangdong Rising Asset Management Co. in Australian mining projects. The investments resulted in losses of more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) as commodity prices slumped, separate sources told Caixin.
Liu, 65, who retired from the Guangdong SASAC in 2012, has been in Australia since April 2014 and refuses to return to China despite authorities requests, sources close to the matter said.
Liu and his son played important roles in facilitating Guangdong Risings investments in Australia starting in 2008, but it is unclear whether they accepted bribes in these deals, sources close to the matter said. Lius wife and son have long resided in Australia, sources said.
A Guangdong government-backed magazine reported in 2015 that the provincial SASAC has repeatedly asked Liu to return China to assist investigators since 2014. But he declined, citing health problems.
In October 2015, the provincial anti-graft agency announced the decision to expel Liu from the ruling Communist Party for discipline violations, a euphemism for corruption.
The agency said Liu long used official vehicles for personal use and asked a subsidiary company to make reimbursements for his personal spending totaling 160,000 yuan. Sources close to the matter said the company mentioned by the graft buster was Guangdong Rising.
Established in 1999, Guangdong Rising is one of the largest provincial government-owned companies in Guangdong with businesses covering mining, tourism, technology and property.
During Lius tenure as the Guangdong SASAC head, Guangdong Rising actively invested in Australias mining assets, including copper, coal and gold mines. Public information showed that between 2008 and 2015, Guangdong Rising spent more than 10 billion yuan in acquiring Australian mining companies including Perilya Ltd., PanAust and Caledon Coal.
Most of Guangdong Risings investments in Australia were made when commodity prices were on the rise and registered huge losses as prices fell, a person close to the Guangdong SASAC said.
The Guangdong SASAC launched an investigation on Guangdong Risings loss-making investments beginning in March of this year. In early September, the provincial anti-graft watchdog announced an investigation on Li Zezhong, former chairman of Guangdong Rising. Li left Guangdong Rising in March to take the post as the deputy party head of Zhuhai city in Guangdong.
On Oct. 12, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said Li Jinming, the predecessor of Li Zezhong who headed Guangdong Rising beginning in 1999, was arrested for alleged corruption.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
Farmers in Chinas southern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region have used bank loans to establish a professional cooperative of farmers to raise rabbits. Photo: Visual China
China has pushed financial institutions to better serve those without access to basic banking services, such as savings and loans. But analysts say it is a formidable challengeand one in which the market, not the government, should play the leading role.
Since 2005, Beijing has stressed the need to develop inclusive finance, an initiative backed by the United Nations that calls for universal access at a reasonable cost to financial services including savings, payments, credit and insurance provided by sound institutions. In 2015, the central government designated expanding such services to those known as the underbanked as a national strategy, fitting in with its goal of boosting the growth of agricultural and small businesses.
This year, the central government called on large commercial banks to set up departments to promote inclusive finance.
Then in late September, the central bank announced it would lower the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) by 0.5 percentage points for some banks whose inclusive finance loans reach 1.5% of their new lending in 2017, a move that analysts expect will inject several hundreds of billions yuan into the economy.
These and other measures over the past decade have helped Chinas inclusive finance develop -- at least in official data. By the end of June, Chinese banks outstanding loans to the agricultural sector stood at 30 trillion yuan, up 9.9% from a year ago and more than 25% of the total outstanding loans of the banking sector. Loans to small and micro businesses rose 14.7% to 28.6 trillion yuan (about $4.3 trillion), or 25% of lending.
However, how much the government-led campaign has actually helped the underbanked is still in dispute, especially among the rural impoverish who have long been ignored by bank credit services. Some analysts contend the upbeat inclusive-loan data provided by institutions are in fact inflated due to an unclear definition of what constitutes inclusive finance. Meanwhile, most of the institutions and companies that flooded into the inclusive-finance businesses have struggled.
Internet-based finance technology has emerged as another possibility for the underbanked. Tech giants such Alibaba Group and JD.com, as well as new online-lending platforms, for example, have increasingly offered credit services to small-scale borrowers.
But as new players enter the lending market, effective risk control will become the major challenge, experts say.
If risk control cant catch up to the speed of internet-finance development, there will be great problems, said Yang Tao, a financial expert at the China Academy of Social Sciences.
In Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, the staff of the hongxiang rural funds mutual assistance club engage in a savings and loan business on behalf of local residents. Photo: Visual China
Digital technology will promote the development of inclusive finance, but the fundamental solution is institutional reform rather than technological progress, experts said.
The problems of inclusive finance will never be solved under the old supervision and operation model, said an industry insider, who argued that inclusive finance is best promoted by technological innovation and market forces rather than governmental regulations and policies.
The development of inclusive finance should be spontaneous, a regulatory official said. The proper role for regulators is to create a sound market environment for the market players to develop inclusive-financial services, he said.
No easy task
The Chinese governments efforts to broaden financial access to the underserved groups started in 2005 when a pilot program was launched to set up micro-loan companies in selected provinces. Since then 11,000 companies and 1,519 rural banks targeting small rural borrowers have mushroomed across China.
Yet, even though more institutions have been set up to help the underbanked, their performance has largely been disappointing. Most of the 1,500 rural banks targeting this niche were set up by large commercial banks, and only about one-third of them are profitable. Most of the rural banks rely on subsidies to survive.
Many of the banks have invested some of their deposits in non-agricultural projects to seek better gains. That, of course, departs from their mission to boost the agricultural sector. Since the beginning of this year, the China Banking Regulatory Commission--the countrys banking watchdog--has issued 200 punishment decisions against rural banks for violations in their lending, the official said.
Micro-loan companies are also struggling with shrinking business. Such lenders expanded quickly between 2009 and 2014, data show. But since then, the number of micro-loan companies has been declining and their total registered capital has slide from 846 billion yuan in 2015 to 827 billion yuan in June.
Xiang Weiguo, chairman of the China Micro-Credit Companies Association, attributed the micro-loan companies poor performance to the worsening liquidity of their small-business clients, fierce competition from private fundraising activities and weak management of most micro-loan companies.
The major risk for financial institutions in extending loans to small-business and rural borrowers stems from the lack of widely recognized collateral, such as property and land. These kinds of borrowers may have assets in other forms. For example, 70% of smaller business assets consist of such movable properties as accounts receivable, inventory and equipment, which arent the traditional kind of collateral accepted by lenders, a World Bank expert said.
Most banks are hesitant to accept movable properties as loan collateral due to risk concerns. This is partly because there isnt a national system to ensure movable properties arent used as collateral for multiple loans. Currently, movable properties owned by businesses are usually registered with different government departments, a bank source said.
Profitability is also a concern. The regulators said financial institutions should only seek to break even or achieve minor profit in their inclusive-finance services. As an enticement, governments offer subsidies, tax incentives and other supportive policies to such businesses.
But a bank executive said such government orders discourage healthy market competition and depart from business rules. Why are many institutions not willing to truly dedicate to inclusive finance? They only will when it makes money, the executive said.
Moreover, some local authorities have misused such supportive policies to benefit government-backed players, another financial industry insider said.
A lack of clarity about which businesses can qualify for these niche loans and related benefits has added an additional problem. Without a clear definition, many questionable companies have been able to use the inclusive finance program to gain preferential credit policies.
Inclusive finance is like a basket and you can put anything inside, a banking regulatory official said.
The Chinese model
The Chinese government has played a leading role in promoting inclusive finance. But that isnt true in most other countries, where non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are driving the effort to address the needs of the underbanked.
With the governments deep involvement, it is important to draw a clear boundary between it and the market in developing inclusive finance, said Wang Jun, an economist at the China Europe International Business School.
Financial institutions should be allowed to operate under market rules within a certain territory, while governments should offer infrastructure, proper supervision and set regulations rather than directly provide financial services or intervene in business operations, Wang said.
One of the urgent tasks for the government is to figure out the true demand for inclusive finance.
We have always talked about increasing the inclusive-finance supply, but no one knows clearly about the size of the targeted clients of such services and their real demands. Nobody has done careful research, Wang said.
It remains unclear how well Chinas inclusive finance market is doing, partly because players in this niche have a baked-in incentive to exaggerate achievements in the hopes of advancing their careers, Wang said.
Fang Xin, the deputy director of the central banks Chengdu branch, is among experts who believe the demand for inclusive finance services has been overestimated.
Based on a recent survey by the central banks Chengdu branch, the total amount of micro lending in China may be around 5 trillion yuan rather than the frequently cited tens of trillions of yuan, Fang said.
In many places, there might be oversupply, due to the perception of capital thirst by small business, Wang said.
Other experts and banking industry sources have called on the government to tighten oversight and promote market education on inclusive finance, as well as boost efforts to set up unified information-sharing and credit-scoring systems to help lenders.
But the government must be careful in deciding the scope of its role so that inclusive finance grows in a healthy way, Wang said.
If the government places itself at the wrong position, it will distort the financial market, waste public resources and hurt financial stability, he said.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
A planned new logistics insurer will be the first in China to be set up by delivery companies themselves. Above, Lei Wentao loads his cargo tricycle before his morning shift at a distribution hub of the Chinese express parcel delivery firm Shentong (STO) Express in Beijing on Aug. 29, 2017. Photo: Visual China
A consortium led by Chinese delivery companies is planning to set up a joint venture on logistics insurance, although whether they can secure an operating license from the regulator remains a major uncertainty.
In a disclosure filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday, STO Express Co. Ltd. said the joint venture will have seven partners, including itself. The others will be Yunda Holding Co. Ltd., ZTO Express Co. Ltd., Guangzhou Baogong International Freight Agency, Jiangxi Financial Holding Group, Shandong Jingjin Holding Group, and Shanghai YTO Jiaolong Investment Development (Group) Ltd.
The new logistics insurer will be the first in China to be set up by delivery companies themselves. However, the plan comes as the countrys insurance regulator is tightening its supervision of the industry and becoming more stringent when giving new licenses to non-insurers.
The new insurer is tentatively called Zhongbang Logistics Insurance Co. Ltd. and has 1 billion yuan ($152 million) in registered capital, STO Expresss statement said. STO Express and Yunda Holding said in separate statements that they will each invest 160 million yuan for a 16% stake.
Despite the fast growth of the delivery industry in China, traditional insurance companies lack policies that specifically cover the risks of the courier service providers, STO Express said. The new insurer will address such agonies by offering policies that compensate costs arising from transportation and other accidents.
In 2016, Chinas express companies delivered 31.3 billion parcels, up 51.4% from the previous year, Chinas State Post Bureau said earlier.
Following the downfall of Xiang Junbo, the former chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), the insurance industry regulator has been running a tight ship to rein in rising risks.
Not a single license for a new insurer has been issued since April, compared to six issued in the first two months of this year. Some newly established insurers have been asked to provide additional materials to explain their business plan and get final clearance to start operation.
Contact reporter Dong Tongjian (tongjiandong@caixin.com)
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi is offering a short term course titles Executive Management Programme on Business Models in Technology.
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Programme Objective
The objective of the IIT Delhi programme is to develop an insight and clear understanding of the conceptual and applicable framework underlying the key systems that are interdependent to each other required to sustain a competitive business.
Eligibility
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Egypt doubles value of cement exports in 9M17
ICR Research By 16 October 2017
Egypts cement exports rose 88 per cent during the first nine months of 2017, reaching around US$72m compared to US$38m last year, its building industries export council said on Sunday.
Ten countries have captured 89.3 per cent of the Egyptian cement exports, which Saudi Arabia came on the top of the list, the report said. Exports to Saudi Arabia reached 11.186 million compared to US$15.483m last year.
Exports to the Kenyan market have soared 1127 per cent to record US$9.385m in nine months compared to US$765,000 last year.
During the January-September period, exports to Libya jumped 221 per cent to US$12.53m, while to shipments to Russia fell to US$1.737m. Egypt exports cement to around 55 countries worldwide, of which 21 markets are new customers since the beginning of this year, including Turkey, France, Belgium, Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Ukraine, Somalia, Kuwait, Eritrea, Bulgaria, Peru, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and Bahrain, according to the councils monthly report.
The report also showed that Egypt had not exported cement to seven countries this year: Qatar, Benin, Philippines, Guatemala, Argentina, Guinea, and Thailand. Exports to these countries stood at US$676,000 during the first nine months of 2016, the report added.
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Heres Why North Korea Might Just Be Insane Enough to Launch a Nuke
Despite repeated warnings by the United States, Japan, and the United Nations, North Korea inches closer and closer to launching nuclear missiles. While experts maintain it is impossible to know what North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un really has in mind, recent events do offer some insight. Lets take a quick look at eight reasons why North Korea might actually end up launching a nuke (No. 7 is probably the scariest).
1. North Koreas motives remain unpredictable
Anybody who tells you what North Korea wants is lying, or theyre guessing, said Jon Wolfsthal, a scholar in the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former senior director for arms control and nonproliferation in the National Security Council.
According to The New York Times, Kim likely wants to demonstrate his ability to attack the U.S. with nuclear missiles as a form of self-defense. Some of Trumps advisers believe he wants to force the U.S. to withdraw sanctions and pull troops from South Korea. Analysts diverge on what he would do if that did happen.
Dean of the graduate school of international studies at Yonsei University, Mo Jongryn, said it is important to take threats seriously. Recent actions suggest thats wise.
Next: Its already launched a new missile over this country.
2. New missiles have been launched over Japan
Even after the U.N. issued sanctions against North Korea, the nation launched a new ballistic missile over Japan. According to CNN, this marks the second time in under a month the country has done so, and the first since North Koreas sixth nuclear test. A commentary published in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper recently said, no matter how strong the pressure is, it doesnt work on us.
The missile flew about 2,300 miles before landing in the Pacific Ocean. Guam, a U.S. territory that North Korea has threatened, lies 2,100 miles from the launch site. This missile flew the farthest of any of its intermediate-range missiles, so far. North Korean state-run news agency KCNA said that the four islands of the [Japanese] archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche, the ruling ideology of North Korea.
North Koreas firing of yet another ballistic missile is a clear violation of [U.N. Security Council] resolutions and a very serious and grave challenge to international peace and security, the South Korean government said, in a statement. That country carried out a live drill, including its own missile launch, in response. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the launch was another reckless breach of U.N. resolutions and a major threat to international peace and security which demands a global response.
Part of that global response intends to cut off resources to the country.
Next: How desperate will North Korea get?
3. The UN has issued sanctions to staunch missile tests
On Sept. 11, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed the toughest sanctions on North Korea to date. These come on the heels of a forbidden Sept. 2 nuclear test. Sanctions demand North Korea give up its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile programs, according to the U.S. Mission to the U.N.
We are done trying to prod the regime to do the right thing; we are now trying to stop it from having the ability to do the wrong thing, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said, according to CNN. Among other things, the sanctions ban textile exports and cap shipments of crude oil into the country. These intend to cut off funds for the ballistics development program.
Trumps statement on the sanctions indicates he wants a stronger response. Those sanctions are nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen, he said. Bravado like that makes some experts very nervous.
Next: North Korea and Donald Trump have exchanged threats.
4. Both North Korea and Trump have made threats
A spokesperson for the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee recently said, lets reduce the U.S. mainland into ashes and darkness, Vox reported. It also wants the U.S. beaten to death as a stick is fit for a rabid dog.
Prior to the U.N. sanctions, North Korea promised powerful counter-measures, The Washington Post reported. While North Koreas threats come as news to no one, Trumps response makes them sound less extreme than in the past. North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States, Trump said in August, the Times reports. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. More recently, he added, Military action would certainly be an option. I would prefer not going the route of the military, but its something certainly that could happen.
While both countries shoot words across the table, Trump has called on others to step up.
Next: Will China rein in North Korea?
5. Trump wants China to rein in North Korea
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said North Korea threatens the entire world in a Reuters report. In East Asia, an increasingly aggressive and isolated regime in North Korea threatens democracies in South Korea, Japan, and more importantly (and more recently), has expanded those threats to the United States, endangering the entire world, Tillerson said. He called on China, Pyongyangs sole ally, and Russia, to take direct actions of their own.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying reiterated Chinas position that sanctions on North Korea must be paired with talks for efficacy. A White House spokesperson disagreed, saying now is not the time to talk to North Korea.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has ordered preparations for new threats, including electromagnetic pulses and biochemical weapons. For the U.S. to take military action against North Korea would endanger that country, which Kim has threatened in the past. That doesnt take it out of the equation.
Next: America keeps a military response an option.
6. Trump maintains military response an option
In a Sept. 15 press briefing, security advisor H.R. McMaster and Haley acknowledged military options, wrote CNN. That breaks with a statement made by Steve Bannon in August.
Forget it. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that 10 million people in Seoul dont die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I dont know what youre talking about, he said. Theres no military solution here, they got us.
We are prepared, were prepared militarily, were prepared with our allies to respond militarily, Tillerson told reporters. The problem with that action remains the mass of conventional artillery Pyongyang can point at Seoul, where 25 million people live. Analysts say North Korea would not hesitate to kill tens of thousands of civilians in response to a U.S. strike. If Trump does take military action, retaliation remains possible.
Next: This is perhaps the scariest reason.
7. No one knows the countrys true capabilities
North Korea has exploded a nuclear weapon underground, as well as testing ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. While it has not demonstrated it can put two and two together, it has not demonstrated it cant.
If you attack them after they have the nuclear weapons, its not a preventive war. Its just a plain old nuclear war, said Jeffrey Lewis, a nonproliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. CNN reported that experts recommend caution where the Kim regime is concerned.
Just as its dictators motives remain cloudy, so does the countrys exact arsenal. One Trump official cautioned against understating the threat, noting that in 1950, the Norths strength was also underestimated.
Next: North Korea might become cocky, based on past experiences.
8. Recent cyberattacks have gone largely unpunished
As The New York Times pointed out, North Korea paid very little for the cyberattack that leveled Sony Pictures three years ago. Similarly lax responses came to its attacks on South Korean banks and media, its role in the British hospital ransomware, and theft from the Bangladesh central bank.
Some experts suspect North Korea sees foreshadowing in its ability to get away with those cyberattacks. Combined with its budding nuclear program, North Korea may hold significant blackmail. Overall, North Koreas nuclear intentions remain as unpredictable as its leader is secretive. While tensions continue to escalate, the world holds its breath and stays watchful.
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Can I get a hedge of protection? Why Christians need to mind our language
I am old enough to remember Ready Reckoners. They came about during decimalisation. The idea was to be able to see what the old measures and weights now added up to. I have begun to wonder if we might need some similar help with Chistianese.
Now I've always loved words and subcultures also fascinate me. So you put the two together and it's fascinating to see how subcultures invent a language of their own. One of the defining moments of my life was in my first real job. I was an editor at the national Consumer Council fresh out of an English postgraduate degree. To say my writing was pretentious would be an understatement. Early on I was given a book to read Sir Ernest Gower's The Complete Plain Words. It was, and still is a masterpiece. Later I was told I had to attend a training course on plain English. I was probably quite sniffy about it whispering about not wanting to get rid of the beauty of the language. But it was a revelation and changed the way I thought about writing forever.
I was, and still, am a convert to writing clearly and plainly. After all knowledge has always been power. In the end I got to help judging the Plain English Awards. I so recommend checking out the website for the marvellous Golden Bull Awards.
Which brings me to the subject of Christianese.
I take no credit for this article. The examples are the result of an impromptu plea on Facebook for good examples of Christian phrases. And oh the riches that turned up. And I must say it is written in affection. Most of these are just sweet. But wearing my old plain English hat I do hope that we can strive tpo be clear and some of these phrases are a bit baffling.
I wonder if you have a particular favourite. Just after I became a Christian I went to the front of my church for prayer for the healing of an ailment. The prayer minister took a good look at me, laid hands on my shoulder and prayed that I be healed 'by the stripes of the lamb'. My word, was I confused. The last time I checked lambs didn't have stripes.
The problem, of course, is overworking the language putting too much weight on a tiny lamb. Unless you are familiar with a certain Lamb of God then a stripy lamb is simply La la Land. Or La La Lamb.
My survey revealed a range of lamb-language goodies. Given a certain countries main export, it didn't surprise me that my New Zealand correspondent suggested 'Wash your robes white in the blood of the lamb.' And 'are you washed in the blood of the lamb?' A difficult question and a not very nice image. It reminds one more of an autopsy than anything else.
Moving on from lambs and the blood thereof, there is a whole range of rather wonderful pious phrases that either mean nothing or mean something rather different from what they appear to say.
I always used to like Radio 4's quest for the most meaningless aphorism. One year the following won: 'He who deepest digs, digs deepest'. In the same class might be 'to build a hedge of protection'. I am reliably informed that in evangelical circles the protective hedge is making a comeback. The problem of course is that it is not just a piece of doctrine, it also produces an image. The two sit uncomfortably together.
Nearly as difficult seems to be 'asking Jesus into your heart'. What does it mean? And in olden days the heart wasn't even seen as the centre of our emotional life.
How about 'We're pressing in...?' Pressing into what? It sounds like the scrum to get the last available spot on a tube train. And there's the habit of 'leaning into the Word'. How does leaning help? But leaning is more polite than pressing, so perhaps it's a bit more English than American.
Elsewhere we find that 'God has his hand in it'. Does God have hands? Allied to this is the 'mighty hand of God' and, of course the 'mighty name' of Jesus. And then we are encouraged to 'seek God's face'. Just his face? What about his outstretched arm? What about those hands? How do you seek someone's face?
Then there's the desperate cry of the lost preacher...'Can I get an Amen?' Which is almost as annoying as the modern fad for asking if you can get a coffee. (Answer, no you can't get it because that's the barista's job.) When people are sick we 'lift them to the Lord.' And what better way to get rid of someone than to say a cheerful 'Bless you!'
What about some translations? Sometimes what we say isn't exactly what we mean. Try these:
I feel the Lord is saying = I think that.
We are all very excited about = here's another mission I have to plug.
I feel led to = I want to.
I have a heart for = I want to.
The Lord has laid on my heart = I want to.
I feel the Lord calling me to lay this ministry down = I'm fed up with doing the coffee rota; it has to be someone else's turn.
Be gone sickness! = I wish this person would hurry up and get better.
I say this in love = I am about to tell you off for no good reason.
One of my respondents nominated 'God is good!' But pointed out that this works when something good happens but there tends to be a complete silence when something bad happens. Hmm.
We didn't invent this kind of thing. There's classic old-school Christianese and perhaps something that needs resurrecting; perhaps we could all do with the following ancient exhortation. From now I covenant to 'refresh my bowels in the Lord'.
How do you fancy joining me?
Here's a suggestion...how about an annual Plain English Award for Christian writing and a tongue-in-cheek Golden Bull as well? What do you think?
Steve Morris is the parish priest of St Cuthbert's North Wembley. Before being a priest he was a writer and ran a brand agency. In the 1980s he tried to become a pop star. Follow him on Twitter @SteveMorris214
Donald Trump: It's time to say 'Merry Christmas' again
Donald Trump repeated his oft-promised return to traditional beliefs last week, vowing to instil 'Merry Christmas' back into American discourse.
Trump became the first sitting President to address the staunchly conservative Values Voters Summit on Friday, branded a 'hate group' by the Southern Poverty Law Center, as he ran through his achievements for conservative evangelicals.
'I pledged that in a Trump administration, our nation's religious heritage would be cherished, protected and defended like you have never seen before,' he said. 'Above all else in America, we don't worship government. We worship God.'
Echoing an argument conservatives regularly make for America's Christian roots, Trump noted there are four references to a 'creator' in the Declaration of Independence, saying 'our religious liberty is enshrined in the very first amendment in the Bill of Rights'.
He told a cheering crowd: 'They don't use the word "Christmas" because it's not politically correct.'
He said. 'Well guess what? We're saying "Merry Christmas" again.'
It is not the first time Trump has used the call to say 'Merry Christmas' as a reminder to his conservative evangelical base that he is on their side. As far back as 2015 he used the pledge in the run up to the 2016 election.
"@JenniferJJacobs: Trump: "Protect the 2nd amendment...And by the way were going to be saying Merry Christmas again." Iowa crowd LOVES it." Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2015
He also called for a boycott of Starbucks when the chain did not print 'Merry Christmas' on their red seasonal mugs.
'Did you read about Starbucks? No more Merry Christmas on Starbucks,' Trump told a Springfield, Illinois rally. 'Maybe we should boycott Starbucks. I don't know. Seriously, I don't care.'
In a June 2016 campaign meeting with religious leaders he warned the then leadership were 'selling Christianity down the tubes' as he promised to make sure that department store employees say 'Merry Christmas'.
And after repeatedly using the pledge on his campaign trail he made good on the promise, travelling to Wisconsin shortly after winning the election in December 2016. 'So when I started 18 months ago, I told my first crowd in Wisconsin that we are going to come back here someday and we are going to say "Merry Christmas" again,' he said. 'Merry Christmas. So, merry Christmas, everyone. Happy New Year, but merry Christmas.'
Donald Trump promises to restore Christian values to the US
President Donald Trump touted his administration's actions to a major gathering of social conservatives in Washington, D.C. Thursday, stating that he's "stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values."
In a speech at the 12th annual Values Voter Summit on Friday morning, Trump told those gathered at the Omni Shoreham Hotel that "in the last 10 months, we have followed through on one promise after another."
"I appointed and confirmed a Supreme Court Justice in the mold of the late great Justice Antonin Scalia, the newest member of the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch," said Trump.
"To protect the unborn, I have reinstated a policy first put in place by President Ronald Reagan. The Mexico City Policy. To protect religious liberty, including protecting groups like this one, I signed a new executive action in a beautiful ceremony at the White House on our National Day of Prayer."
Trump also denounced the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits houses of worship from engaging in political activities, promising that he will "not allow government workers to censor sermons, or target our pastors, our ministers, our rabbis."
"These are the people we want to hear from and they are not going to be silenced any longer," continued Trump, receiving applause from the audience.
Trump also referenced his administration's broadening of religious exemptions under the Department of Health and Human Services' contraception mandate, which has been the subject of many lawsuits due to claims of religious liberty violations.
"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on [Oct. 6] moved to broaden those narrow religious exemptions to include an exception 'on the basis of moral conviction' for non-profit and for-profit companies," Reuters reported last week.
"The move drew fire from [abortion] advocates and praise from conservative Christian activists. California's Democratic attorney general pledged to fight to protect the mandate from circumvention. It remained unclear how many women would lose contraception coverage and which companies would use the exemptions."
Calling his efforts "substantially ahead of schedule," Trump declared that "we are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values."
Trump's remarks were part of the annual Values Voter Summit, a national gathering of socially conservative activists.
Sponsoring organizations for VVS include the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, American Values, FRC Action, and Christian Healthcare Ministries, among others.
The FRC announced Tuesday that Trump was going to address the VVS, the billionaire real estate mogul being the first sitting president to do so in its history.
FRC President Tony Perkins said in a statement that he and other social conservatives are "thankful to hear from a president who is fulfilling the promises that he campaigned on."
"Since the early days of the campaign, President Trump allied himself with values voters, promising to put an end to the eight years of relentless assault on the First Amendment," said Perkins.
"President Trump's executive order on religious liberty and the follow up actions last week by HHS and DOJ, demonstrate that he is committed to undoing the anti-faith policies of the previous administration and restoring true religious freedom."
Friday marks the second time that Trump has addressed the VVS, doing so for the first time last year as the Republican nominee for president.
"Imagine what our country could accomplish if it started working together as one people under one God, saluting one flag," said Trump in 2016.
This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
'Game of Thrones' actor Jason Momoa latest to be slammed for 2011 rape joke
Jason Momoa, who played Dothraki leader Khal Drogo in the hit George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" adaptation series "Game of Thrones" joins the list of the celebrities criticized in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein controversy.
A 2011 video of a Comic-Con interview with the cast of "Game of Thrones" recently reemerged. The clip shows Momoa saying, "I love that there's so many things you can do, like rip someone's tongue out of their throat and get away with it and rape beautiful women." Co-actors seated with the 38-year-old covered their faces with their hands, seemingly an expression of humiliation and shame, while the audience were heard to react loudly.
Momoa, in an Instagram post, said that he was sorry for the inappropriate joke he shared during the event. "I am still severely disappointed in myself at the insensitivity of my remarks that day," the actor said. He also stressed that rape and sexual harassment are important societal matters that should not be taken lightly.
I APOLOGISE Aloha j A post shared by Jason Momoa (@prideofgypsies) on Oct 12, 2017 at 4:32pm PDT
"Argo" star Ben Affleck was also recently slammed following the resurfacing of a video of his guesting on MTV's "Total Request Live" in 2003. This after he condemned Weinstein, who shot him into stardom in 1997 through the movie "Good Will Hunting," in a post that drew the ire of many, including celebrity Rose McGowan.
One user recalled that the actor "grabbed Hilarie Burton's breast" during the show, which prompted "One Tree Hill" actress Hilarie Burton to reply, "I didn't forget." Just like Momoa, the "Gone Girl" actor apologized to the offended party, saying, "I acted inappropriately toward Ms. Burton and I sincerely apologize."
A lot of women came out alleging Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax, of sexual assault. Some of the celebrities who opened up about their experience with the producer are Angelina Jolie, Kate Beckinsale, and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Here's one reason why a faithful Christian should never lose hope
Have you ever felt so hopeless in your life that you almost gave up on something?
Maybe you have and you'll be glad to hear, it's really normal.
I've read stories of Christians who almost gave up on their dreams. I've listened to many brothers and sisters share their stories of giving up on something valuable. I've felt the pang of pain seeing friends give up on the most important thing: their relationship with God.
These stories of quitting and giving up are sad to hear, even sadder when you're the one quitting and giving up. Friend, are you at the brink of quitting on yourself and losing hope?
Like you'll never be able to overcome that bad habit even after trying so hard to break it?
Like you'll never be a better person no matter how much you try?
Like you'll never reach the light at the end of your tunnel?
Friend, I want to encourage you: God can see you through.
Hope Unending
As we live our lives here on earth we're faced with countless issues on a daily basis. Not only do we struggle to earn a living, we also struggle to live a life holy and pleasing unto the Lord.
But there is a bad root at the heart of quitting: many of us, in our struggles to live comfortable lives, forsake our pursuit of God. The Bible speaks of this,
"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (1 Timothy 6:10 NKJV)
Some of us, in our pursuit of perfection, end up condemning ourselves for our failures and imperfections. We commit sin, but instead of confessing our sin to God and repenting of it, we beat ourselves up and condemn ourselves as if that's going to help!
Think about what happened to Judas. He didn't ask for forgiveness after seeing that his betrayal would lead to Christ's death. Instead of repenting of his sin, he committed suicide. He didn't return to the Lord!
"Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself." (see Matthew 27:3-5)
Friends, we really wouldn't want any of the two. We wouldn't want to run away from God and find our happiness in earthly possessions. As if earthly possessions and positions can satisfy our longings for something only He can give.
We also wouldn't want to run away from God, and condemn ourselves to live a life that isn't worth living. Worse, killing ourselves to "escape" from our failures will never erase our mistakes.
And similarly, having a legalistic faith where we wrongly believe God expects perfection is very damaging. We are in the process of being sanctified. We are limited. We are not complete yet. We are a work in progress and some deep-rooted issues in us will take time to be healed and resolved. So leaning on God and receiving His forgiving grace is a daily need.
Friends, in all of our troubles, we've got to have hope.
Real, living Hope
Friends, I'm here to encourage you. We have a living hope, and His name is Christ Jesus. He died once for all, and lived again after defeating sin and hopelessness in the grave.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." (1 Peter 1:3)
Christ Jesus lives forever, and He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Everything that hails itself "mighty" over you bows down to Him - and yet He loves you so much (see Matthew 28:18; Philippians 2:9-11). Think about that.
If the Father was able to give His one and only begotten Son for our sakes, so that we could be forgiven, made righteous, and be reconciled with Him, what could He not also give what we need, in accordance with our limitations, to live as His children, pleasing in His sight? (see Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 5:21, 5:18-20; 1 John 3:1; Luke 12:32)
Friend, this is our hope: that Christ Jesus is alive, and His death and resurrection brings us hope for a life freed from sin, a life full of love from the Father, and a life that will last forever.
Let Him be your hope.
"...Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27)
Hillary Clinton at Cheltenham: Powerful advocate of liberal democracy or a woman in denial?
If you feel you may have heard enough from Hillary Clinton, who did interviews across the UK TV networks last week to promote her new book about the 2016 presidential election What Happened, discussing everything from the Harvey Weinstein scandal to Brexit, you're in for a disappointment.
For as the former Secretary of State told the Cheltenham book festival yesterday: 'I'm not going anywhere, except right into the middle of the debate about our future.'
And though she confessed that occasionally she just wanted to stay in bed and 'pull the covers up over my head', Clinton certainly has much to say, on everything from Russia and Vladimir Putin to the rise of populism in western Europe and, yes, the US.
'I know many in the UK followed our presidential election, just as we Americans had followed the EU referendum. There was a lot of commiserating over the shock of election results and worry about the future,' she told the packed audience at the oldest literary festival in the world.
And in a dig at the man to whom she lost, Donald Trump, Clinton added: 'These are challenging times for both of our countries. But despite what you may read on Twitter, most Americans stand with our allies and our friends around the world on behalf of global peace and prosperity.'
Her explanation for her defeat only nodded momentarily to genuine feeling among the electorate, before the woman who once claimed that a 'vast right-wing conspiracy' was waged against her husband Bill moved on to what she sees, perhaps, as the real reasons she lost.
'The forces at work in the 2016 elections are still with us. In the US, it was a perfect storm: deep currents of anger and resentment flowing through our culture; a political press that told voters my emails were the most important story; the unprecedented intervention in our election by the FBI; and the information warfare waged from within the Kremlin.
'What we've learned about Russian interference in the election is more than alarming; it's a clear and present danger to western democracy, and it's right out of Putin's playbook...This isn't just about what happened; it's about what's happening right now. The Russians are still playing on anything and everything they can to turn Americans against each other. In addition to hacking America's elections, the Russians are hacking our discourse and our unity.'
She went on: 'All of this is playing out against a broader story. We are in the middle of a global struggle between liberal democracy and a rising tide of illiberalism. Putin has positioned himself as the leader of an authoritarian and xenophobic movement that wants to break up the EU, weaken the Atlantic Alliance, and undermine democracy. We're seeing ripples of this in right-wing populism and nationalism across Europe, and in the democratic backsliding in countries like Hungary, Poland, and perhaps now, even in the US.'
Domestically, Clinton reverted to more familiar themes, including sexism. 'The only way we'll get sexism out of politics is to get more women into politics.
'The research is pretty clear: For men, likability and professional success go hand-in-hand. In other words, the more successful a man becomes, the more people like him. With women, it's the exact opposite. The more professionally successful we are, the less people like us. I suspect some of you in this room may have an inkling what I'm talking about.
'Not only that, women are seen favourably when they advocate for others, but unfavourably when they advocate for themselves. That struck a chord with me. Historically, people like me when I'm serving in a supporting role: serving as First Lady in the White House, serving the people of New York in the Senate, serving as a member of President Obama's cabinet. But the minute a woman stands up and says, "Now I'd like a chance to lead," everything changes.'
There was, perhaps, and not for the first time, just a hint of resentment in that reference to serving under Barack Obama. And this is part of the problem with Hillary Clinton, powerful though her arguments undoubtedly are.
For Obama himself beat her to the Democratic nomination in 2008 because, having, among other things, opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq that she supported, he represented a clean break from the Washington establishment. Even Bill Clinton acknowledged during their tense debates that Obama was the 'roll of the dice' candidate.
Sadly for her, and for the US and the rest of the world, she never quite managed to shed that image. There is a sense of entitlement, always fatal in politics, and while What happened will undoubtedly make fascinating reading to many, there will be lingering questions about whether she is best placed to answer that question.
Cass County investigators have accused the boyfriend of a woman found dead in the woods near Weeping Water in August of helping her commit suicide.
Matthew J. Stubbendieck, 41, of Weeping Water, has been charged with assisted suicide in the death of 38-year-old Alicia Wilemon-Sullivan of Florida.
In court records filed last week, Cass County sheriff's investigators said Stubbendieck reported Wilemon-Sullivan had killed herself and he led them to her body Aug. 5 in a wooded area by the west end of town.
Investigators believe Stubbendieck and Wilemon-Sullivan arranged for her to fly to Nebraska from her home near Orlando to commit suicide Aug. 1, according to an affidavit for his arrest.
The two had texted about her death, and Wilemon-Sullivan left her children with a friend and said she was going on vacation to Key West, the affidavit said.
Stubbendieck believed his girlfriend of one and half years had stage four cancer in the lymph nodes in her neck, armpits and stomach, investigators said in court documents.
But a pathologist didn't report finding any tumors or cancerous masses inside her body during the autopsy, the affidavit said.
Instead the autopsy found several deep cuts on her wrists along with painkillers, morphine and alcohol in her system, the affidavit said.
Investigators believe Stubbendieck accompanied Wilemon-Sullivan Aug. 1 to Schramm State Park near the Platte River but they saw a park worker so they returned to Weeping Water.
They walked into the woods to an area called Acapulco Lake around 2 p.m., and he remained with her as she slit her wrists several times over the course of the day, investigators wrote in the affidavit.
They believe he tried to suffocate her twice while she was sleeping, but she appeared to be suffering so he stopped, the affidavit said.
She was still able to whisper when he left her around 9:30 p.m.
He returned the next afternoon and found her dead, but Stubbendieck didn't call the sheriff's office until three days later, the affidavit said.
Originally, officials believe the two agreed he wouldn't tell anyone about her death until five or six months later.
Stubbendieck was charged Oct. 10. Court records do not show he has an attorney.
He remained at the Cass County jail in Plattsmouth Monday.
In Nebraska, assisting suicide is punishable by up to two years in prison or a $10,000 fine.
Wilemon-Sullivan's family has not returned messages from the Journal Star.
Another academic year, another fattening of campus diversity bureaucracies. Most worrisomely, the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields are now prime targets for administrative diversity encroachment, with the commercial tech sector rapidly following suit.
The most significant new diversity sinecure has been established at the University of California, Los Angeles, where the engineering school just minted its first associate dean of diversity and inclusion. The purpose of this new position is to encourage engineering faculty to hire more females and underrepresented minorities, reports the Daily Bruin, UCLAs student newspaper. One of my jobs, the new dean, Scott Brandenberg, told the paper, is to avoid implicit bias in the hiring process.
The new engineering-diversity deanship supplements the work of UCLAs lavishly paid, campus-wide Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Jerry Kang, whose 2016 salary was $444,000. Kang, one of the most influential proponents of the implicit-bias concept, already exerts enormous pressure throughout the university to hire for diversity. Even before his vice chancellorship was created, any UCLA professor hoping for the top rank of tenure had to write a contributions to diversity essay detailing his efforts to rectify any racial and gender imbalances in his department. The addition of a localized diversity bureaucrat within the engineering school can only increase the focus on gender and race in hiring and admissions decisions. (Brandenberg, of course, expresses fealty to Californias beleaguered ban on racial and gender preferences in government. But it would be naive to think that the ubiquitous mandate to increase diversity does not inevitably tip the scale in favor of alleged victim groups.)
No evidence exists that implicit bias is a factor in the engineering schools gender and racial composition. Its percentage of female undergraduate and graduate studentsabout one quartermatches the national percentage reported by the American Society for Engineering Education. I asked the schools spokesman, Amy Akmal, if UCLA Engineering was aware of any examples of the most qualified candidate being overlooked or rejected in a hiring search because of implicit bias; she ignored this fundamental question. (She also ignored a question about the new deans salary.) Every science department in the country relentlessly strives to improve its national ranking through hiring the most prestigious researchers. It would be deeply contrary to their interests to reject a superior candidate because of gender or race. And given the pools of federal and private science funding available on the basis of gender and race, hiring managers have added incentive to favor diverse applicants. Contrary to the idea that females are being discriminated against in hiring, Wendy Williams and Stephen Ceci found that female applicants for STEM tenure-track positions enjoyed a two-to-one advantage over similarly qualified males in paired resume experiments.
The director of UCLAs Women in Engineering program trotted out the usual role model argument for gender-and race-conscious decision-making. Audrey Pool ONeal told the Daily Bruin that she never saw anyone who looked like her (black and female) when she was an undergraduate and graduate student. When I do teach classes, the female students let me know how much they appreciate seeing a woman in front of their classroom, ONeal said.
Why not appreciate seeing the best-trained scholar in front of your classroom? Any female who thinks that she needs a female in front of her in order to learn as much as she can, or to envision a career in a particular field, has declared herself a follower rather than a pioneerand a follower based on a characteristic irrelevant to intellectual achievement. If it were really the case that a role model of the same gender is important to moving ahead, it would be impossible to alter the gender balance of a field, assuming such a mission to be worthwhile, whichabsent a finding of actual discriminationit is not. Marie Curie did not need female role models to investigate radioactivity; she was motivated by a passion to understand the world. That should be reason enough to plunge headlong into the search for knowledge.
The Columbia University Medical Center has just pledged $50 million to diversify its faculty and student body, reports the Wall Street Journal, part of a new $100 million diversity drive across the entire university. Never mind that Columbia University has already fruitlessly spent $85 million since 2005 toward the same end. Never mind that there is a huge gap between the MCAT scores of blacks and whites, which will affect the quality of subsequent hiring pools. Columbias vice provost for faculty diversity and inclusion regurgitates another classic of diversity boilerplate to justify this enormous waste of funds. The reality is that you cant really achieve excellence without diversity. It requires diverse thought to solve complex problems, says vice provost Dennis Mitchell.
Mitchells statement is ludicrous on multiple fronts. Aside from the fact that the one thing never sought in the academic diversity hustle is diverse thought, do Mitchell and his compatriots in the diversity industry believe that females and underrepresented minorities solve analytical problems differently from males, whites, and Asians? A core plank of left-wing academic thought is that gender and race are socially constructed. Why then would females and underrepresented minorities think differently if their alleged differences are simply a result of oppressive social categories?
Columbias science departments do not have 50/50 parity between males and females, which, according to Mitchell, keeps them from achieving excellence. Since 1903, Columbia faculty members have won 78 Nobel Prizes in the sciences and economics. The recipients were overwhelmingly male (and white and Asian); somehow, they managed to do groundbreaking work in science despite the relatively non-diverse composition of their departments.
The only thing that the academic diversity racket achieves is to bid up the salaries of plausibly qualified candidates, and redistribute those candidates to universities that can muster the most resources for diversity poaching. The dean of UCLA Engineering, Jayathi Murthy, laments that of the 900 females admitted to the undergraduate engineering program in 2016, only about 240 accepted the offer. There are (about) 660 women there that are going somewhere else and the question is . . . is there an opportunity for us to do something differently, she told the Daily Bruin. Presumably, those 660 non-matriculants are getting engineering degrees at other institutions. If the goal (a dubious one) is to increase the number of female engineers overall, then it doesnt matter where they graduate from. But every college wants its own set of diverse students and faculty, though one institutions gain is anothers presumed loss.
The pressure to take irrelevant characteristics like race and sex into account in academic science is dangerous enough. But Silicon Valley continues to remake itself in the image of the campus diversity bureaucracy. Dell Technologies announced in September a new chief diversity and inclusion officer position. Per the usual administrator shuffle, the occupant of this new position, Brian Reaves, previously served as head of diversity and inclusion for software company SAP. Reaves will engage the companys leaders in candid conversations about the role of gender and diversity in the workplace, said Dell chief customer officer Karen Quintos in a press statement. Candid means: you are free to confess your white cis-male privilege. Candid does not mean questioning Dells diversity assumptions, as this summers firing of computer engineer James Damore from Google made terrifyingly clear to any other potential heretics.
According to the Austin-American Statesman, over the last three years Dells existing diversity programs have not changed the companys gender and racial balance. Dells share of women (28 percent) and people of color (27 percent) is consistent with the academic pipeline. But magical diversity thinking holds that adding another administrator will somehow conjure forth previously overlooked diverse hires. If they dont materialize, one can always fall back on racial and gender double standards.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has similar confidence in the power of diversity bureaucrats. Cook said in 2015 that diversity is a readily solvable issue, according to CNN, and announced that he would hire more women. Failing that, he can at least hire more diversity functionaries. In May, Apple created a new vice president of inclusion and diversity, who will report directly to Cook. This new executive position comes in addition to Apples existing director of inclusion and diversity.
Official scientific organizations have all turned obsessively to the diversity agenda. Any academic scientist who wants to move up in administrationor apply for grants, leave, or access to the conference circuitmust be on a crusade against his fellow scientists microaggressions and implicit bias. This is good news for the diversity industry, but bad news for Americas scientific competitiveness.
Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
A registered charity and an organisation which called itself a charity were inadvertently used as "vehicles for terrorism", the Charity Commission has warned today.
The Charity Commission today published regulatory case reports into Shade, a registered charity, and Helping Humanity, which was not a registered charity but stated that it was a charity.
The regulator has reminded charities that it does not consider aid convoys to be "an effective means of delivering humanitarian aid". And it has warned charities taking part in them that they will be "subject to additional regulatory scrutiny".
On 23 December 2016 Mr Syed Hoque and Mr Mashoud Miah were convicted of entering into a funding arrangement contrary to section 17 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Hoque had a obtained a letter of credential from Shade and Miah had raised money for Helping Humanity.
Shade failed to submit accounts
The report, published today by the Charity Commission, covers its investigation into registered charity Shade, and a former volunteer of the organisation named Syed Hoque, who was convicted of offences under the Terrorism Act on 23 December 2016.
According to the report, Hoque acquired an open letter of credential from the charity, from a trustee acquaintance of his, and used this to travel freely around Syria where he supported an individual involved in terrorism in the country.
The Charity Commission initially became involved with Shade in October 2015, due to the failure of its trustees to submit accounts and annual returns for the financial year ending 30 June 2014.
The Commission was also aware the charity had been advertising and soliciting donations for projects in Syria, without properly identifying these as activities of the charity.
On the charity register, the charity lists its activities as offering a range of projects and services for young people and the community at large, including health and sports, social care and support, as well as training and employment. The charity says it operates throughout England and Wales.
In its investigation, the Commission found that Shade displayed a number of "risk factors". The regulator found the charity had shown a lack of partner/volunteer due diligence. It also found that charitable funds were "expended in high risk locations" and that it had issued "charity letters of credential to individuals without vetting and monitoring".
The Commission also found that that both the general governance of the charity, and the trustees failure to comply with their statutory duties put the charity at risk.
The Commissions findings
Hoque travelled to Syria as part of a convoy in 2013, and wore T-shirts promoting the charity whilst there. Trustees of the organisation told the Charity Commission they hoped Hoques visit would establish further projects of humanitarian work in Syria and they had accepted Hoques assurances that his travel there was an opportunity to promote the charity in return for a letter of credential.
The Commission found that the letter was open ended and intended for use as and when Hoque felt it was required. The trustee who issued the letter also told the Commission that they were merely acquainted with Hoque, and did not know him very well.
In its report, the Charity Commission said it does not know the extent to which Hoque used the letter during his time in Syria.
During Hoques trial, the court heard that he had utilised humanitarian aid convoys on a number of occasions as a cover for his support for the individual. In its report, the Commission said it has been clear that it does not consider aid convoys an effective means of delivering humanitarian aid and has cautioned those charities organising or participating in them of the risk involved.
Action taken by the Commission
The Commission said it subsequently met with Shades trustees to discuss its activities, and issued the charity with an action plan requiring its trustees to carry out appropriate and proper due diligence on all individuals and organisations that it grants funds to or uses to carry out charitable projects and help deliver its work.
The Commissions plan also required the trustees to create and implement a policy whereby conditions are attached to the use of material and paraphernalia belonging to the Charity by trustees, staff and volunteers in all situations and especially in areas of high risk to avoid a similar situation occurring in the future.
As a result of the Hoque case, the charity developed a volunteer policy and volunteer agreement form and removed all images or reference to Hoque from its website and other social media channels.
Helping Humanity has closed
Police found evidence that Miah was closely involved with Helping Humanity, which was not a registered charity and is separate from a recently registered charity of the same name.
The court also heard that he had used aid convoys as a cover for terrorist activity.
When the Commission became aware of Helping Humanity's fundraising activity it tried to arrange a compliance visit. The directors fo the company told the regulator that they intended to wind it up.
It was removed from the Register of Companies on 19 May 2015.
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Climate change eludes easy coverage. The impact of global warming looks different in every community; so do the human factors that raise the Earths temperature. Nature, we believe, takes forever, journalist Bill McKibben wrote in 1989s The End of Nature, before he explained how that belief misleads us:
Our sense of an unlimited future, which is drawn from that apparently bottomless well of the past, is a delusion.Over a lifetime or a decade or a year, big and impersonal and dramatic changes can take place. We have accepted the idea that continents can drift in the course of aeons, or that continents can die in a nuclear second. But normal time seems to us immune from such huge changes. It isnt, though.
Journalists attempt to explain, if not to convince. But climate change too often confounds our attempts. Scientific language is too specialized. We shy away from complicated topics; last year, evening newscasts from four major broadcasters spent less than an hour discussing climate change. When wildfires rage and hurricanes churn, we struggle to link them to our behaviors and our policies. The impacts of climate change look different in Wyoming coal country than they do on the Gulf Coast.
In October 2016, the Pew Research Center detailed how our political differences reach across every dimension of the climate debateincluding how the news media covers it. One month later, the election of Donald Trump to the nations highest office revealed how little journalists know about the local circumstances that shape our politics. Those same circumstanceseconomic, geographic, cultural, and historicalinform our understanding of climate change, and what we think we might do to prevent its most destructive effects.
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The New York Times recently invited its readers to try their hands at budgeting the Earths carbon emissions. With help from Climate Interactive and MITs Sloane School of Management, the Times published a climate simulator in Augustsandwiched between news of Americas planned exit from the Paris climate accords and the EPAs decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan.
The simulator challenges users to prevent the worst effects of global warming by manipulating emission levels in developed and developing countries. It renders Earths projected carbon emissions as hundreds of small, jittering dots, many of which stand in for the practices and policies of communities across the United States. Click reduce or eliminate, and a number of dots vanish from the screen.
The Times simulator is a useful way to quantify Americas environmental impact. But it reveals nothing about the local forces behind our contributions to a changing climate. If we eliminate one jittering dot, then we reshape dozens of American communities. If we do nothing, then rising temperatures will continue to reshape them for us.
CJR recently invited contributions from journalists around the country whose coverage of climate change is rooted in state and local concerns. (Our first dispatch, from Cassandra Willyard in Wisconsin, can be found here.) We asked each journalist to revisit their work and to detail those lessons they learned while reporting. During the next several weeks, CJR will publish their dispatches, with the hope that other reporters might find new ways to apply the lessons they include.
Survival Stories is a series of local climate change dispatches.
Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today
Brendan Fitzgerald is senior editor of CJR.
During his time as president in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt used a revolutionary new medium called radio to talk directly to the American people. For John F. Kennedy in the 1960s, the new medium was television. For Donald J. Trump in this decade, the new medium is Twitter, whichless than a year inhas already remade his presidency.
Depending on the hour of the day (or the minute, or the second), it can serve as a tool, a crutch, or a cudgel. He has used it to praise his supporters, to promote his administrations agenda, and to attack those he sees as being against himwhether its onetime allies like Megyn Kelly, formerly of Fox News, or the head of the steelworkers union. Its how he kills time in the morning while watching TV, and its how he gets the news cycle spinning and wages war on what he calls the lying media.
ICYMI: She identified herself as a reporter. He then walked behind her and punched her
The presidents use of a public platform like Twitter to talk directly with the American people is unprecedented for the presidency, and it raises legal, ethical, and cultural issues that have never been tackled in American politics.
The more outrageous Trumps online comments have become, the more coverage theyve received, creating a symbiotic relationship that has come to define Trumps relationship with the media that covers him. But it has also boxed in a press corps that has come to simultaneously depend on and benefit from Trumps Twitter torrent. Just because its being tweeted by the president, is it news? Is there a point at which the Twitter coverage gets to be too much? And is there a risk that the press corps is being distracted from more important topics?
I think journalists have tended to over-respond to every tweet, in some ways treating them as five-alarm fires when few of them deserve to be that, says Margaret Sullivan, media columnist for The Washington Post and former New York Times public editor. We dont seem to be able to show much restraint in terms of which [tweets] deserve to be ignored.
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New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen says part of the difficulty for reporters when it comes to dealing with Trumps tweets is that the presidents use of Twitter breaks with previously accepted norms. Political journalism is built on assumptions about how candidates will behave, like all candidates are risk averse, so the whole idea of a campaign built on being risk-friendly is unfamiliar, says Rosen. But thats what you need to start with if you have a hope of understanding Trump as president. Journalists havent been able to assimilate the fact that not only have trolls emerged as genuine political actors, but that the president of the United States is a troll.
ICYMI: What we miss when we obsess over Trumps tweets
Brian Stelter, CNNs senior media correspondent, says that even after covering Trump for months, he is still surprised by how the president uses Twitter. When Ive gone on vacation and reinstalled my account and seen the presidents Twitter feed, I cant help but be shocked by some of the things he shares, Stelter says. Theres a numbness when his tweets come up in your feed day after day. I find it really useful to try and step away from it, to try to remember how extremely unusual this is.
Before he became president, reporters questioned whether Trump would continue tweeting after taking officeor whether he would be allowed to do so, because of the potential security risks (among them: his use of what appears to be an unsecured Android phone). His Twitter dependency has hardly faded since he moved into the White House, becoming an integral part of Trumps public persona.
Just hours after his inauguration, Trump provided a hint of what was to come when he called the head of the National Park Service and ordered him to take down a tweet that a staffer had posted comparing the size of his inauguration crowd with that of former President Barack Obama (you can guess whose was smaller). Its a constant source of wonder, says Sullivan. I keep thinking hes going to stop, that someone will get to him and say this isnt wise, and hell stop, but so far that hasnt happened.
ICYMI: Behind the story BuzzFeed, Daily Beast, NYTimes and more didnt want to publish
In the early days of his presidency, Trumps Twitter use seemed almost harmless. But as the subjects of his ire have grown to include the former director of the FBI (who was heading up an investigation into his administrations ties to Russia) and the president of North Korea (who is threatening to strike US targets), it has become a much more daunting issue. In other circumstances, the transparency of a president who personally tweets might have been a revelation, wrote Navneet Alang in an essay for the New Republic. But instead of relief from empty campaign statements, we got a president who uses social media to enact revenge, spout conspiracy theories, and self-aggrandize.
Twitter has given Trump the illusion of transparency and accessibility without his having to actually provide them.
Stelter isnt among the journalists who consider the tweets a sideshow. We learn an enormous amount about his mindset from his tweets, Stelter says. Its a raw, shocking use of media by a president, like hes hosting a late-night talk showpicking fights, getting even with enemies.
Zeke Miller, Times White House correspondent, says there are advantages to having a president who tweets as incessantly as Trump. The obvious one is we have a fairly clear sense of what the president is thinking, Miller says. The downside is that my phone is blowing up at all hours of the night. But from a professional perspective in terms of doing my job and serving my readers, its a net positive.
Jack Shafer, Politicos senior media writer, says, This is the first time weve had this type of open access to the subconscious of the president.
But theres a paradox at play here: The steady drip of the presidents Twitter id has been accompanied by a concerted attempt to end-run the mainstream press. Trump has held dramatically fewer press conferences than any recent presidentjust a single solo conference as of mid-September. His administration has also shown a distinct preference for off-the-record briefings that cant be recorded and arent public. And all of this has come amid ongoing complaints about fake news and the press, which have contributed to a far more dangerous environment for reporters in America. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a consortium of media organizations including CJR, reports more than 50 press-freedom violations in the US through the end of August.
Trumps strategy seems obvious: Discredit the mainstream media, restrict their access, then replace their reports with tweets directly from the president or interviews with friendly outlets like Fox News and Breitbart. In effect, Twitter has given Trump the illusion of transparency and accessibility without his having to actually provide themor the accountability that usually comes with a two-way conversation with the press. It allows him to state untruths with impunity, knowing that his tweets will be widely redistributed by his followers and the media, and to dodge follow-up questions or criticism. Its become a partial replacement for a more traditional press corps thats able to ask tough questions and press him with follow-upsbut it is in no way an adequate substitution, Sullivan says.
So is everything Trump publishes on Twitter a news story, simply because he is the president? As the Times put it in a story earlier this year: Trump expertly exploits journalists unwavering attention to their Twitter feeds, their competitive spirit and ingrained journalistic conventionschiefly, that what the president says is inherently newsworthy. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer highlighted this problem in June when he said that Trumps tweets should be considered official statements.
To some degree, everything about Twitter is overplayed by the media, Stelter says. Twitter is not a mainstream product, most Americans are not on Twitter, and the presidents tweets are not that popular in the grand scheme of things. But that doesnt mean what hes saying isnt newsworthy.
Shafer says there should be a middle ground for journalists. In the past, we didnt think every presidential speech was newsworthywhen he was speaking to the Boy Scouts or to a sewing circle. It was news, but it was small n news, Shafer says. I think we have to deal with every Trump tweet on its merits. Theres no obligation to cover them all, and no obligation to ignore them either . . . . I would say reporters need to go find news where it is, and sometimes its Twitter, sometimes its not. In the larger sense, Shafer says Trumps Twitter account is part of the presidents publicity apparatus, and it should be considered that way, just like press releases and public appearances and photo ops.
Miller says, I think we all struggle with thathow much weight do you give to individual tweets. Does this tweet, and the four others before it, and this other presidential statement, and the fact that this meeting got cancelled, make it important?
Given the kind of negative reaction his tweets often receivefrom critics as well as members of his own party and even his administrationwhy does the president persist with this most public of mediums? People who followed Trump during his career as a New York City real-estate developer say the courting of publicity by any means is classic Trump behaviorto the point where he called tabloid reporters under an assumed name to leak stories about himself (and not always flattering ones). Trump watchers say this approach was further refined during his time as a reality TV host on The Apprentice.
In many ways, Trump was primed to take advantage of a self-promotional platform like Twitter long before it arrived on the scene in 2006. Trump has always been hooked on recognition, reporter Amanda Hess wrote in an analysis of Trumps tweeting habits in The New York Times. He is obsessed with his television ratings. His office is festooned with decades-old magazine covers featuring himself. Even negative attention can be a win; hes thrilled to be named Times Person of the Year even if the cover might evoke images of both Hitler and Satan.
In part because of Trumps detached approach to even serious political issues, there have been repeated attempts within the White House to curtail the presidents Twitter use. But he has said a number of times that he relishes the directness of the platformthat is, the ability to speak to his supporters without having to go through the mainstream press, and to get the kind of publicity for his ideas that he clearly craves.
Im covered so dishonestly by the press . . . that I can put it on Twitter [and] I can go bing bing bing and I just keep going and they put it on as soon as I tweet it out, he said in an interview with a British MP and the former chief editor of the German newspaper Bild. If I tell something to the papers and they dont write it accurately, its really bad [but] they cant do much when you tweet it.
Rosen doesnt buy the argument that Trumps tweets are part of some elaborate media strategy. He simply doesnt have a sense of shame or embarrassment that normal people would have, and social media eats that kind of thing up.
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University recently filed a lawsuit arguing that the president should not be allowed to block critics on Twitter from seeing his tweets. The institute argues that by having an official Twitter account, Trump and his administration have essentially created a public forum, and restricting who can participate in that forum is a breach of some Americans First Amendment rights.
Though the architects of the Constitution surely didnt contemplate presidential Twitter accounts, they understood that the president must not be allowed to banish views from public discourse simply because he finds them objectionable, says Jameel Jaffer, the institutes director. Having opened this forum to all comers, the president cant exclude people from it merely because he dislikes what theyre saying.
ICYMI: Trump might be in serious trouble for his NBC tweets
In a similar case, a court in Virginia recently ruled against a city official who blocked constituents on Facebook. The suppression of critical commentary regarding elected officials is the quintessential form of viewpoint discrimination against which the First Amendment guards, US District Judge James Cacheris wrote.
Trump may also have breached another federal law by deleting some of his tweets. Caroline Mala Corbin, a constitutional law professor at the University of Miami, told NBC News that the president may have violated the Presidential Records Act, a 1978 law passed after the Watergate scandal that requires that all presidential writings be preserved.
So what is to be done about Trump and his Twitter obsession? Trumps use of Twitter as a tool with which to attack his enemies has sparked a debate over whether Twitter itself should ban the president from using its platform. According to a number of critics, Trumps use of Twitter to attack everyone from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski to miscellaneous followers and journalists is a breach of the services standards, which forbid anyone from using their account to harass others.
Venture capitalist and former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao said in an essay published on the Web platform Medium, and directed to Twitters management, that Trump was using his manipulation skills and your platform to bully others, and to incite supporters to harass peopleboth on Twitter and in real life. Even Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and CEO of Twitter, acknowledged in an interview that his feelings about the presidents use of the platform are complicated.
Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison has called for banning Trump from Twitter, and more than 70,000 people have signed a petition asking the company to do so.
In many ways, having the president post his thoughts publicly about everything from foreign policy to the weaknesses of his enemies is a gift to journalists and political junkies. His tweets provide a real-time glimpse into the mind and mood of one of the worlds most powerful political leaders. Week-long news cycles have been built around a single update from Trump, with pundits parsing every syllable, and those stories are inevitably a traffic-generating machine for cash-strapped media outlets.
But even some of the journalists filing those stories need to question whether they are serving a larger purpose, or whether their coverage is the equivalent of Nero fiddling while Rome burns.
The Trump Twitterverse
Donald Trump is Americas first Twitter president. His 37 million* followers put him clearly in the Twitter elite, and his prolific tweets regularly change the news cycle. Below, a breakdown of our tweeting president.
Pete Vernon
Tweets since January 20
Most retweeted
CNN wrestling
Five memorable tweets
1. July 2, 6:21am
#FraudNewsCNN #FNN
2. February 17, 1:48pm
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
3. November 9, 3:36am
Such a beautiful and important evening! The forgotten man and woman will never be forgotten again. We will all come together as never before
Such a beautiful and important evening! The forgotten man and woman will never be forgotten again. We will all come together as never before Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2016
4. May 31, 12:26am
Despite the constant negative press covfefe
5. May 12, 5:26am
James Comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
From archives: Journalist who broke Trump groping story on why others were slow
Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today
Mathew Ingram is CJRs chief digital writer. Previously, he was a senior writer with Fortune magazine. He has written about the intersection between media and technology since the earliest days of the commercial internet. His writing has been published in the Washington Post and the Financial Times as well as by Reuters and Bloomberg.
The Hollywood Reporters Kim Masters is used to threatening letters from lawyers working to protect people and organizations she covers. But in a piece for CJR, she writes that shes never faced the sort of trouble getting a story published that she did when trying to report on allegations of Amazon Studios head Roy Prices inappropriate sexual comments. It is a cautionary tale about the obstacles to publishing a damaging piece about an influential individual and a story that should worry anyone who cares about the ability of journalists to take on powerful figures.
ICYMI: She identified herself as a reporter. He then walked behind her and punched her
Masters was confident that Price had made the unwelcome sexual remarks to Isa Hackett, a producer on the Amazon series The Man in the High Castle, in 2015. She could report that Amazon had launched an investigation into the incident, and though she couldnt get initially get Hackett to go on the record describing what was actually said, Masters believed she had enough sources to make the story publishable. Then the lawyers got involved.
Important @CJR piece by the fearless @kimmasters about her struggle to get her Amazon Studios scoop published https://t.co/6E5DzWuVsq Kyle Pope (@kylepope) October 13, 2017
Charles Harder, who made his name representing Hulk Hogan in the suit that essentially bankrupted Gawker, and Lisa Bloom, famous for her counsel of women who have accused powerful men of sexual assault and harassment, both threatened litigation to any outlet that ran the story. As Masters writes, in the wake of Hulk Hogans successful lawsuit against Gawkerwe seem to be at a point when the wealthy feel emboldened to try to silence reporters by threatening litigation even if they stand virtually no chance of winning.
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After The Hollywood Reporter passed on the piece, Masters took her story to half a dozen outlets, including BuzzFeed, The Daily Beast, and The New York Times, before it eventually found a home at Jessica Lessins The Information. Masters writes that her struggle to place the story shows both the lengths to which a deep-pocketed subject will go to shut down a negative story, as well as the fear that now permeates news outlets at a challenging time for journalism.
From archives: Journalist who broke Trump groping story on why others were slow
Perhapsfor the moment at leastthat is changing. After allegations against Harvey Weinstein began to pile up, Hackett agreed to go on the record with what Price said to her. This time, The Hollywood Reporter had no qualms about publishing Masterss story; her piece ran last Thursday. Hours later, Price was suspended.
Below, more on the Masterss reporting and the impact of litigation threats in the wake of Gawkers demise.
Other notable stories
Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today
Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.
The question of whether carbon monoxide constitutes a pollutant for purposes of a standard policy pollution exclusion has been mixed among the courts. Whether carbon monoxide constitutes pollution is jurisdiction-specific and depends on whether the jurisdiction adopts a traditional or broadened view of environmental pollution. Exposure to carbon monoxide is a serious event. Nevertheless, the seriousness of a carbon monoxide claim can be somewhat blunted by the extremes that claimants will go to in arguing around a pollution exclusion. Such was the case that was recently decided by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In Travelers Property Casualty Co. of America v. Klick, 867 F.3d 989 (8th Cir. 2017) the claimant was riding as a passenger on a fishing boat owned by a friend. The 25-foot fishing boat had been purchased a few weeks earlier. While fishing on a lake in Minnesota, both the boat owner, Lonnie Norburg, and the claimant, Christopher Klick, noticed that the engine was not operating properly. At that point, Norburg, who was at the helm of the boat, asked Klick to take the helm while Norburg went to check on the engine problem. The helm of the boat was near the front of the boat in the wheelhouse. The wheelhouse was a roofed area with walls and windows to the front, left, and right. The back of the wheelhouse was open. The boats engine was located in a compartment beneath the wheelhouse.
When Norburg opened the hatch of the engine compartment to check on the engine, he was quickly overcome by carbon monoxide. Klick also quickly lost consciousness and fell into the engine compartment, where he was severely burned while lying on the engine. Apparently, an exhaust pipe had broken off at the spot where it connected with the engine. As a result, the engine had been expelling carbon monoxide gas into the engine compartment instead of expelling the gas through the exhaust pipe system that took the carbon monoxide out behind the boat. Although Norburg died, Klick survived.
Travelers had issued a commercial liability policy to the boat dealership that sold the boat. The Travelers policy contained a pollution exclusion which stated that Travelers did not provide liability coverage for injuries arising out of the movement of pollutants into the atmosphere. Because of this, Travelers denied coverage. In the ensuing coverage litigation, Klick argued that his injuries did not arise out of the release, disbursal or migration of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere and therefore the exclusion did not apply. The parties did agree, however, that carbon monoxide was a pollutant.
Klicks first argument was that the engine compartment itself did not contain atmosphere. From this he then reasoned that his injuries arose out of the engines initial release of carbon monoxide into the engine compartment and not by the subsequent movement of the carbon monoxide gas from the engine compartment into the wheelhouse. The court quickly rejected this argument assuming for the sake of the analysis that the engine compartment did not contain atmosphere, and found that the movement of the carbon monoxide from the engine compartment into the wheelhouse was a release, disbursal, or migration of a pollutant. The court found that the pollution exclusion was not limited to liability arising out of any initial release of the pollutant from an original source. Next, Klick argued that the boat dealers liability did not arise out of the release, disbursal or migration of a pollutant into the wheelhouse because Klicks injuries arose out of the release of carbon monoxide into the engine compartment. The court rejected this argument, finding that the carbon monoxide release into the wheelhouse was causally connected to the injuries. The carbon monoxide caused Klick to lose consciousness and fall into the engine compartment, where he suffered most of his injuries. Therefore, the carbon monoxide release was at least a cause of the injuries. Because there could be multiple causes with varying degrees of proximity to an injury, the mere fact that there may have been another cause was not relevant.
Finally, and the reason for the glibness of this article, is that Klick argued that even if the boat dealers liability would arise out of the release of carbon monoxide into the wheelhouse, the wheelhouse did not contain atmosphere. This lead the court to have to discuss what was meant by the word atmosphere within the context of the pollution exclusion. Ironically, the Minnesota Supreme Court had addressed the issue and had concluded that the word atmosphere used in a pollution exclusion, meant ambient air. See Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota v. Royal Insurance Co. of America, 217 N.W.2d 888, 892-93 (Minn. 1994). The Minnesota Supreme Court found that a pollution exclusion similar to the one at issue did not exclude coverage for injuries resulting from asbestos fibers being released into the air within a building. The Minnesota Supreme Court juxtaposed the concept of ambient air in its natural setting (atmosphere) with the air in the controlled environment of a buildings interior (not atmosphere). Borrowing this logic, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the wheelhouse was not a controlled environment. In fact, the back of the wheelhouse was open and air readily flowed to and from the surrounding environment. Thus, any person standing in the wheelhouse was exposed to ambient air. A reasonable person in the position of the insured thus would have understood that a person in the wheelhouse was in atmosphere. As a result, the pollution exclusion applied.
The House backed President Donald Trumps request for billions more in disaster aid, $16 billion to pay flood insurance claims and emergency funding to help the cash-strapped government of Puerto Rico stay afloat.
Thursdays hurricane aid package totals $36.5 billion and sticks close to a White House request, ignoring for now huge demands from the powerful Florida and Texas delegations, who together pressed for some $40 billion more.
Yet President Donald Trump criticized the U.S. territory early Thursday, saying it shouldnt expect federal help to last forever. In a series of tweets, the president said electric and all infrastructure was disaster before hurricanes and blamed Puerto Rico for its looming financial crisis and a total lack of accountability.
He tweeted: We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!
Fort Myers, FL., September 14, 2017 Clean up begins in Fort Myers, Florida following Hurricane Irma. Robert Kaufmann/FEMA
A steady series of disasters massive flooding in Texas, hurricane damage in Florida, and a humanitarian crisis in hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico could be putting 2017 on track to rival Hurricane Katrina and other 2005 storms as the most costly set of disasters ever. Katrina required about $110 billion in emergency appropriations.
The bill combines $18.7 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency with $16 billion to permit the financially troubled federal flood insurance program pay an influx of Harvey-related claims. Another $577 million would pay for western firefighting efforts.
Up to $5 billion of the FEMA money could be used to help local governments especially Puerto Ricos central government and the islands local governments remain functional as they endure unsustainable cash shortfalls in the aftermath of Maria, which has choked off revenues and strained resources.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is traveling to Puerto Rico on Friday. He has promised that the U.S. territory will get what it needs, but most of the island remains without power, and many of its more isolated residents still lack drinking water.
Its not easy when youre used to live in an American way of life, and then somebody tell you that youre going to be without power for six or eight months, said Resident Commissioner Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, who represents Puerto Rico as a non-voting member of Congress. Its not easy when you are continue to suffer see the suffering of the people without food, without water, and actually living in a humanitarian crisis.
Republicans controlling Congress, who had protracted debates last year on modest requests by former President Barack Obama to combat the Zika virus and help Flint, Michigan, repair its lead-tainted water system, are moving quickly to take care of this years alarming series of disasters, quickly passing a $15.3 billion measure last month and signaling that another installment is coming next month.
Several lawmakers from hurricane-hit states said a third interim aid request is anticipated shortly with a final, huge hurricane recovery and rebuilding package likely to be acted upon by the end of the year.
Another tranche is coming in maybe two, three weeks, said Rep. Pete Olsen, R-Texas. Olsen said several members of the Texas delegation won assurances from Ryan that more money is on its way.
Im counting on the next supplemental adding the funds for Texas, said Rep. John Carter, R-Texas.
Democrats embraced the package. It includes an estimated $1 billion added by the House Appropriations Committee to address Californias ongoing wildfire disasters, a priority for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
President Donald Trump has nominated the CEO of a private weather company to head the government agency that oversees the National Weather Service, an organization the nominee has at times clashed with.
Barry Myers, who runs the pioneering weather firm AccuWeather, was chosen as undersecretary of Commerce and head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The weather service is part of NOAA.
American weather companies are now becoming the focal point for weather information in many of the countries around the world, Myers told Congress last year. The number one mobile weather source in Europe is an American one AccuWeather. We estimate that AccuWeather information is on about 1.5 billion or more devices globally.
But Myers told the House Science Committee he had problems with the way NOAA keeps some data private and how it works with competing weather firms.
The union that represents weather service employees has criticized a possible Myers nomination as a conflict of interest.
As NOAA Administrator, he would be in a position to fundamentally alter the nature of weather services that NOAA provides the nation to the benefit of his family-owned business, union attorney Richard Hirn said in a July letter to Congress.
The liberal-leaning Center for American Progress said Myers is unqualified because he is not a scientist and NOAA is a science agency.
But private meteorologist Mike Smith, who sold his firm to Myers and has worked for him, said Myers knows weather science inside and out.
Ryan Maue of Weather.us said: Myers will bring that Big Data acumen to NOAA and likely accelerate a process that has slowly been underway: more private-sector collaboration with satellite data, weather models and other information services. Government-sponsored satellite programs are hugely expensive and constantly under threat of cost-cutting during budget crises.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Col. John Bolduc was sworn in Monday as superintendent of the Nebraska State Patrol.
Bolduc, 52, relieves Maj. Russ Stanczyk, who has served as acting superintendent since the firing of Col. Brad Rice in June.
Bolduc formerly served as vice president of public safety and police chief at the Unified Port of San Diego. Before that, he served 23 years in Minnesota as police chief in the cities of Brainerd and Mora, and as a police officer and supervisor in Maple Grove, a suburb of Minneapolis.
Now Bolduc oversees a 700-member public safety organization still recovering from an internal review which showed that Rice and other patrol leaders had interfered with internal affairs investigations and violated workplace harassment and equal opportunity policies.
Gov. Pete Ricketts announced Bolduc's hiring last month. His salary is $150,000.
I consider it an honor to be sworn-in as colonel, Bolduc said in a news release Monday. Everyone at NSP has an important mission to do. Public service is teamwork and Im honored to be a part of the Nebraska State Patrol.
Chief Standing Bear always stood up for his homeland.
In 1877, he protested the federal government's eviction of the Ponca from their northeastern Nebraska land, and he later returned to the state after setting out on a grueling journey on foot in the winter to bury his son.
The resulting landmark court case established that a Native American is a "person under the law.
On Sunday Chief Standing Bear returned to Nebraska again. And this time, instead of fighting for his right to stay in the place he loved most, he was honored by politicians and a large crowd.
Following speeches and traditional dances, the nearly 10-foot-tall sculpture of Standing Bear was revealed outside the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Journalism and Mass Communications on Centennial Mall.
The great-great-great granddaughter of Standing Bear, Rebecca Wright, helped uncover the bronze statue, joined by her young children.
Although Standing Bear died long before Wright was born, he was a constant presence in her life.
"My parents instilled a sense of leadership in us," she said between tears. "It was always really important that we knew where we came from."
The sculpture is an important step, she said, for Nebraska and Native American communities because it offers a formal recognition of the history and struggles of the Ponca.
Despite Standing Bear's protest of the federal government's 1877 eviction of the tribe from its ancestral homeland, the Ponca were forced to relocate. In the summer of 1878, they marched 600 miles to Indian Territory, a reservation in Oklahoma. Standing Bear's daughter and many others died during the Ponca's Trail of Tears.
Once there, it was too late to plant crops that summer and they had poor farmland, no farming equipment and nothing to eat. It was illegal for the tribe to leave the reservation's borders.
Chief Standing Bear watched as his son and others in the tribe died from starvation or were ravaged by disease.
Before his 16-year-old son died, he told Standing Bear of his last wish: to be buried at home, in Nebraska, so his soul would not wander forever in an unknown land.
Stricken with grief, Standing Bear gathered a group of men and began the journey home to bury his son. The group was eventually arrested for leaving the reservation, but before they were forced to return to Oklahoma, a journalist wrote about their story in the Omaha Daily Herald and found two lawyers to assist the group.
The court case that followed in 1879 determined that Native Americans are people, therefore entitled to the rights afforded to all others.
When Wright looked up at the statue Sunday afternoon, she saw more than her family she saw her tribe and all of the challenges they've overcome.
When Wright was born, the Ponca tribe wasn't even officially in existence. (In the 1960s, the tribe's status was terminated by the federal government.) They were federally recognized again in 1990.
Wright's children were born as Ponca tribe members.
Their story isn't something often taught in public schools, she said, which makes the sculpture even more powerful because it draws attention to the tribe's history.
"Nebraska had really poor relationships with the indigenous community for almost as long as Nebraska's been a state," said Angel Geller of the Omaha tribe, a sister tribe to the Ponca. "To have a presence on the walkway up to the Capitol is very beautiful."
Geller, a Nebraska Wesleyan University student, worked as an assistant to sculptor Ben Victor during the project.
For a week in March, Victor worked on the Standing Bear sculpture in the Jayne Snyder Trail Center and encouraged the public to watch and talk with him about the process.
Geller had the opportunity to help sculpt Standing Bear's moccasins.
"Thinking about how he had to walk the Trail of Tears and after his son died having to walk to bury his son back in Nebraska and just thinking about all of that walking, it was amazing to be able to put beads on his moccasins," she said.
Like Wright, Geller had three generations of her family present at Sunday's dedication.
The project held special meaning for her family, especially her grandfather, and she was proud to help bring a piece of Nebraska's native history to life.
But what really stood out about the project is something still to come.
A replica of the sculpture will be placed on Ponca tribal land, in Niobrara, so that Chief Standing Bear can forever watch over his homeland.
"The story itself is really emotional, but when they agreed to place him back in Niobrara, when I heard that it made me cry," Geller said. "I don't think he really intended everything that came out of this, he just wanted to go home."
Iraqi forces drive towards Kurdish peshmerga positions on October 15, 2017, on the southern outskirts of Kirkuk.
Iraqi army units have seized positions in and around Kirkuk, a major oil city that's dominated by the country's Kurdish people, who voted for independence last month.
Iraq's U.S.-trained Counter Terrorism Service has taken control of the provincial government headquarters in Kirkuk, and the Iraqi flag is flying over disputed areas, Reuters reported. The Iraqi national army also took over the North Oil Company, a refinery in Kirkuk, oil fields and an air base, according to news agencies.
Reports indicated that the Iraqi troops had not faced significant opposition from Kurdish peshmerga militia fighters in the area. However, the General Command of the Peshmerga Forces responded strongly to the advance, local news reported.
"The attack is a clear declaration of war against the people of the Kurdistan Region," the General Command said in a statement.
The Iraqi units went on the move toward Kirkuk around midnight local time in order to "safeguard" the area, military commanders said.
An aid group said several peshmerga fighters and Iraqi soldiers had been killed in a clash south of Kirkuk overnight, according to Reuters. There were no other reports of fatalities.
The U.S. Central Command, which coordinates the campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, said it was aware of gunfire exchanges overnight. The engagement appeared to be a misunderstanding that occurred in the dark of night, it said on its website.
This far-flung peninsula in the North Atlantic seems an unlikely place for an international trade dispute. But an American company's scuttled plans to build a quarry here have turned these quiet fishing grounds into a case study of the kind of thorny disputes that threaten to derail the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Digby Neck, a remote strip of volcanic rock with a population of about 2,000, was chosen by a Delaware company, Bilcon, to be the site of a large stone quarry in 2002. Lured here by the government of Nova Scotia, Bilcon planned to blast the basalt rock that lines the shore, then load 40,000 tons of it onto a ship that would leave the Bay of Fundy each week and head to New Jersey, where it would be mixed into concrete for roads, bridges and other projects.
The quarry was expected to operate for 50 years and create about 30 local jobs in Digby Neck. Instead, the project was killed by the Canadian government after a yearslong review concluded that it would damage the environment. But Bilcon, which had invested significant sums trying to get the project underway, seized on an obscure Nafta provision allowing foreign companies to sue governments for unfair treatment.
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Bilcon sued Canada and won. The company is seeking as much as $443 million, plus costs. While the Canadian government can fight to lower that sum, Nafta provides no appeal mechanism to reverse the underlying legal decision.
The ability of foreign companies to sue governments is one of the most contentious issues in the clash among the United States, Mexico and Canada over how to rework Nafta. The Trump administration views that section of Nafta as impinging on national sovereignty, saying it undermines government decision-making. The United States is pushing for dramatic changes in that provision that would roll back the ability of companies to bring cases under Nafta. Those changes are fiercely opposed by businesses, Mexico and despite its loss to Bilcon Canada.
It is the latest in a series of demands by the United States that have pushed the trade talks to the brink of collapse. President Trump campaigned on reworking the pact, which he has described as a bad deal for American workers. Negotiators are meeting every two weeks to hammer out changes to the deal. But as recently as last week, Mr. Trump continued threatening to walk away from the pact, an outcome that could disrupt corporate supply chains that span the continent and put at risk millions of jobs that are supported by commerce among the three nations.
The provision that Bilcon used known as investor-state dispute settlement gives a tribunal of private sector lawyers the power to rule on whether countries treat foreign investors fairly. It's a tool that critics, including labor unions and environmental groups, say puts billions of taxpayer dollars at risk by taking power away from democratically elected governments and putting it in the hands of lawyers and multinational corporations.
Canada and Mexico have said they are open to improving the provision, but not dropping it entirely. Businesses regard it as essential to protecting their investments abroad.
In Digby Neck, residents like Kemp Stanton, whose family has harvested lobsters from these waters for generations, objected to the quarry over concerns that it would harm the ecosystem and the local economy, which depends on fishing and tourism from whale watching.
"It was way, way, way too big of a project for Digby Neck," said Mr. Stanton, a retired lobsterman. He said he had already seen marine life diminish over his lifetime and decided to oppose the quarry, even donating lobster to chowder suppers to raise funds for the efforts.
"For what we were going to lose, it didn't seem reasonable," Mr. Stanton said.
The Canadian government commissioned an independent panel to review the project in 2003 and, after four years of deliberation, it recommended rejecting the quarry, citing its potential for "significant adverse environmental effects." The Canadian federal and provincial governments agreed, and the project was officially killed in 2007.
Mr. Stanton and others in Digby Neck thought that was the end of the dispute. But Bilcon filed a complaint against the Canadian government, claiming unfair treatment under the investor-state dispute settlement provision. In early 2018, a Nafta panel of lawyers will begin deciding how much Canada must pay.
Mr. Stanton, leaning on a sea wall with the Bay of Fundy behind him, said he found it disturbing that a Nafta tribunal could hand down a ruling regarding his community. "Nafta allows decisions to be made by people we've never seen in places we've never heard of that directly affect us," he said. "We have no say in it."
The ruling favored an American company but the Trump administration is in agreement with Mr. Stanton. In the current Nafta talks, the administration has proposed dramatically curtailing the dispute settlement provision by allowing countries to "opt out" of having cases brought against them. This would essentially nullify a provision that businesses see as important to defending their rights.
"We regard that as a nonstarter," said John Murphy, senior vice president for international policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce.
A spokeswoman for Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative leading the Nafta renegotiations, declined to comment, citing the confidentiality of ongoing trade talks. But at a Senate hearing in June, Mr. Lighthizer made it clear that he was not a fan of the provision.
"I'm always troubled by the fact that nonelected non-Americans can make the final decision that the United States law is invalid," Mr. Lighthizer said.
Investors have filed 59 cases under Nafta: 16 against the United States, 25 against Canada and 18 against Mexico. While American companies, including Cargill and Archer-Daniels-Midland, have won cases against Canada and Mexico, the United States has yet to lose one.
The closest the United States came to a loss was over the Keystone XL pipeline, after the administration of Barack Obama halted work on the project under pressure from environmentalists. The Canadian company building the pipeline, TransCanada, filed a $15 billion Nafta case against the United States, seeking to recover costs and damages from the suspended project. But it withdrew the case this year, after President Trump allowed the pipeline to proceed.
The investor-state dispute provision can trace its history back to the ashes of colonialism, as rich countries looked for a way to protect investments in former colonies with weak or biased courts. Companies feared that they would invest heavily in a project, only to have the local government wrest control away from them. So countries turned to outside panels to resolve such disputes.
Nafta marked the first time such a provision was used between developed countries like the United States and Canada, which have robust legal systems. Supporters argued that it was important in case companies had problems in Mexico and to create a precedent for future pacts.
The scope of investor-state arbitration cases has expanded in recent years to provide broader protection for investors, including against "indirect expropriation" when new regulations are passed that damage a company's business and unfair or discriminatory treatment based on nationality.
It was the fair treatment provision that Bilcon accused Canada of violating. The company said that it had been subjected it to a stricter review than Canadian-owned projects and that the review had focused on considerations not mandated by Canadian law. In its complaint, Bilcon claimed that Nova Scotia had wooed its business, even flying a company representative around to see potential sites in a government helicopter.
Gregory Nash, a lawyer for the family who owns Bilcon, said the case was about Canada's treatment of good faith investors who had been invited to Nova Scotia.
"They have been treated shamefully," he said, "in a manner that is unbecoming of Canada's reputation as a reliable jurisdiction in which to do business."
Some in the community agreed. David and Linda Graham, who live 10 miles north of Mr. Stanton, on the other side of the proposed quarry, said they looked favorably on the roughly 30 jobs the project would have created in an area that is losing population.
The conflict divided the community. Supporters and opponents erected signs and circulated dueling petitions, and one man spit in Ms. Graham's face.
"A lot of people were mad at us for a very long time," Mr. Graham said. "But I didn't care. I had to leave here when I was young to get a job, and I would have loved to have been able to stay."
In March 2015, the tribunal handed down its decision in favor of Bilcon. Two of the tribunal's three members agreed that the Canadian government had been unfair, encouraging Bilcon to engage in an approval process that cost millions of dollars but was "unwinnable from the outset."
The third arbiter, Donald McRae, said Canada had the right to reject such a potentially damaging project and called the ruling "a remarkable step backwards in environmental protection."
For critics, the Bilcon case is a symbol of how Nafta gives the private sector discretion over government decisions. While Nafta tribunals cannot alter a country's laws, they can force a government to pay significant sums of money in compensation. The tribunals are made up of three lawyers one chosen by the country being sued, another by the company, and those two together choose a third.
Robert Stumberg, a professor at Georgetown Law, said the rulings in the cases can be arbitrary. "Every case," he said, "is like rolling the dice."
The Middle East's reputation as a global hub for air travel looks set to grow and grow.
The number of planes operated by Middle East airlines, including Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways and Doha's Qatar Airways, is forecast to more than double over the next two decades, according to the Airbus Global Market Forecast.
Airbus has predicted that the Middle East will order 2,590 new aircraft over the next 20 years, with around three-quarters of that figure needed to accommodate capacity growth.
"Most people around the world are just one flight away from the Middle East. The region's proximity to the world's population and growth markets has been a key in its aviation," said John Leahy, chief operating officer customers at Airbus Commercial Aircraft.
The European multinational estimated that Middle East demand will include 1,080 twin-aisle aircraft, the same number of single-aisle aircraft, and 430 very large aircraft.
The future demand for the Middle East's needs is valued at US$600 billion worth of orders.
Traffic routes to and from Middle East destinations is tipped by Airbus to grow at a punchy 5.9 percent annually until 2036. The highest growth is expected to be on routes connecting with Latin America.
Freight traffic growth from the region is expected to be highest between the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, with 4.0 percent annual growth to 2036.
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Apple has considered an expansion into health care clinics, and had talks to buy a start-up called Crossover Health, which works with big employers to build and run on-site medical clinics, according to three sources familiar. Crossover Health is one of a small number of companies that specialize in working with self-insured employers to provide medical and wellness services on or near to campus. Among its clients are Apple and Facebook. Crossover also has clinics in New York and the Bay Area, and touts its digital features like same-day appointments via a mobile app. The Apple-Crossover talks went on for months but didn't materialize into a deal, one of the sources said. Apple also approached nationwide primary care group One Medical, said two other sources.
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Crossover Health did not respond to a request for comment. Apple declined to comment. The discussions about expanding into primary care have been happening inside Apple's health team for more than a year, one of the people said. It is not yet clear whether Apple would build out its own network of primary care clinics, in a similar manner to its highly successful retail stores, or simply partner with existing players. It's also possible Apple will just decide not to make this move. Some experts see a move into primary care as a way to build out its retail footprint. Apple's worldwide network of more than 300 stores has been one of its most important sales channels. Canaan's Nina Kjellson, a prominent health tech investor who has no knowledge of Apple's plans, believes the move is plausible. "It would help build credibility with Apple Watch and other health apps," she explained. "Apple has cracked a nut in terms of consumer delight, and in the health care setting a non-trivial proportion of satisfaction comes from the quality of interaction in the waiting room and physical space," she continued. Richard Milani, chief clinical transformation officer at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, which was one of the first hospitals to use the Apple Watch as a patient health monitoring tool, agrees it might make sense. "Such a move wouldn't surprise me as Apple has demonstrated that its interest in health care isn't superficial," said Milani. "Primary care is in great need of re-imagining and rethinking."
Apple has a lot of health-related projects going on
Apple is expected to make a big move into health care in the coming years. CEO Tim Cook has said recently that he sees health as a "business opportunity," rather than a philanthropic endeavor.
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"There's much more in the health area," he said in an interview with Fortune. "There's a lot of stuff I can't tell you about that we're working on, some of which it's clear there's a commercial business there." In the U.S., the demand for primary care services is outstripping the supply of physicians. According to some estimates, there could be a shortage of up to 35,000 primary care doctors by 2025. In recent years, Apple has hired dozens of doctors, health consultants and other medical experts, working on campus. As CNBC recently reported, it scooped up Stanford's rising star in digital health Apple is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on finding better ways to fast-track digital health software through the regulatory approval process. It is also partnered up with researchers at Stanford to determine whether the Apple Watch is accurate and sensitive enough to be used as a tool to screen for a heart rhythm disorder known as atrial fibrillation. It has other research and development projects, working on a sensor to non-invasively and continuously track blood sugar levels. The company the iPhone the central repository for patient health information. Already, it has developed software tools for health developers to make it easier to recruit patients for clinical studies (ResearchKit) and share health information with third-party developers with consent (HealthKit).
WATCH: Super cycle will surprise Apple naysayers
United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer speaks at a news conference prior to the inaugural round of North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiations in Washington, U.S., August 16, 2017.
Negotiators at talks to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are running out of time and look set to extend the remaining rounds in a bid to meet an end-year deadline as tensions rise, three sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
The Trump administration, which is demanding big changes to NAFTA, has presented a series of hard-line proposals that partners Canada and Mexico say will be tough to accept.
Sources say neither nation will walk away from the talks, preferring instead to stay at the table and gradually work out what compromises they might be able to wrest from the U.S. side.
Another challenge is a very tight negotiating schedule described as "insane" by one official with rounds every 12 days or so compared with gaps of several weeks seen in more traditional trade talks.
"There is too much work to do and not enough time," said one of the sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The current round of talks in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington the fourth in a planned series of seven has been extended by two days to a full week, and the remaining three could also be lengthened, said two of the sources.
Officials are also starting to look at possible dates for extra rounds early next year, they added.
The three nations initially set an end-December deadline, citing the need to avoid a Mexican presidential election next year. Privately, officials now say that if the negotiations need to be extended, they could run till the end of February without causing too many problems.
People briefed on the talks describe the atmosphere as very tense amid increasing doubts in Canada and Mexico about whether the Trump administration really wants a deal.
U.S. negotiators have presented demands that would boost the North American content for autos, cut Mexican and Canadian access to government procurement, introduce a clause that could kill the deal in five years and end a trade dispute settlement system that has deterred U.S. antidumping cases.
Although trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico has more than quadrupled since 1994, Trump blames the pact for hundreds of thousands of lost manufacturing jobs in the United States and a $64 billion trade deficit with Mexico.
Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz is set to become the world's youngest head of state and the first millennial to lead a European country, according to the Associated Press.
The country's conservative People's Party (OVP) declared victory in the country's general election on Sunday, which 31-year-old Kurz called a "historic success." Although no party won a majority, the chancellor-elect will likely be sworn in after government negotiations, as the OVP has been in power for more than 30 years, according to the Associated Press and BBC.
"He defies the traditional stodgy image of politicians and mostly goes without a tie, works standing behind a desk and flies economy class," the Associated Press reports.
Kurz still lives in the Vienna neighborhood where he grew up and shares a small apartment with his girlfriend, Ozy reports.
Kurz has also gained the nickname "Wunderwuzzi" or roughly translated to "Wonder Kid," reports France 24, achieving some level of rock star status where selfie sessions with him can reportedly last over two hours.
The Austrian leader is otherwise private about much of his life outside of politics, the Associated Press reports. But he has been interested in the field since he was at least 17.
As much of the marketing world focuses on new ways to woo and dazzle the highly coveted millennial generation, some companies are setting their sights on an overlooked (at least by advertisers) group: baby boomers.
T-Mobile, for instance, recently unveiled a phone plan aimed at people 55 and older. (Boomers are generally defined as being, at this point, between the ages of 53 and 71.)
In an occasionally profane five-and-a-half minute video posted on Twitter, T-Mobile' s chief executive, John Legere, said, "I'm here today to fix something that drives me completely crazy," before criticizing his wireless competitors for deeming boomers as "too old," "stuck in the past" and not interested in technology or the internet. He mocked some of his rivals' senior phone plans for focusing on "big buttons," phone call minutes and outdated flip phones instead of offering smartphones with attractive data plans for them to connect with family and friends.
@JohnLegere: So starting Aug. 9 anyone 55+ can grab 2 #TMobileONE lines for only $60. #Unlimited55
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"This generation deserves a little respect!" he said.
Some marketing experts say that Mr. Legere's rant was a valid one, and that brands, even outside the wireless market, should pay attention.
"The group is the forgotten generation," said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys Inc. "Marketers have gotten so hot for the millennial generation that they have essentially ignored boomers."
Larry Light, a co-author of "Six Rules for Brand Revitalization" and the chief executive of Arcature, a brand consulting company, added: "They're just as large as the millennials in numbers. And they have huge discretionary income."
Right now, it's mainly companies that make senior-related products, like life insurance, medical devices and reverse mortgages, that regularly target boomers. But a few brands, like Mercedes-Benz and Geico, have started courting boomers by producing commercials that lean on boomer imagery. In a Super Bowl ad this year, Peter Fonda reprised his "Easy Rider" persona by putting on a leather jacket as aging bikers looked on and drove off in a Mercedes while "Born to Be Wild" played.
But those ads are the exception, not the norm. Why?
"They want to market to the cool segment, the modern segment, the 'in' segment," Mr. Light said of marketers, many of whom are millennials themselves.
In addition, many companies see millennials as the future. Catch them early enough and you may have a lifelong customer. But that's not necessarily the case, experts say. Tastes and passions change frequently for younger people. But boomers, once they have connected with a brand, can stay loyal for years, said Scott Gulbransen, director of communications for AARP Nevada.
Technology, automobile, travel and sports-related companies are missing out the most, Mr. Gulbransen said, wrongly stereotyping boomers as out of touch and not interested in the latest gadgets.
"Boomers don't want to be left out," he said. "They want to learn and use the new technology, and they're excited by it."
Indeed, more than 60 percent of boomers owned a smartphone in 2016, according to a report by eMarketer for AARP, and 73 percent of people 50 to 59 owned a smartphone and used it daily.
"If I have a millennial grandchild or child and want to keep up with what they're doing, those kids are probably not going to call me like I used to call my grandmother when I was a kid," Mr. Gulbransen said. "So they see it as a tool to connect with family and friends."
AARP even hosts classes on how to use smartphones and other technology, and sends a team to the Consumer Electronics Show each year to review the latest tech gadgets.
Doug Verb, 68, who lives in Las Vegas, rolls his eyes when he hears about the tech-phobic stereotype.
"They're all missing it," he said of brands. "We're here in the millions, and we have more disposable income, time and want to spend money. Yet they don't give us the consideration that they should."
Automobiles is another category where boomers may feel underserved, "Born to Be Wild" commercials aside. Mr. Passikoff noted that the generation that heralded Earth Day, for instance, would be receptive to ads about electric cars.
Some say the smartest strategy is not choosing between millennials and boomers at all.
"The big mistake is marketers making an either/or decision," Mr. Light said.
Melissa Ziweslin, managing director at the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, markets to both generations when selling condominiums.
"We absolutely like to cast a wide net knowing that it could be a boomer making a purchase for themselves or making a purchasing decision for a child," she said. "We would be remiss not to speak to both audiences."
With hotels and resorts, it gets trickier. Not many resort-style destinations want to showcase seniors in bathing suits lounging by their pools in ads. That's where dual marketing comes in, in which a company uses different videos, photos and messages to market to different age groups. In some cases, a company may use a particular brand to appeal to millennials and another to appeal to boomers. In other cases, different platforms, carrying different messages, are used.
Marketing to boomers generally, for instance, often involves old-school TV, magazine and newspaper ads, in addition to digital ads.
But experts say the biggest mistake that marketers make is overestimating the value of connecting with millennials rather than boomers.
"While the millennials are sharing stuff, boomers are buying stuff," Mr. Passikoff said. "If you are a brand, you are in business to make money, and a tweet or share or laugh online doesn't translate into actual bottom-line dollars."
For this reason alone, he said, "boomers are an audience that's worth pursuing in virtually every category."
It happens during Medicare open enrollment every year: Older Americans' mailboxes and TV screens fill up with pitches for enrolling in Medicare-related insurance.
If you call the number on the ad, you'll likely end up talking to a licensed insurance agent. The bad news is that if the person works exclusively for one insurer, you could be stuck for a whole year with a policy that's inappropriate for you.
"The [consumer] listens to the features and benefits of the plan, and the agent tells them why it's so great," said Matt Chancey, a certified financial planner based in Orlando. "Then they sign up and don't realize until later that it didn't actually fit their needs."
Open enrollment, which runs through Dec. 7, is for adding or changing coverage related to Medicare Part C (also called an Advantage Plan) and Part D (prescription drug coverage).
MEDICARE PARTS EXPLAINED Part A. This covers inpatient stays at hospitals, skilled-nursing facilities and the like. As long as you've paid into the system by working the equivalent of about 10 years, you won't pay any premiums. If not, you'll have to pay for it. Part B. Everyone pays premiums for this coverage, which generally includes outpatient services and supplies. Higher incomes generate higher premiums: If you're single and have an income of more than $85,000 or are married with a joint income of at least $170,000, you will pay more. Part C. Also called Medicare Advantage, the program lets people choose from a Medicare-approved private insurance plan instead of Parts A and B. Each plan comes with differing variables, ranging from coverage to deductibles and co-pays. Part D. This is prescription-drug coverage. It often ends up being included with an Advantage Plan. If you have Parts A and B instead of an Advantage Plan, you can purchase Part D coverage separately. Although this is voluntary coverage, if you don't sign up during your initial enrollment time and change your mind later (if you don't meet an exclusion) you'll likely pay a penalty that will last forever.
Any changes made during this window generally take effect Jan. 1. If you subsequently discover that your doctor is out-of-network or the pharmacy filling your prescriptions is far away, you cannot change your plan until this time next year.
If you're located in more populated areas, there are typically multiple plans available. At the Medicare Plan finder, you can plug in your information (including current medications you're on) and options will appear.
In other words, if you're up to the task of sorting through what's presented and weighing your options, you can bypass an agent.
Alternatively, you can search for a broker who specializes in Medicare-related insurance in your state. That person, who is paid a commission by the insurance company whose plan you choose, ideally will be well-versed in all aspects of Medicare and will work in your best interest.
This year's total solar eclipse was the biggest tourism event in Nebraska history, state tourism officials say.
The Nebraska Tourism Commission estimates more than 708,000 people traveled to watch the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse in Nebraska, and about 87 percent of those people came from out of state.
"This data confirms the magnitude of the solar eclipse's impact and we couldn't be more pleased," state Tourism Director John Ricks said in a news release.
Gov. Pete Ricketts announced the final numbers Tuesday during the commission's annual conference in La Vista. The estimates are based on a study done by two national tourism research firms, Dean Runyan Associates and Destination Analysts Inc.
They estimate the eclipse had a $127 million economic impact in Nebraska, largely from lodging and travel, according to a commission news release.
Visitors spent an average of three days here, and more than half of out-of-state visitors said they wouldn't have come to Nebraska if not for the eclipse.
Most visitors almost 71 percent had not visited Nebraska in the past three years, but 45 percent said they will probably return in two to five years.
"The amazing one-time event was big business for our industry and beyond," Ricks said. "We hope travelers were inspired to share stories about their Nebraska experience and to visit again.
He intends to hold the bitcoins, rather than convert them to dollars. As an investor in the art market, where bitcoin is also increasingly present, he sees an opportunity to make even more money. Bitcoin has also been appreciating at lightning speed lately.
"I think the demographic of the crypto user is a younger millennial, but, that being said, you have a lot of people come over from other countries, who are buyers from different places, who like to trade in different types of currency. Not everyone wants to trade in dollars or yen or euros," Shaoul said.
Shaoul is redeveloping a building on Manhattan's Lower East Side, turning it into condominiums priced between $700,000 and $1.5 million. He admits that there is currently a lot of inventory in the market, and therefore having an edge over his competitors is especially key. Bitcoin, he hopes, will be that edge.
"Our buyer has evolved, they've moved from mom and pops to young people who want to pay with various forms of payment," said Ben Shaoul, president of Magnum Real Estate Group. "Cryptocurrency is something that has been asked of us 'Can you take cryptocurrency? Can we pay that way?' and of course when somebody wants to pay you with a different form of payment, you're going to try to work with them and give them what they want, especially in a very busy real estate market."
Bitcoin is already in retail and restaurants so it was only a matter of time before the cryptocurrency took on real estate. That time is now. Bitcoin is slowly making its way into closings on everything from Lake Tahoe land in California to Manhattan condos to single-family homes in the heart of Texas.
Others, however, are not as comfortable with the relatively new currency. The first ever single-family home sale in Texas involving bitcoin was announced last month. The buyer, who works in the tech industry, purchased the newly built home in Austin using bitcoin, but the seller, a custom homebuilder, wanted the currency converted to dollars during the transaction.
"Austin is a really technologically advanced city, I'd say, so I was surprised we hadn't heard anybody wanting to do this before," said J Kuper at Sotheby's International Realty, which brokered the deal. "But, candidly, we didn't know how to do it. It was a quick challenge and scramble to figure out all the moving parts, but we were instantly excited about the opportunity to figure that out."
They used BitPay, a global bitcoin payment service provider headquartered in Atlanta. It converted the bitcoins into dollars for the buyer. Given that bitcoin's value is a moving target day to day, the risk was all on the buyer side. The seller agreed to a fixed price in dollars.
"We found that on the day of the closing, we were kind of watching it [bitcoin's value] through the day," said Kuper. "The timing actually ended up perfect for the exchange, very well for our client, so there was really no hesitation, no need to postpone."
Kuper said the client got a "very fair" exchange rate, though he could imagine how it could've been more volatile. He says bitcoin has proven to be a bit more stable in the past six months.
There is, however, still a lot of nervousness for newcomers to the currency. Neither the buyer nor the seller in the Austin deal would talk about the transaction. Much of the concern may be around the lack of regulation so far in cryptocurrency and the lack of understanding as to how gains in bitcoin are taxed. The Internal Revenue Service issued some guidance on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in 2014.
"What they said in that guidance is if you hold bitcoin or ethereum or one of these other convertible digital currencies as a capital asset, when you use that bitcoin to purchase goods or services so for example, if I were to take $1 million in bitcoin to buy an apartment building or something to the extent that bitcoin has appreciated since I acquired it, any of that gain, that built-in gain, would be taxed when I used the bitcoin to buy the building," said Jeremy Naylor, a tax attorney and partner at the firm Cooley.
He added that whether people are voluntarily paying that tax might be a separate question, but from a technical, legal perspective, it would be similar to selling stock to generate the cash to buy an apartment. In a direct transaction, buyers simply skip the part where they convert the bitcoin into dollars. Using BitPay, the buyers are 'selling' the bitcoin, and therefore any appreciation is taxable.
The complicated nature of real estate may be why bitcoin has been slow to move into the market. One of the first deals in the U.S. involved a $1.6 million sale of land a home site in Lake Tahoe in 2014. Martis Camp Realty President Brian Hull, who brokered that deal, said his firm has not received any other inquiries from buyers interested in using bitcoin.
International buyers seem more comfortable with the currency. Last month British entrepreneurs Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman launched a bitcoin-priced real estate development in Dubai.
The U.S. market has been slower to buy into bitcoin for real estate. All of the deals so far have been done without a mortgage, and Shaoul said the bulk of those inquiring about his Manhattan condos are foreign buyers.
"This industry of real estate is notorious for lagging behind in technology, and innovation," he said. "Now we are starting to innovate, so we're very far behind. Bitcoin and payments with bitcoin have been around for years. Why it hasn't touched down in real estate in the sale of an apartment is odd, quite frankly."
CNBC producer Emily Gaffney contributed to this report.
The Spanish government has given Catalonia three days to declare whether it will try to break away from Spain or not, moving ever closer towards imposing direct rule on the northeastern region.
Madrid had given a deadline of 9:00 a.m. London time Monday for an official response from Catalonia, hoping to receive a clearer indication on whether it had declared independence or not.
However, when a letter arrived from Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont just two hours before the deadline, it failed to offer any confirmation either way.
Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria told a news conference later on Monday that Puigdemont had not made his position clear and the government would give him until Thursday morning to give a formal confirmation.
"It's not a hard question we have asked, it's not a hard question to respond to," she said.
"10:00 a.m. (local time) on Thursday is the deadline," she added. "We are very disappointed he hasn't given a yes or no answer to the question we asked."
"He is prolonging the situation," she said.
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China is holding a once-every-five-years meeting this week that is expected to usher in a new era of leaders but no change at the top of the totem pole. Held in the Chinese capital city of Beijing, the meeting is closely watched for signs of policy shifts in the world's second-largest economy. Even though the meeting is a major national event that is well-publicized it has a dedicated website and has been trending topic for days on Chinese microblog Weibo proceedings are shrouded in secrecy. The Party Congress will close on October 24 this year, after which the new leadership will be announced.
So what exactly is the Chinese Communist Party Congress?
In short, it's a meeting to vote on the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Held every five years, the event's duration is not officially reported, but the last Congress ran over eight days. About 370 full and alternate members of the party's elite Central Committee will be elected at the Congress. Full members have voting rights and they all come from a pre-selected pool of candidates. They are chosen by 2,287 delegates from diverse backgrounds and groups. Among them are farmers, professionals and academics. Those participants have been pre-screened and are deemed to have "unshakable belief," "correct political stance" and "good moral quality," among others, according to state-owned China Daily. The Chinese Communist Party boasts a membership of 89 million. At its first session, the new Central Committee will elect about 25 members of the powerful Politburo The Politburo will then choose members of its Standing Committee, China's top leaders. The group now headed by President Xi Jinping, who is general secretary of the Communist Party will be unveiled next Wednesday.
Just how important is it?
The Congress is more about ideology than policy, but it still charts the future direction for China and offers a glimpse into its opaque politics. At the 12th Congress in 1982, "Paramount Leader" Deng Xiaoping heralded in the age of China's socialist market economy that propelled the previously impoverished country into the world's second largest economy in just three decades. At the 17th Party Congress in 2007, Xi was appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee, which signaled to the world that he was primed to take the top spot in the country's leadership. Five years later, Xi took office as the general secretary of the Communist Party. He became president of China in 2013.
What is expected to happen this time?
Xi is expected to consolidate his power and remain at the helm. Described by observers as the most powerful Chinese official in decades, Xi last year was recognized as only the fourth person to earn the designation of "core" leader. China watchers are looking for an amendment in the party constitution at the end of the congress that will incorporate Xi's ideological doctrine in the charter. Some have even projected that the meeting will effectively appoint Xi as "emperor for life."
Sounds like it's all scripted. Is it?
There's little transparency into the process, but most outside observers say the congress is a largely scripted affair. Still, the lead-up to the meeting has been rife with speculation over the behind-the-scene political jockeying. The opacity over the meeting proceedings, however, is contributing to some concerns on the markets. That said, most analysts aren't expecting major developments that will significantly shake up economic forecasts or financial bets.
Who are the key people to watch?
The number one thing to watch is Xi's tightening grip on authority. But that might not be very exciting, as it's been deemed a virtual certainty that he keeps his position and cements influence. Next up for China watchers is Wang Qishan, who at 69 years is above the unofficial retirement age. The Xi ally played a pivotal role in the president's anti-corruption campaign (which some have alleged was simply an elimination of rival intra-party factions). Although Wang would normally be expected to retire given his age, many have suggested the retirement norm could be extended to accommodate another term for him on the Standing Committee.
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Mounting credit concerns and lethargic profit margins will plague "weak" Citigroup earnings over the next two years, said one Wall Street research firm.
Societe Generale reduced its rating on Citigroup shares to sell from hold Monday, citing deteriorating credit trends and increased loan loss provisions as detailed in the bank's most recent earnings report.
"Although revenues were 2 percent ahead of consensus, boosted mainly by capital markets revenues, it is more worrisome that the credit quality of North American cards deteriorated and net interest margin was flat again despite the recent Fed fund rate increase," wrote analyst Andrew Lim. "Earnings momentum is weak."
Citigroup earnings beat Wall Street expectations on Thursday, but shares of Citi have fallen more than 3 percent since the report. Group loan loss provisions were $2 billion, 7 percent worse than consensus and 15 percent higher year over year, according to Lim. A loan loss provision is an expense that is reserved for defaulted loans or credit.
Higher loan loss provisions not only eat into earnings, but may also suggest mediocre debtors or poor credit.
"Although part of the uptick in provisions is due to seasonal effects and one-offs like hurricanes," conceded Lim, "we are concerned about the deteriorating trend over several quarters in North America and have adjusted our forecasts accordingly."
The analyst cut his fiscal 2018 earnings estimate by 0.2 percent, but slashed his 2019 estimate by a significant 11.1 percent, to $6.80. He also reduced his 12-month price target to $65, which is 10 percent below Friday's closing price. His old price target was $70.
Citigroup's net margin also underwhelmed Societe Generale's analyst. That is the difference between what a bank pays in interest on deposits and what it earns on assets like loans.
"Despite the recent 25-basis point increase in the Fed funds rate, Citi's net interest margin was static at 2.72 percent," said Lim. "The weak net interest margin trajectory is disappointing and completely at odds with management's guidance that there should be some positive sensitivity to rising short rates."
Lim isn't alone in his critical appraisal of Citigroup. Vertical Group equity research analyst Dick Bove told CNBC's "The Rundown" last week that Citigroup failed on multiple fronts. Bove also cited Citi's disappointing loan book as well as its inability to capitalize on rising rates.
China is boasting of its growing economic and political development as the country comes to a standstill for the once-every-five-years Communist Party Congress.
Over the weekend, China's ruling Communist Party said it has agreed to amend the party constitution amid expectations that it will be incorporating President Xi Jinping's political thought.
The communique came after a secretive four-day assembly leading up to the Congress which starts this Wednesday in Beijing. Twelve senior party officials were reportedly expelled from the Communist Party during the meeting.
Details of the document were extensively reported by the Chinese media, but there were no specifics about how exactly the constitution will be revised. The amendment, however, must include "key theories and strategic thought," reported top Communist Party-linked paper, People's Daily.
It also affirmed Xi's crackdown on corruption and extolled loyalty to the party, "follow its lead and stay in accordance with the [Communist Party of China's] Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core," the newspaper added on Sunday.
Last October, the Communist Party gave Xi the title of "core" leader, a sign that his power was strengthening politically.
Xi is widely expected to remain for a second term after the upcoming Congress as he consolidates his grip on power. The top echelon of China's leadership will be elected at the Congress.
During his time at the helm, the president has led a crackdown on other party officials on claims of corruption although some have alleged Xi was simply eliminating rival factions. The anti-corruption campaign took down powerful politicians such as
Nationalist Global Times focused on a "new historical starting point" for the world's second-largest economy, citing the communique.
China has witnessed profound and fundamental changes over the last five years while its achievements are "comprehensive and groundbreaking," according to the communique.
"These historic changes and achievements indicate that China's development stands at a new historic starting point of great and far-reaching significance for the cause of the Party and the country, " the communique said, according to the two papers.
Step aside, Furby. This experimental robot's language skills are way cooler and way more useful. In a few years, it could even help deaf and hearing children learn their first language.
The device, called the Robot Avatar Thermal-Enhanced prototype (or, more commonly, RAVE) could someday hang above an infant's crib, detect when they're ready to learn, and then begin to communicate with them. It's with an avatar that uses American Sign Language at a certain, optimal pace. It's the product of a three-year, $1.1 million grant from the NSF and nearly $1 million of additional funding from the W.M. Keck Foundation and builds on research that Petitto has done for decades.
Preliminary results indicate that the robot is able to keep children's attention for up to six minutes at a time. Infants who are only six to eight months old began to gesture in a rhythm linked with sign language after only a few minutes during this early work. Getting the hang of that rhythm might indicate that a child is learning some important foundations of any language, like picking out the sounds or other basic units of a language.
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"This is work in progress," emphasized Laura Ann Petitto, the lead researcher and an educational neuroscientist at Gallaudet University. She will present the preliminary results of her work with RAVE to a National Science Foundation committee on October 24. "It's evolving and will continue to evolve for another year," she said.
RAVE could be especially useful for children who are born deaf. Hearing parents of deaf or hard-of-hearing children face a choice: learn American Sign Languagequicklyor risk that their child may struggle to pick up language later in life.
Many linguists accept that there is a critical period in an infant and young child's life that they're particularly sensitive to language. Without hearing or seeing some language when they are very young, children wouldn't be able to learn.
About two to three of every 1,000 children in the United States is born with some kind of hearing loss, though some national surveys have reported higher rates. Almost all of these children are born to parents who can hear.
"There's no question that this work will have a direct impact on young, deaf infants and their academic trajectory through life," Petitto said. Gallaudet, located in Washington, D.C., is the only university in the world designed for students with hearing loss.
However, she added, it could also be useful to addressing disparities that contribute to other kinds of inequality, even among hearing children. Some research has pointed to a "word gap" between children from wealthier families and those from poor ones that develops before kindergarten. (However, Petitto noted, some of the specific research showing a 30-million word gap had serious methodological issues, including small sample sizes.)
The fact that this tool could get and keep an infant's attention in a meaningful way is remarkable on its own. But the robot seems to have overcome a major issue that has plagued other language acquisition tools. The kind of human interaction children need to learn language isn't easily replicated. Studies on Baby Einstein videotapes, for example, didn't find any positive effects on a child's vocabulary.
Specifically, Petitto said, babies need interaction that actually makes sense. "It's not good enough that there's just the social interaction. When communicative actions happen, they have to be relevant and contingent and meaningful based on what the child just said," she explained.
Still, don't go looking for RAVE next to Furbies at the store just yet. It's still a prototype, and the research is still preliminary. It also won't replace all human interaction; even with RAVE, children will still need to communicate with humans to learn language. Though Petitto said the data is promising, it's likely still far, far too early to tell if RAVE has any long-term effects on a child's language abilities.
Late next year, Petitto said she and her team will probably start thinking about production. The team is planning another round of tests with a tweaked robot this month. "As scientists, we're not going to sit back and read a book now," she said. "We noticed a couple of things that we wanted to fix and we're fixing them."
CNBC's Jim Cramer often sees the stock market as a fashion show in which stocks fall in and out of style depending on investors' sentiments at the time.
Few stocks embody this back-and-forth better than General Motors , the automaker whose shares were effectively unloved from 2014 to this August, when the stock suddenly broke out.
"Like wide ties, General Motors was out of style for years until very recently, the skinny tie reigned supreme but in 2017 the wide tie has made a comeback and so has the stock of GM," the "Mad Money" host said.
With shares up over 25 percent since the end of August, General Motors, once a low-growth, bond-like stock, has become "beloved" by the Wall Street analyst community, Cramer said.
In the last three weeks, analysts from Deutsche Bank, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Barclays peppered General Motors with upgrades and the stock caught a wave of price target raises. One Citigroup analyst was so bullish on the $45 stock that he came out with a possible $134 price target.
"That's the kind of coverage you might expect for a fast-growing, cloud-based software stock, not a major American automaker," Cramer said.
Cramer found several possible reasons for General Motors' rally. Its shares caught fire right when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and potentially destroyed half a million cars. Given that many thought the auto industry had peaked before Harvey hit, Cramer saw the rise in General Motors and other auto stocks as a sign that the "peak auto" thesis would be put on hold.
Plus, General Motors' monthly U.S. sales have been improving, according to the company's latest earnings report. But a one-off hurricane and an otherwise tepid earnings report hardly explained analysts' infatuation with the stock, Cramer said.
The analysts who recently upgraded General Motors cited the company's autonomous driving platform, which Deutsche Bank said would come to fruition much sooner than expected; Maven, its millennial-targeted car-sharing business; and the stock's low valuation.
Other potential drivers include General Motors' $2.3 billion sale of its European business as part of a larger restructuring and the company's initiative to roll out 20 new electric vehicles by 2023.
"Really, though, none of this explains why GM's stock has gone from zero to hero in a matter of just months," Cramer said. "Everything I've just mentioned certainly helps, it's a nice background, but none of it gets at the real issue here. The real reason, I think, for the sudden love [is] you're witnessing a re-rating of GM's shares by the analysts and then a total change in the investor base."
Until recently, many investors saw General Motors' $30-something stock as a value trap, leaving only deep value investors and income-seekers as most of its shareholders.
But even though its new electric vehicle, autonomous driving and ride-sharing initiatives have been underway for years, General Motors has suddenly gotten credit for them all at once. As a result, the stock has surged higher and fallen back into favor with growth investors, Cramer said.
"You get a couple pieces of good news and the whole tone changes," the "Mad Money" host said. "Growth investors start gravitating back to the stock as a poor man's Tesla with a better balance sheet and a ridiculously low valuation. I think GM's shift from value to growth has only just gotten started, and ... any dip will now be officially used as an opportunity to buy, not sell, the stock of the once hated and derided General Motors."
Netflix should probably be worth way more than its market value, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Monday.
"When I look at Netflix and I look at their scalable model, obviously people continue to think, 'How could this company only be valued at $80 billion if it's going to be your worldwide cord cutting play?'" Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street."
Netflix is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings after Monday's close.
The video streaming giant's shares were up midmorning Monday and earlier in the session hit a record high. Analysts at Goldman Sachs predicted the company will post subscriber gains above expectations.
Cramer said Netflix must show its investors acceleration in both domestic and international subscribers.
"And they may actually be able to do it because you remember they put through a price increase," the host of CNBC's "Mad Money" said.
The company said earlier this month that it was raising the monthly price of some of its streaming plans.
Cramer also said there's "very little skepticism" about Netflix's latest quarter. "Which leads me to believe that it'll either be up really big tonight or it'll be down a little bit and be up really big tomorrow," Cramer said.
CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
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Wherever CNBC's Jim Cramer looks, the most pervasive trait in the stock market's best performers is the cloud. "If you were going to dream up the ideal stock for this particular environment, you'd want it to be an artificial-intelligence-based cloud company that can help further e-commerce, particularly in payments, while delivering a product the last mile to a house that's being rebuilt in Texas or Florida," the "Mad Money" host said. When he reviewed the market's best stock charts over the weekend, Cramer found that, from Red Hat to Nvidia , every top-performing stock has some ties to the cloud, whether it be through the main part of its business, products that enable cloud connection or segments that use the cloud to further business. And while other sectors like defense and industrials are running hot, Cramer said that there's one trend that really matters. "Those are all minor chords. It's this: When you look at the hottest stocks in this environment, the major theme is the cloud. Everything else pales in comparison," he said.
Apple: A Lesson in Buying on Weakness
An Apple employee assists a customer with the new Apple iPhone 8 at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store, September 22, 2017 in New York City. Getty Images
When it comes to investing, Cramer maintains one key guideline: when the market gives you a chance to buy a high-quality stock, you must take advantage of it. "You literally have to take action right into the knee-jerk negativity to get the best buys, and that confuses a lot of people," the "Mad Money" host said. To clarify the strategy, Cramer turned to the stock of Apple , one of his favorite long term investments. In September, Apple's shares fell from $164 to $150 on worries that the new iPhone would not live up to expectations. But the stock has recently regained momentum, surging to $159 on Monday on nothing but what Cramer saw as an obvious research note. "So why did Apple's stock roar higher then? My conclusion: it never should've been knocked down in the first place," he said.
A 'Terrific' Trump Stock?
A Cintas scrub return station on display during the International Pharmaceutical Expo in New York last March. Timothy Fadek | Bloomberg | Getty Images
While Cramer hasn't exactly been a bull about major legislation passing through Congress, he can't deny that President Donald Trump's administration has been good for stocks. "After eight years of democratic rule, businesses feel a lot more confident about an administration that wants to roll back every regulation in the book," the "Mad Money" host said. "Whether that's a good idea long term is debatable, but right now it's led to a surge in hiring and the lowest unemployment rate since 2001." A higher employment rate paves the way for stocks like Cintas , the top supplier of uniforms and uniform rentals to U.S. businesses, to soar higher, Cramer said. Shortly after the 2016 election, Cramer named Cintas "the ultimate Trump stock" for being positioned to surge if the administration pushed policies that urged companies to hire more workers. Cramer said that made Cintas a "terrific" way to play job growth, and sure enough, since the beginning of the year, Cintas' shares have rallied nearly 31 percent, outpacing the 14 percent gain over the same time frame.
General Motors: Back in Style?
A worker wipes the logo of the General Motors Cadillac brand display ahead of the New York International Auto Show. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Cramer often sees the stock market as a fashion show in which stocks fall in and out of style depending on investors' sentiments at the time. Few stocks embody this back-and-forth better than General Motors , the automaker whose shares were effectively unloved from 2014 to this August, when the stock suddenly broke out. "Like wide ties, General Motors was out of style for years until very recently, the skinny tie reigned supreme but in 2017 the wide tie has made a comeback and so has the stock of GM," the "Mad Money" host said. With shares up over 25 percent since the end of August, General Motors, once a low-growth, bond-like stock, has become "beloved" by the Wall Street analyst community, Cramer said.
First Horizon National CEO: Favorable Changes
Trump may be having trouble passing major legislation, but some of the president's quieter changes speak volumes to companies like First Horizon National Corp. , according to Bryan Jordan, the bank's chairman and CEO. "Regulatory reform has been important for the industry and you're starting to see that with the leadership changes at the Fed and the OCC," Jordan told Cramer in an interview on Monday. "You're starting to see the pendulum swing back more to the middle, and maybe we get some legislative change that comes out of amendment[s] to Dodd-Frank, but I don't think that's as necessary today with the regulatory reform coming from the OCC, the Fed, the FDIC and state regulatory agencies." As business confidence and outlook improve at the tail-end of economic recovery and in light of the pro-business administration, banks like Jordan's Tennessee-based company are poised to grow, the CEO said. "All in all, it's more balanced and I think that does make it an easier environment to serve your customer, serve your communities. Essentially, a bank like ours is a community-facing organization. It's a community bank with a larger balance sheet. In this environment, with this regulatory shift, it's going to be very positive for us and so I'm very encouraged by it," Jordan told Cramer.
Lightning Round: An Electrified Stock?
Even as he is building the infrastructure for multiplanitary life and aiming to accelerate the electric vehicle revolution (among his other ventures), billionaire tech titan Elon Musk showed he has a sense of humor. Sprinkled through a technical Reddit chat about SpaceX on Saturday, Musk made a handful of jokes indicating his playful side.
"We plan to use the Incendio spell from Harry Potter: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Fire-Making_Sp," Musk responds to a query from a Reddit user about the heat exchangers to be used on the Raptor engine, which he expects to use to get to Mars. In the Harry Potter series, Potter uses the Incendio spell to make fire. Musk then goes on to answer the redditor's comment seriously.
In another thread of the online chat, a redditor declares it is not possible to land on the moon with a particular sort of engine. Musk responds in the affirmative: "Yes, you can. - Bob, the Builder," referring to the beloved children's cartoon character.
The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are experiencing some of the most extreme weather the island has seen in decades as the aftermath of Hurricane Ophelia strikes.
Schools and hospitals are closed, many public transport and aviation services have ceased operations and the army has been sent to shore-up flood defenses in what has been called an "unprecedented storm" by Ireland's meteorological office.
Two people were killed in separate incidents when trees fell on their cars a woman in her fifties in the southeast and a man on the east coast. Another man in his thirties died while trying to clear a fallen tree in an incident involving a chainsaw.
Over 360,000 homes and businesses were without electricity with another 100,000 outages expected by nightfall, Ireland's Electricity Supply Board said, describing it as an unprecedented event that would effect every part of the country for days.
Tweet from Met Eireann:
Advising the public to remain indoors as part of its "Status Red warning," it said the worst of the winds would be felt in the west and southeast Ireland Monday morning but would "quickly extend to the rest of the country this (Monday) afternoon."
The extreme weather is the tail-end of Hurricane Ophelia which was downgraded to a tropical storm and on Monday morning was declared a "post-tropical cyclone" by the Florida-based National Hurricane Center. Still, hurricane force winds of as much as 90 miles per hour could occur.
Met Eireann also warned of spells of heavy rain or thunderstorms and storm surges along some coasts that could lead to flooding. All unnecessary travel should be avoided as the storm is passing as the government anticipated hazardous driving conditions and power outages.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar tweeted on Sunday that defence forces were being deployed to the areas where the worst of the weather was expected.
Tweet:
He said on Monday that public safety was the main concern
The Irish Republic's Housing Minister Damien English said that the country was preparing for the "the worst weather event for over 50 years," in an interview with the BBC on Monday.
Dublin Airport, in the east of the country, said early morning flights are operating as normal but up to 130 flights to and from Dublin have been cancelled later Monday due to the expected impact of Ophelia.
Aer Lingus, Ryanair, British Airways, Qatar Airways, Air France, CityJet, Emirates and KLM have all cancelled some services. The airlines in question have contacted passengers directly in relation to any services that have been affected.
Meanwhile, the U.K.'s Met Office had an amber warning in place on Monday, warning that parts of Northern Ireland, west Wales, northern England and Scotland could be hit by "a spell of very windy weather associated with ex-Ophelia."
Tweet:
"Longer journey times and cancellations are likely, as road, rail, air and ferry services may be affected as well as some bridge closures. There is a good chance that power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage. Flying debris is likely, such as tiles blown from roofs, as well as large waves around coastal districts with beach material being thrown onto coastal roads, sea fronts and properties. This leads to the potential for injuries and danger to life," the U.K. Met Office said on its website.
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- Reuters contributed to this report.
Jamie Dimon speaking at the 2017 Delivering Alpha conference in New York on Sept. 12, 2017.
Blockchain technology eliminates the need for a third party intermediary by creating a permanent, open record of all transactions on a network. That way, a buyer and seller can interact directly, while their exchange is recorded almost immediately on the blockchain.
JPMorgan Chase announced Monday the launch of a blockchain-based system that will "significantly reduce" the number of parties needed to verify global payments, thereby cutting transaction times "from weeks to hours." Royal Bank of Canada and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group are JPMorgan's partners in the project, called the Interbank Information Network.
In September, JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon said bitcoin is a "fraud" that "won't end well." Dimon added Friday that if people are "stupid enough to buy" bitcoin, they will pay the price for it.
The largest U.S. bank is investing in the blockchain technology behind bitcoin , despite its CEO calling the digital currency a "fraud."
Proponents say applications of the technology with the most potential include speeding up financial transactions and bringing banking services to underdeveloped countries.
"If you're stupid enough to buy [bitcoin], you'll pay the price for it one day," Dimon said Friday at an event hosted by the Institute of International Finance. He added he could care less about what bitcoin trades at.
The digital currency has run up six times in price this year to a record high of $5,856 Friday. Bitcoin traded lower near $5,675 on Monday, according to CoinDesk.
But at the same talk Friday, Dimon praised the technology behind bitcoin.
"The blockchain is a technology which is a good technology. We actually use it. It will be useful in a lot of different things," he said. "God bless the blockchain."
Bitcoin year-to-date performance
Source: CoinDesk
JPMorgan is already involved in blockchain-related projects. In 2015, the company began working on Quorum, an open-source, enterprise-grade transaction network focused on data privacy. The platform is built on the network behind the digital currency ethereum.
The bank is also a founding member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and partnered with the developers of privacy-focused digital currency Zcash in May.
Blockchain is "transformational for the financial services industry" and JPMorgan is "working hard [and] investing money" in it, the bank's chief financial officer, Marianne Lake, said during Thursday's third-quarter earnings conference call.
Major Wall Street executives are divided on whether bitcoin is a good investment. But just about all the major banks are researching blockchain, if not developing related projects.
Leaders from banks such as TD Bank , Mizuho Financial Group and National Australia Bank are working with IBM to develop and deploy a system for sending payments across international borders nearly instantaneously using blockchain, the technology company said Monday.
The IBM project uses digital assets issued on a network run by a U.S. nonprofit called Stellar. A New Zealand financial services firm called KlickEx, the initial subscriber to the network, handles the currency conversion.
The entrance of major companies into blockchain only emphasizes the distinction between the technology and high-flying bitcoin prices.
"IBM's long game doesn't hold up cryptocurrencies as the answer," Jesse Lund, head of blockchain and distributed ledger market development at IBM, told CNBC in a phone interview.
Instead, Lund expects financial institutions to back the digital assets of the future. He left his role in blockchain development at Wells Fargo for IBM in January.
JPMorgan's Dimon also supported government-backed digital currencies during his remarks Friday.
"Crypto sterling, euro, yen, they are all fine," he said. But for something like bitcoin, "I don't personally understand the value of something that has no actual value."
Sebastian Kurz, Austrian Foreign Minister and leader of the conservative Austrian People's Party (OeVP), arrives to speak to supporters outside OeVP headquarters on October 13, 2017 in Vienna, Austria
Sebastian Kurz is set to become the next chancellor of Austria and, at 31, the world's youngest leader. That's two years younger than North Korea's Kim Jong Un and seven years younger than Ireland's Leo Varadkar. Known as "Wunderwuzzi" (roughly translated as "one who can walk on water"), Kurz won Austria's general election Sunday with about 31 percent of the vote. Foreign minister at age 27, Kurz took over as leader of the center-right People's Party (OVP) in May and quickly rebranded it and introduced a more extremist stance on immigration. "Mr. Kurz used his personal popularity and his rebranding of the OVP to push the party into first place," Pepijn Bergsen, Austria analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC on Monday.
Sebastian Kurz, Austrian Foreign Minister and leader of the conservative Austrian Peo Thomas Kronsteiner | Getty Images
In recent years, the mainstream partys the People's Party and the Social Democratic Party had stopped attracting voters, Bergsen said. "Mr. Kurz has tapped into frustrations around this and around the European migrant crisis by emulating much of the FPO's (far-right) platform," he said.
What has Kurz changed?
Upon becoming leader, Kurz rebranded the conservative party as "the new" People's Party and changed its traditional black color to a more modern blue. He shifted the party more toward the right, with some accusing him of "stealing" policies from the FPO (Freedom Party), which has links to Nazi movements. Kurz said Sunday he will wait for the final results, due Oct. 31, before negotiating with other parties and forming a coalition government. Many political commentators expect him to join forces with the Freedom Party, which received about 26-27 percent of the vote, about the same as the Social Democrats. "This will not be the first time that the FPO has been in power," Bergsen noted.
Joe Klamar | AFP | Getty Images
Where does he come from?
Kurz was born in Vienna and left his law studies to become a politician. He led the youth branch of his party in 2009 and was appointed foreign minister in 2013. In that role, he supported blocking migrant routes to Europe, a ban on the full face veil and benefit cuts for EU migrants living in Austria.
What a Kurz leadership might mean for Europe?
Sebastian Kurz, Austrian Foreign Minister and leader of the conservative Austrian Peo Thomas Kronsteiner | Getty Images
On a sunny day in July, commuters arriving at Union Station, in the shadow of Capitol Hill, were greeted with free bananas passed out by Amazon employees. In a Senate building, lawmakers and their aides attended policy panels on how Amazon manages privacy on its Echo devices and how sales for small businesses are booming on its online store.
The day was capped off with a cocktail reception hosted by Amazon's chief spokesman, Jay Carney -- the former press secretary to President Obama.
The public relations and lobbying push represents a new face for Amazon in Washington. Facing greater skepticism about its growing power over retail, including from President Trump, Amazon is following the well-worn path of oil, pharmaceutical and even other large tech companies, which try to bend policy in their favor by enhancing connections with federal officials.
Amazon is sweeping the nation's capitol with a branding campaign of jobs creation and support for small businesses, promoting the upsides of its major expansion in media, groceries and transportation. This year, Amazon has increased its lobbying staff to 83 members from 60, making it one of the biggest corporate lobbying shops in town. The company is also on its way to surpassing its previous high for lobbying spending: $11.3 million last year. The $6.2 million Amazon spent in the first two quarters of this year was the 11th most among companies, above Exxon and far above Walmart , which spent $3.6 million in the same period.
The company's more aggressive approach, focused on building relationships with leading politicians and improving the company's overall reputation, is a break from its past. Before last year, the company relied on a no-frills operation for more than a decade, prodding officials in Washington on narrow laws and regulations and arguing about the nuances of issues like sales taxes and copyright.
The efforts may not directly apply to an imminent bill or regulation, but they allow the company to steer policy conversations that may be important to Amazon in the future. Amazon is hosting events for lawmakers, like the day of events in July, and holding discussions on transportation and labor policies for congressional staff and policy makers at its sleek offices near Capitol Hill. Speaker Paul D. Ryan and other political leaders have visited Amazon's fulfillment centers in their home districts, where Amazon talks up the thousands of jobs those warehouses support.
Amazon's strategic shift has happened as politicians are getting bolder in their criticism about the size and influence of big tech companies. Republicans and Democrats alike have focused on issues including antitrust, privacy and public disclosure.
Many of the harshest attacks have been directed at and , which also have robust lobbying arms in Washington. But Amazon has attracted its own set of vocal critics, who say the company's push into groceries, fashion, transportation and other industries threatens competition. President Trump has lashed out at the company and Jeff Bezos, the company's chief executive, multiple times, accusing the company of avoiding taxes among other things. The company has said it follows all tax laws and has supported a bill that would force online commerce sites to collect sales taxes.
''The concentration of power in the hands of a few companies has the potential to hurt the economy and consumers in the long run,'' said Representative David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat who is the ranking member of the subcommittee that oversees antitrust matters. He raised concerns over Amazon's $13.4 billion purchase of Whole Foods over the summer, noting that antitrust laws may need an update to account for the power internet companies have over the economy.
Amazon, which declined to comment for this article, has said that its online retail business makes up a minority of all commerce and that it is producing tens of thousands of jobs in regions that have long been in decline. The company had 180,000 full-time employees in the United States at the end of 2016, nearly double its head count five years earlier. The company has said those gains help make up for the job losses from struggling brick-and-mortar retailers.
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In the span of a few weeks this summer, Linda McMahon, head of the Small Business Administration, visited Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, where the company had small retailers on hand to talk about how Amazon had helped their businesses. Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, attended the opening of a new fulfillment center in Edwardsville, Ill. And Senator Rob Portman, a Republican, visited a new fulfillment center in his home state of Ohio.
''Got to meet some of the 3,000+ Ohioans employed at this plant. #Jobs,'' Mr. Portman wrote on Twitter at the time.
''They are doing all this reputation stuff around how it is creating jobs and that's helped it generate a lot of media attention,'' said Stacy Mitchell, co-director of Institute for Local Self Reliance, a nonprofit group that promotes community economic development. Last year, her organization published a paper that argued the company was making it harder for smaller retailers to make money from selling on Amazon.
Amazon has also decided in recent years to spend more money in the broader influence ecosystem of Washington. In 2016, Amazon gave more than $10,000 each to 66 think tanks, lobbying groups and political organizations. More than a dozen organizations were new to its sponsorship roster, like the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Foundation and the conservative Law & Economic Center at George Mason University.
Financing Washington's ecosystem of research and lobbying groups is a common practice for tech companies such as Google and Microsoft, but Amazon had not been as active until recent years. Last month, it donated $50 million to a White House plan to promote computer science in classrooms.
Amazon is racing to catch up. Yet even with similar lobbying armies, Google and Facebook have not escaped criticism -- in their cases over their platforms' potential to shape public opinion.
''With Amazon, we need more transparency and need to look at longer term factors when it comes to competition,'' Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic Senator from Minnesota said in a recent interview. ''The people at the Justice Department in antitrust need to look at deals in other ways.''
Amateur horse riders compete during the 'Autumn Race-Goers Games' at the Mirim Riding Club in Pyongyang on October 15, 2017.
North Korean race-goers who once risked three years hard labor for gambling are now able to bet on local horse races, as the one-party state searches for new ways to generate hard currency in the wake of tough international sanctions.
In recent weeks, North Korea's access to foreign money has been significantly limited by a flurry of international sanctions over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear weapons programs.
The North's state-run KCNA news agency said Friday that a series of races were due to take place at the Mirim Horse Racing Club near Pyongyang on Saturday. The venue is reportedly one of Kim Jong Un's most prominent leisure developments.
"Kim has been pushing for vanity projects for a theme park, sky resort and the horse riding club for the sake of propping up the people's wellbeing, but their real purpose was to earn foreign currency," Na Jeong-won, head of the North Korea Industry-Economy Research Institute in Seoul, told Reuters on Monday.
Intensifying tensions between Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the oil-rich region of Kirkuk could prompt a sustained rally in oil prices, an analyst told CNBC on Monday.
State TV reported Monday that Iraq's central government had taken control of some areas in Iraq's Kirkuk province "without fighting." However, Kurdish Rudaw TV said Iraqi and Kurdish forces had been engaged in fighting both south and west of Kirkuk since midnight Sunday.
Oil prices to the reports in Iraq during mid-morning deals, with Brent crude rising 1.4 percent to $57.97 a barrel. U.S. oil futures, meanwhile, hovered near the $52 level.
Stephen Brennock, oil analyst at PVM Oil Associates, described Monday's rally in oil prices as a "knee-jerk reaction" but warned, "it may well have the legs to go the distance if the situation worsens."
"The return of a geopolitical risk premium could usher in a sustained bout of price strength just as dithers over whether to prolong supply cuts," he said via email Monday.
The price of oil collapsed from almost $120 a barrel in June 2014 due to weak demand, a strong dollar and booming U.S. shale production. OPEC's reluctance to cut output was also seen as a key reason behind the fall. But the oil cartel soon moved to curb production along with other oil producing nations in late 2016.
A persistent shortage of substitute teachers is creating challenges for Nebraska and Iowa school districts, and lawmakers who want to address the issue are still trying to pinpoint a solution.
Lawmakers from both states said the problem is most severe in rural districts. In Nebraska, senators convened a hearing last month to look for ways to minimize the time regular teachers spend out of the classroom.
"When you're in small-town Nebraska, you don't have a big group of substitute teachers," said state Sen. Mike Groene, chairman of the Legislature's Education Committee. "We need to widen the pool."
The shortage stems from a combination of trends, Groene said. Mandatory training days during the school week draw many regular teachers out of their classrooms, forcing schools to hire substitutes. Family leave policies allow teachers to take off up to 12 weeks at a time, and school administrators say many young teachers take advantage of the full allotment.
Iowa and Nebraska's low unemployment rates also play a role because workers don't have to settle as often for part-time jobs, Groene said. Additionally, the Internal Revenue Service requires a separation period for teachers who recently retired but are interested in returning to the classroom part-time as substitutes.
The Nebraska Department of Education took a step to address the problem earlier this year when it doubled the number of days a so-called "local substitute teacher" can work, from 45 to 90. Local substitute teachers don't have to meet the same standards as regular substitutes who hold a teaching certificate.
More than 7,000 substitute teachers worked in Nebraska schools last year, filling in for teachers about 274,000 times, according to the state Department of Education. David Jespersen, a department spokesman, said those figures include substitutes who worked for part of a day as well as regular full-time teachers who fill in for their colleagues.
A leading Iowa school group said it also has seen anecdotal evidence of a substitute teacher shortage, although exact numbers aren't known. One suspected factor is a relatively new leadership program that partners experienced teachers with newer ones, said Jean Hessberg, a spokeswoman for the Iowa State Education Association.
"What it did was pull that (experienced) teacher out of their classroom," Hessberg said.
Iowa created an alternative licensing program for substitute teachers several years ago in an effort to increase their ranks, but rural parts of the state continue to struggle with a shortage, said Iowa state Sen. Amy Sinclair, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee.
"It really is a problem," Sinclair said. "There just aren't the people to fill those spots."
Groene said the situation in Nebraska doesn't appear to be as bad in Omaha, Lincoln and Kearney, which have University of Nebraska campuses. The cities of Chadron, Peru and Wayne also rely on recent graduates and faculty from their local state colleges, he said.
In western Nebraska, the shortage sometimes forces Sidney Public School officials to disperse elementary school students among other classes. Principals will occasionally help cover for regular teachers who are absent. The district even started running advertisements in the local newspaper to recruit substitutes from nearby communities in Nebraska and Colorado.
"It's a part-time job, and (substitute teachers) don't know when they're going to work," said Deanna Kantor, the district's business manager. "Most people want a full-time job so they know they're going to get a paycheck."
Kantor said the district's situation improved somewhat this year because of business closures that have left the area with fewer regular jobs.
North Platte Public Schools struggle with a shortage of available substitutes and younger teachers who are gone for longer stretches because of pregnancies, said Tami Eshleman, the district's associate superintendent. Eshleman said the state lowered its standards for substitute teachers more than 20 years ago to address a shortage at the time, but she's glad officials have maintained minimum education requirements.
"It's not that our classrooms aren't covered, because they are," she said. "But when a teacher is gone, you have to pull some other staff member to cover for them... We want to make sure we don't compromise the learning experience of our students."
PG&E workers work to repair power lines in the Coffey Park neighborhood following the damage caused by the Tubbs Fire on October 13, 2017 in Santa Rosa, California.
Shares of PG&E dropped more than 7 percent on Monday as investors fled on worries the giant electric utility company could suffer steep losses if it's found liable for the Northern California wildfires.
The stock was also trading at levels not seen since January 2016 and was the worst performer in the .
PG&E 2-year chart
Source: FactSet
Investors have been selling PG&E's stock heavily since last week, after the California Public Utilities Commission sent the company a letter reminding them to preserve "all evidence with respect to the Northern California wildfires in Napa, Sonoma and Solano Counties."
The commission was investigating whether electrical lines that were knocked down by a windstorm on Oct. 8 played a role in sparking the most lethal wildfire event in the state's history.
PG&E California's largest electrical utility said in an SEC filing Friday it has "$800 million in liability insurance for potential losses that may result from these fires. If the amount of insurance is insufficient to cover the Utility's liability or if insurance is otherwise unavailable PG&E Corporation's and the Utility's financial condition or results of operations could be materially affected."
Power company lines have been a persistent fire threat in California. It is still not clear if PG&E was to blame for the fires, but it has been found guilty of negligence in previous fires, including the deadly Butte Fire in California's Amador County in 2015. Cal Fire investigated the fire, which destroyed 549 homes, and ended up sending a bill to PG&E for about $90 million to cover firefighting expenses.
Christopher Turnure, an analyst at JPMorgan covering the stock, said gross liability damages could amount to $12.2 billion in an "extreme case."
"We assign a 75% chance of PCG being found liable for the Northern California wildfires despite having essentially no information at this time on the cause," Turnure said in a note to clients Sunday. Turnure also reduced his year-end 2018 price target on the stock to $76 from $66. PCG is the stock ticker for PG&E.
PG&E shares traded near $53 on Monday.
The fires, which started more than a week ago, have killed at least 40 people and destroyed at least 5,700 homes and other structures. As of Sunday, roughly 75,000 people were under evacuation orders, down from nearly 100,000 the day before.
CNBC's Jeff Daniels, Christopher Hayes and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Team U.S.A. toppled Japan at the first-ever giant fighting robot showdown.
American robotics company MegaBots and its Japanese rival, Suidobashi Heavy Industries, fought for technological superiority in a battle that was streamed online Tuesday evening.
In the first round, Suidobashi's Kurata robot effortlessly knocked out an older MegaBots robot with a single punch, giving the Japanese team a decisive edge.
But the main fight, between the Kurata and MegaBots' new multi-million dollar, massive Eagle Prime, ended in favor of the Americans.
Eagle Prime, bigger and heavier than the Kurata, produced a chainsaw that systematically took out the Japanese robot until the match was ended and the winner announced.
The MegaBots team expressed hope for a formal fighting robot league in the future after the match.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon might still think those buying bitcoin are "stupid," but that didn't stop the cryptocurrency from trading at records above $5,800 last week.
Optimism around bitcoin drove its market capitalization above that of Goldman Sachs on Friday, with some market insiders forecasting that figure to reach at least $1 trillion in the next eight years. (The market cap is currently about $93.55 billion, according to industry outlet Coindesk.)
Still, the virtual currency remains subject to wild price swings, and attempts by government regulators to crackdown on the cryptocurrency have unsettled investors. Just last month, the price of bitcoin fell around 13 percent following news that one of China's largest bitcoin exchanges said it would be stopping operations.
Scudder, a former lawyer turned CEO, appeared on season five of "Shark Tank" in 2014 with his business partner Rob Dickens. On the show, he pitched his business to the Dallas Mavericks owner who ended up investing $1.75 million into their company. The deal became one of " Shark Tank's" biggest .
Brad Scudder, the founder and CEO of obstacle course company Rugged Maniac , credits billionaire Mark Cuban with teaching him a valuable lesson: Know your worth.
Scudder founded Rugged Maniac at the end of 2010 at age 27. "I was practicing law and I hated it," he tells CNBC Make It. "I was looking for anything else to do."
The entrepreneur, 34, describes himself as an "outdoorsy guy" who grew up on a farm in the western part of Massachusetts.
Tired of the boring day-to-day of his corporate job, Scudder decided to take part in a tough mudder obstacle course, which is a series of 10 to 12-mile obstacle race events.
This inspired him to create his own shorter obstacle courses. Rugged Maniac features obstacles such as muddy water slides, tunnels, fire pits and large walls that participants must scale.
Scudder says he built out a business plan, hired someone to create a website, found a venue and built obstacles in a horse patch at night, all while working as a lawyer during the day. Four months in, he decided to leave the lucrative job to focus solely on his burgeoning business.
"People thought I was crazy," says Scudder. "I was traveling 200 days a year, coming in at 3 a.m. in the morning, working 80 to 100 hours a week."
He was also forced to live with four roommates in a rough neighborhood in Boston just to make ends meet.
"I got through with a lot of help from my friends and family," he says. But when 1,500 people signed up for his first obstacle event, he knew he was onto something.
Scudder soon brought on his friend and former Wall Street lawyer Rob Dickens to the company. Over the next three years, they built up the business, churning out about 15 events a year.
Colony Capital, headed by billionaire Trump confidante Tom Barrack, will invest in The Weinstein Company, the film firm hit by widespread sexual harassment allegations against co-founder Harvey Weinstein.
The Weinstein Company is also negotiating with Colony about the possible sale of "all or a significant portion" of its assets, the companies said Monday.
In the statement, Barrack said the Weinstein firm has "substantial value and growth potential."
"We will return the Company to its rightful and iconic position in the independent film and television industry," Barrack said.
Numerous women have accused Weinstein, a powerful producer, of sexual harassment over a span of decades, according to reports this month from The New York Times, the New Yorker, and other outlets. He reached at least eight settlements with women over the alleged harassment, according to the Times.
The Weinstein Company's board fired him earlier this month. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also revoked his membership.
Weinstein has denied accusations of nonconsensual sex and said he did not retaliate against any women for refusing his advances.
The accusations raised questions about whether The Weinstein Company could survive. The firm, behind numerous hits like "Pulp Fiction," "Shakespeare in Love" and "Kill Bill," previously denied reports that it is seeking a sale or shutdown.
Barrack is a longtime friend of President Donald Trump. He headed Trump's inaugural committee. In a candid interview this month with The Washington Post, he said he believes Trump is "better" than what he has shown in office and that he tells Trump "all the time" that he doesn't "like the rhetoric" the president uses.
The allegations against Weinstein have taken on political undertones because he was a major donor to prominent Democrats. Multiple Democratic senators said they would donate his campaign contributions to charity.
President Barack Obama and former secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton denounced Weinstein after coming under pressure to do so.
The recent revelation that embattled Lancaster County Treasurer Andy Stebbing signed off on his own expense claims for mileage to traveling to and from an auto auction in Waverly has prompted questions.
Many people, including some Lancaster County commissioners, have asked: Were his trips were personal in nature? If so, they would violate state and county rules. But his situation begs an even larger question: Why have the eight elected officials in Lancaster County been able to approve their own expense reports without any oversight?
At Thursdays meeting, the county commissioners discussed a proposed policy change that would require the board to review and approve reimbursement requests from the Lancaster County sheriff, attorney, public defender, engineer, assessor, clerk, treasurer and clerk of the district court. Under the plan, reports would be public records available online as part of the meeting agenda.
Such a move would certainly be prudent, if not long overdue. The existing system lacks the accountability and transparency we must demand of our government not to mention is ripe for abuse.
Unlike rank-and-file employees and department heads, those county officials whose positions are elected currently have nobody to review and approve their expenses. Its easy to see how trouble could brew and boil over unchecked for ages before being caught.
County commissions, under state law, dont have the authority to pass laws. As such, the Nebraska Legislature should strongly consider stricter guidelines for these boards to guard against fraudulent claims and other abuses.
Its astonishing that, until Stebbings situation came to light, this practice carried on for so long.
Stebbing has been charged with five felonies regarding alleged violations of vehicle title and tax laws related to cars bought at the auction. Arguments about the purpose of his trips to Waverly, despite their total price tag of about $70, merit further discussion.
But Stebbings signature on his own expense report? Theres nothing wrong with that. Its perfectly permissible albeit the result of a policy that failed to properly monitor the elected officials most directly accountable to Lancaster County citizens and voters.
Some commissioners expressed concern that they were using a sledgehammer to kill a fly in an isolated incident. After all, Stebbings self-approved expenses were 100 percent permissible.
Commission Chairman Todd Wiltgen noted the board couldnt bar the elected officials from signing their own expenses. It was within its power, however, to refuse to reimburse someone until his or her expense report had been examined thoroughly.
Given the controversy surrounding the treasurers office, the Lancaster County board must err on the side of accountability and disclosure. Ensuring expense reports are viewed and approved by third parties is a critical, necessary step in that direction.
White House chief economist Kevin Hassett has just published a new paper explaining the Trump administration's push for corporate tax cuts. Among other things, it says that a corporate tax cut to 20 percent would boost American paychecks and the U.S. gross domestic product.
Well that settles it. We all know that all it takes for a major economic or tax policy to be embraced by the public and sail through the congressional approval process is a solid paper or two written by a top economist. So, President Donald Trump's tax reform plan is in the clear.
Just kidding.
This is 2017, and that means we're way past the point where a cogent economic argument can win the day in American politics. It's debatable that there ever was such a time when it could, but a quick scan of history and a brief consideration of human nature should disabuse anyone of the notion that policy papers make a real difference.
Now to be sure, it's not a bad thing that the administration has made a data-based case for the tax reform plan, even if that case is disputed by many. Not only is this a matter of ethics, but presenting a winning argument needs at least some level of coherence for it to work.
But the reality is that it's not the economists, academics, and wonks the Trump team needs to convince, but a critical mass of the American people. And right now, the polls show the American people are not so hot for corporate tax cuts. A considerable amount of the news media will also be solidly against the plan, and that is not even a comment on the anti-Trump movement. Remember the anti-tax cut movement began with hard core fervor well before President Trump's time in politics.
President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterated Monday that they want to see a tax bill passed by the end of the year.
"I really believe that we have a very good chance of getting the taxes done ... hopefully fairly long before the end of the year," the president said in a hastily scheduled, roughly 40-minute news conference following a lunch with the Kentucky Republican.
McConnell added: "The goal is to get it done by the end of the year."
The GOP faces multiple hurdles in meeting the target for approving a tax plan. Tax-writing committees have not yet crafted a bill, while lawmakers have other legislative deadlines to meet before the end of the year, as well.
Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz told CNBC that passing a tax bill may not happen until next year.
McConnell said the Senate still needs to pass a fiscal 2018 budget resolution, then approve a joint budget with the House, before a more concrete plan takes shape. The chamber hopes to pass it this week.
Passing a budget proposal allows Republican senators to use rules in which the GOP can pass a bill with only Republicans votes in the Senate.
Trump said he wants to see "minor adjustments" to the framework unveiled by Republicans to "make sure that the middle class is the biggest beneficiary." He did not specify what those changes would be.
The tax framework released last month calls to slash rates broadly for individuals and businesses while raising the standard deduction and getting rid of other deductions. It lacked clear provisions to offset the revenue lost by the cuts.
The budget deficits generated by the potential plan, as well as a proposal to get rid of state and local tax deductions, have also emerged as sticking points for Republicans.
Trump and McConnell aimed to put on a united front and said they have the same policy goals. The president has publicly chided McConnell several times, including tweets berating him for failing to pass an Obamacare repeal bill in the Senate.
Trump: Senator Mitch McConnell said I had "excessive expectations," but I don't think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?
In August, The New York Times reported that a phone call between the pair "quickly devolved into a profane shouting match."
Still, the president said he has an "outstanding" relationship with McConnell. The senator concurred.
"Contrary to what some of you may have reported, we are together totally on this agenda to move America forward," McConnell said.
The president said that extends to other Republicans in Congress.
"If you read the papers, you think it's like I am on one island and they're like on the other. Well, it is not the way it is. We have a fantastic relationship," Trump said. "I am friends with most of them, I can say. I don't think anybody could have much of a higher percentage. But I am friends of most of them. I like and respect most of them and I think they like and respect me."
One top Republican in particular Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee has publicly ribbed Trump, telling the Times that the president is leading the United States on the path to World War III. Corker, who is not running for re-election next year, suggested many of his colleagues privately agree with him.
Soldiers assigned to the 1st Mission Support Command, U.S. Army Reserve, move cases of bottled water while working to clear roads of debris near Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017.
President Donald Trump said the military shouldn't have to distribute the "massive amounts" of food and water that have been delivered to storm-battered Puerto Rico.
When a reporter asked Trump about disaster relief on the island, the president said that food and water had been brought to Puerto Rico, but it wasn't being distributed by local people.
"They have to distribute the food to the people of the island. So, what we've done is, we now actually have military distributing food, something that really they shouldn't have to be doing," he said in a wide-ranging, hastily scheduled press conference on Monday.
The remark follows comments Trump made last week, where he partly blamed the island for the devastation and said emergency responders can't stay in Puerto Rico "forever."
@realDonaldTrump: ...We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!
Puerto Rico has been reeling in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which left most of the U.S. territory without power or access to clean drinking water. Over the weekend, local authorities raised the death toll to 48 after reviewing medical records.
President Donald Trump will meet with Philippine strongman Rodrigo Duterte during his 12-day trip to Asia and Hawaii next month, the White House said Monday.
Trump will have bilateral meetings with the Philippine president and "other leaders" when he goes to the Philippines for a dinner celebrating the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
Trump will have multiple bilateral meetings during the trip, including with Japan's Shinzo Abe, South Korea's Moon Jae-in and China's Xi Jinping. But talks with Duterte, whose government is accused of widespread extrajudicial killing amid a crackdown on drugs, will raise the most eyebrows.
Trump received swift blowback in April for taking a call with Duterte, which the U.S. president described as "very friendly." He drew further criticism by inviting the Philippine leader to the White House.
In the call with Duterte, Trump congratulated him for doing "an unbelievable job on the drug problem," according to a transcript cited by The New York Times.
Last week, CNBC reported that police estimate 3,850 people died in drug enforcement operations between July 2016 and last month. Human rights groups say the figure could be significantly higher.
Last year, Duterte boasted that he personally killed criminal suspects while patrolling Davao City, where he was mayor, from a motorcycle.
When the White House announced Trump's trip last month, it said he would travel to the Philippines. But it did not previously highlight the meeting with Duterte.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the Duterte meeting.
During the 12-day Asia trip, Trump plans to discuss curbing North Korea's nuclear and missile program, as well as trade deals with Asian nations.
An Iranian man reads a copy of the daily newspaper 'Omid Javan' bearing a picture of US President Donald Trump with a headline that reads in Persian 'Crazy Trump and logical JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action)', on October 14, 2017, in front of a kiosk in the capital Tehran. STR | AFP | Getty Images
The historic 2015 Iran nuclear deal is "on life support" and hanging on "by a thread" after the Trump administration plotted a new course for containing Tehran, analysts warn. President Donald Trump on Friday refused to certify the accord to Congress. He instead asked lawmakers to toughen the agreement, negotiated between Iran and six world powers, by amending a U.S. law. At the same time, the administration will try to convince European leaders to impose new sanctions on Tehran and return to the negotiating table. Risk consultancy Eurasia Group reduced the odds of the deal surviving from 60 percent to 55 percent on Friday after Trump said he will terminate the deal if he cannot find a solution with Congress and U.S. allies.
You can't legislate what a foreign country is going to do. We still at some point have to talk to the Iranians. Richard Nephew former lead sanctions expert for U.S. negotiations with Iran
The strategy comes with many risks. Congress could disappoint Trump, causing him to pull out of the deal. The administration could fail to convince or coerce U.S. partners, leaving American influence diminished. Renewing sanctions could spark a trade dispute with Europe, fail to substantially dent Iranian oil exports and leave Tehran's nuclear program unfettered by restrictions or inspections currently in place.
Congress must thread a needle
In Congress, Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Tom Cotton are leading an effort to change the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act to automatically restore sanctions on Iran if it crosses a number of red lines that their amendment would establish. Restoring sanctions suspended under the Iran nuclear deal is seen as the most direct path to unraveling the accord. RBC Capital Markets notes that Iran has already "vigorously rejected" renegotiating the deal, especially the clause that lifts limits on its nuclear program in 10-15 years one of Trump's core complaints about the accord. "Hence, such a red line, alongside demands for enhanced inspections and curbs on missile activity, could turn the [Iran Review Act] into a 'poison bill' that the Iranians would be unlikely to swallow. Such an Iranian rejection in turn could be the catalyst for Congress to reinstate the waived nuclear sanctions," said lead author Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC.
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The legislative solution is "hardly a layup," because it requires 60 votes to end debate and take a vote, according to Eurasia Group. That means Trump needs to hold all 52 Republican votes and attract eight Democrats. "It's unclear if Trump can cross that threshold while hewing to his draconian proposals. The legislation could well morph into a softer version, leaving some room for consensus with the Europeans and Iran," Eurasia Group said. Congress will find it difficult to establish red lines that are not so brazen that Iran will not trip them on Day One, but are not so weak that they have no influence Tehran's behavior, said Richard Nephew, lead sanctions expert for the U.S. team that negotiated the deal. If Congress draws a red line at Iran testing a ballistic missile capable of traveling a certain distance, its leaders could test one the next day and force U.S. lawmakers' hand, said Nephew, now a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. By establishing new red lines, the United States is telling Iran it cannot expand its nuclear program in a way that the 2015 international deal would have allowed, he said. "You can't legislate what a foreign country is going to do. We still at some point have to talk to the Iranians," he said.
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The key to the red lines is determining the U.S. objective and calibrating them to achieve that objective, according to Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank that backs a tougher line on Tehran. If the goal is to deny Iran the capability to develop a certain type of ballistic missile, then the red lines must be strong enough to dissuade Iran from carrying out multiple tests, he said. That denies Iran the data it needs to eventually build a successful missile. "Honestly, it is going to be quite challenging, but it's going to require a whole of government approach" including Congress, the White House, and defense and intelligence agencies, Taleblu said.
Trump's diplomatic 'malpractice'
Similarly, the administration must get its European partners to agree to a shared set of goals and strategy, according to Taleblu. France has signaled its willingness to pressure Iran, and Britain could be the key to overcoming German intransigence, he notes. Meanwhile, Iran will surely be courting Europe as the Continent's corporations prepare to re-enter the Iranian market. "We have to beat Tehran to Brussels," he said, referring to the headquarters of the European Union. Suzanne Maloney, deputy director of foreign policy at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, also believes France and Britain are more likely than Germany to compromise. However, she said Trump may already be alienating its allies.
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Lower House Deputy speaker Luigi Di Maio (C) stands on stage after being chosen the Five Star Movement (M5S) candidate for Prime minister during a M5S party's congress in Rimini on September 23, 2017.
Italy's Lower House has passed a law that will make it increasingly difficult for anti-establishment party Five Star (M5S) to win in the country's next round of elections.
Lawmakers approved the legislation in a "secret vote" last Thursday. It passed with a large majority 375 yes votes versus 215 no votes with the ruling Democratic Party (PD) and opposition parties Forza Italia and Northern League collectively throwing their weight behind it.
The "Rosatellum" law introduces a system whereby 36 percent of the seats will be allocated via a "first-past-the-post" system and 64 percent proportionally. It also harmonizes the voting systems between the Lower and Upper Houses.
CitiGroup economist Giada Giani said the Rosatellum law "would favor mainstream parties against M5S, as they should be better in forging alliances and generally have stronger local MP candidates to win the first-past-the-post seats."
In an interview with CNBC last month, M5S leader Luigi di Maio ruled out the possibility of forming an alliance with other parties, saying: "We are happy to receive the support of other political parties, but we will not give them a representation in our government."
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The security layer that protects Wi-Fi networks has been cracked by hackers, potentially allowing them to listen to your communications on devices connected to the internet, research published Monday revealed. WPA2 is a security protocol that protects modern Wi-Fi networks. Hackers have found a way to manipulate the cryptographic elements behind the security, according to Mathy Vanhoef of KU Leuven, a university in Belgium. The issue is with the security standard itself rather than individual devices, but it can affect those devices that are connected to a Wi-Fi network. Vanhoef found that operating systems such as Google's Android, Apple's iOS and Microsoft's Windows could all be affected.
So how does it work?
The WPA2 protocol works using a so-called "four-way handshake." The initial part of the handshake takes place when a user puts in the correct password to access a Wi-Fi network. The next step is when a new encryption key is generated to encrypt subsequent traffic. Hackers are able to manipulate this process through what is known as a key reinstallation attack (KRACK). "This is achieved by manipulating and replaying cryptographic handshake messages," the researchers wrote. The research paper does, however, state that an attacker must be within range of a victim.
Who could be affected?
Any device connected to a Wi-Fi network could be affected. But the researchers said that the flaw could be "catastrophic" to a certain version of Linux and "exceptionally devastating" to devices running Android 6.0 and above. Half of the Android devices in circulation are running this version, according to data from Google. Vanhoef said that he is not sure if this flaw is being exploited currently. The researcher said vendors of products that were affected were notified around July 14. Vanhoef then disclosed the vulnerability to the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), which sent out a notification to vendors on Aug. 28.
What should I do now?
Vanhoef said there is no need to change your Wi-Fi password. Instead, it's important to make sure all devices and the firmware of your router are updated. The researcher also said that people should continue using the WPA2 protocol. An alert from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Computer Emergency Response Team recommended installing vendor updates on affected products, such as routers provided by Cisco Systems or Juniper Networks. Microsoft told The Verge that it has released a security update to address the issue, and a Google spokesperson tweeted that Android devices with a security patch level of Nov. 6, 2017, or later are protected. Apple confirmed that it has a fix, currently in beta mode, and the software will be coming to everyone soon. Tweet: @ow "Android devices with a security patch level of November 6, 2017 or later are protected against these vulnerabilities." Reuters and CNBC's Anita Balakrishnan contributed to this report.
WATCH: Building a safer Internet of Things
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims his organization has made a 50,000 percent return on bitcoin after investing in the cryptocurrency in 2010 and it's all thanks to the U.S. government.
In a tweet over the weekend, Assange posted a screenshot of bitcoin prices on July 18, 2010 and October 14, 2017 on industry website CoinDesk. In this period, the price of bitcoin went from $0.06 to around $5,814. This represents a 9,689,900 percent increase.
Assange, however, said that he has made a 50,000 percent return, presumably investing in bitcoin over the six-year period.
And the WikiLeaks founder said this was because the U.S. government forced payment companies like Visa and MasterCard to carry out "an illegal banking blockade" against his organization.
TWEET
In 2010, MasterCard blocked its products being used to pay WikiLeaks. Paypal also restricted the account used by WikiLeaks after it said the group has violated its policy.
Assange said that this is the reason WikiLeaks invested in bitcoin. The cryptocurrency allows anonymous payments and can be moved around the world easily. It is, however, very volatile.
Because of this error, and because of the citys rapid budget growth, Lincoln taxpayers have not been afforded the full protection of state law and are now backed into a corner. -- Lincoln City Councilwoman Cyndi Lamm on errors that allowed Lincolns budget to include a growth resolution that hadnt passed by the necessary supermajority.
The truth needs to be stated and be stated strongly. The truth is this (refusal to approve a higher budget growth) is killing growth in Lincoln. (Councilwoman) Lamm is out to kill growth. This isnt an issue of raising taxes. This will not lead to a tax increase. -- Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler on the need for the City Council to pass a growth resolution.
There are places they can go build them that arent going to be on a fragile, unstable surface, where once you destroy it, you cant fix it. -- Gordon Sen. Tom Brewer on his support of a wind farm moratorium in the Sandhills.
The needs havent changed. Weve got to increase our capacity to meet our need. When the board made that decision, they were basing it on what our needs were to meet that goal. -- Southeast Community College President Paul Illich on the Board of Governors standing behind a levy increase.
The fact that he has not resigned is disrespectful to the county taxpayers or employees, and the fact he has talked about running for re-election is insulting. -- Lancaster County Board of Supervisors Chairman Todd Wiltgen on County Treasurer Andy Stebbing, whos been charged with five felonies.
It appears to me you are simply obtaining information, forming an opinion and coming to a conclusion from biased media reports. -- Stebbing responding via Facebook to Wiltgens comments.
The people of Nebraska absolutely support and demand voter identification. Properly crafted voter ID laws do not suppress voter turnout. This can be done without turning a single voter away. -- Gretna Sen. John Murante on the need for a voter ID law after communicating with President Trumps election integrity commission.
We all have a lot of work to do to rebuilding the community. But, yeah, I think its a big step in the right direction. -- Ben Pankonin, who lived near the site of a house explosion in south Lincoln, on the importance of cleanup efforts of the leveled home.
As we kept noticing that the original Ben Franklin space was empty, we would joke and say, Hey, we should do another store in the same spot. The more we would joke about it, the more it turned into an actual idea we were really excited about. -- Kelsey Schoenleber, whose family will reopen a smaller shop at the site of the former Ben Franklin.
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The image above is the motion adopted by Young Labour over the weekend, committing Jeremy Corbyns youth wing to supporting the UKs withdrawal from NATO.
Impressively, it is stuffed to the brim with ahistorical nonsense basing its pitch on what appears at best to be a total misunderstanding of British and world history. At its worst, it even misrepresents past Labour administrations, including the Attlee governments reasons for joining NATO and the Wilson governments stance on Vietnam.
How wrong about everything is it? Let me count the ways:
Since at least the mid-nineteenth century, the relationship between the West and the rest of the world has been one defined by imperialism
At least the mid-nineteenth century? If youre going to cast yourself as an anti-imperialist, at least appreciate the true length of the history of imperialism.
the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was formed, in order to enshrine the dominance of American interests.
Or to protect the free, democratic nations of Western Europe from a very real threat of invasion or destruction by the Soviet Union. The Young Labour version of these events is straight out of Stalins lines-to-take and a huge, shameful misrepresentation of the decision of the Attlee Labour Government to join NATO in the first place.
Between 1945 and 2000, American imperialism bombed at least 27 countries, assassinated or attempted to assassinate thirty world leaders and tried to overthrow forty governments
Im not sure American imperialism is a person or state, but assuming the author means America, which exact actions are included in this list? To reach 27 countries, the list would have to include: the 1995 campaign to prevent Serbian forces in Bosnia, which had just committed the Srebrenica massacre, from carrying out further atrocities; missile strikes against Al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan in 1998; and bombing Iraqi forces which had invaded Kuwait in 1991. Are Young Labour of the opinion that these actions should not have taken place?
Such episodes include the wars of aggression in Korea in the 1950s
Sorry, what? The Korean War was sparked by the North, under Kim Il-Sung, invading the South. It wasnt a war of aggression on the part of the US, or the wider West. Nor was it a NATO action the defence was mounted by the United Nations. If we hadnt defended South Korea, then the whole Korean peninsula would now be a hellhole, not just the northern half. Does Young Labour wish that South Korea did not exist as a free and sovereign nation?
The collapse of Communism post-1989 rendered any real logical justification for NATO moot, since the European glacial states no longer needed defence
Try telling that to NATO member states in Eastern Europe like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, who feel a very real need for defence against a certain neighbour which has carried out cyber- and real-world attacks against their institutions and citizens.
the European glacial states
Isnt that a peculiar phrase? In fact, a Google search reveals this motion is the only time the precise term European glacial states has ever been used online. It seems to be an auto-correct of glacis states, ie the Eastern European states used by the Soviet Union as a defensive rampart or buffer zone. Indeed, it would be more common in English to use the words buffer zone, or Warsaw Pact countries, or former Communist countries glacis states is the preferred name in Trotskyist terminology.
In order to regain an ideological justification, NATO member-states, including the UK, pursued a policy of wars of aggression against predominantly Muslim countries, first in Afghanistan
Yes, thats why we invaded Afghanistan. Nothing to do with 9/11 at all. Also, why has the author leapt from the collapse of Communism post-1989 to Afghanistan in 2001? Given the authors apparent interest in the history of NATO operations, why has he missed off the campaign to protect Bosnian civilians from Serbian war crimes, or the campaign to protect Kosovo from similar atrocities?
then in Iraq.
Which wasnt a NATO war. Remember Bush putting together the coalition of the willing for that precise reason? NATOs presence in Iraq dated from 2004, as a training mission after the invasion. Is Young Labour of the opinion that once the Iraq War had taken place, there shouldnt have been an effort to retrain the Iraqi police and military in the hope of stabilising the situation?
These wars did nothing to make the citizens of Western countries safer; instead they fuelled Islamophobia at home and intense resentment abroad.
We can argue forever about the security impact of Afghanistan and Iraq though it seems unlikely that leaving Al Qaeda free to operate in Afghanistan unimpeded even after 9/11 would have made us any safer either. More generally, it is a fallacious argument that the reason for the Islamist threat to the West is foreign policy, when in reality it is grounded in a fundamental opposition to our existence and way of life. Furthermore, if the author is concerned about intense resentment abroad, what does he think the reaction would have been if the West had sat on its hands and done nothing to defend muslim civilians in Bosnia and Kosovo?
Today Donald Trump stands astride NATO
What does stands astride NATO even mean? Trump is famously a sceptic and critic of NATO placing him closer to Young Labours position than to that of the alliance.
Jeremy Corbyn is a long-time opponent of imperialism and aggressive wars.
Unless theyre imperialist or aggressive wars prosecuted by people who dislike the West, of course. This point appears to be the actual purpose of the motion theyd have done better not to have bothered writing the rest of it.
From Guyana
Guyana? Are you sure?
to Vietnam
Thatll be the Vietnam war which didnt involve NATO, and contrary to the motions assertion which a Labour government kept Britain out of.
to Iraq
See above.
the Labour Party all too often been complicit in American overseas aggressionNATO has been the lynchpin and institutional expression of American imperialism.
Again, NATO is a defensive alliance. It isnt hard to understand.
Labour should commit to withdrawal from NATO on the basis that itis headed by a man variously viewed as an authoritarian and a fascist
That seems a bit harsh on the head of NATO Jens Stoltenberg is a former Labour Prime Minister of Norway, and has not to my knowledge done anything to merit description as an authoritarian and a fascist. Unless they mean Trump, who notably does not head NATO and, as already discussed, doesnt even like it very much.
Liam Booth-Smith is the chief executive of the think tank Localis.
The number of homes bought by people aged 25 to 44 with a mortgage has dropped by over 1.6 million in just over a decade. Over the same period the number of homes owned outright by people aged over sixty-five increased by over 1.4 million. What we are witnessing is the accelerated decline of the home-owning democracy and this should trouble us because it is an inheritance worth preserving. In spite of Prime Ministerial rhetoric and a government white paper, Im still moved to ask; is this Conservative government bold enough to tackle our housing problem?
Now it would be unfair to malign Theresa May for struggling to solve an issue that has plagued governments of all colours for decades, but housing, and in particular the reported end of the home-owning democracy, is perhaps the most interesting example of the present-day Tory crisis of confidence. Home ownership has often been a portent of Conservative voting intention, and thus it would make sense to want to extend the franchise to more and more people. Putting to one side any political advantage, for most of us owning our own home is an important life achievement. The most recent English Housing Survey finds 80 per cent of those aged 16-24 who privately rent expect to own their home in the future. If the home-owning democracy is coming to an end, no one has told Britains young people.
A fair criticism of focusing on ownership is that it ignores those who rent. However, saving the home-owning democracy need not come at the expense of those who live, and whose home may only ever be, in the private rental sector either. In fact its preservation is dependent on a private rental sector that is safer, more secure and which chews into less of renters incomes each month. This necessitates regulation which better reflects the size of the sector and the circumstances of private renters.
Saving the home-owning democracy however, demands a collective sacrifice. Homeowners have to accept new homes will be built in their area. Their home may lose value, it may rise in value, but that value will be fictional if no-one has the financial capacity to buy it. Developers construction models will need to adjust. As labour and material shortages bite, modern methods such as off-site construction will become a necessity rather than a speculative investment. Financiers will need to be more creative in mortgage products.
People are living longer and earn their income in different ways: the market should catch up with that. This means being more innovative in the ways we encourage deposit-saving and being honest about the connection between property and pensions.
A recent poll by YouGov found that just four percent of 18-24 year-olds believed the Conservative Party was best for housing. Theresa May tried to address this by bringing housing to the foreground of her party conference, but the content got lost in the splutter.
Today Localis launches a new report entitled Disrupting The Housing Market which makes a range of recommendations to central and local government that will enable planning to work more efficiently, reward the best and most truly innovative developers and ensure consumers get a better deal in a market which too often is blind to their experiences.
Developers wont necessarily be in favour of change but for its own sake this Conservative government needs to disrupt the housing market and fast.
Nadhim Zahawi is a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and is the MP for Stratford On Avon.
Just two years ago, Barack Obama, along with the Governments of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union, agreed a deal with Iran to limit its nuclear programme. Leaders from around the world praised the deal, hailing it both as an example of global cooperation on a difficult, but pressing, issue and as an opportunity for Iran to working its way back to international acceptability.
Israel outlined its opposition to the deal primarily due to its continued (and understandable) suspicion of Iran, but was one of the very few countries or organisations to do so. It should be remembered that during the years and months immediately before this deal was sealed, there were regular press reports that the Israeli Air Force was preparing a preventative strike to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Such a dramatic step could well have launched the whole region into a devastating war. Looking back at the last two years, we should take the relative absence of such reports as the first victory of this deal.
However, Im not writing here to celebrate any victories delivered by it. Instead, were talking about the deal again because Donald Trump has refused to certify that the Iranians are complying with the terms, as he is required to do every 90 days. This means that Congress now has 60 days to restart sanctions against the Iranian regime. At the same time, the President has increased the level of rhetoric about Irans policies in the Middle East, and referred to them again as exporters of terror.
The problem with the Presidents position is that most international observers believe that Iran is complying with the deal. All the other parties have maintained their backing for it, and it remains unclear what further steps Congress will take. The President himself hasnt set out what he would like to happen next, and has provided no detailed plan for what would replace the current agreement. He appears to think that Iran will either change the terms of the deal just to make America happy, or decide to leave the agreement entirely and be seen as the bad guys once again. All because of his campaign rhetoric about the worst deal ever and his need to dismantle President Obamas achievements.
Trump has prodded a functional, if imperfect, international deal with no end goal. I am pleased to see that the other signatories of the deal have maintained their support. However, our Government should make absolutely clear that the President is on his own on this one.
Its important for us to defend this deal. As I said before, we cannot forget how dangerous Irans nuclear programme was just two years ago. We were facing a rapidly narrowing set of options for how to tackle it, and this deal was by far the most attractive. Iran was able to hit pause without losing face, and was reassured by the role of its allies in the deal. Britain, France, Germany and America were able to delay a rapidly developing programme that some felt was just months from completion, and which would have been a huge threat to ourselves, and our allies in the Middle East, particularly Israel.
But another, perhaps even bigger reason to defend the Iran deal is to show that international diplomacy, of which it was the result, can actually work. We live in a world with a steadily increasing number of complex threats and competing interests with few obvious solutions. There are three standard ways of dealing with such events in international politics. You can ignore them; you can seek a negotiated compromise, or you can take forceful action through economic sanctions, threats of war or actual conflict. The Iran nuclear deal stands largely on its own as a modern issue that has been solved through the negotiated compromise route, after years of economic sanctions that helped nudge Iran in that direction.
The other options have been more often used. But whenever we face, or choose not to face, Russian expansionism, Chinas behaviour in the South China Sea, North Korea, Syria or any other international issue, there has been no similar negotiated compromise. Although there has been some cooperation and negotiated ceasefires in Syria, there has been nothing that comes close to the Iran deal. This is partly because there are some things on which you cannot compromise, and partly because we seem to have collectively decided that its easier to ignore issues entirely or deliver half-hearted sanctions, to show that something has been done to signal our displeasure, and then move on.
The Iran deal is imperfect. There are aspects to it that are not what we would have chosen from the outset. However, that is how negotiations work; no negotiation delivers complete victory. Iran can also move further, and prove those who believe the country is a malign influence on the Middle East wrong. One way would be to work to bring the Kurdistan Regional Government and Baghdad closer together, and help them move towards a peaceful solution rather than the current confrontation. Even so, Trump is too focused on a dichotomy of winners and losers: hes too obsessed with his own, as yet unevidenced, PR as the master dealmaker.
The damage to Americas credibility and trustworthiness as a maker and arbiter of international agreements will be huge, if other countries start thinking a new President will come along every four years and scrap everything. This is especially concerning because international politics has to become more about delivering mutually beneficial outcomes to preserve stability and peace, not less. If we want to be serious about maintaining this route towards solving international crises, rather than consigning it to the history books, then we need to defend this deal imperfect or not.
Picture the scene. Miles of traffic queueing back from Dover. A quarter of a million trapped in gridlock. Children and the elderly among those caught without food or water. Thousands of lorries stretching back 30 miles. Disruption to business costing billions. Well we did try to warn you, declare prominent Remainers. Except that we have already had such scenes if we have forgotten then Charlie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover and Deal, is anxious to remind us. They have happened while we are members of the EU. We had tailbacks in 2015 caused by strikes at Calais. Then last year we had the same again due to a lack of French Border Police at Dover.
There is a notion that spending money on infrastructure improvements as a contingency for a no deal Brexit would be wasted if at the last minute a deal transpires. But as Elphicke asked us on Thursday:
Why wouldnt we want to have world class customs systems, cutting edge digital border controls and resilient road infrastructure?
Naturally he has his constituency interests to champion and quite right too. But the case he makes is pretty compelling. I havent see the total bill for Elphickes shopping list but I suspect it will be much more modest than the demands from Jean-Claude Juncker.
Each day of intransigence from the Eurocrats makes the no deal outcome more likely. As Paul noted yesterday, Steve Baker, the DEXU Minister with responsibility for Contingency Planning, must get the full backing of the Government.
Let him who desires peace prepare for war, was the advice from the Roman writer Vegetius. Perhaps if our EU partners (or enemies as the Chancellor of the Exchequer describes them) realise that we are not desperate for a deal they will become serious about offering one.
It is hard to see that the Government can be expected to go any further. A payment to the EU of 20 billion is regarded as not acceptable by 65 per cent of the British public. The idea of agreeing to pay any more than this would be politically challenging. What would we be paying it for? It would make little sense to pay for tariff free access to EU markets if they are not paying for tariff free access to our markets. In any case if you are paying then in what sense is it tariff free?
The Prime Ministers Florence speech implied that we should pay more than we legally need to, as some kind of Overseas Aid:
I do not want our partners to fear that they will need to pay more or receive less over the remainder of the current budget plan as a result of our decision to leave.
A poll for Sky News this week found that 26 per cent of the public felt that any deal is better than no deal while 74 per cent declared that no deal is better than a bad deal. Of course that latter mantra is already long-standing Government policy. Yet the truth is that public opinion is ahead of the politicians. We can sense that the negotiations are failing.
So there needs to be a change of emphasis. Given that the Budget is on November 22nd, the Prime Minister might feel that getting a new Chancellor before then would be rather disruptive. But as Tony Benn used to say, it is the policies that matter more than the personalities. The presumption must be that we are going to leave the EU without a deal and that full scale preparations are needed. It must be made clear that they will be paid for and that there will be no delays. That is the only responsible course to adopt. Signals of craven desperation will be of no use at all.
The Commons can vote in any way that it wishes. It could declare itself in favour of five year olds having the vote, or back building a golden statue of Kim Il Jong in Parliament Square or, less improbably, declare itself opposed to no deal with the EU, if such is the outcome of the Brexit talks. Let us ponder what might happen if it did.
Such a vote would show the Government what MPs were against. It would be unlikely to spell out what they were for. The Commons does not have the capacity to draw up an a la carte deal in detail and present it to Ministers. It could, however, pick a table dhote solution off the table, such as EEA or EFTA membership, and recommend it to the Government. This would be improbable, if only because neither is fully compatible with taking back control, or allows for a proper system of EU migration control. Labour MPs in northern and midlands constituencies would be very wary of taking such a route. So in all likelihood would be most Conservative MPs. Only 101 MPs voted for Britain to stay in the Single Market when they last had a chance to do so. The odds of a majority backing such a move in future look long. Furthermore, Tory MPs would kick up against voting for any motion tabled by Jeremy Corbyns front bench, so another means of holding a vote against no deal would doubtless be sought.
The more one thinks about it, the more one comes to see that such a vote would be a combination of different motives. Remain-backing MPs would want Britain to remain in the EU. Others would favour a Norwegian-style settlement, with Britain remaining in the Single Market. Others still would favour staying in the Customs Union as well or instead. The DUP would oppose a hard border. Corbyn would want to destabilise the Government. Labour would surely shy away from saying that Ministers should hand over billions more pounds to the EU which would scarcely play well with voters and stick to generalities about how the Government had messed up the talks. Few MPs would want to declare that the UK should abandon the prospect of controlling EU immigration.
In these circumstances, Theresa May, who we must assume would still be Prime Minister, would have three courses of action open to her. The first would be to ignore such a vote. This would presumably not be tenable, at least for long. The second would be to fly back to Brussels to explain to our EU interlocutors that the Commons had declared itself against no deal, but not expressed a clear view about what a deal should consist of. She could make footling changes to the Governments negotiating position. She could make major ones. She could seek to drag the new talks out. In these circumstances, presumably, there would be a hue and cry for a general election.
But this to-and-fro would take place with the clock running down to Britains exit from the EU at the end of March 2019. The alternative to leaving the EU with no deal, as formally rejected by the Commons would thus beleaving the EU with no deal. (There is a parallel here with that other hypothesised Parliamentary vote namely, one against a deal, in which the alternative to leaving the EU with that deal would again be leaving the EU with no deal.)
The Commons could seek a way through any such impasse by calling for the Article 50 talks to be extended. It is not at all certain that our EU interlocutors would agree to such a move. It is also very unlikely that this Conservative Government would, or could survive long if it did. Furthermore, Corbyn and his front bench would have to think very carefully before endorsing such a move. This is because extending the talks would mean prolonging Britains EU membership, which would in turn fly in the face of last years referendum verdict. (It would also shift into the middle distance a general election that they might win.) A more efficient means of creating some new UKIP-type movement, with Nigel Farage freed from the irrelevance that threatens to confine him, is hard to imagine.
Which returns one to Mays third option in the event of the Commons preparing to vote against no deal. It would be to point out that provision for this outcome was written into the manifesto on which every Conservative MP stood. (The negotiations will undoubtedly be tough, and there will be give and take on both sides, but we continue to believe that no deal is better than a bad deal for the UK.) In these circumstances, she would be entitled to declare such a vote to be one of confidence in the Government. Any Tory MP goes through the lobbies with Corbyn would thus be deprived of the whip. In the event of the Government falling, he or she would thus be ineligible to stand as a Tory candidate in the general election that would follow.
Finally, the current discussion about a Commons vote against no deal is not taking place in a vacuum. Rather, it has been triggered by the tabling of amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill which would require a vote if a deal is not agreed. If such an amendment passes, the Commons will have degraded one of the strongest negotiating gambits that a Government can hold: namely, its freedom to walk away from the table if it doesnt like what is on offer. This is the posture to which John McDonnell committed Labour yesterday a development that Tory MPs may like to ponder. Unpatriotic is not a term that we use lightly, but it is difficult to describe it in any other way.
Dear Mr. Dad: I'm going to cut straight to the chase. Our baby was born more than six months ago, and we've had sex a grand total of twice since then. Right after the birth which was normal in every way my wife's OB told us that we'd be able to resume our regular sex life after about six weeks. My wife and I are in our mid-20s, and I'm still incredibly attracted to her. She says that she's attracted to me, as well, but that she's simply lost her sex drive. Is that normal? Of course, I don't want to keep bugging her to do something that she'd rather not be doing. But I'm worried that maybe there's something else going on. Is there anything I can do that would help her (and, honestly, myself) and make sure our relationship lasts?
The 2004-built Caribbean Princess officially kicked off the 2017-2018 cruise season in Trinidad over the weekend.
Docking at the Port of Spain, the ship received a welcoming ceremony hosted by the Hon. Minister of Tourism Shamfa Cudjoe. The passengers were treated to a cultural display and a mini carnival parade where passengers were able to partake in the experience.
This is the first of several calls of Caribbean Princess to Trinidad during the 2017-2018 season, according to a statement.
Some U.S. mobile carriers seem to be providing personal information, such as your name, address and the real-time location of your phone, to mobile authentication companies. Although it is doubtful you willfully agreed to this, you are most likely opted-in, as this is supposedly being done for security for fraud detection purposes.
The discovery that mobile phone companies provide API access to personal information was made by software engineer Philip Neustrom. He provided two demo links to mobile authentication companies Danal and Payfone as proof.
Had Danal not taken down the link after publication, then visiting https://bit.ly/crazymobiledemo on your phone while Wi-Fi was turned off and then inputting your ZIP code would have shown your home address, phone number, cell phone contract details, and depending on what kind of cell phone towers youre currently connected to a latitude and longitude describing the current location of your cell phone.
Payfones demo, https://bit.ly/mobilescary, which was also taken down, didnt even require a ZIP code before returning your personal information that is on file at your mobile carrier.
Before the companies could yank the demos, thousands of people tested them out and then confirmed it worked via Twitter, Hacker News and other sites.
Mobile identity APIs used by AT&T and Verizon
Neustrom explained that AT&T launched its Mobile Identity API in 2013, and Verizon followed suit later. The data is available to companies that pay for enterprise contracts with the mobile carriers.
These services are using your mobile phones IP address to look up your phone number, your billing information and possibly your phones current location as provided by cell phone towers (no GPS or phone location services required), wrote Neustrom. These services are doing this with the assistance of the telco providers.
Payfone struck a deal with AT&T in December 2013. After publication of Neustroms article, Payfone made its API documentation private; an archived version of the previously public API documentation can be found here.
Data provided without user consent
Did you even consent to that? In some cases, it doesnt seem to matter. For example, when looking at Payfones documentation, the example URL request shows "ConsentStatus":"optedIn" but the description under product certification makes it very plain to understand: The consent-based services are always optional, meaning you will still receive data back from the Payfone APIs even if consent is not provided. The API even allows for batch lookups.
Payfone CEO Rodger Desai tried to clarify the process, telling TechCrunch:
There is a very rigorous framework of security and data privacy consent. The main issue is that with all the legitimate mobile change events fraudsters get in For example, if you download a mobile banking app today, the bank is not sure if it is you on your new phone or someone acting as you the fraudster only needs your bank password. PC techniques like certificates and device printing dont work well since it is a new phone.
Danal and AT&T did a joint presentation showing how it works back in 2014, but after this hit the news, the YouTube video was taken down, too. A live demo during a 2015 AT&T presentation (pdf) provided the link demo.billtomobile.com to show what data can be retrieved, gave a brief history of Danal, and suggested possible use cases that range from risk and fraud detection to checkout autofill to covert visits into sales and reduce chargebacks.
Danals legal page states: The location service is available only on AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and US Cellular.
After claiming mobile phone user privacy is extremely important, it adds, location coordinates for your mobile device are only gathered after the mobile phone user has consented to use of location information. Location coordinates (longitude, latitude, and radius) will be obtained only when we have proper authorization from the user.
But again, did you actually consent?
At least one Twitter user pointed out that AT&T said to opt out under privacy choices, but Neustrom said he did opt out and it did nothing to stop his data from showing up.
A commenter on Hacker News claimed, I have Verizon Wireless and have opted out of all of the options on their account privacy page a long time ago (at least a year), but I still show up in these tests.
As Neustrom pointed out, we learned in 2003 that AT&T was providing the DEA and other law enforcement agencies with access to real-time phone metadata no warrant required.
Protests to mark opening of new Scientology base in Ireland
Church has purchased 1,200-capacity venue in south Dublin despite having just 87 Irish members recorded by census
The Irish Times/October 13, 2017
By Ronan McGreevy
Protesters against the Church of Scientology will demonstrate outside its new base in south Dublin on Saturday.
The church has purchased the former Victory Outreach Centre in Firhouse Road for a reported 6 million as a place for its members to study and hold meetings. Such venues are known in scientology as Ideal Orgs .
The protesters, many of whom are ex-members of the church, will gather for what they anticipate will be the opening of the centre by Scientology leader David Miscavige.
The Victory Outreach Centre was formerly used as a Christian church. It accommodates 1,200 people, but the Church of Scientology has just 87 members in Ireland according to the 2016 census.
Nevertheless, the organisation also set up the National Affairs Office of Ireland in Merrion Square last year. Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard lived in Merrion Square for a time in the 1950s.
On its website the organisation says its purpose in Ireland is to hope for a better world and for happier lives, and to share the practical solutions that turn those hopes into reality.
Dialogue Ireland Trust director Mike Garde, who has spent decades investigating cultism, said the aim of Scientology is the infiltration of Irish society despite having very few members in Ireland.
He said the cost of the building will be used as a tax write-off in the United States.
Why would they want to have a massive Georgian building in sight of the Dail? Its called a trophy construct, he said.
Mr Garde said the warm reception given in 2013 to the actor Tom Cruise, the most famous scientologist follower and an influential member of the church, convinced the leadership that Ireland will be a soft touch.
Ex-scientologist Pete Griffiths suggested that setting up such a huge operation in Ireland made no sense given the minimal number of followers it has in Ireland. The words white elephant come to mind, he said. I think it is just to convince the membership Scientology is expanding when in fact it is shrinking.
He suggested that, although membership is shrinking, the church itself remains very wealthy and can afford premises like the one it has purchased in Firhouse.
Mr Griffiths said he was 99 per cent certain Mr Miscavige will be at the opening on Saturday. He has never missed the opening of an Ideal Org worldwide, he said.
Scientology was founded by L Ron Hubbard in 1952. It has been dogged by controversy from the beginning and described as a brainwashing cult.
It operates a policy of disconnection where members are encouraged to distance themselves from their families if family members do not agree with their beliefs.
Local Fine Gael councillor Brian Lawlor said the church had originally wanted to open the building to the public on Saturday but chose not to when protesters started to show up outside.
Mr Lawlor said he discovered an invoice addressed to the Church of Scientology Ireland Community Centrein July which was the first indication that the building was being purchased by the organisation.
From the emails I have got about them, I am very sceptical about their intentions, he said.
Phonecalls and emails to the Church of Scientology in Ireland were not answered.
To see more documents/articles regarding this group/organization/subject click here.
1 to 3 inches of snow forecast for Tuesday night
Up to 3 inches of snow are possible Tuesday night, with much more to hit the northeast.
Carter's, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, sources, and markets branded childrenswear under the Carter's, OshKosh, Skip Hop, Child of Mine, Just One You, Simple Joys, Carter's My First Love, little planet, and other brands in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: U.S. Retail, U.S. Wholesale, and International. Its Carter's products include babies and young children products, such as bodysuits, pants, dresses, knit sets, blankets, layette essentials, bibs, booties, sleep and play products, rompers, and jumpers; and OshKosh brand products comprise playclothes, such as denim apparel products with multiple wash treatments and coordinating garments, overalls, woven bottoms, knit tops, and bodysuits. The company also provides products for playtime, travel, mealtime, bathtime, and homegear, as well as kid's bags and diaper bags under the Skip Hop brand. In addition, it offers bedding, cribs, diaper bags, footwear, gift sets, hair accessories, jewelry, outerwear, paper goods, socks, shoes, swimwear, and toys. The company operates 18,800 wholesale locations, including department stores, national chain stores, and specialty stores. As of December 31, 2021, it operated 980 retail stores. The company also sells its products through its eCommerce websites, such as carters.com, oshkoshbgosh.com, oshkosh.com, and skiphop.com, as well as other international wholesale accounts and licensees. Carter's, Inc. was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
As a Caledonia resident who has long-disliked (to put it mildly) being forced to use Racine as my mailing address, I applaud the efforts of Tom Christensen and Ed Willing to obtain a new zip code for Caledonia.
For years, I have had arguments with and been berated by the jackboots of the "postal service" (and I am using that term loosely here) over whether my mail would be delivered or not if I put Caledonia as my address (which is where I live, duh), as opposed to putting down Racine.
Many times I was told that my mail might not be delivered if Caledonia was written as my address. Where would it go then? Apparently, some cavernous "lost box," ne'er to be seen again. It always seemed these postal workers were more interested in finding ways of not having to do their world, that being delivering mail.
Before moving to Caledonia, I lived in the Brigadoonesque, mythical town of Bay View on Milwaukee's south side. This is not a real village nor a real town, but just a neighborhood area of Milwaukee. Yet much of my mail was addressed to Bay View, Wisconsin 53172 and it always was delivered with no problem. Kind of ironic, don't you think?
We have all heard the old adage "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers ..." However, at least in Caledonia, it appears that putting Caledonia on your address surpasses any of these tumults.
Dan Hosmanek
Caledonia
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Ltd, Accenture Communications Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, Accenture Company Ltd, Accenture Consulting Pty Ltd, Accenture Consulting Services Ltd Tanzania, Accenture Consultores de Gestao S.A., Accenture Consultoria de Industria e Consumo Ltda, Accenture Consultoria de Recursos Naturais Ltda, Accenture Credit Services LLC, Accenture Customer Services Distribution SASU, Accenture Customer Services Ltd, Accenture Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, Accenture Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trustees Limited, Accenture Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Limited, Accenture Delivery Poland S.p. z o.o., Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH, Accenture Digital Holdings GmbH, Accenture East Africa Limited, Accenture Ecuador S.A., Accenture Egypt LLC, Accenture Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Accenture Federal Services LLC, Accenture Finance II Limited, Accenture Finance Limited, Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services S.p.A., Accenture Finance and Accounting Services S.r.l., Accenture Financial Advanced Solution & Technology S.r.l., Accenture Flex LLC, Accenture GP LLC, Accenture Global Capital Designated Activity Company, Accenture Global Engagements Limited, Accenture Global Holdings Limited, Accenture Global Services Limited, Accenture Global Solutions Limited, Accenture GmbH, Accenture HR Services S.p.A., Accenture Healthcare Processing Inc, Accenture Holding Brasil Ltda, Accenture Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Accenture Holdings (Iberia) S.L., Accenture Holdings B.V., Accenture Holdings France SASU, Accenture Hungary Holdings Kft, Accenture Inc, Accenture Industrial Software Limited Liability Company, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions Kft, Accenture Industrial Software Solutions SA, Accenture Insurance Services B.V., Accenture Insurance Services LLC, Accenture International B.V., Accenture International LLC, Accenture International Limited, Accenture Japan Ltd, Accenture Korea B.V., Accenture LLC, Accenture LLP, Accenture Lanka (Private) Ltd, Accenture Limited, Accenture Lithuania UAB, Accenture Ltd, Accenture Ltda, Accenture Maghreb S.a.r.l., Accenture Managed Services SRL, Accenture Management GmbH, Accenture Marketing Services LLC, Accenture Marketing Services Limited, Accenture Middle East B.V., Accenture Minority I B.V., Accenture Mozambique Limitada, Accenture Mzansi Pty Ltd, Accenture NV/SA, Accenture NZ Limited, Accenture Nova Scotia Unlimited Liability Co., Accenture OOO, Accenture Operations GmbH, Accenture Operations S.p. z o.o., Accenture Operations Services Private Limited, Accenture Operations Services Sdn Bhd, Accenture Outsourcing S.r.l., Accenture Outsourcing Services S.A., Accenture Oy, Accenture Panama Inc, Accenture Participations B.V., Accenture Participations II Limited, Accenture Peru SRL, Accenture Post Trade Processing SASU, Accenture Post-Trade Processing Limited, Accenture Process (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Pte Ltd, Accenture Puerto Rico LLC, Accenture Qiyun Technology (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd, Accenture S.C., Accenture S.L., Accenture S.R.L., Accenture S.p. z o.o., Accenture S.p.A., Accenture SASU, Accenture SG Services Pte Ltd, Accenture SRL, Accenture Saudi Arabia Limited, Accenture Sdn Bhd, Accenture Service Center SRL, Accenture Services (Mauritius) Ltd, Accenture Services AB, Accenture Services AG, Accenture Services AS, Accenture Services GmbH, Accenture Services Morocco SA, Accenture Services Oy, Accenture Services Pty Ltd, Accenture Services S.p. z o.o., Accenture Services SRL, Accenture Services and Technology S.r.l., Accenture Services s.r.o., Accenture Single Member S.A. Organization Information Technology & Business Development, Accenture Solutions Co. Ltd, Accenture Solutions Private Limited, Accenture Solutions Pte Ltd, Accenture Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Solutions S.p. z o.o, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture State Healthcare Services LLC, Accenture Sub II Inc, Accenture Sub III Inc, Accenture Sub LLC, Accenture Systems Integration Limited, Accenture Sarl, Accenture Tanacsado Kolatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Accenture Technology Solutions (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (HK) Co. Ltd., Accenture Technology Solutions (Thailand) Co. Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions - Solucoes Informaticas Integradas S.A., Accenture Technology Solutions GmbH, Accenture Technology Solutions Oy, Accenture Technology Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Technology Solutions S.A. de C.V., Accenture Technology Solutions S.r.l., Accenture Technology Solutions SASU, Accenture Technology Solutions SRL, Accenture Technology Solutions Sdn Bhd, Accenture Technology Solutions Slovakia s.r.o., Accenture Technology Ventures B.V., Accenture Technology Ventures SPRL, Accenture Tecnologia Consultoria y Outsourcing S.A., Accenture Uruguay SRL, Accenture Vietnam Co. Limited, Accenture Zambia Limited, Accenture do Brasil Ltda, Accenture plc, Accenture s.r.o., Acceria, Acquity Group, Adaptly LLC, Adaptly UK Limited, AddVal Technology, Adqptly, Advantium Inc., Advoco, Agilex Technologies Inc., Alfa Consulting, Allen International, AlphaBeta Advisors, Altevie Technologies S.r.l., Altima, Altima (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Altima Asia Ltd, Altitude, Altitude LLC, Altius Consulting Limited, Altius Data Solutions Private Limited, Analytics 8 LP, Analytics 8 Pty Ltd, Analytics8, Aorui Advertising (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Apis, Apis Group Pty Ltd, Appaloosa Technology SASU, AppsPro, AppsPro, Arca, Arca Ingenieros y Consultoria S.L., Arca Telecom S.L., Ariba - BPO, Arismore, Artio People (Payroll) Pty Ltd, Artio People Pty Ltd, Aspiro Solutions (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Automation Partners Pty Ltd, Avanade (Guangzhou) Computer Technology Development Co. Ltd., Avanade Asia Pte Ltd, Avanade Australia Pty Ltd, Avanade Belgium SPRL, Avanade Canada Inc, Avanade Consulting Poland S.p. z o.o., Avanade Denmark A/S, Avanade Deutschland GmbH, Avanade Europe Holdings Limited, Avanade Europe Services Limited, Avanade Finland Oy, Avanade France SASU, Avanade Holdings LLC, Avanade Hong Kong Ltd, Avanade Inc, Avanade International Corporation, Avanade Ireland Limited, Avanade Italy S.r.l., Avanade Japan KK, Avanade Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avanade Middle East Limited, Avanade Netherlands B.V., Avanade Norway AS, Avanade Poland S.p. z o.o., Avanade Schweiz GmbH, Avanade South Africa Pty Ltd, Avanade Spain S.L., Avanade Sweden AB, Avanade UK Limited, Avanade do Brasil Ltda , Avanade Osterreich GmbH, Avenai, Avieco, Axia Ltd., BABCN LLC, BCS Consulting, BCT Solutions, BCT Solutions Pty Ltd, BENEXT, BPO Servicos Administrativos Ltda, BRIDGE Energy Group, BRIDGEi2i, Beacon Consulting Group Inc., Beijing Genesis Interactive Technology Co. Ltd., Beijing Zhidao Future Consulting Co. Ltd, Benext, Berico Technologies LLC, Bionic, Bionic Solution LLC, Blue Horseshoe, Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Bow & Arrow, Bow & Arrow Limited, Brand Learning, Brand Learning Group Limited, Brightstep AB, Byte Prophecy, Byte Prophecy Private Limited, CAS, CRMWaypoint, CS Technology (Australia) Pty Ltd, CS Technology (UK) Limited, CS Technology Group LLC, CS Technology LLC, CadenceQuest Inc., Callisto Integration Europe B.V., Callisto Integration Europe Limited, Callisto Integration LLC, Callisto Integration Ltd, Capgemini - North American health practice, Capital Consultancy Services Inc, Certus Solutions Consulting Services Limited, Certus Solutions Ltd, ChangeTrack Research Pty Ltd., Chaotic Moon Studios, Chengdu Mensa Advertising Co. Ltd., Cimation, Cirrus Connect Australia Pty Ltd, Cirrus Connect Limited, Cirruseo, Clarity Insights, ClearEdge Partners, Clearhead, Clearhead Group LLC, ClientHouse GmbH, Cloud Sherpas, Cloud Sherpas (GA) LLC, Cloud Sherpas Japan G.K., Cloud Sherpas New Zealand Limited, Cloudeasier SAS, Cloudpoint Limited, Cloudsherpas Inc, Cloudworks, Cloudworks Consulting Services Inc, Cloudworks Technology LLC, Computer Research and Telecommunications LLC, Concrete Desenvolvimento de Sistemas Ltda, Concrete Solutions, Concrete Solutions Ltda, Context Information Security, Context Information Security LLC, Context Information Security Limited, CoreCompete LLC, CoreCompete Limited, CoreCompete Private Limited, Corliant Inc., Creative Drive LLC, Creative Drive US LLC, CreativeDrive, CreativeDrive Digital Content Services (Shenzhen) Co Ltd., CreativeDrive EMEA Limited, CreativeDrive Singapore Pte Ltd, CreativeDrive UK Group Limited, Cutting Edge Solutions Limited, Cygni AB, Cygni Norrsken AB, Cygni Stockholm AB, Cygni Syd AB, Cygni Vast AB, Cygni Ost AB, Cygni Ostersund AB, DAZ Systems Inc, DAZ Systems LLC, DAZSI Systems (India) Pvt. Limited, DI Futures Corporation, Data Essential SARL, Davies Consulting, DayNine Consulting, DayNine Consulting (New Zealand) Limited, DayNine Consulting LLC, Declarative Holdings LLC, Decora Marketplace LLC, Decorado Marketplace Ltda-EPP, Defense Point Security, Deja vu Security, Design Strategy and Research de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Designaffairs LLC, Digiplug S.A.S., Digital Results Group LLC, Double Digit Limitada, Double Digit Pty SA, Droga5, Droga5 LLC, Droga5 Studios LLC, Droga5 UK Limited, Duck Creek Technologies, ESR Labs, ESR Labs AG, EdenOne Solutions Limited, Edenhouse ERP Holdings Limited, Edenhouse Solutions Limited, Enaxis Consulting, Enaxis Consulting LP, End to End Analytics LLC, End-to-End Analytics, Endorphin Medici (M) Sdn Bhd, Energuia Web S.A., Energy Management Brokers Limited, EnergyQuote JHA, Enimbos, Enimbos Global Services S.L., Enkitec, Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions LLC, Enterprise System Partners, Enterprise System Partners B.V., Enterprise System Partners Bilisim Danismanlik Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Enterprise System Partners Global Corporation, Enterprise System Partners Limited, Enthusian Pty Ltd, Entropia, Entropia (M) Sdn Bhd, Entropia Holdings Pte Ltd, Entropia Intercraft Sdn Bhd, Epylon, Ergo, Espedia S.r.l., Ethica Consulting Group, Ethica Consulting S.p.A., Evopro Group, Exactside Limited, Experity, Exton Consulting, Exton Consulting Spain Strategy&Management S.L., Exton Germany GmbH, Exton International SAS, Exton Italia S.r.l., Exton SAS, FGM LLC, Fairway Technologies Inc, Farah BidCo Limited, Farah MidCo Limited, Farah Topco Limited, Filmproduction ApS, First Annapolis Consulting Inc., First Annapolis Consulting LLC, Fjord, Focus Group Europe, Formicary, Founders Intelligence, Fruendo S.r.l., FusionX, Future State Consulting LLC, FutureMove (Beijing) Automotive Technology Co. Ltd., FutureMove Automotive, FutureMove Automotive Co. Ltd., GRA Supply Chain Pty Ltd, Gagel Group S de R.L. de C.V., Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda, Gapso Servicos de Informatica Ltda., Genfour, George Group Consulting L.P., Gestalt LLC, Gevity, Gren utvikling AS, H.B. Maynard and Co. Inc., HRC Retail Advisory, Hagberg Consulting Group, Hahntel Ltda, Halo Partners LLC, Hamilton Holding Company S.A, Hangzhou Aiyunzhe Technology Co. Ltd., Happen, Happen GP Limited, Happen Limited, Headspring, Hjaltelin Stahl, Hjaltelin Stahl A/S, Hjaltelin Stahl K/S, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting AS, Hytracc Consulting Malaysia Sdn Bhd, IBB Consulting, ICM.S S.r.l., IMJ Corp, IMJ Corporation, INSITUM, IQSP Consulting LLC, IT One Company Limited, ITBS Servicios Bancarios de Tecnologia de la Informacion SL, Icon Integration, Icon Integration (NZ) Limited, Icon Integration Pty Ltd, Imagine Broadband (USA) Limited, Imagine Broadband USA LLC, Imaginea Inc, Imaginea Technologies LLC, Industrie IT (Hong Kong) Ltd, Industrie IT (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Industrie IT Group Pty Ltd, Industrie IT Pty Ltd, Industrie&Co, Infinity Works Consulting Limited, Infinity Works Holdings Limited, Infinity Works Management Limited, Infinity Works Midco Limited, Informatica de Euskadi S.L., Innotec International EAD, Innotec International S.p. z.o.o., Innotec Marketing GmbH, Innotec Marketing International Ireland Limited, Innotec- Marketing Spain S.L, Insitum Consultoria Argentina SRL, Insitum Consultoria S.A. de C.V., International Biometric Group LLC, International Biometric Group UK Limited, Intrepid, Intrepid Futureworks Sdn Bhd, Intrigo Systems Inc, Intrigo Systems India Pvt. Limited, Intrigo Systems LLC, Inventor Technology Ltd, InvestTech, Investtech Systems Consulting LLC, ItSafer Continuity Services S.L., JKD Consulting LLC, Javelin Group, K Comms Group Limited, KSC Studio LLC, Kaper Communications Limited, Karma Communications Debtco Limited, Karma Communications Group Limited, Karma Communications Holdings Limited, Karmarama, Karmarama Comms Limited, Karmarama Limited, King James Group, Knowledge Rules Inc., Knowledgent, Knowledgent Group LLC, Kogentix, Kogentix LLC, Kogentix Limited, Kogentix Singapore Pte Ltd, Kogentix Technologies Private Limited, Kolle Rebbe, Kolle Rebbe GmbH, Kream Comms Limited, Kunstmaan, Kurt Salmon, Kurt Salmon Canada LTD, Kurt Salmon US LLC, LEXTA, LINKBYNET, LINKBYNET Indian Ocean (L.I.O) Ltd, LabAnswer, Lexta GmbH, Lexta UK Limited, Lien par le reseau Inc, Lien par le reseau infrastructures Inc, Lin Bo (Shanghai) Network Technology Co. Ltd., Link By Net SAS, Link By Net SRL, Link By Net Vietnam Company Limited, Linkbynet East Asia Ltd, Linkbynet Singapore Pte Ltd., Loud & Clear Creative Pty Ltd, Lumenup S.A., MAXIM Systems Inc., MCG US Holdings LLC, Mackevision CG Technology and Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Mackevision Japan Co. Ltd., Mackevision Korea Ltd, Mackevision LLC, Mackevision Medien Design, Mackevision Medien Design GmbH, Mackevision Singapore Pte Ltd, Mackevision UK Limited, Maglan, Maglan Information Defense Technologies Research Ltd, Maihiro, Matter, Maud Corp Pty Ltd, Maxamine International, Measuretek LLC, Media Audits Ltd., Media Hive, Mediasenz Pty Ltd., Meredith Specialty LLC, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, Meredith Xcelerated Marketing LLC, Meridian Informed Purchasing Ltd., Mindtribe, Mistral Wind Operations Servicos Empresariais Unipessoal Lda., MobGen, Mortgage Cadence LLC, Mortgage Cadence an Accenture Company, Most Champion Ltd, Mudano, Mudano Limited, Myrtle Consulting Group LLC, N3, N3 (Dalian) Business Consulting Co. Ltd., N3 Brazil Consultoria em Marketing Ltda, N3 Germany GmbH, N3 LLC, N3 North America LLC, N3 Results Australia Pty Ltd, N3 Results Ireland Limited, N3 Results Japan G.K., N3 Results Limited, N3 Results Malaysia Sdn Bhd, N3 Results Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., N3 Results S.A.S., N3 Results Singapore Pte Ltd, N3 Results Unipessoal Lda, NYTEC, Nanjing Demeng Advertising Co. Ltd., Nashco Consulting, NaviSys Inc., Nell'Armonia Israel Ltd, Nell'Armonia SAS, Nell'Participation SAS, NellArmonia, Neo Metrics Analytics S.L., Neo Metrics Chile S.A., New Content, New Content Editora e Produtora Ltda, New Energy Group, News Imaging LLC, NewsPage, NewsPage (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, NewsPage Pte Ltd, Northstream, Novetta Holdings LLC, Novetta LLC, Novetta Solutions LLC, Novetta Topco LLC, OCTO Technology, OPS Rules Management Consultants, Octagon Research Solutions Inc., Octo Technology Pty Ltd, Octo Technology SA, Odgaard ApS, Olikka, Olikka Pty Ltd, Olympus Systems Corporation, Openmind, Openmind S.r..l., Openminded, Openminded SAS, Operaciones Accenture S.A. de C.V., OpusLine, Orbium, Orbium AG, Orbium Consulting Limited, Orbium Inc., Orbium Ltd, Orbium Pte Ltd, Orbium Pty Ltd, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PLM Systems S.r.l, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, PacificLink Group, Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production A/S, Pegasus Production K/S, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pollux Automation Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pollux Canada Inc, Pollux S.A.S., Pollux USA LLC, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Limited, Pramati Technologies Europe Limited, Pramati Technologies Private Limited, Presence of IT Workforce Management North America LLC, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Limited, Procurian Inc., Prof. Homburg GmbH, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co. Ltd., RBCP Fund 1-A Vapor Blocker LLC, RBCP Platform Vapor Blocker I LLC, REPL Consulting LLC, REPL Consulting Limited, REPL Digital Limited, REPL Group K.K., REPL Group Pty Ltd, REPL Group Worldwide Limited, REPL Pte Ltd, REPL Software Limited, REPL Technology Limited, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Root LLC, Rothco, Rothco Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SALT Solutions GmbH, SEC Servizi, SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Salt Solutions, Sandbox Studio LLC, Sapling Bidco Limited, Sapling Midco Limited, Sapling Topco Limited, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Search Technologies BPO Inc, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Securiview SAS, Sentelis, Sentor Managed Secuirty Services AB, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Seven Seas Business Ventures LLC, Shackleton, Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton S.L.U., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., SigInt Technologies LLC, Silveo, Silveo Consulting India Private Limited, Simian Pty Ltd, SinnerSchrader, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, SinnerSchrader Praha s.r.o., Sirvart S.A., Sistemes Consulting S.L., Skylink SAS, Soltians Limited, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Somers Ventures Ireland Limited, Somers Ventures LLC, Spacelink SAS, Storm Digital, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Synership LLC, Systor AG, T.A. Cook, TXF LLC, Tambourine, TargetST8, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Ltd, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Tquila, Trivadis, Trivadis AG, Trivadis Austria GmbH, Trivadis Denmark AS, Trivadis Germany GmbH, Trivadis Holding AG, Trivadis Partner AG, Trivadis Services AG, Trivadis Services SRL, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Vector Acquisition Company LLC, Vector Topco LLC, Verax Solutions, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd, Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd, Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Wabion GmbH, WaveStrike LLC, White Cliffs Consulting LLC, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wise Partners SAS, Wolox, Wolox Colombia S.A.S, Wolox LLC, Wolox Mexico S.R.L de C.V., Wolox S.A., Wolox SpA, Workforce Insight, Workforce Insight LLC, Yesler, Yesler LLC, Yesler Limited, Yesler Singapore Pte Ltd, Zag, Zag Australia Pty Ltd, Zag Limited, Zag USA LLC, Zebra Worldwide Australia Pty Ltd, Zebra Worldwide Group Limited, Zebra Worldwide Media Pty Ltd, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines Inc, Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc, Zestgroup, Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, solid-serVision.com GmbH, and umlaut.
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The following companies are subsidiares of Ingersoll Rand: 13125882 Canada Inc., 211 E. Russell Road LLC, 4458664 Canada Inc., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES ASIA PTE. LTD., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES BORROWER S.C.A., ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES LLC, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES MIDDLE EAST FZE, ACCUDYNE INDUSTRIES SERVICES LIMITED, ASTRUM IT GmbH, Accudyne Industries Acquisition S.A r.l, Accudyne Industries Canada Inc., Accudyne Industries S.A r.l., Air Dimensions, Air Dimensions Inc., Albin Pump SAS, BOC Edwards Global Low pressure Air business, CISA S.p.A., Cameron-Centrifugal Compression, Comercial Ingersoll-Rand (Chile) Limitada, Comingersoll-Comercio E Industria De Equipamentos S.A., CompAir, CompAir (Hankook) Korea Co. Ltd., CompAir Acquisition (No. 2) Ltd., CompAir Acquisition Ltd., CompAir BroomWade Ltd., CompAir Finance Ltd., CompAir GmbH, CompAir Holdings Limited, CompAir International Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd, CompAir Korea Ltd, CompAir South Africa (SA) (Pty) Ltd., Consolidated Distribution Holdings Ltd., DV Systems Inc., Dosatron International SAS, Emco Wheaton Gmbh, Emco Wheaton USA Inc, Enza Air Proprietary Limited, FlexEnergy Holdings LLC, Frigoblock Grosskopf Gmbh, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Holdings Limited, GD Aria Investments Limited, GD First (UK) Ltd, GD German Holdings GmbH, GD German Holdings I Gmbh, GD German Holdings II GmbH, GD German Investments GmbH, GD Global Holdings II Inc., GD Global Holdings Inc., GD Global Holdings UK II Ltd., GD Global Ventures I B.V., GD Global Ventures II B.V., GD Global Ventures III B.V., GD Industrial Products Malaysia SDN. BHD., GD Investment KY, GD UK Finance Ltd., GPS Industries, Gardner Denver (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Austria GmbH, Gardner Denver Bad Neustadt Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Belgium NV, Gardner Denver Brasil Industria E Comercio de Maquinas Ltda., Gardner Denver CZ + SK sro, Gardner Denver Canada Corp (Canada), Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments II Limited, Gardner Denver Cyprus Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Deutschland GmbH, Gardner Denver Engineered Products India Private Limited, Gardner Denver FZE, Gardner Denver Finance II LLC, Gardner Denver Finance Inc & Co KG, Gardner Denver France SAS, Gardner Denver Group Svcs Ltd, Gardner Denver Holdings Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Investments Limited, Gardner Denver Hong Kong Ltd, Gardner Denver Iberica SL, Gardner Denver Inc., Gardner Denver Industries Ltd., Gardner Denver Industries Pty Ltd., Gardner Denver International Inc., Gardner Denver International Ltd., Gardner Denver Investments Inc., Gardner Denver Italy Holdings S.r.L., Gardner Denver Japan Ltd., Gardner Denver Kirchhain Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Korea Ltd., Gardner Denver Ltd., Gardner Denver Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Nash Brasil Industria E Comercio De Bombas Ltda, Gardner Denver Nash LLC, Gardner Denver Nash Machinery Ltd., Gardner Denver Nederland BV, Gardner Denver Nederland Investments B.V., Gardner Denver Oy, Gardner Denver Polska Sp z.o.o., Gardner Denver Pte. Ltd., Gardner Denver S.r.l., Gardner Denver Schopfheim GmbH, Gardner Denver Schopfheim Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Gardner Denver Schweiz AG, Gardner Denver Slovakia s.r.o., Gardner Denver Sweden AB, Gardner Denver Taiwan Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas GmbH (f/k/a ILMVAC GmbH), Gardner Denver Thomas Inc., Gardner Denver Thomas Pneumatic Systems (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Gardner Denver Thomas Real Estate GmbH & Co KG, Garo Dott. Ing. Roberto Gabbioneta S.r.l., Ghh-Rand Schraubenkompressoren Gmbh, HASKEL EUROPE LTD., HASKEL HOLDINGS UK LIMITED, HASKEL INTERNATIONAL LLC, Hamworthy Belliss & Morcom, Haskel France SAS, Haskel Sistemas de Fluidos Espana S.R.L., Hibon Inc., Highspeed Newco LLC, Hingerose Limited, ILMVAC (UK) Ltd., ILS Innovative Labor Systeme, ILS Inovative Laborsysteme GmbH, INGERSOLL RAND ITS JAPAN LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND (CHANG ZHOU) TOOLS CO. LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND (CHINA) INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING CO. LTD., INGERSOLL-RAND CHINA LLC, INGERSOLL-RAND COMERCIO E SERVICOS DE MAQUINAS E EQUIPAMENTOS INDUSTRIAIS LTDA., INGERSOLL-RAND DE PUERTO RICO INC., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL COMPANY B.V., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL SP. Z O.O., INGERSOLL-RAND INDUSTRIAL U.S. INC., INGERSOLL-RAND PHILIPPINES INC., INGERSOLL-RAND SPAIN S.A., INGERSOLL-RAND U.S. HOLDCO INC., IR HPS Holdco. Inc., ITO Emniyet, Ingersoll Rand Cyprus Investments Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Finance LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Investments LLC, Ingersoll Rand Global Ventures LLC, Ingersoll Rand Hong Kong Investments Limited, Ingersoll Rand Inc., Ingersoll Rand Investments (SG) Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Investments B.V., Ingersoll Rand Schweiz Investments Gmbh, Ingersoll Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (Australia) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand (China) Investment Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Guilin) Tools Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (Hong Kong) Holding Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand (India) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Ab, Ingersoll-Rand Air Solutions Hibon Sarl, Ingersoll-Rand Beteiligungs Und Grundstucksverwaltungs Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Colombia S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited (Uk), Ingersoll-Rand Company South Africa (Pty) Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Cz S.R.O., Ingersoll-Rand De Mexico S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Equipements De Production S.A.S., Ingersoll-Rand Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Industrial Ireland Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International (India) Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand International Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Italia S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Italiana Manufacturing S.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Korea Holding Llc, Ingersoll-Rand Korea Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments II S.A R.I., Ingersoll-Rand Lux Investments S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Luxembourg Industrial Company S.A R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Machinery (Shanghai) Company Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Malaysia Co. Sdn. Bhd., Ingersoll-Rand S.A. De C.V., Ingersoll-Rand Services And Trading Limited Liability Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Company, Ingersoll-Rand Services Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Singapore Enterprises Pte. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand South East Asia (Pte.) Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Superay Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technical And Services S.A.R.L., Ingersoll-Rand Technologies And Services Private Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Technology R&D (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ingersoll-Rand Tool Holdings Limited, Ingersoll-Rand Trading Gmbh, Ingersoll-Rand Vietnam Company Limited, Instrum Rand JSC, Interflex Datensysteme, Ir Canada Holdings Ulc, Ir Canada Sales & Service Ulc, Ir France Sas, Kryptonite corp, Lawrence Factor Inc., LeROI, LeRoi International Inc, MILTON ROY (HONG KONG) LIMITED, MILTON ROY (UK) LIMITED, MILTON ROY EUROPA B.V., MILTON ROY EUROPE SAS, MILTON ROY INDUSTRIAL (SHANGHAI) CO. LTD., MILTON ROY LLC, MILTON ROY US PURCHASER INC., MP Pumps Inc., Maximum AG Technologies Inc., Maximus Solutions, Mb Air Systems Limited, Nash Elmo, Officina Meccaniche Industriali Srl, Oina VV, Oina VV Aktiebolag, Plurifilter D.O.O., Pt Ingersoll-Rand Indonesia, Robuschi, Runtech Systems, Runtech Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Runtech Systems Inc., Runtech Systems OY, SEEPEX, Seepex (M) SDN, Seepex Australia Pty Ltd, Seepex Beteiligungs-Gesellschaft mit Beschrankter Haftung, Seepex France S.a.r.l., Seepex GmbH, Seepex Inc., Seepex India Private Ltd., Seepex Italia SRL, Seepex Japan Co. Ltd., Seepex Nordic A/S, Seepex OOO, Seepex Pumps (Shanghia) Co. Ltd., Seepex UK Ltd., Shanghai CompAir Compressors Co Ltd, Shanghai Compressors & Blowers Ltd., Shanghai Ingersoll-Rand Compressor Limited, Shenzhen Bocom System Engineering Co., Superay, Syltone, TIWR Real Estate GmbH & Co. KG, Tamrotor Marine Comp AS Norway, Tecno Matic Europe s.r.o., Thomas Industries Inc., Trane Technologies, Tri-Continent Scientific Inc., Vacuum and Blower Systems division, Welch Vacuum Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zaxe Technologies Inc., Zeks Compressed Air Solutions Llc, Zinsser Analytic, Zinsser Analytik GmbH, Zinsser NA Inc., and crayon interface.
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First Republic Bank was founded by Jim Herbert with the intention of providing exceptional levels of customer service. It was his belief that customer service would set the bank apart and create a profitable investment for its shareholders. After 35 years, his vision has proven true with a 25% CAGR that continues to this day. The initial enterprise value has grown from only $8.8 million in that time, to over $19 billion making it the 14th largest bank in the US. First Republic Bank was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
First Republic Bank with its subsidiaries operates in two segments and provides personal banking, business banking, and wealth management services to individuals, families, organizations, and small businesses in the United States. The companys services are available in-person at one of the more than 80 offices or via ATM, online, mobile, and debit cards.
The company offers deposit products including checking and saving accounts, money market, and CDs as well as a range of lending products. The full range of lending products includes but is not limited to residential mortgages, home equity lines of credit, commercial real estate and construction loans, and personal and business loans.
The companys wealth management services include advisory services, online investment management, trusts, estate planning, and alternative investments as well as insurance and foreign exchange. The online brokerage service is available to all clients and can be accessed at any time via a web browser or mobile device.
First Republic Bank operates a network of more than 80 deposit-taking branches and 12 wealth management offices. The network is located primarily in California with additional branches in major metropolitan areas and two destination locations that include Portland, Boston, Palm Beach, Greenwich, New York, and Jackson, Wyoming.
First Republic Bank has proven its worth over the year by maintaining a consistently strong capital level, asset quality, and liquidity position. Its prudent management has allowed it to weather market ups and downs while commanding investment grade ratings for its bonds and preferred stock.
Box, Inc. provides a cloud content management platform that enables organizations of various sizes to manage and share their content from anywhere on any device. The company's Software-as-a-Service platform enables users to collaborate on content internally and with external parties, automate content-driven business processes, develop custom applications, and implement data protection, security, and compliance features to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, internal policies, and industry standards and regulations. It offers web, mobile, and desktop applications for cloud content management on a platform for developing custom applications, as well as industry-specific capabilities. As of January 31, 2022, the company had approximately 100,000 paying organizations, and its solution was offered in 25 languages. It serves financial services, health care, government, and legal services industries in the United States and internationally. The company was formerly known as Box.net, Inc. and changed its name to Box, Inc. in November 2011. Box, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in San Francisco Bay Area, California.
House Dems Introduce Bill To Ban
Online Ammo Sales, Magazines
By Tom Knighton. October 14th, 2017
Democrats are firm believers in never letting a good crisis go to waste. It's why they started talking about blocking gun sales to people on the no-fly list after Orlando, despite the shooter not being on the no-fly list, and universal background checks after Sandy Hook, despite that killer stealing his guns. In addition to the disaster that is the current ban on bump-fire stocks bill, House Democrats have pulled some shenanigans of their own.
They think the time is right to ban online ammo sales, standard capacity magazines, and to require dealers to report anyone who buys two or more guns during the same five-day period. In other words, the standard anti-gun wishlist.
House Democrats have introduced a number of new gun control measures in the wake of a deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas. Among the proposals are HR.3962 to ban online ammunition sales, H.R. 4025 requiring gun dealers to report the sale of two or more rifles to the same person in a five-day period, and HR. 4052, which would ban magazines able to hold greater than 10 rounds.
..... This is how politicians look like fighters to those who are a bit on the gullible side. .......
How totally predictable - "never waste any good crises" - they just have to look good and feel they are ''doing something'' they consider "common sense". Almost for sure this lame attempt to further infringe on our rights is unlikely this time to go anywhere but -- the fact that they try is sickening while they try and increase their voter 'feelgood' factor and try to achieve more votes from antis. Complacency must be avoided as, there will be more of this coming down the pike.
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88 kg gold smuggling case: Alleged mastermind Tamang arrested
A police team deployed from Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) has arrested an alleged mastermind behind the 88 kg gold smuggling case from Swayambhu of the Capital on Monday.
The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen France SAS, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Suzhou Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel Ireland Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Brooks Instrument Shanghai Co. Ltd, Buell Industries Inc., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS Australia Pty Limited, CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures Australasia S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Coeur Shanghai Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Denison Mayes Group Limited, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., E2M Production B.V.., E2M Technologies B.V.., E2M Technologies Inc.., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO Holding AG, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, Exhibit 21, FEG Investments L.L.C., Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., Filtertek SAS, GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech Taicang Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Belgium B.V., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart International Singapore Pte. Ltd., Hobart Japan K.K., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components Chongqing Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components Langfang Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium B.V., ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS UK Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW China Investment Company Limited, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Construction Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Services Manila Inc., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Contamination Control Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Deutschland GmbH, ITW Diagraph GmbH, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW EU Holdings Ltd., ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.L., ITW European Finance Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW European Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Thailand Ltd., ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France Luxembourg S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW Materials Technology Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Ningbo Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology China Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers Wujiang Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion Shenzhen Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials Suzhou Co. Ltd., ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment Shanghai Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films Shanghai Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Illinois Tool Works Chile Limitada, Illinois Tool Works ITW Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Inc., Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, Instron Shanghai Ltd., Instron Thailand Limited, International Leasing Company LLC, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., Itw Spraytec, KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems Canada Inc., Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MTS 2 LLC., MTS 3 LLC., MTS China Holdings LLC, MTS Europe Holdings LLC, MTS Holdings France S.a.r.l., MTS Japan Ltd.., MTS Korea Inc.., MTS Systems China Co. Ltd., MTS Systems Corporation, MTS Systems Danmark ApS., MTS Systems Europe B.V., MTS Systems Finance C.V.., MTS Systems Germany GmbH, MTS Systems Holding B.V.., MTS Systems Hong Kong Incorporated, MTS Systems Limited, MTS Systems Norden Aktiebolag, MTS Systems S.r.l, MTS Systems., MTS Systems.., MTS Sytems Do Brazil, MTS Testing Solutions India Private Limited., MTS Testing Systems Canada Ltd., Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology Suzhou Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited Enping, Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners Shanghai Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., R&D Engineering A/S., R&D Prague s.r.o., R&D Steel ApS., R&D Test Systems A/S., R&D Tools and Structures A/S., RDGDK Engineering Private Limited, Ramset Fasteners Hong Kong Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco Japan Inc., Simco Nederland B.V., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes B.V., Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Hong Kong Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Shanghai Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stokvis Tapes Taiwan Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes Tianjin Co. Ltd., Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Subsidiaries, Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek China Limited, Teknek Japan Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Kunshan Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta Global Limited, Vesta Guangzhou Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil South Africa Pty Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, and Zip-Pak International B.V..
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The following companies are subsidiares of PerkinElmer: 2Cure LLC, Analytica of Branford, Applied Biosystems, Arnel Inc., ArtusLabs, Beijing Huaan Magnech Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Beijing Meizheng Testing Lab Co. Ltd., Beijing OUMENG Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Bio Evolution SAS, BioLegend, BioLegend CNS Inc., BioLegend China Beijing Ltd., BioLegend Europe B.V., BioLegend France SAS, BioLegend GmbH, BioLegend Inc., BioLegend Japan KK, BioLegend Shenzhen Ltd., BioLegend Taiwan Ltd., BioLegend UK Ltd., BioLegend Ventures LLC, Bioo Scientific Corporation, Biosense Technologies Pvt Ltd., Boulder Diagnostics Europe GmbH, Caliper Life Sciences, Caliper Life Sciences Inc., Cambridge Research & Instrumentation Inc., CambridgeSoft, Ceiba Solutions, Chengdu PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Cisbio Asia Pacific Ltd, Cisbio Bioassays SAS, Cisbio China Ltd., Cisbio.com, DIA.Metra S.R.L., DNA Laboratories Sdn. Bhd., Dani Analitica S.r.l., Dexela, Dharmacon Inc., EUROIMMUN AG, EUROIMMUN Brasil Medicina Diagnostica Ltda., EUROIMMUN Diagnostics Espana S.L., EUROIMMUN France SAS, EUROIMMUN Hangzhou Medical Laboratory Diagnostics Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Italia Diagnostica Medica S.r.l., EUROIMMUN Japan Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics Canada Inc., EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostics China Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medical Laboratory Diagnostics South Africa Pty Ltd., EUROIMMUN Medizinische Labordiagnostika AG, EUROIMMUN Polska Sp. z o.o., EUROIMMUN Portugal Unipessoal Lda., EUROIMMUN Schweiz AG, EUROIMMUN South East Asia Pte Ltd., EUROIMMUN Tianjin Medical Diagnostic Technology Co. Ltd., EUROIMMUN Turkey Tibbi Laboratuar Teshisleri A.S., EUROIMMUN UK Ltd., EUROIMMUN US Inc., EUROIMMUN US Real Estate LLC, Geospiza, Guangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Hangzhou EUROIMMUN Medical Diagnostic Products Co. Ltd., Horizon Diagnostics Limited, Horizon Discovery, Horizon Discovery Biosciences Limited, Horizon Discovery Group Ltd., Horizon Discovery Inc., Horizon Discovery KK, Horizon Discovery Limited, Horizon Genomics GmbH, IDS Brasil Diagnosticos Ltda., Immunetics Inc., Immunodiagnostic Systems, Immunodiagnostic Systems Deutschland GmbH, Immunodiagnostic Systems France SAS, Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings Limited, Immunodiagnostic Systems Inc., Immunodiagnostic Systems Limited, Immunodiagnostic Systems SA, Inochem S.A. de C. V., Integromics S.L., Jiangsu Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., LabMetrix Technologies, Labtronics, Nexcelom Bioscience, Nexcelom Bioscience Holdings LLC, Nexcelom Bioscience Instruments Shanghai Co. Ltd., Nexcelom Bioscience LLC, Nexcelom Bioscience Ltd., NovaScreen Biosciences Corporation, OZ Systems International SARL, OZ Systems USA LLC, Omni International Inc., Optimization Zorn Corporation, Opto Technology, Orchid Biomedical Systems Pvt Ltd., Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories UK Limited, Oxford Immunotec, Oxford Immunotec Asia Ltd, Oxford Immunotec Global Limited, Oxford Immunotec Ireland Limited, Oxford Immunotec KK, Oxford Immunotec Limited, Oxford Immunotec Shanghai Medical Device Co. Ltd., Oxford Immunotec USA Inc., Pediatrix Medical Group - Newborn Metabolic Screening Business, Perkin Elmer Chile Ltda., Perkin Elmer Instruments Philippines Corporation, Perkin Elmer Italia SpA, Perkin Elmer Sdn. Bhd., Perkin Elmer Yuhan Hoesa, Perkin-Elmer Argentina S.R.L., Perkin-Elmer de Mexico S.A., PerkinElmer Argentina Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Automotive Research Inc., PerkinElmer BV, PerkinElmer CV Holdings LLC, PerkinElmer Cellular Technologies Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer Danmark A/S, PerkinElmer Diagnostics Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Diagnostics Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Espana S.L., PerkinElmer Finance Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Finland Oy, PerkinElmer Genetics Inc., PerkinElmer Genomics Sweden AB, PerkinElmer Germany Diagnostics GmbH, PerkinElmer Global Diagnostics S.C.A., PerkinElmer Global Financing S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Global Holdings S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Health Sciences B.V., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Canada Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences FZ-LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Inc., PerkinElmer Health Sciences Puerto Rico LLC, PerkinElmer Health Sciences Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Healthcare Diagnostics Shanghai Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Holding Luxembourg S.a r.l., PerkinElmer Holdings Inc., PerkinElmer Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Hong Kong Ltd., PerkinElmer IVD Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer Inc., PerkinElmer India Pvt Ltd., PerkinElmer Informatics Inc., PerkinElmer Instruments Suzhou Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer International C.V., PerkinElmer Investments Ky, PerkinElmer Ireland Ltd., PerkinElmer Israel Ltd., PerkinElmer Japan Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer LAS Germany GmbH, PerkinElmer LAS UK Ltd., PerkinElmer Life Sciences International Holdings, PerkinElmer Life Sciences Singapore Pte. Ltd., PerkinElmer Limited, PerkinElmer Ltd., PerkinElmer Management Chengdu Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Management Shanghai Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Nederland B.V. , PerkinElmer Norge AS, PerkinElmer Oy, PerkinElmer Polska Sp. z o.o., PerkinElmer Pty. Ltd., PerkinElmer SAS, PerkinElmer Saglk ve Cevre Bilimleri Ltd., PerkinElmer Schweiz AG, PerkinElmer Shanghai Equity Investment Fund L.P., PerkinElmer Shanghai Equity Investment Fund Management Co. Ltd., PerkinElmer Shared Services Sp. z o.o., PerkinElmer Singapore Pte Ltd., PerkinElmer South Africa Pty Ltd., PerkinElmer Sverige AB, PerkinElmer Taiwan Corporation, PerkinElmer UK Holdings Ltd., PerkinElmer VertriebsgmbH, PerkinElmer chemagen Technologie GmbH, PerkinElmer do Brasil Ltda., Perten Instruments, Perten Instruments AB, Perten Instruments GmbH, Perten Instruments of Australia Pty Ltd., Qognit Inc., RHS Ltd, RayAl Ltd., SIRION Biotech, SIRION Biotech GmbH, SIRION Biotech International Inc., Sage Labs LLC, Shandong Meizheng Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Haoyuan Biotech Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Shanghai Spectrum Instruments Co. Ltd., Signature Genomic Laboratories, Singapore Biosciences Pte Ltd., Solus Scientific Solutions Ltd., SonoVol Inc., Suomen Bioanalytiikka Oy, Surendra Genetic Labs, Suzhou PerkinElmer Medical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Suzhou Sym-Bio LifeScience, Suzhou Sym-Bio Lifescience Co. Ltd., Synthetx Limited, Tulip Diagnostics, Tulip Diagnostics Pvt Ltd., Vanadis Diagnostics, Vanadis Diagnostics AB, ViaCell, ViaCord LLC, VisEn Medical, VisEn Medical Inc., Wallac Oy, Wellesley B.V., Xenogen Corporation, ZeLab SAS, and chemagen Biopolymer-Technologie AG.
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Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. operates as a seaborne shipping and logistics company in North America, Australia, Europe, Asia, South America, and internationally. It focuses on the transportation and transshipment of dry bulk commodities, including iron ores, coal, and grains. The company operates in two segments, Dry Bulk Vessel Operations and Logistics Business. The Dry Bulk Vessel Operations segment engages in the transportation and handling of bulk cargoes through the ownership, operation, and trading of vessels and freight. This segment charters its vessels to trading houses, producers, and government-owned entities. The Logistics Business segment operates ports and transfer station terminals, as well as upriver transport facilities in the Hidrovia region; and handles vessels, barges, push boats, and cabotage business. This segment provides its integrated transportation, storage, and related services through its port facilities, cargo barges, and product tankers to mineral and grain commodity providers, as well as to users of refined petroleum products. As of December 31, 2021, the company's fleet consisted of 36 vessels totaling 3.9 million deadweight tons. Navios Maritime Holdings Inc. was incorporated in 1954 and is headquartered in Grand Cayman, the Cayman Islands.
Akhanda Party merges with NC
The Akhanda Party-Nepal has merged with the Nepali Congress on Sunday amid a function at Baluwatara.
PulteGroup, Inc., through its subsidiaries, primarily engages in the homebuilding business in the United States. It acquires and develops land primarily for residential purposes; and constructs housing on such land. The company also offers various home designs, including single-family detached, townhomes, condominiums, and duplexes under the Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes, American West, and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods brand names. As of December 31, 2021, it controlled 228,296 lots, of which 109,078 were owned and 119,218 were under land option agreements. In addition, the company arranges financing through the origination of mortgage loans primarily for homebuyers; sells the servicing rights for the originated loans; and provides title insurance policies, and examination and closing services to homebuyers. PulteGroup, Inc. was formerly known as Pulte Homes, Inc. and changed its name to PulteGroup, Inc. in March 2010. The company was founded in 1950 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bad roads prove bonanza for airlines, traffic up 46pc
The countrys highways which seem to be in perpetual disrepair have proved to be a bonanza for domestic airlines which saw a sharp growth in passenger traffic in the first seven months of 2017 as more travellers are choosing to fly rather than make a bone-jarring overland trip.
Beyond the handshake
Leader of a rising world power, Xi would want to leave global footprint, but can Nepal grab the opportunity?
Bhatta, Gurung file nominations for NRNA top post
Incumbent Vice President of Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) Bhawan Bhatta and Jamuna Gurung, wife of Sesh Ghale, the current President of Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA), have filed their nominations for the post of NRNA president.
Bhattarai counts on NC in Gorkha bid
After his former party CPN (Maoist Centre) denied him support, Naya Shakti Party, Nepal coordinator Baburam Bhattarai has approached the Nepali Congress to seek help in his candidacy from Gorkha-2 in the upcoming federal parliamentary elections.
Mobile services are widely available in Iran, with services on offer from three major mobile network operators - MCI, MTN Irancell and Rightel - which are able to offer services on a national basis.
In March 2017 competition in the mobile sector was set to increase further with the country's largest ISP, Shatel Group, reportedly given permission to begin offering full MVNO services in Iran. It would operate under the brand name Shatel Mobile. HiWeb, which signed a partnership deal with Vodafone Group in October 2016, was also awarded a licence from the CRA to offer SIM cards under a local brand name.
Mobile data services are available but account for a small proportion of total revenue. This is expected to increase over time as mobile data services increasingly underpin future revenue growth, made possible by the launch of 3G/HSPA and 4G LTE services. Recently WiMAX services in Iran were replaced with TDD-LTE services by two operators, Irancell and ISP MobinNet.
Iran is currently implementing its 6th Development Plan which runs between 2016 and 2021, and contains a number of measures to transform the telecoms sector. For example, the development plan aims to increase Internet bandwidth; encourage foreign and private investment in the telecoms sector as well as make structural changes to the telecoms incumbent, Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI).
Internet usage is growing due to improved accessibility brought about by competition and government initiatives designed to improve ICT accessibility. Iran has been developing its own National intranet that will host only approved Islamic content. Known as the National Information Network (NIN); it went live e in August 2016 and will offer speeds of up to 10 Tb/s as part of an upgrade underway in 2017. The NIN is designed to complement the Internet and operates on Iran's fibre network.
The lifting of economic sanctions in early 2016 was expected to facilitate a big boost to Iran's economy. However, in 2017 it became apparent that the economic transformation of Iran is occurring at a slower pace than expected, with industry analysts commenting that Iran needs to reduce its reliance on oil and strengthen other industry sectors.
Irelands southern coast has been hit by a major storm caused by Hurricane Ophelia , leaving three people dead and hundreds of thousands of homes without power.
Schools, universities and many workplaces were closed on Monday in expectation of the arrival of the storm, as prime minister Leo Varadkar referred to it as a national emergency.
Ophelia is forecast to make its way further up the western coast of Ireland to affect Northern Ireland, and will eventually hit Scotland at some point on Tuesday.
Of the three dead by mid-afternoon on Monday, one woman was killed in county Waterford after a tree fell on her car during the storm, while a man in Tipperary was also killed while attempting to move another tree which had fallen.
Varadkar has deployed more than 1,000 members of the Irish army in order to deal with any of the effects of the storm.
The worst of the winds will quickly extend to the rest of the country this afternoon" Leo Varadkar
Irish weather service Met Eireann said the strongest winds caused by the hurricane would extend to several other parts of the country later on Monday.
The worst of the winds will quickly extend to the rest of the country this afternoon. Spells of heavy rain and thunderstorms in places also and storm surges along some coasts, leading to flooding.
Public transport in the country has seen major disruptions, with the majority of train and bus services being cancelled on the day as a red alert was called.
As of last night a status red alert has been made to all counties, all cities, all areas, Varadkar said.
Staff are ready to come in from Northern Ireland and Britain to assist in the coming days in restoring power. We can only restore the power lines when it is safe to do so, he added.
South African's FirstRand bank said on Monday it would be prepared to mount a hostile bid for smaller UK peer Aldermore if the challenger bank's board do not approve the deal.
Aldermore revealed on Friday it had received a conditional approach at a price of 313p per share, valuing the FTSE 250-listed bank at around 1bn.
FirstRand, which is valued at around 17bn, has a UK presence through its Cardiff-based subsidiary MotoNovo, a motor and asset finance lender with an asset finance book of circa 3bn.
On Monday, even though Aldermore said it was "likely to recommend a firm offer", FirstRand said it could waive the requirement for full board support.
Some analysts suggested there was the potential for a bidding war, with Peel Hunt saying the level of the indicative offer could tempt rivals to make a higher bid.
Analyst Ian Gordon at Anglo-South African bank Investec said Aldermore's shares "have been grotesquely undervalued for the past year" and that he regarded the 313p indicative was "reasonable, certainly not over-generous" and "most certainly falls short of our view of the value that an independent, low-risk, Aldermore should generate over the medium-term".
From a FirstRand perspective, he said the attraction was acquiring an "attractive, low-risk business at an undemanding valuation", MotoNovo should offer some synergies with Aldermore's vehicle finance, plus Aldermore's "material excess liquidity".
Shares in fellow challenger banks OneSavings and Virgin Money were boosted on Friday and Monday, with Gordon saying both rivals were also "mispriced".
Stocks on the Continent have started the morning mostly slightly higher as traders digest the implications of a raft of political events over the weekend and on Monday.
On Sunday, Austria's conservative centre-right OVP won the country's legislative elections, taking 31.4% of the vote, but the far-right FPO also made off with 27.4%, which according to analysts meant that it may to re-enter the government, for the first time since 1999.
In parallel, Germamny's own centre-right CDU lost in regional elections in Lower Saxon, winning 33.7% of the ballots versus 37.1% for the Socliast SPD.
Against that backdrop, as of 1030 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was higher by 0.12% or 0.46 points to 391.88, alongside a gain of 0.17% or 21.54 points to 12,013.29 while the Dax was up by 0.17% or 22.00 points to 12,013.40.
Meanwhile, in Spain, on Monday morning Catalan president Carles Puigdemont rebuffed Madrid's calls for him to clarify whether he declared independence the week before, calling instead for two months of dialogue between international, Spanish and Catalan organisations and personalities.
Puigdemont also made two petitions, one of them being that the central government not bring charges against the two nationalist leaders and the head of the regional police force who were due to testify in a court in Madrid on Monday morning. He also called for a meeting with Madrid to explore possible solutions.
In response, Madrid said it would activite the second and last deadline set for Thursday at 1000 BST, which would trigger Article 155 of its Constitution.
That saw Spain's Ibex 35 drop 0.65% or 67.00 points to 10,191.00, with Siemens Gamesa, Caixabank and Banco Sabadell trading at the bottom of the pile.
However, the central government was at pains to underscore that the aim was not to suspend Catalonia's regional autonomy, but rather for its elected officials to return to the legal framework.
Shares of wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa were sharply lower after the company cut its guidance for full-year operating profits to about 790m versus a previous estimate of 900m.
In other corproate news, people close to the matter told Reuters Italy's Atlantia was willing to raise its takeover bid for Spanish rival Abertis to roughly 17.8bn if necessary.
The economic calendar was sparse on Monday, with only euro area international trade data for August set for release, at 1000 BST.
Later in the day, at 1330 BST, the Federal Reserve bank of New York would release its Empire State manufacturing index for the month of October.
Cabinet expansion hasn't violated election code: CEC Yadav
Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhi Prasad Yadav has directed the Chief District Officers (CDOs) to strictly monitor the violation of election code of conduct by government ministers.
London stocks were set for a positive open on Monday as investors eye European politics and UK Prime Minister Theresa Mays trip to Brussels to meet with European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Juncker and EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.
The FTSE 100 was expected to open 19 points higher at 7,554.
Politics were likely to be in focus as Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has until 0900 BST to say whether he will be calling for independence in the Catalonia region.
Market participants were also likely to be digesting the latest news from Austria, where the conservative Austrian People's Partys Sebastian Kurzs looked set to become Europes youngest leader.
In addition, Mays meeting with Juncker and Barnier will be closely watched after the latter said last week that Brexit negotiations had reached deadlock.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: The performance of the pound last week suggests that markets think this is the latest in a bout of political posturing, with traders more interested in this weeks UK economic data, and central bank testimony from Carney, Tenreyro and Ramsden. Ultimately we could well get some movement on the subject of trade talks over the course of the next few days.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the subject of trade and money are inextricably interlinked, particularly where the Irish border is concerned and the refusal of the EU to engage on this is causing some concern, particularly in Ireland.
There are no major UK data releases due.
In corporate news, ConvaTec Group warned that profits for the full year will be lower than it had previously guided and that growth targets in 2018 may need to be adjusted.
Although revenues in the third quarter grew 6.7% to $445.5m, the FTSE 100 company said it now anticipated full year organic revenue growth of 1-2% after performance was severely affected by supply issues in both advanced wound care and ostomy care and a lower than anticipated revenue contribution from new products, which also damaged it profits margins.
Ultra Electronics Cheltenham-based Precision Control Systems business has received contracts valued $16m from Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
PCS will supply additional tranches of its world-leading high pressure pure air generators stores ejection systems for front line US and international strike aircraft. The company said no further information can be provided in relation to this award due to security consideration.
Financial technology company NEX Group announced on Monday that - having put into motion the significant restructure of the companys post trade division 'NEX Optimisation' - Jenny Knott has decided to step down as the division's CEO.
The firm said Ken Pigaga, global chief operating officer of NEX has been appointed CEO of NEX Optimisation effective immediately. Knott will remain with the company for a period to ensure an orderly handover.
ConvaTec Group warned that revenues and profits for the full year will be lower than it had previously guided and that growth targets in 2018 may need to be adjusted.
Although revenues in the third quarter grew 6.7% to $445.5m, which equates to 5.1% at constance exchange rates and 3.3% on an organic basis, the FTSE 100 company said it now anticipated full year organic revenue growth of 1-2% after performance was severely affected by supply issues in both advanced wound care and ostomy care and a lower than anticipated revenue contribution from new products, which also damaged it profits margins.
Guidance had been for an organic revenue growth rate greater than the 2016 rate on a constant currency basis, with group revenues last year growing 2.3% on a reported basis or 4% at constant exchange rates, while the consensus City forecast had been looking for 3.4% organic growth.
Not far from its calendar year end, ConvaTec said in order to achieve the top of the targeted 1-2% growth range depended on "the degree of success in resolving remaining supply issues, fulfilment of backorders and recovery of orders in both advanced wound care and ostomy care in the last three months".
Wound care and ostomy have been hit by delays in moving manufacturing lines from Greensboro in the USA to Haina in the Dominican Republic, the cost of which is also expected to not only erase the gains from management's margin-improvement plan in the first half of this year, but also the majority of the gains made from the plan the previous year.
Some client orders were lost in both wound care and ostomy as supply issues in Haina continue to drag on the existing manufacturing operations there, with less progress than anticipated made in reducing backorders but expectations that these supply issues will be resolved by the end of the year - though ostomy production are likely to run below full volume in the first half of 2018.
Despite the decline in revenue expectations, the group is working towards adjusted operating costs of around 35% of full year revenue, compared to 37% in the first half.
"I am disappointed that our performance in the third quarter was severely affected by supply issues in both Advanced Wound and Ostomy Care and a lower than anticipated revenue contribution from new products, leading to a reduction in our full year organic revenue growth expectations," said chief executive Paul Moraviec.
He added: "Despite these setbacks, the business remains well positioned in large, structurally growing chronic care markets, with strong brands, differentiated products and a strong and innovative R&D pipeline. We understand the operational issues we need to address, and are determined to drive performance and to deliver margin improvement in the future.
"However, given what we have experienced in the third quarter, we are reviewing the financial implications for growth and margins in FY2018 and will provide further guidance at our preliminary results in early 2018."
Convatec shares fell more than 21% on Monday morning to below the 225p flotation issue price in October 2016.
Broker Numis, which had been forecasting 2.6% organic and 3.5% full year growth when adjusted for the discontinued products, estimated up to 8% downgrade to consensus EPS expectations from the current 17.6 cents at the top end of the new revenue guidance.
"Our provisional forecast changes now infer 16.4 cents of adjusted EPS, which implies a 7% downgrade. With growth expectations clearly unravelling and the shares now trading on 18.5x FY17 EV/EBITDA, we continue to see significant downside for the shares," said analyst Paul Cuddon, reducing his target price to 220p to reflect the lower growth trajectory and downgrading to 'sell' from 'reduce'.
PCS will supply additional tranches of its world-leading high pressure pure air generators stores ejection systems for front line US and international strike aircraft. The company said no further information can be provided in relation to this award due to security considerations.
Chief executive Rakesh Sharma said: "We are pleased to have extended our contracts with both prestigious Prime contractors. Our continued support of the US and international warfighters in their daily missions underscores the value of Ultra Electronics solutions which are fully accredited and proven effective."
Global banks and international bond strategists have been left stunned by revised ONS figures showing that Britain is 490bn poorer than had been assumed and no longer has any reserve of net foreign assets, depriving the country of its safety margin as Brexit talks reach a crucial juncture. A massive write-down in the UK balance of payments data shows that Britains stock of wealth the net international investment position has collapsed from a surplus of 469bn to a net deficit of 22bn. This transforms the outlook for sterling and the gilts markets. - Telegraph
Theresa May and David Davis will make a surprise visit to Brussels for a private dinner with the EU commission chief, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the EUs top Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, in a diplomacy blitz before a crucial summit this week. May and Davis will visit Juncker and Barnier in the Belgian capital on Monday evening, where they are expected to make the case for EU leaders to agree to move on negotiations, to pave the way for discussions of Britains future relationship with the EU. - Guardian
Philip Hammond is planning a Budget raid on older workers to pay for tax breaks for younger people as he battles to save his job. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is understood to be examining ways to link tax to age to promote intergenerational fairness in next months Budget. Tax breaks would be offered to workers in their 20s and 30s, paid for by cutting reliefs for older and better off workers. - Telegraph
Philip Hammond is pushing for an international trade agreement in services to rehabilitate globalisation in the West to counter recent populist surges in Europe and America. The chancellor used his platform at the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington to urge countries to redouble their efforts to build a global framework in services, such as banking, healthcare and transport, that would match the long-established arrangement for goods. - The Times
Confidence among chief financial officers has rebounded from a low point after the election, but Brexit is still expected to hit investment and hiring. The latest quarterly survey of finance officers, undertaken by Deloitte, has found that just under two thirds expect leaving the European Union to harm the business environment, down from nearly three quarters.
A Norwegian entrepreneur and investor who is seeking to oust the chairwoman at Johnston Press has set his sights on a wider shake-up the British media scene, with ambitions to buy the Metro newspaper and the Evening Standard. Christen Ager-Hanssen, owner of the Swedish Metro newspaper, is set to go head to head with Camilla Rhodes at an extraordinary meeting to determine the future of one of Britains oldest newspaper groups. -The Times
One of the UKs biggest energy companies is allowing its customers to fall as much as 1,600 into debt on their energy bills before intervening to help them repay it. The energy regulator, Ofgem, said the big-six firm npower, along with the smaller suppliers Utility Warehouse, Ecotricity, iSupplyEnergy, and First Utility, let customers accrue an average of 800 of debt for electricity before acting. In some extreme cases, debts rose to more than 1,000. - Guardian
Profits fell at half of Britains law firms last year as pay rises and hiring sprees at the larger players took their toll. Research being published today reveals that firms were hit by falling profit margins, with about 70 per cent of legal practices registering relatively small fee income growth over the past year. - The Times
Tesla Motors fired hundreds of workers after completing its annual performance reviews this week, even though the electric automaker is trying to ramp up production to meet the demand for its new Model 3 sedan. The Palo Alto-based company confirmed the cuts in a statement on Saturday but did not disclose how many of its 33,000 workers were jettisoned. - Guardian
The people of Canvey Island in Essex are planning a Catalan-style revolt to break away from mainland Britain. The island, which covers seven square miles and has a population of almost 40,000, is governed by the Conservative-run Castle Point council. However, 14 of the islands own 17 councillors are members of the Canvey Island Independent Party (CIIP). - The Times
Congress, NLF to seal unification deal today
The much-awaited unification between the Nepali Congress and the Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar-led Nepal Loktantrik Forum will take place on Monday.
Russian hackers exploited a vulnerability in Kaspersky Labs software to steal sensitive cyberdefense data from a United States National Security Agency contractor, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The incident, which occurred in 2015, involved a contractor who loaded classified information onto his personal computer in order to work at home. The information included hacking tools and other sensitive data that the NSA used to gather intelligence overseas.
The contractor worked in the NSAs Tailored Access Operations unit, an elite hacking division in the agency. There is no evidence the contractor planned to release the information to any foreign governments or spies, according to Journal report.
Its Complicated
Although he would not comment on the specific personnel issues involved, an NSA spokesman who asked not to be identified told TechNewsWorld that the agency took a layered approach to security.
The NSA is part of the Department of Defense, which has a longstanding public contract with security software developer Mcafee, the spokesman noted.
During the tenure of Director Michael Rogers, the U.S. Navy admiral who leads the NSA, IT security has been considered a top priority at the agency, he said, adding that its staff works in one of the most complicated IT environments in the world.
Asked about the protocols that govern work with contractors, the spokesman told TechNewsWorld that when they work within the agency, they work on our systems.
The Department of Homeland Security last month announced it would phase out the use of Kaspersky Lab software, he noted.
Further, during a Senate Intelligence Committee this spring, the spokesman said, Sen. Marco Rubio asked several U.S. intelligence chiefs whether they would use Kaspersky software on their computers, and Rogers, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, CIA Director Mike Pompeo and others said they would not.
Kaspersky Wants to Cooperate
Kaspersky Lab on Thursday issued a statement in response to The Wall Street Journal article, denying any inappropriate links to the Russian government, and maintaining that the publication had failed to hand over any evidence to substantiate what Kaspersky called unproven claims.
However, as the trustworthiness and integrity of our products are fundamental to our business, we are seriously concerned about the articles implications that attackers may have exploited our software, the company said. We reiterate our willingness to work alongside U.S. authorities to address any concerns they may have about our products and respectfully request any relevant information that would enable the company to begin an investigation at the earliest opportunity.
The incident is far from the first time that questions have been raised about Kaspersky Lab software, which some cybersecurity experts have suspected of Russian intelligence links for years.
In last months order directing all federal executive branch departments and agencies to discontinue using Kaspersky Lab software, Acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke noted that Kaspersky antivirus products provided broad access to files and elevated privileges on computers where the software was installed.
The Department is concerned about the ties between certain Kaspersky officials and Russian intelligence and other government agencies, and requirements under Russian law that allow Russian intelligence agencies to request or compel assistance from Kaspersky and to intercept communications transiting Russian networks, she said.
The DHS said it would give Kaspersky an opportunity to respond in writing to the order, to address or mitigate the agencys concerns.
Banned at Best Buy
This development should serve as a stark warning not just to the federal government, but to states, local governments and the American public, of the serious dangers of using Kaspersky software, said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. The strong ties between Kaspersky Lab and the Kremlin are extremely alarming and have been well documented for some time.
It is astounding and deeply disturbing that the Russian government continues to have this tool at their disposal to harm the U.S., she added, and it is unfortunate that there hasnt been a more expedited and coordinated effort at the federal level to remove this glaring national security vulnerability.
Best Buy confirmed that it no longer sells Kaspersky software but declined to comment on any specifics, saying it does not comment on vendor contracts.
The company pointed to a previous report in the Minneapolis StarTribune, which said that while Best Buy did not conduct its own internal investigation of the software, it made the decision after government officials took several steps to curtail the use of Kaspersky and raised additional lquestions about whether the software could be exploited.
So Incredibly Sloppy
Governments in general are in trouble, due to the existence of an advanced persistent threat (APT) of cyberspies who basically have nothing else to do but figure out ways of penetrating security systems, observed Kenneth Geers, senior research scientist at Comodo.
Theyve got nothing but time to figure out the people and devices for any target, he told TechNewsWorld.
Geers was a bit harsher regarding the circumstances of the alleged attack on the contractor, as the Tailored Access Operations has an almost fabled or mythic existence within the world of espionage, he said.
It seems so incredibly sloppy, Geers remarked. Youd think a place like the TAO would have a high enough bar.
Regarding Kasperskys involvement, its possible that the company has been victimized by players and events beyond its ability to handle, Geers said, noting that many such firms have spies embedded within them. Theres every chance that Kaspersky didnt fully understand what was going on.
LONDON The UK platform of Clean Clothes Campaign, Labour Behind the Label (LBL) has welcomed the recent agreement between fashion brand Asos and trade union federation IndustriALL. LBL says global framework agreements (GFAs) such as this can act as a tool to aid companies in the implementation of their human rights obligations.
By John R. Platt
Its Friday evening in Pittsburgh, and the mosquitoes are out in force. One bites at my arm and I try to slap it away. Another takes the opportunity to land on my neck. I manage to shoo this one off before it tastes blood.
Im at Carrie Furnaces, a massive historic ironworks on the banks of Pennsylvanias Monongahela River. Stories-tall rusting structures loom all around me, as do the occasional trees poking their way out of the ground. A tour guide, leading a group from the Society of Environmental Journalists conference, tells me the soil here is full of heavy metals and other pollutants from the factory, which operated for nearly a century before closing in 1982.
Plants and trees have started to recolonize the area, but cleaning up the soil itself remains an unlikely task that could cost millions and millions of dollarsif its even feasible. Another nearby site, he tells me, was so polluted that it couldnt be reclaimed and had to be paved over.
For a moment, as I walk the grounds around Carrie Furnaces, I wonder about the toxic substances biding their time beneath my feet. Quickly, though, I become more concerned about whats in the airor whats missing from it. As another bug lands on my hand, I cant help but think wed be experiencing fewer mosquito bites if Pennsylvanias bat populations had not been devastated over the past 10 years.
Its a day earlier, and the sun is still young in the morning sky. A group of journalists from the conference has piled onto a bus on our way to Laurel Caverns, the biggest cave system in Pennsylvania. With us are representatives of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), there to tell us about a fungus called Pseudogymnoascus destructans, best known by the name of the often-fatal disease it causes in bats, white-nose syndrome (WNS).
Since the pathogen first turned up in 2006, millions of bats have fallen victim to its deadly embrace. It often collects around their snouts, which is where the disease got its name, but thats not where the worst damage occurs. It erodes right through their wing membranes, Robyn Niver, endangered species biologist with the USFWS, told us during the two-hour bus ride from downtown Pittsburgh. Flight is extremely important for bats, and the fungus affects their basic ability to move around and forage for themselves.
The easily transmissible fungus also does something to bats metabolism, causing the animals to wake up during hibernation more than twice as often as they normally would. This increase in winter activity burns up the bats winter reserves of fat, water and electrolytes, leaving the animals hungry, thirsty and confused. If they go out to forage in the winter, theres nothing available to them, Niver said. Theyll go out on the landscape and just die. Sometimes youll see piles of dead bats. Other times theyre just gone. Caves that once held tens of thousands of bats now, more often than not, now lie nearly empty.
Bat skulls and bones on the floor of Aeolus Cave, a white-nose syndrome site in Vermont. Ann Froschauer / USFWS
Thats the case in Laurel Canyons. Before the disease turned up, the caves were the winter home of a relatively small population of hibernating bats, about 2,500 animals from four species. Last year, Canyons representative Laura Hall later told us, they counted just 12 bats.
We knew going into Laurel Canyons for our two-hour underground tour that we werent likely to see any of the flying mammals. For one thing, it was still a few weeks before hibernation season. For another, the guides wouldnt have taken us into the bats hibernacula. But still, knowing what we knew, the caves we explored felt eerily silent and empty.
Other Pennsylvania caves must seem even worse. Greg Turner, a mammologist and WNS researcher with the states Bureau of Wildlife Management, shared information on bat declines throughout the state. One mine, he told us, had more than 30,000 bats in 2007. White-nose syndrome arrived just three years later. By 2013 only 155 bats remained. In cave after cave, that pattern has repeated itself.
And Pennsylvania is not alone. White-nose can now be found in 31 states and 5 Canadian provinces and has affected nine bat species, including the endangered gray bat (Myotis grisescens) and Indiana bat (M. sodalis). Some populations have fallen 99 percent or more, meaning other species could soon become officially endangered.
When the fungus first turned upprobably accidentally carried by humans from Europe, where it has no effect on the continents bats, to a cave in Albany, New Yorkno one expected it to be as bad as it has become. We all just thought, maybe it will only be in one site and it wont be a big deal, Niver said. Then the next year happened. 2008 was a terrible year. We had mass mortality in Vermont. Some estimates suggest half a million bats died that winter.
After that the disease just took off, she said. We were hopeful it wasnt going to be much of anything, but every winter just was devastatingly proving us wrong. It was terrible.
Biologists around the northeast scrambled to figure out what was happening. There were just these bats dying and there was nothing we could do, Niver said. We didnt know what was killing them. We would have these weekly phone calls just trying to figure out who found it where and on which species. We went through all the steps of grief.
Fortunately, there was already a model for figuring out these types of pathogens: the working groups for bee colony collapse disorder. Biologists quickly organized, developed their own working group, identified the fungus and developed protocols to help slow its spread.
Those protocols for human activity, however, can only do so much when all it takes is the beat of a bats wings to spread tiny but deadly fungal spores to all of its neighbors. And protocols cant stop bats from migrating, which has taken the fungus from coast to coast in just over a decade. As that happened, the death toll has climbed. Biologists estimate that at least five to six million batsprobably morehave died since 2007.
What is the impact of these mass bat fatalities? Its too early to know. I feel like were just in this huge environmental experiment, Niver told me. Scientists never had very good information on insect populations, so we dont know how exactly theyre changing as the bats disappear. She suggests its time to start keeping an eye on things like gypsy moth or tent caterpillar outbreaks, which could become a problem without bats to control the insects populations. Other pest insects could also be a problem; a 2011 study estimated that bats provide an estimated $22.9 billion a year in economic services by eating insects that could damage crops.
Then theres the impact on the bats themselves. Some species could become endangered, if theyre not already.
Meanwhile, other bats are actually changing in the face of the disease. Turner told us that some bats have started to hibernate at colder temperatures where they could be safer from the fungus, while Niver said some species have potentially started to expand their territories into habitats previously inhabited by one of the species hardest hit by the disease, the little brown bat (M. lucifugus).
The bats may also be starting to change physically or behaviorally. Turner shared data, still pending publication, which suggests that some bats that survive the initial infection in one year appear to be packing on additional weight to help them persist through their next hibernations.
Despite these minor adaptations in some populations, the future for bats in this country is precarious. Over the past year the fungus has spread to Texas and Washington state; Niver said biologists in the East are warning their colleagues in the West what to expect. The message isnt an easy one: Dont count on anything being different enough for your bats to survive, she warns.
Survival of any bats, now, is the key. Turner told us their best hope is not that the declines will stop, only that theyll level off. Stabilization, he said, thats what were hoping for.
Journalists descend into Laurel Cavern. John R. Platt
As we come to the close of our underground tour, our guidea former steelworker named Justinbrings us into a large cavern where theres room for us to sit or lean against the rock walls. This, he tell us, is our opportunity to experience total darkness. One by one, we switch off our flashlights and headlamps. The room grows darker and darker until all light disappears. Our eyes struggle to adjust, but theres nothing they can do except send false signals to our brain.
Then Justin tells us to enjoy a moment of silence. The journalists stop talking, and for a few minutes all we can hear is the soft rustle of wind through the caverns around us.
Its peaceful, but it would have been more comforting to hear the flap of a bats wings in the darkness.
Reposted with permission from our media associate The Revelator.
Dahal appointed NAs spokesperson
Brigadier General Nainraj Dahal has been appointed as the spokesperson of Nepal Army on Monday.
With aid from easing winds, the 11,000 firefighters beating back the Northern
California wildfires are making good progress, as the number of major blazes dropped to 15, the states fire agency Cal Fire announced Sunday.
But as Cal Fire noted Sadly, the death toll has risen to 40 people.
An estimated 217,566 acres have burned and 5,700 structures have been destroyed. Nearly 75,000 people remain evacuated.
The wine country blazes are officially the deadliest in state history.
This is truly one of the greatest, if not the greatest tragedy that California has ever faced, California Gov.
Jerry Brown said Saturday. The devastation is just unbelievable, its a horror that no one could have imagined.
President Trump approved a federal disaster declaration last week after Gov. Browns request for federal assistance.
The infernos continue to burn, but we will continue to aggressively attack and keep (the fire) contained, Napa County Fire Chief Barry Biermann said during a Sunday press conference.
We are making a tremendous progress out there, he noted.
Things feel good in our gut as firefighters, said Bret Gouvea, deputy chief of Cal Fire, adding that authorities remain cautious.
The wine country fires started Sunday and rapidly spread throughout the week due to the areas low humidity and Diablo winds, with gusts up to 70 miles per hour. Scientists have suggested climate change might play a role.
Cal Fire said Sunday winds across Northern California have been fairly light in morning and the earlier Red Flag Warnings for the area will be lifted at 8 a.m. Many evacuation orders have also been lifted.
Red Flag Warnings are the highest alert issued by the National Weather Service, in which conditions are ideal for wildland fire combustion and rapid spread.
However, Red Flag Warnings remain in effect in Southern California due to gusty winds throughout the day, low humidity and high fire danger.
Californias fires have released enough air pollution to equal a years worth of traffic, Sean Raffuse, an air-quality analyst at the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory at University of California in Davis, said. Raffuse estimates the fires have produced about 10,000 tons of fine particulate matter, about the same amount generated by the states 35 million vehicles.
We are reporting the worst air quality ever recorded for smoke in many parts of the Bay Area, Tom Flannigan, a spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District,
told the East Bay Times. This is similar to what you see in Beijing, China in bad air days there.
The ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee called for an investigation into the availability of potable water in Puerto Rico following reports Friday that residents are scrounging for water from hazardous waste sites.
After the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed residents were trying to access water from three Superfund sites, and following a CNN story Friday featuring Puerto Ricans taking water from a fourth site, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) wrote a letter to acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke asking if she knew about the situation and calling the reports beyond disturbing.
Food, water, electricity and medical care is still scarce three weeks after Hurricane Maria blew through the island, and more than one-third of residents do not have a safe, available source of drinking water. While 85 percent of the island still remains without electricity, Governor Ricardo Rossello said Sunday he hopes that power will be almost totally restored by mid-December.
As reported by The Verge:
The Environmental Protection Agency received reports that people were trying to access water at toxic Superfund sites, according to a news release issued on Wednesday. These sites are at Caguas, San German, and Dorado, an agency spokesperson clarified in an email. The EPA advised people against tampering with or drinking from sealed and locked wells. But without access to safe water, people are forced to make the terrible choice of drinking from a risky source, or nothing at all.
The agency investigated the three sites that were reported, plus two additional ones in Cabo Rojo and Maunabo, an EPA spokesperson said. Although theyre scattered across the island, all are groundwater sources contaminated with industrial solvents used for metal degreasing and dry cleaning. Exposure to these solvents can have dangerous health effects, such as harming the liver and increasing cancer risk. But, dehydration is dangerous too.
For a deeper dive:
DHS letter: CNN, The Hill. Water scarcity: CNN, NPR. EPA: The Verge. Aid efforts: LA Times, InsideClimate News. Electricity: CNN, New York Daily News. Commentary: Washington Post, Jennifer Sciubba and Jeremy Youde analysis
For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for daily Hot News.
Wild tigers may be on their way back to Kazakhstan.
This news is surprising for a few reasons. First, most people associate tigers with the jungles of India or Sumatra, even the snowy slopes of eastern Russianot the dry landscapes of Central Asia. But Iran, Turkey and Kazakhstan were once home to thriving populations of Caspian tigers. Unfortunately, sometime between the 1940s and 70s, this subspecies went extinct due to widespread trapping, hunting, poisoning and habitat degradation.
Second, Kazakhstan isnt a nation that often comes up in conversations about conservation. In fact, if Americans recognize the worlds largest landlocked nation for anything, its probably the movie Borat.
And finally, this initiative may turn some heads because its never been done before. Tiger-conservation efforts usually focus on areas where tigers still exist. After all, tweaking local conditions to coax a few dozen animals into becoming a few hundred is easier thanpoof!introducing a new population from scratch and having them thrive. Plus, because extinction is forever, Russias Amur tigers, commonly known as Siberian tigersthe closest biological match to Caspianswill likely stand in for their lost cousins.
So why Kazakhstan, and why now? According to Igor Chestin, CEO of WWF-Russia, when he and his team examined satellite imagery of the Caspian tigers former rangewhich once stretched from the Black Sea all the way to Chinathe Ili-Balkhash region of southeastern Kazakhstan stood out for being both large and undeveloped enough to sustain these charismatic carnivores. Last month, WWF and Kazakhstan announced that they are officially taking steps to move the tiger reintroduction plan from concept to reality. But Chestin makes no bones about having a great deal of work to do.
Back in the old days, the tigers of the Ili-Balkhash made their living in the forests and reed thickets that line the waterways emptying into Lake Balkhash, the 15th-largest lake in the world. The cats feasted on wild boar, Bukhara deer and kulans (a species of wild donkey) until decades of poaching and habitat destruction made these prey animals scarce. So before the tigers return, conservationists must first bring back the species that will feed them.
Chestin and his team are already making arrangements to introduce Bukhara deer from a nearby game preserve and donkeys from a breeding center. Their hooves could hit the terrain as early as 2019. As the effort to rebuild the regions food web proceeds, a team of rangers will be trained to patrol a protected area, expected to be designated next year. Education programs will also be needed to help local ranchers adjust to being around these species again. For instance, restrictions on grazing will be necessary to protect sheep, goats, cattle, horses and camels from tigers as well as to prevent those livestock from eating the grasses and shrubs that the donkeys and deer need to sustain their populations. Farmers will also have to limit their practice of burning fields to prepare them for crops.
Prey animals, like the kulan, are a crucial aspect of the tiger reintroduction plan. Cloudtail the Snow Leopard / Flickr
If all goes well, the project will create almost 400 square miles of habitat brimming with enough yummy prey to release some tigers by 2022 (though Chestin said 2025 is probably a more realistic date). Where those big cats will come from hasnt been determined yet, but theyll most likely be orphans from the Amur tiger population in Russias Far East. (Zoo animals are not out of the running, though they would have to be trained to live in the wilda difficult and expensive endeavor).
Maintaining a landscape suitable for tigers, Bukhara deer, kulans and other species into the future is another issue.
I think if its successful itd be great, said biologist John Goodrich, senior director of the tiger program for Panthera, a global wild cat conservation organization. After reviewing WWFs plan, Goodrich agrees that there seems to be enough habitat to establish a viable tiger population, but he wonders if the Kazakh government has the resources to manage and protect the cats from poaching and ecological threats once they are there.
The forests that these tigers would call home essentially follow the banks of rivers and streams emptying into Lake Balkhash and are enormously dependent on the regions water flow and flooding patterns. Too many disruptions, such as those from irrigation, could fragment the habitat in a hurry and isolate wildlife populations. Much of Lake Balkhashs water supply streams in from China, and Goodrich said there are big plans for agriculture on that side of the border. If that happens and the natural flooding regime is lost or impeded, theyll lose a lot of habitat and then there will be no hope for tigers, he said.
Chestin hopes ongoing negotiations between Kazakhstan and China will help sort out this potential threat, but even without Chinas buy-in, his team calculates that the area could still support upwards of 80 tigers. And if 80 tigers are all they can muster, Chestin said its worth it. Generally, the more tiger populations we have, even isolated, the more chances the species has to survive, he said.
With only 3,900 wild tigers left in the world, 2025 cant come fast enough.
Reposted with permission from our media associate onEarth.
Ryan Zinkes Interior Department is working behind the scenes to build a controversial and long-contested road through the heart of Alaskas Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, documents show.
The refuge was established more than 30 years ago to conserve wetlands and habitats for migrating birds, brown bears and salmon and other wildlife. 300,000 of its 315,000 acres has been designated as Wilderness in 1980 under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
The proposed 11-mile road would essentially bisect Izembek to connect the towns of King Cove, population 989, and Cold Bay. Proponents, including Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, say the road is needed for medical emergency evacuations, as King Coves airport is inaccessible during inclement weather, forcing residents to use boats or helicopters.
But refuge advocates fear the road would disrupt critical wildlife habitat and set a precedent to open wildlife refuges, national monuments, wilderness areas and other public lands to economic development.
The Center for Biological Diversity, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, and other environmental organizations have also warned that the project is about privatizing public lands for profit from a seafood venture.
The Obama administration shelved the King Cove road project years ago after then-Interior Secretary Sally Jewell decided after a 2013 visit to the refuge that building a road would cause irreversible damage not only to the Refuge itself, but to the wildlife that depend on it.
In June, however, Zinkes Interior department issued the state permission to survey a route for the road. Then in July, the House of Representatives voted along party lines to authorize a land swap between Alaska and the federal government to build the one-lane road. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R- Alaska), who has long fought for the road, introduced a Senate version of the bill that is still pending.
Now, a new report from the Washington Post suggests that the Trump administration is making the issue a top priority and has taken steps to hide discussions from the public.
According to the Posts report:
Those documents, primarily internal agency emails, reveal how much discussion is intentionally taking place out of public view as federal, state, local and tribal officials work to approve a land exchange. Were the targeted terrain owned by the King Cove Corporation, that would clear the way for construction through the refuge to join up roads on either side.
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The documents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service make clear that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has elevated the issue to one of the agencys top priorities, and his appointees have taken deliberate steps to conceal the plan from the public.
At one point, a refuge official relayed his conversation with a department attorney about questions Zinke raised over public review of agency action related to Alaskas survey of a possible road through Izembek.
He indicated the Secretary would like to see folks on the ground doing the survey in the next couple of days, the official emailed colleagues. He did not seem to [sic] excited about the direction that it was going out for public comment.
The documents were obtained by Defenders of Wildlife under the Freedom of Information Act.
These records expose yet another of Secretary Zinkes secretive, backroom deals to sell off and sell out our public lands and wildlife, said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife. We will not stand by and watch while some of the most important wildlife habitat on the planet is sacrificed for surreptitious commercial interests. If this proposal, which reflects a terrible abuse of power, is successful in Izembek, then none of our public lands, waters and wildlife will be safe.
The Wilderness Society also issued the following statement from Alaska Regional Director Nicole Whittington-Evans.
This is an appalling move by the Trump administration to bypass the public process and cut a sneaky, backroom deal that not only would harm Izembek Refuge, but will threaten all of our nations refuges, public lands, and many of our bedrock environmental laws, Whittington-Evans said. This proposed road is an economic-development project for the community of King Cove, and taxpayers should be outraged at this secretive attempt to gut a globally important wildlife refugewhich belongs to all Americansby transferring public lands to private ownership.
The Izembek land exchange and road proposal have been considered many timesmost recently through an exhaustive, scientific study by the U.S. Interior Department, which determined that the road should not be built and that it would harm the very species the refuge was established to protect, Whittington-Evans added.
The Army Corps of Engineers in 2015 issued a report emphasizing that several alternatives to a road would effectively meet the emergency needs of King Cove residents. If this were about medical evacuations, as road proponents claim, the government should be talking about other options that would result in faster and more reliable transportation, instead of conspiring to strip protections from the Izembek refuge.
On August 17, 2017, scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors in Louisiana and Washington and at the Virgo detector in Italy detected the first "ripples in space," or gravitational waves, produced by the merger of two ancient remnants of stars known as neutron stars.
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the creators of the LIGO instrument and its detection of gravitational waves. Scientists at Tel Aviv University are racing to use results from the LIGO experiments to expand our understanding of the universe, with the new discovery appearing today in Science and Nature. An additional TAU study is appearing in the Astrophysical Journal.
"This is a milestone in the growing effort by scientists worldwide to unlock the mysteries of the universe and of earth," says Prof. Ehud Nakar of TAU's Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, who together with his graduate student Ore Gottlieb led the theoretical analysis for the new studies on the discovery appearing today in Science and Nature.
The studies were led by Dr. Yair Arcavi, who joins TAU's School of Physics and Astronomy next year from UC Santa Barbara, in collaboration with Prof. Dovi Poznanski, Prof. Dan Maoz and their students at TAU's School of Physics and Astronomy.
Building on Einstein
The existence of gravitational waves was first predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago. They afford insight into an event that took place in a galaxy 120 million light years away and provide valuable information on the evolution of exploding neutron stars, as well as the origin of gold, uranium and other heavy metals on earth.
"It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of this discovery," says Prof. Poznanksi. "Until recently, we could observe the universe only through light waves that reached us. This new ability to study gravitational waves is analogous to a sense of touch. It's as though we now have the ability to explore the universe through both sight and touch."
"This discovery has allowed astronomers to combine gravitational waves with light and produce a detailed model of the emission for the first time. This introduces a new era in astronomy," says Gottlieb.
A neutron star forms when a star much bigger and brighter than the sun exhausts its thermonuclear fuel supply and explodes into a violent supernova. The explosion of neutron stars, which are made almost entirely of neutrons, was detected by multiple telescopes across the electromagnetic spectrum, from gamma rays and visible light to radio waves.
"This is only the beginning," Prof. Maoz notes. "We expect many surprising discoveries in the coming years."
GROWTH (Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen) is an international collaborative project in astronomy, funded by the National Science Foundation under PIRE Grant No. 1545949, with additional support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Ministry of Science & Technology in Taiwan; and the Science and Engineering Research Board, Department of Science and Technology in India. Led by the California Institute of Technology, GROWTH is a partnership among 14 institutions in the USA, Japan, Taiwan, India, Israel, Sweden, Germany and the UK.
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American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU) supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. For three years in a row, TAU ranked 9th in the world, and first in Israel, for alumni going on to become successful entrepreneurs backed by significant venture capital, a ranking that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,400 patents have been filed out of the University, making TAU 29th in the world for patents among academic institutions.
Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute (RRI) will usher in a new era of cutting-edge brain health research thanks to a recently announced $1.8 million investment from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, providing funds for research infrastructure.
Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute (RRI) will usher in a new era of cutting-edge brain health research thanks to a recently announced $1.8 million investment from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, providing funds for research infrastructure.
The grant will support upgrades to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) machines which enable scientists to pursue unique ways to protect brain health during aging and prevent dementia. This technology plays a crucial role in ongoing studies as researchers use it to capture detailed brain images and measure the brain waves of individuals to help transform care for older adults. Baycrest is one of the few institutions around the world using MEG to study the brain.
With this equipment, researchers could develop personalized memory and brain health treatments that account for each individual's distinct situations, such as their mental, physical and social health. By leveraging big data analysis and The Virtual Brain platform, an open-source, brain modelling platform co-created by Baycrest, researchers will use brain simulations to predict memory decline sooner.
"Collaborations are key to curbing the public health crisis we're facing because of dementia," says Dr. William Reichman, President and CEO at Baycrest. "With this funding, our researchers will herald a new age of individualized brain health interventions in the efforts to tackle these problems."
Since a person's memory is influenced by a number of lifestyle factors that could improve or worsen their performance, an individual's circumstances needs to be considered during the course of treatment, says Dr. Jennifer Ryan, RRI senior scientist and psychology professor at the University of Toronto who was awarded the funding. Research done with this technology will play a role in understanding a person's risk of experiencing memory problems in the future, she adds.
"This infrastructure provides Baycrest researchers the tools we need to transform brain health and the aging experience," says Dr. Allison Sekuler, Baycrest's Vice-President Research and Sandra A. Rotman Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience. "Our researchers are committed to uncovering the mysteries of the brain - including how Alzheimer's disease and other dementias affect brain structure and function - to create interventions so that physicians can help patients earlier and more effectively."
Funding will support an upgrade to the MRI machine and the purchase of a new MEG machine, computers and renovations to the labs, which will available for use by late 2018.
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About Baycrest Health Sciences
Baycrest Health Sciences is a global leader in geriatric residential living, healthcare, research, innovation and education, with a special focus on brain health and aging. Fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, Baycrest provides excellent care for older adults combined with an extensive clinical training program for the next generation of healthcare professionals and one of the world's top research institutes in cognitive neuroscience, the Rotman Research Institute. Baycrest is home to the federally and provincially-funded Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation, a solution accelerator focused on driving innovation in the aging and brain health sector, and is the developer of Cogniciti - a free online memory assessment for Canadians 40+ who are concerned about their memory. Founded in 1918 as the Jewish Home for Aged, Baycrest continues to embrace the long-standing tradition of all great Jewish healthcare institutions to improve the well-being of people in their local communities and around the globe. For more information please visit: http://www.baycrest.org
About Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute
The Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Health Sciences is a premier international centre for the study of human brain function. Through generous support from private donors and funding agencies, the institute is helping to illuminate the causes of cognitive decline in seniors, identify promising approaches to treatment, and lifestyle practices that will protect brain health longer in the lifespan.
This is a major breakthrough in more than one respect. The scientists of the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration (which includes the CNRS) have for the first time observed the gravitational waves emitted by the merger of two neutron stars, rather than of two black holes as in previous cases. In another first, the light emitted from the source of gravitational waves was observed in the following hours, days and weeks, by 70 other ground- and space-based observatories. This series of observations marks the birth of multi-messenger[1] astronomy, and has produced a wealth of results, including a solution to the mystery of gamma-ray bursts and that of the origin of the heaviest elements (such as lead, gold and platinum), as well as new insights into the properties of neutron stars, and an independent measurement of the rate of expansion of the Universe. These various findings are described in a dozen scientific articles published on 16 October 2017 by a number of researchers from CNRS laboratories (more than 200 for one of the publications), members of the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration, and partner astronomy groups.
An unprecedented series of events began at 12:41 (UTC) on 17 August 2017 with the detection of a new type of gravitational wave signal. This time, the signal detected was considerably longer than in the case of black hole mergers (around a hundred seconds as opposed to a fraction of a second), a sign that the two objects that finally coalesced were different from those previously detected. Detailed analysis of the data showed that the masses of the two objects lay somewhere between 1.1 and 1.6 times the mass of the Sun, corresponding to the mass of neutron stars.
Neutron stars are the remains of massive stars. At the end of its life, a giant star explodes, giving rise to a supernova. This extremely luminous phenomenon only lasts from a few days to several weeks: once it is over, all that remains is a very dense core made up almost entirely of neutrons--a neutron star. Although only about the size of a city like London, a teaspoon of the material making it up would weigh around a billion tons: neutron stars are the smallest and densest stars discovered so far. Just like the ordinary stars from which they derive, some of them form pairs, orbiting around each other and gradually getting closer while losing energy in the form of gravitational waves--a process that finally accelerates until they merge. While this scenario was predicted by models, this is the first time it has been confirmed by observation.
Almost simultaneously and independently, NASA's Fermi satellite recorded a gamma-ray burst--a very high-energy flash of electromagnetic radiation--and immediately sent out an automatic alert. Although this type of burst is relatively common (about once a week on average), this one was special in that it was detected around two seconds after the end of the gravitational wave signal, indicating that the two events were closely connected. In addition, analysis of the data from Fermi showed that it lay within a region of the sky covering 1 100 square degrees, which was compatible with the localization recorded by the Virgo and LIGO detectors. The gamma-ray burst was also detected by the European Space Agency (ESA) INTEGRAL satellite. These observations confirmed that at least some short gamma-ray bursts are caused by neutron star mergers.
A new astronomy has dawned
At the same time, the source was localized in the sky by using the arrival times and amplitude of the signals measured by the three gravitational wave detectors (the two LIGO detectors in the US and the Virgo detector in Europe). The area thus determined, which covered about 30 square degrees[2] in the Hydra constellation in the southern hemisphere, was tens of times smaller than that determined by Fermi. It was communicated to around 90 partner astronomy groups so that they could point their instruments in that direction. Twelve hours later, the 1M2H group using the American Swope telescope in Chile announced they had discovered a new bright point of light in the NGC4993 galaxy, located 130 million light-years from Earth. This finding was rapidly confirmed by other telescopes operating independently[3]. A number of instruments then carried out observations, including the ESO's telescope in Chile and the Hubble Space Telescope.
The region was then continuously scanned, and initial analyses of light spectra[4] showed that this was not a supernova but a type of object that had never been seen before, made up of very hot matter in the process of cooling, with rapidly decreasing luminosity--leading to a race against time to observe it before it faded away altogether.
According to models, nuclear reactions take place in the matter ejected by the merger of two neutron stars, causing the formation of atomic nuclei heavier than iron (such as gold, lead, etc), due to the abundance of neutrons. This very hot, radioactive matter then disperses, emitting light at every wavelength. Initially very blue, this light becomes redder as the matter cools and disperses. Known as a kilonova, this phenomenon, hitherto merely predicted by theory, has now been convincingly confirmed. What is probably the principal process that forms the Universe's heaviest elements has therefore now been observed for the first time.
As well as confirming that mergers of neutron stars produce short gamma-ray bursts, providing the first unambiguous detection of a kilonova and showing that the Universe's heavy elements are formed in this process, this series of observations also provides a better understanding of the physics of neutron stars and makes it possible to rule out certain extreme theoretical models. It also provides a new way of measuring the Hubble constant, which describes the rate of expansion of the Universe. These results, which involve various disciplines (nuclear physics, astrophysics, cosmology, gravitation), illustrate the potential of a newly-emerging astronomy, based on several types of cosmic messenger (gravitational waves, electromagnetic radiation such as light and gamma rays, and perhaps one day particles such as neutrinos and cosmic rays). They are described in a dozen papers, one of which is the work of several thousand researchers gathered together in around fifty collaborations.
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The LIGO-Virgo collaboration
The Virgo interferometer was built near Pisa about 25 years ago by the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN). The Virgo collaboration consists of more than 280 physicists and engineers belonging to 20 different European research groups: six from the CNRS in France; eight from the INFN in Italy; two in the Netherlands with Nikhef; the MTA Wigner RCP in Hungary; the POLGRAW group in Poland; Spain with the University of Valencia; and the European Gravitational Observatory, EGO, the laboratory hosting the Virgo detector near Pisa in Italy, funded by CNRS, INFN, and Nikhef.
LIGO is funded by the NSF, and operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived of LIGO and led the Initial and Advanced LIGO projects. Financial support for the Advanced LIGO project was led by the NSF with Germany (Max Planck Society), the U.K. (Science and Technology Facilities Council) and Australia (Australian Research Council) making significant commitments and contributions to the project. More than 1,200 scientists from around the world participate in the effort through the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which includes the GEO Collaboration. Additional partners are listed at http://ligo.org/partners.php.
The scientific publications of the LIGO and Virgo collaborations announcing the discovery are co-authored by 76 scientists from six teams from CNRS and associated universities:
Laboratoire AstroParticule et Cosmologie (Universite Paris Diderot/CNRS/CEA/Observatoire de Paris), Paris;
Laboratoire Astrophysique Relativiste, Theories, Experiences, Metrologie, Instrumentation, Signaux (CNRS/Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur/Universite Nice Sophia Antipolis), Nice;
Laboratoire de l'Accelerateur Lineaire (CNRS/Universite Paris-Sud), Orsay;
Laboratoire d'Annecy de Physique des Particules (CNRS/Universite Savoie Mont Blanc), Annecy;
Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (CNRS/UPMC/ENS/College de France), Paris;
Laboratoire des Materiaux Avances (CNRS), Villeurbanne.
French researchers also involved in the detection of electromagnetic signals
In addition to the researchers in the Virgo Collaboration, about 160 French scientists are part of the Antares, DECam, DLT40, ePESSTO, Fermi, GRAWITA, HESS, INTEGRAL, OzGrav, Pierre Auger and TZAC collaborations that co-authored the publication summarizing the series of observations. Some of them are also involved in more specific publications unveiled today.
These researchers belong to the following laboratories:
Astroparticule et cosmologie laboratory (CNRS/CEA/Observatoire de Paris/Universite Paris Diderot) Astrophysique relativiste, theories, experiences, metrologie, instrumentation, signaux laboratory (CNRS/Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur/Universite de Nice Sophia Antipolis)
Astrophysique, interpretation, modelisation laboratory (CNRS/CEA/Universite Paris Diderot)
Centre d'etudes nucleaires de Bordeaux Gradignan (CNRS/Universite de Bordeaux)
Centre de physique des particules de Marseille (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Universite)
Galaxies, etoiles, physique, instrumentation laboratory (CNRS/Observatoire de Paris/Universite Paris Diderot)
Geoazur laboratory (CNRS/Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur/Universite de Nice Sophia Antipolis)
Groupe de recherche en physique des hautes energies (Universite de Haute-Alsace)
Institut d'astrophysique de Paris (CNRS/UPMC)
Institut de physique nucleaire d'Orsay (CNRS/Universite Paris-Sud)
Institut de planetologie et d'astrophysique de Grenoble (CNRS/Universite de Grenoble Alpes)
Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planetologie (CNRS/CNES/Universite Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier)
Institut de recherche sur les lois fondamentales de l'Univers (CEA)
Institut mediterraneen d'oceanographie (CNRS/IRD/Aix-Marseille universite/Universite de Toulon)
Institut pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (CNRS/Universite de Strasbourg)
Laboratoire d'Annecy de physique des particules (CNRS/Universite de Savoie Mont-Blanc)
Laboratoire d'astrophysique de Marseille (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Universite)
Laboratoire de physique de Clermont (CNRS/Universite Clermont Auvergne)
Laboratoire de physique corpusculaire de Caen (CNRS/Ensicaen/Universite de Caen)
Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement et de l'espace (CNRS/Universite d'Orleans)
Laboratoire de physique nucleaire et des hautes energies (CNRS/Universite Paris Diderot/UPMC)
Laboratoire de physique subatomique et cosmologie (CNRS/Grenoble INP/Universite Grenoble Alpes)
Laboratoire de physique subatomique et des technologies associees (CNRS/IMT Atlantique/Universite de Nantes)
Laboratoire des sciences de l'information et des systemes (CNRS/Aix-Marseille universite/Universite de Toulon)
Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet (CNRS/Ecole polytechnique)
Laboratoire Univers et particules de Montpellier (CNRS/Universite de Montpellier)
Laboratoire Univers et theories (CNRS/Observatoire de Paris/Universite Paris Diderot)
Station de radioastronomie de Nancay (CNRS/Observatoire de Paris/Universite d'Orleans)
CNRS Facebook Live
On Monday October 16 at 7 PM CEST (Central European Summer Time), the CNRS will broadcast live from the Advanced Virgo gravitational wave detector in Italy. From the control room, researchers will answer questions and showcase the instrument (English only). Direct access to the CNRSNews Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/CNRSNews/
For more information:
CNRS News article: https://news.cnrs.fr/node/1197
Images are available on : http://phototheque.cnrs.fr/p/271-1-1-0/
[1] In other words 120 times the size of the full Moon as seen in the sky.
[2] DLT40, VISTA, MASTER, DECam, and Las Cumbres, which, like Swope, observe in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
[3] Distribution of light intensity according to wavelength (for visble light, the various colors).
[4] Gravitational waves are 'messengers' from the cosmos that complement traditional astronomical observations based on the entire electromagnetic spectrum (visible light, UV, infrared, radio waves, X-rays and gamma rays), on cosmic rays and on neutrinos.
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Oct. 16, 2017 -- One of the secrets to making tiny laser devices such as opthalmic surgery scalpels work even more efficiently is the use of tiny semiconductor particles, called quantum dots. In new research at Los Alamos National Laboratory's Nanotech Team, the ~nanometer-sized dots are being doctored, or "doped," with additional electrons, a treatment that nudges the dots ever closer to producing the desired laser light with less stimulation and energy loss.
"When we properly tailor the compositional profile within the particles during their fabrication, and then inject two or more electrons in each dot, they become more able to emit laser light. Importantly, they require considerably less power to initiate the lasing action," said Victor Klimov, leader of the Nanotech team.
In order to force a material to emit laser light one has to work toward a "population inversion," that is, making the number of electrons in a higher-energy electronic state exceed the number that are in a lower-energy state. To achieve this condition normally, one applies an external stimulus (optical or electrical) of a certain power, which should exceed a critical value termed the "optical-gain threshold." In a recent paradigm-changing advance, Los Alamos researchers demonstrated that by adding extra electrons into their specially designed quantum dots, they can reduce this threshold to virtually zero.
A standard lasing material, when stimulated by a pump, absorbs light for a time before it starts to lase. On the way to lasing, the material transitions through the state of "optical transparency" when light is neither absorbed nor amplified. By adding extra charge carriers to their quantum dots, the Los Alamos researchers were able to block absorption and create the state of transparency without external stimulation. This implies that even extremely weak pumping can now initiate lasing emission.
Another important ingredient of this research is a new type of quantum dots with their interiors designed to maintain the lasing-active state for much longer than standard particles do. Normally, the presence of extra electrons would suppress lasing because quantum dot energy is quickly released not as a photon stream but wasteful heat. The new Los Alamos particle design eliminates these parasitic losses, redirecting the particle's energy into the emission channel. "These studies open exciting opportunities for realizing new types of low-threshold lasing devices that can be fabricated from solution using a variety of substrates and optical cavity designs for applications ranging from fiber optics and large-scale lasing arrays to laser lighting and lab-on-a-chip sensing technologies," Klimov said.
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The research is described in the journal Nature Nanotechnology this week, authored by project members Kaifeng Wu (a Los Alamos Director's postdoctoral fellow), Young-Shin Park (guest scientist, University of New Mexico), Jaehoon Lim (Los Alamos postdoctoral research associate) and Victor I. Klimov (Laboratory Fellow, project leader).
Publication: Kaifeng Wu, Young-Shin Park, Jaehoon Lim, and Victor I. Klimov, "Towards zero-threshold optical gain using charged semiconductor quantum dots," Nature Nanotechnology.
Funding: The work on the synthesis of graded quantum dots and studies of Auger recombination in synthesized materials was supported by the DOE Office of Science. The studies of the effect of charging on quantum dot optical gain properties were supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
About Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, BWX Technologies, Inc. and URS Corporation for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health and global security concerns.
Sometimes - even in matters of science - you have to be lucky.
On Aug. 17, scientists around the globe were treated to near-simultaneous observations by separate instruments: One set of Earth-based detectors measured the signature of a cataclysmic event sending ripples through the fabric of space-time, and a space-based detector measured the gamma-ray signature of a high-energy outburst emanating from the same region of the sky.
These parallel detections led astronomers and astrophysicists on an all-out hunt for more detailed measurements explaining this confluence of signals, which would ultimately be confirmed as the first measurement of the merger of two neutron stars and its explosive aftermath.
Just a week earlier, Daniel Kasen, a scientist in the Nuclear Science Division at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and an associate professor of physics and astronomy at UC Berkeley was attending a science conference in Seattle.
A hypothetical question was posed to attendees as to when would astronomers detect an astrophysical source that produced both a strong disruption in the space-time continuum - in the form of gravitational waves - and see an associated burst of light.
The likely target would be the violent merger of a neutron star, which is the ultradense remnant of an exploded star, with another neutron star or a black hole. Such events have been theorized to seed the universe with heavy elements like gold, platinum, and radioactive elements like uranium.
Most scientists in the room expected that, based on the planned sensitivity of future instruments, and the presumed rarity of neutron star mergers, such a historic discovery might - with some luck - be more than a decade away.
So Kasen, who had been working for years on models and simulations to help understand the likely signals from merging neutron stars, was stunned when data on a neutron star merger and its aftermath began to pour in just a week later.
"It seemed too good to be true," said Kasen. "Not only had they detected gravitational waves, but from a neutron star merger that was so close, it was practically in our backyard. Almost everybody on Earth with a telescope started pointing at the same part of the sky."
LIGO and VIRGO - a network of Earth-based gravitational wave detectors capable of observing some of the universe's most violent events by detecting ever-so-slight changes in laser-measured distances caused by passing gravitational waves - had picked up an event.
A couple of seconds later, a brief burst of gamma rays were detected by an instrument aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Less than 12 hours after that, astronomers spotted the first glimpse of visible light from the event.
When Kasen saw the email alerts rolling in about the various observations, he couldn't help but feel a sense of unease. "For years we had been studying what colliding neutron stars would look like, with nothing to go on but our theoretical imagination and computer modeling," he said. "Now, real data was flooding in, and it was going to test everything we had predicted."
Over the following days and weeks, an influx of observations provided data confirming that the brilliant burst behaved remarkably like the theorized merger of two neutron stars.
Computer simulations had suggested that, during such a merger, a small fraction of neutron star matter would be flung into surrounding space. Models predicted that this cloud of exotic debris would assemble into heavy elements and give off a radioactive glow over 10 million times brighter than the sun. The phenomenon is called a kilonova or macronova.
Jennifer Barnes, an Einstein postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University, who as a UC Berkeley graduate student worked with Kasen to compute some of the first detailed model predictions of kilonovae, said, "We expected from theory and simulations that kilonovae would be tinged red if heavy elements were produced, and would shine blue if they weren't.
She added, "Understanding this relationship allowed us to more confidently interpret the emission from this event and diagnose the presence of heavy elements in the merger debris."
Kasen, Barnes, and two other Berkeley Lab scientists were among the co-authors of several papers published today in the journals Nature, Science, and the Astrophysical Journal. The publications detailed the discovery, follow-up observations, and theoretical interpretation of this event.
Simulations related to the event were carried out at the Lab's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC).
Peter Nugent, a senior staff scientist in the Computational Research Division at Berkeley Lab and an adjunct professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, also closely followed the alerts related to the Aug. 17 observations.
At the time, he was assisting with the final preparations for the startup of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at the Palomar Observatory in Southern California. Berkeley Lab is a member of the collaboration for ZTF, which is designed to discover supernovae and also to search for rare and exotic events such as those that occur during the aftermath of neutron star mergers.
"This event happened too early by three months," Nugent said, as the soon-to-launch ZTF is designed to quickly follow up on LIGO/VIRGO gravitational wave measurements to look for their visible counterparts in the sky.
Nugent said that, at first, he thought that the multiple observations of the object (known as an optical transient) associated with the neutron star merger and gamma-ray burst was just a common supernova. But the object was evolving too quickly and had an incredibly blue light signature that pointed to a different type of event than the supernovae normally associated with the type of galaxy hosting this event.
Also, Nugent said, "We didn't expect an event this close. It's almost akin to having a supernova blow up in Andromeda," which is about 2.5 million light years away from our Milky Way galaxy. "We hope this means there are going to be more of these events. We now know the rate is not zero."
Nugent contributed to an analysis in one of the papers in the journal Science that concludes there may be "many more events" like the observed merger, and that neutron star mergers are likely "the main production sites" for heavy elements in the Milky Way. The observation could also provide valuable clues about how scientists might look for other neutron star mergers in optical surveys without a LIGO/VIRGO detection.
"How the heaviest elements came to be has been one of the longest standing questions of our cosmic origins," Kasen said. "Now we have for the first time directly witnessed a cloud of freshly made precious metals right at their production site."
The debris cloud from the merger mushroomed from about the size of a city shortly after the merger to about the size of a solar system after only one day, Kasen said. It is also likely that only a few percent of the matter in the merging neutron stars escaped the central site of the merger; the rest likely collapsed to form a black hole.
It is expected that the escaping debris will be very long-lived, diffusing across the galaxy over a billion years and enriching stars and planets with the heavy elements like those we find on Earth today.
"For me, it is the astronomical event of a lifetime," Kasen said "It's also an incredible moment for the field of scientific computing. Simulations succeeded in modeling what would happen in an incredibly complex phenomenon like a neutron star merger. Without the models, we all probably all would have been mystified by exactly what we were seeing in the sky."
Future advances in computing, and new insights from the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University on exotic reactions that produce heavy nuclei, should provide even more insight as to how the heavy elements came to be, and the extreme physics of matter and gravity that occurs in mergers.
Kasen is also the lead investigator on a DOE Exascale Computing Project that is developing high-performance astrophysical simulation codes that will run on the next generation of U.S. supercomputers. He is also a member of a DOE-supported SciDAC (Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing) collaboration that is using computing to simulate supernovae, neutron star mergers, and related high-energy events.
"Before these observations, the signals from neutron star mergers were mainly theoretical speculation," Kasen said. "Now, it has suddenly become a major new field of astrophysics."
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The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
Berkeley Lab's contributions to the simulations and observations were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov (http://science.energy.gov).
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $6.5 million to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to integrate existing synchrotron structural biology resources to better serve researchers. The grant will establish a center based at the Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS) called ALS-ENABLE that will guide users through the most appropriate routes for answering their specific biological questions.
The initiative brings together four groups of scientists who, for the past 15 years, have individually facilitated access to crystallography and small angle Xray scattering technologies on eight ALS beamlines for the structural biology community. The ALS is a DOE Office of Science User Facility that is available to staff and visiting scientists from the global scientific community.
"Leveraging the capabilities and expertise across the beamlines is designed to optimize the chances of successful structure determination for routine and challenging problems," said Paul Adams, director of Berkeley Lab's Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) division and principal investigator on the grant.
ALS-ENABLE has three technology operations cores to address specific needs: rapid response crystallography; high quality and high throughput small angle X-ray scattering; and specialized crystallography.
For X-ray crystallography projects that are relatively straightforward, such as determining the position of different small molecules bound to the same protein, a fully automated pipeline will be put in place. Users' samples will be mounted at the beamline by robots, the diffraction data will be automatically collected and processed, and the researchers hope that the structure will be automatically solved. "It will be completely hands-off, which will significantly increase efficiency," said rapid response core lead Corie Ralston, a biochemist in MBIB.
Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) can provide lower resolution data for macromolecules in solution for samples that are not tractable to crystallization. Often, solution scattering and crystallography are complementary. As an example, the overall shape of a protein complex could be determined with the former. Then with the latter, the individual components are imaged and used to figure out how they fit together. Greg Hura, a biophysicist in MBIB, will lead the SAXS core.
Really challenging molecules, such as membrane proteins, tend not to crystallize or produce crystals that do not diffract very well. There are a number of tricks that have been devised to get usable structure data, including collecting data at different temperatures and capturing a few images each from a succession of crystals. This specialized crystallography core is led by James Holton, a biophysicist in MBIB, who is experienced in these techniques and will advise and assist users.
Jay Nix, beamline director for the Molecular Biology Consortium at ALS, will lead user training and outreach efforts, which will incorporate on-site workshops, remote training and online materials. In addition, web tools that have been developed independently by various members of the team will be consolidated onto a single website so as to be more accessible to users.
Other co-investigators on the grant are James Fraser, an associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at UCSF, and John Tainer, an MBIB visiting scientist and a professor of Molecular & Cellular Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
"I'm very excited that NIH has given us the opportunity to work together to provide structural biology users at the ALS with a coordinated and efficient resource that will stay at the forefront of technology," added Adams.
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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
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A team of scientists using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), the primary observing tool of the Dark Energy Survey, was among the first to observe the fiery aftermath of a recently detected burst of gravitational waves, recording images of the first confirmed explosion from two colliding neutron stars ever seen by astronomers.
Scientists on the Dark Energy Survey joined forces with a team of astronomers based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) for this effort, working with observatories around the world to bolster the original data from DECam. Images taken with DECam captured the flaring-up and fading over time of a kilonova -- an explosion similar to a supernova, but on a smaller scale -- that occurs when collapsed stars (called neutron stars) crash into each other, creating heavy radioactive elements.
This particular violent merger, which occurred 130 million years ago in a galaxy near our own (NGC 4993), is the source of the gravitational waves detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo collaborations on Aug. 17. This is the fifth source of gravitational waves to be detected -- the first one was discovered in September 2015, for which three founding members of the LIGO collaboration were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics two weeks ago.
This latest event is the first detection of gravitational waves caused by two neutron stars colliding and thus the first one to have a visible source. The previous gravitational wave detections were traced to binary black holes, which cannot be seen through telescopes. This neutron star collision occurred relatively close to home, so within a few hours of receiving the notice from LIGO/Virgo, scientists were able to point telescopes in the direction of the event and get a clear picture of the light.
"This is beyond my wildest dreams," said Marcelle Soares-Santos, formerly of the U.S. Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and currently of Brandeis University, who led the effort from the Dark Energy Survey side. "With DECam we get a good signal, and we can show how it is evolving over time. The team following these signals is a well-oiled machine, and though we did not expect this to happen so soon, we were ready for it."
The Dark Energy Camera is one of the most powerful digital imaging devices in existence. It was built and tested at Fermilab, the lead laboratory on the Dark Energy Survey, and is mounted on the National Science Foundation's 4-meter Blanco telescope, part of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a division of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. The DES images are processed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Texas A&M University astronomer Jennifer Marshall was observing for DES at the Blanco telescope during the event, while Fermilab astronomers Douglas Tucker and Sahar Allam were coordinating the observations from Fermilab's Remote Operations Center. "It was truly amazing," Marshall said. "I felt so fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to help make perhaps one of the most significant observations of my career."
The kilonova was first identified in DECam images by Ohio University astronomer Ryan Chornock, who instantly alerted his colleagues by email. "I was flipping through the raw data, and I came across this bright galaxy and saw a new source that was not in the reference image [taken previously]," he said. "It was very exciting."
Once the crystal clear images from DECam were taken, a team led by Professor Edo Berger, from CfA, went to work analyzing the phenomenon using several different resources. Within hours of receiving the location information, the team had booked time with several observatories, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory.
LIGO/Virgo works with dozens of astronomy collaborations around the world, providing sky maps of the area where any detected gravitational waves originated. The team from DES and CfA had been preparing for an event like this for more than two years, forging connections with other astronomy collaborations and putting procedures in place to mobilize as soon as word came down that a new source had been detected. The result is a rich data set that covers "radio waves to X-rays to everything in between," Berger said.
"This is the first event, the one everyone will remember," Berger said. "I'm extremely proud of our entire group, who responded in an amazing way. I kept telling them to savor the moment. How many people can say they were there at the birth of a whole new field of astronomy?"
Adding to the excitement of this observation, this latest gravitational wave detection correlates to a burst of gamma rays spotted by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Combining these detections is like hearing thunder and seeing lightning for the very first time, and it opens up a world of new scientific discovery.
"Each of these -- the gravitational waves from merging neutron stars, the gamma ray burst and the optical counterpart -- could have been separate groundbreaking discoveries, and each could have taken many years," said Daniel Holz of the University of Chicago, who works on both the DES and LIGO collaborations. "In less than a day, we did it all. This has required many different communities working together to make it all happen. It's so gratifying to have it be so successful."
This event also provides a completely new and unique way to measure the present expansion rate of the universe, the Hubble constant, something theorized by Holz and others. Just as astrophysicists use supernovae as "standard candles" (objects of the same intrinsic brightness) to measure cosmic expansion, kilonovae can be used as "standard sirens" (objects of known gravitational wave strength).
LIGO/Virgo can use this to tell the distance to these events, while optical follow-up from DES and others determines the red shift or recession speed; their combination enables scientists to determine the present expansion rate. This new kind of measurement will assist the Dark Energy Survey in its mission to uncover more about dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating the expansion of the universe.
"The Dark Energy Survey team has been working with LIGO for more than two years, refining their process of following up gravitational wave signals," said Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer. "It is immensely gratifying to be on the front lines of a discovery this significant, one that required the combined skills of many supremely talented people in many fields."
The Dark Energy Survey recently began the fifth and final year of its quest to map an area of the southern sky in unprecedented detail. Scientists on DES will use this data to learn more about the effect of dark energy over eight billion years of the universe's history, in the process measuring 300 million galaxies, 100,000 galaxy clusters and 3,000 supernovae.
Six papers relating to the DECam discovery of the optical counterpart are planned for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. Preprints of all papers are available here: https://www.darkenergysurvey.org/des-gravitational-waves-papers.
"It is tremendously exciting to experience a rare event that transforms our understanding of the workings of the universe," said France A. Cordova, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds LIGO and supports the observatory where DECam is housed. "This discovery realizes a long-standing goal many of us have had -- that is, to simultaneously observe rare cosmic events using both traditional as well as gravitational-wave observatories. Only through NSF's four-decade investment in gravitational-wave observatories, coupled with telescopes that observe from radio to gamma-ray wavelengths, are we able to expand our opportunities to detect new cosmic phenomena and piece together a fresh narrative of the physics of stars in their death throes."
The Dark Energy Survey is a collaboration of more than 400 scientists from 26 institutions in seven countries. Funding for the DES Projects has been provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, U.S. National Science Foundation, Ministry of Science and Education of Spain, Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, Higher Education Funding Council for England, ETH Zurich for Switzerland, National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Kavli Institute of Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago, Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics at Ohio State University, Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, Fundacao Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico and Ministerio da Ciencia e Tecnologia, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and the collaborating institutions in the Dark Energy Survey, the list of which can be found at http://www.darkenergysurvey.org/collaboration.
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.
Fermilab is America's premier national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. A U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, Fermilab is located near Chicago, Illinois, and operated under contract by the Fermi Research Alliance LLC, a joint partnership between the University of Chicago and the Universities Research Association, Inc. Visit Fermilab's website at http://www.fnal.gov and follow us on Twitter at @Fermilab.
The DOE Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
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For the first time ever, astronomers have observed both gravitational waves and light (electromagnetic radiation) from the same event, thanks to a global collaborative effort and the quick reactions of both ESO's facilities and others around the world.
On 17 August 2017 the NSF 's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States, working with the Virgo Interferometer in Italy, detected gravitational waves passing the Earth. This event, the fifth ever detected, was named GW170817. About two seconds later, two space observatories, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and ESA's INTErnational Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), detected a short gamma-ray burst from the same area of the sky.
The LIGO-Virgo observatory network positioned the source within a large region of the southern sky, the size of several hundred full Moons and containing millions of stars [1]. As night fell in Chile many telescopes peered at this patch of sky, searching for new sources. These included ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) and VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at the Paranal Observatory, the Italian Rapid Eye Mount (REM) telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory , the LCO 0.4-meter telescope at Las Cumbres Observatory, and the American DECam at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The Swope 1-metre telescope was the first to announce a new point of light. It appeared very close to NGC 4993, a lenticular galaxy in the constellation of Hydra (constellation), and VISTA observations pinpointed this source at infrared wavelengths almost at the same time. As night marched west across the globe, the Hawaiian island telescopes Pan-STARRS and Subaru also picked it up and watched it evolve rapidly.
"There are rare occasions when a scientist has the chance to witness a new era at its beginning," said Elena Pian, astronomer with INAF, Italy, and lead author of one of the Nature papers. "This is one such time!"
ESO launched one of the biggest ever "target of opportunity" observing campaigns and many ESO and ESO-partnered telescopes observed the object over the weeks following the detection [2]. ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), New Technology Telescope, VST, the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) [3] all observed the event and its after-effects over a wide range of wavelengths. About 70 observatories around the world also observed the event, including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Distance estimates from both the gravitational wave data and other observations agree that GW170817 was at the same distance as NGC 4993, about 130 million light-years from Earth. This makes the source both the closest gravitational wave event detected so far and also one of the closest gamma-ray burst sources ever seen [4].
The ripples in spacetime known as gravitational waves are created by moving masses, but only the most intense, created by rapid changes in the speed of very massive objects, can currently be detected. One such event is the merging of neutron stars , the extremely dense, collapsed cores of high-mass stars left behind after supernovae [5]. These mergers have so far been the leading hypothesis to explain short gamma-ray bursts. An explosive event 1000 times brighter than a typical nova -- known as a kilonova -- is expected to follow this type of event.
The almost simultaneous detections of both gravitational waves and gamma rays from GW170817 raised hopes that this object was indeed a long-sought kilonova and observations with ESO facilities have revealed properties remarkably close to theoretical predictions. Kilonovae were suggested more than 30 years ago but this marks the first confirmed observation.
Following the merger of the two neutron stars, a burst of rapidly expanding radioactive heavy chemical elements left the kilonova, moving as fast as one-fifth of the speed of light. The colour of the kilonova shifted from very blue to very red over the next few days, a faster change than that seen in any other observed stellar explosion.
"When the spectrum appeared on our screens I realised that this was the most unusual transient event I'd ever seen," remarked Stephen Smartt, who led observations with ESO's NTT as part of the extended Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (ePESSTO) observing programme. "I had never seen anything like it. Our data, along with data from other groups, proved to everyone that this was not a supernova or a foreground variable star, but was something quite remarkable."
Spectra from ePESSTO and the VLT's X-shooter instrument suggest the presence of caesium and tellurium ejected from the merging neutron stars. These and other heavy elements, produced during the neutron star merger, would be blown into space by the subsequent kilonova. These observations pin down the formation of elements heavier than iron through nuclear reactions within high-density stellar objects, known as r-process nucleosynthesis, something which was only theorised before.
"The data we have so far are an amazingly close match to theory. It is a triumph for the theorists, a confirmation that the LIGO-VIRGO events are absolutely real, and an achievement for ESO to have gathered such an astonishing data set on the kilonova," adds Stefano Covino, lead author of one of the Nature Astronomy papers.
"ESO's great strength is that it has a wide range of telescopes and instruments to tackle big and complex astronomical projects, and at short notice. We have entered a new era of multi-messenger astronomy!" concludes Andrew Levan, lead author of one of the papers.
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Notes
[1] The LIGO-Virgo detection localised the source to an area on the sky of about 35 square degrees.
[2 The galaxy was only observable in the evening in August and then was too close to the Sun in the sky to be observed by September.
[3] On the VLT, observations were taken with: the X-shooter spectrograph located on Unit Telescope 2 (UT2); the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2 and Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System (NAOS) - Near-Infrared Imager and Spectrograph (CONICA) (NACO) on Unit Telescope 1 (UT1); VIsible Multi-Object Spectrograph (VIMOS) and VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared (VISIR) located on Unit Telescope 3 (UT3); and the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE and High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager (HAWK-I - http://eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/vlt-instr/hawk-i/) on Unit Telescope 4 (UT4). The VST observed using the OmegaCAM and VISTA observed with the VISTA InfraRed CAMera (VIRCAM). Through the ePESSTO programme, the NTT collected visible spectra with the ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera 2 (EFOSC2 ) spectrograph and infrared spectra with the Son of ISAAC (SOFI) spectrograph. The MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope observed using the Gamma-Ray burst Optical/Near-infrared Detector (GROND ) instrument.
[4] The comparatively small distance between Earth and the neutron star merger, 130 million light-years, made the observations possible, since merging neutron stars create weaker gravitational waves than merging black holes, which were the likely case of the first four gravitational wave detections.
[5] When neutron stars orbit one another in a binary system, they lose energy by emitting gravitational waves. They get closer together until, when they finally meet, some of the mass of the stellar remnants is converted into energy in a violent burst of gravitational waves, as described by Einstein's famous equation E=mc2.
More information
This research was presented in a series of papers to appear in Nature, Nature Astronomy and Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The extensive list of team members is available in this PDF file: https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/pdf/eso1733a.pdf
ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and by Australia as a strategic partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".
LIGO is funded by the NSF, and operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived of LIGO and led the Initial and Advanced LIGO projects. Financial support for the Advanced LIGO project was led by the NSF with Germany (Max Planck Society), the U.K. (Science and Technology Facilities Council) and Australia (Australian Research Council) making significant commitments and contributions to the project. More than 1,200 scientists from around the world participate in the effort through the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which includes the GEO Collaboration. Additional partners are listed at http://ligo.org/partners.php.
The Virgo collaboration consists of more than 280 physicists and engineers belonging to 20 different European research groups: six from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France; eight from the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy; two in the Netherlands with Nikhef; the MTA Wigner RCP in Hungary; the POLGRAW group in Poland; Spain with the University of Valencia; and the European Gravitational Observatory, EGO, the laboratory hosting the Virgo detector near Pisa in Italy, funded by CNRS, INFN, and Nikhef.
Links
Team members: https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/pdf/eso1733a.pdf
FAQ (PDF file, 184 KB): https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/pdf/eso1733b.pdf
Fact Sheet (PDF file, 105 KB): https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/pdf/eso1733c.pdf
Science Paper 1: "Spectroscopic identification of r-process nucleosynthesis in a double neutron star merger", by E. Pian et al. in Nature. (PDF file, 196 KB) - https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1733/eso1733a.pdf
Science Paper 2: "The emergence of a lanthanide-rich kilonova following the merger of two neutron stars", by N. R. Tanvir et al. in Astrophysical Journal Letters (PDF file, 843 KB)
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1733/eso1733b.pdf
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1733/eso1733b.pdf Science Paper 3: "The electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave source unveils a kilonova", by S. J. Smartt et al. in Nature (PDF file, 9 MB) - https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1733/eso1733c.pdf
Science Paper 4: "The unpolarized macronova associated with the gravitational wave event GW170817", by S. Covino et al. in Nature Astronomy (PDF file, 230 KB)
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1733/eso1733d.pdf
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1733/eso1733d.pdf Science Paper 5: "The Distance to NGC 4993 -- The host galaxy of the gravitational wave event GW17017", by J. Hjorth et al. in Astrophysical Journal Letters (PDF file, 2.4 MB)
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1733/eso1733e.pdf
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1733/eso1733e.pdf Science Paper 6: "The environment of the binary neutron star merger GW170817", by A. J. Levan et al. in Astrophysical Journal Letters (PDF file, 2.6 MB)
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1733/eso1733f.pdf
Contacts
Stephen Smartt
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast, United Kingdom
Tel: 44-7876-014103
Email: s.smartt@qub.ac.uk
Elena Pian
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)
Bologna, Italy
Tel: 39-051-6398701
Email: elena.pian@inaf.it
Andrew Levan
University of Warwick
Coventry, United Kingdom
Tel: 44-7714-250373
Email: A.J.Levan@warwick.ac.uk
Nial Tanvir
University of Leicester
Leicester, United Kingdom
Tel: 44-7980-136499
Email: nrt3@leicester.ac.uk
Stefano Covino
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF)
Merate, Italy
Tel: 39-02-72320475
Cell: 39-331-6748534
Email: stefano.covino@brera.inaf.it
Marina Rejkuba
ESO Head of User Support Department
Garching bei Munchen, Germany
Tel: 49-89-3200-6453
Email: mrejkuba@eso.org
Richard Hook
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei Munchen, Germany
Tel: 49-89-3200-6655
Cell: 49-151-1537-3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
WASHINGTON (Oct. 16, 2017) --Three astrophysicists from the George Washington University are part of a global group of scientists who collaborated on identification and study of the first confirmed observation of two merging neutron stars, a so-called kilonova. The existence of a kilonova--an explosive event roughly 1,000 times brighter than a nova--had long been suggested but was never definitively witnessed until now.
"For the first time ever, we have detected both gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation at the same time from a single source," said Chryssa Kouveliotou, professor of physics in GW's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and head of the GW Astrophysics group. "With these observations, we put the astrophysical context to the gravitational waves. This is a monumental result - the result of the decade."
The merger of two neutron stars was predicted to generate both gravitational waves and emit electromagnetic radiation at various wavelengths. Researchers also suspected that these mergers are the source of mysterious short gamma-ray bursts. The recent observations confirmed those predictions.
On Aug. 17, the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States and the Advanced Virgo Interferometer in Italy alerted scientists to a gravitational wave event. Two orbiting space observatories, the European Space Agency's INTErnational Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) and NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a short gamma-ray burst coming from the same area of the sky as the gravitational wave event.
In the days following the initial detection, scientists aimed their instruments at the object, located some 130 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. The effort included the European Southern Observatory's telescopes in Chile, Gemini South and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and others, which detected the light from this gravitational wave event. Together these observations confirm that a kilonova had, in fact, been detected.
Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful, brightest explosions in the universe. These short, transient events can last a few seconds or minutes, providing information about the formation and expansion of our universe. Dr. Kouveliotou, a leading expert on gamma ray bursts, worked closely with the research group led by Elena Pian of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy to study the optical and infrared electromagnetic radiation emitted from the merger. Each element in the universe emits a unique spectrum, so this data can help researchers determine how and where rare elements on Earth originate. The work published in Nature by Dr. Pian, Dr. Kouveliotou and others, confirms that neutron-star mergers are major cosmic production sites of heavy elements such as gold, platinum and lanthanides.
Other members of the GW Astrophysics group studied different aspects of the kilonova. Alexander van der Horst, an assistant professor of physics in CCAS, and Dr. Kouveliotou co-authored a paper that examined the polarimetry of the light emitted by the neutron-star merger. By studying the light emitted by the event in this way, scientists are learning more about how the light is produced.
"Polarimetry is a very powerful tool to determine properties of the source producing the light that we observe," said Dr. van der Horst. "While this particular event did not have a strong polarimetry signal, future observations will be able to pin down the structure of the source with such observations."
Dr. van der Horst is also leading the science team working on OCTOCAM, a new instrument being built at the Gemini South Observatory that will allow researchers to do in-depth studies on objects of interest such as kilonovae once they are detected. OCTOCAM is scheduled for completion by the end of 2021.
Bethany Cobb Kung, an associate professor of honors and physics in GW's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, used a telescope at CTIO to observe the infrared glow from the kilonova over a course of 10 nights.
Dr. Cobb Kung was a part of a team of astronomers led by California Institute of Technology's Mansi Kasliwal. The team along with another led by Harvard University's Edo Berger studied the composition of the material released by the merging of the two stars, further confirming that a kilonova had been witnessed.
"Near infrared observations of the event were absolutely critical," said Dr. Cobb Kung, "because the optical light from the source faded away very quickly, and one of the key signatures of a kilonova is its behavior at infrared wavelengths."
Drs. Cobb Kung, Kouveliotou and van der Horst are also among the authors of another paper published in Astrophysical Journal, which describes in detail the timeline of this discovery. These three GW astrophysicists plan to continue to study gravitational wave astrophysics in a new era that has started with this extraordinary event.
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The findings by GW researchers were published Monday in the following journals:
- Nature: "Spectroscopic identification of r-process nucleosynthesis in a double neutron star merger"
- Nature Astronomy: "The Unpolarized Macronova Associated with the Gravitational Wave Event GW170817"
- Science: "Illuminating Gravitational Waves: A Concordant Picture of Photons from a Neutron Star Merger"
- Astrophysical Journal: "Multi-Messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger"
Images Available Upon Request
This GIS is based on a vector map of basins of small rivers. The map covers almost all of European Russia - 4 million square kilometers with about 50 thousand river basins. The project was financed by a grant of the Russian Science Foundation and took 3 years of work by 10 employees.
Professor Oleg Yermolaev, Head of the Space Ecology Lab, commented, "These basin geosystems have been included in the database which describes the environmental and resource potential of European Russia. This part of our country is covered in small rivers. We have coped with the challenge to research these rivers and their basins. Such an undertaking had never been attempted before that".
According to Dr. Yermolaev, the database includes around 50 different parameters. It consists of various types of data about the territories' resource potential and anthropogenic influence on them. Some of the parameters are area, types of soils, composition of formations, population density, road density, altitudes, forest cover, marshiness, ploughed area, river flow, and 16 climate characteristics.
Four patents have been registered in the course of this work. Moreover, KFU sociologists were asked to create a questionnaire for the database users, and it is now being adjusted in accordance with their feedback.
The database can be found at http://bassepr.kpfu.ru/
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On August 17, 2017 the LIGO-Virgo collaboration alerted more than 90 astronomy teams around the world, that they had detected a signal (GW170817) consistent with the inspiral and merger of two neutron stars. Raffaele Flaminio (NAOJ and CNRS/LAPP), a scientist from the Virgo and KAGRA collaborations, explains that "Thanks to the combination of the data from the LIGO detectors in the US and the Virgo detector in Europe, this was the best ever localized gravitational wave source."
J-GEM (Japanese collaboration of Gravitational wave Electro-Magnetic follow-up) is a research project to search for optical counterparts of gravitational wave sources because optical observations give us different information than gravitational wave observations. Indeed multi-messenger astronomy, observing the same phenomenon with both gravitational waves and normal light, is needed to paint the full picture of the phenomenon.
Neutron star mergers are expected to have strong optical and infrared light emissions, so J-GEM sprang in to action. Using a network of telescopes around the world, including the Subaru Telescope in Hawai`i and the 1.4-m IRSF telescope in South Africa (run by Nagoya University and Kagoshima University), they observed the source located 130 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra, trying to discern its true nature. As they watched the object change day by day, they realized that they were observing the first ever confirmed kilonova.
Astronomers have long searched for sites in the Universe where the heavy elements were produced by rapid neutron capture (r-process) reactions. One possible candidate was kilonova explosions which are predicted to produce 10,000 times the mass of the Earth in rare earth elements and precious metals.
The time evolution of the color and brightness of the object at the origin of the gravitational waves were too rapid to be a supernova, but matched the simulations of a kilonova made by the ATERUI supercomputer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
"We were so excited to see the rapid brightness evolution revealed day by day through observations at facilities operated by Japanese institutes distributed all over the world." said Yousuke Utsumi (Hiroshima University), a scientist in the J-GEM collaboration.
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An international research collaboration, including four Northwestern University astronomers, is the first to detect the spectacular collision of two neutron stars using both gravitational waves and light.
The discovery ushers in an exciting new era in astronomy -- multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves -- less than two years after the first detection of gravitational waves opened a new window onto the universe.
Northwestern's Vicky Kalogera, the leading astrophysicist in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), is one of six experts on a special panel at the National Science Foundation (NSF) press conference announcing the news today (Oct. 16) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Watch the livestream of the press conference.
Gravitational waves were directly detected for the first time Sept. 14, 2015, by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), confirming Einstein's theory of general relativity. Following the discovery, the observatory's architects were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The historic discovery of colliding neutron stars -- which happened the morning of Aug. 17 with the longest gravitational-wave signal detected to date and a short gamma ray burst signal -- was made by thousands of scientists and engineers using the U.S.-based LIGO; the Europe-based Virgo gravitational wave detector; and some 70 ground- and space-based observatories, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
The neutron stars' spiral death dance in a nearby galaxy, 130 million light-years from Earth, ended with an extremely violent and bright collision -- powerful enough to forge gold, platinum, lead and other heavy elements.
"Mergers of double neutron stars were predicted over many decades to drive such powerful explosions, but this multi-messenger discovery brings two key pieces of the puzzle together for the first time," Kalogera said. "Our discovery confirms a lot of our theoretical predictions, including that double neutron stars give rise to gamma rays, optical, infrared, X-rays and radio waves. At the same time, there are hints in these observations that are providing new mysteries we still need to understand."
Northwestern holds a unique leadership position in the discovery of the rare neutron star merger with four astronomers in the worldwide collaborations that made the discovery -- two on the gravitational-wave side, including Kalogera, and two on the electromagnetic radiation side. They and their research groups worked within their collaborations in leadership roles, producing several of the key science publications.
"Northwestern has played a singular role in this discovery, and that really is not an exaggeration," Kalogera said. She is the Daniel I. Linzer Distinguished University Professor of Physics and Astronomy and director of Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) in Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
Neutron stars are the smallest, densest stars known to exist and are formed when massive stars explode in supernovae. A neutron star is about 12 miles in diameter and is so dense that a teaspoon of neutron star material has a mass of about a billion tons.
As the neutron stars detected on Aug. 17 spiraled toward each other, they emitted gravitational waves -- ripples in space and time -- that were detectable on Earth for about 100 seconds; when the stars collided, a flash of light in the form of gamma rays was emitted and seen on Earth about two seconds after the gravitational waves were observed. In the days and weeks following the smashup, other forms of light, or electromagnetic radiation -- including X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared and radio waves -- were detected.
"This combination of light and gravitational waves is brand new and very exciting -- we've never had this kind of observation before," Kalogera said. "With the gravitational-wave signals from three detectors, two in the U.S. and one in Italy, we were able to tell our electromagnetic colleagues, working across the electromagnetic spectrum, where in the sky to point their telescopes to find the pair of neutron stars."
At Northwestern, Kalogera has built a strong and unique research team that covers both areas of astronomy critical to this discovery -- and with many more discoveries to come. Kalogera leads Northwestern's LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) team, which includes fellow theoretical astrophysicist Shane L. Larson. On the electromagnetic side are Raffaella Margutti and Wen-fai Fong, two new faculty hires in astronomy at the University.
Selim Shahriar, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering, also is a member of Northwestern's LSC team and part of the Aug. 17 discovery. More than a dozen Northwestern postdoctoral fellows and graduate and undergraduate students also are involved.
Margutti and Fong are leading two observational efforts covering the electromagnetic spectrum that follow up on the Aug. 17 gravitational-wave signal. Each of them is leading one of the eight publications coming out of the electromagnetic collaboration.
"The universe produces very different radiations -- it is trying to communicate with us in multiple ways," said Margutti, an expert in stellar explosions. "Before LIGO, it was the equivalent of astronomers using one eye to look at our universe. Now, with gravitational wave detectors, we have a new independent channel of information, providing us with a second eye for investigating the mysteries of the universe.
"Thanks to this multi-messenger event, we know for a fact that neutron star mergers can produce heavy elements such as gold, silver and iron, which are so important to us on this planet," she said.
Margutti, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and a CIERA member, said once word of the gravitational-wave signal spread to observational astronomers on Aug. 17, they had to rush to point their telescopes at the right area of the sky before sunset so they would be ready. For Margutti and Fong, that telescope was the 4-meter Victor Blanco telescope in Chile. The visible light signal came shortly after sunset, loud and clear, only 12 hours after the gravitational-wave signal reached Earth.
Several days after the neutron star merger, Margutti and Fong also saw electromagnetic waves with the Chandra X-ray Observatory in space (X-rays) and with the Very Large Array in New Mexico (radio waves).
The gravitational-wave signals and electromagnetic radiation signals each contribute different critical pieces of information about the same cosmic event. Gravitational waves tell the scientists what the objects are, the masses of the objects and roughly where in the sky the event happened. Electromagnetic waves are used to pinpoint the location in the sky exactly -- what galaxy produced the neutron star merger and where in the galaxy it happened.
"We've always predicted that if you had light and gravity together, the two pieces of information could tell you something more," said Larson, a research associate professor of physics and astronomy, associate director of CIERA and a LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) member.
"This is the event we've all been waiting for -- binary neutron stars -- because all four previous gravitational wave detections have been binary black holes," Larson said. "Black holes don't emit light, but neutron stars are made of matter that does emit light. These skeletons of dead stars are telling us something about how stars live and evolve in the universe and how they fill the stellar graveyard with whatever it is that they've done during their lives."
The gravitational-wave signal, named GW170817, originated in galaxy NGC 4993 in the constellation Hydra. It was first detected Aug. 17 at 8:41 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time by the two identical LIGO detectors, located in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana. The information provided by the third detector, Virgo, situated near Pisa, Italy, enabled an improvement in localizing the cosmic event.
At nearly the same time, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on NASA's Fermi space telescope had detected a burst of gamma rays. LIGO-Virgo analysis software put the two signals together and saw it was highly unlikely to be a chance coincidence. Rapid gravitational wave detection by the LIGO-Virgo team, coupled with Fermi's gamma-ray detection, enabled the launch of follow-up observations by telescopes around the world, including in Chile and New Mexico, the location of two of the telescopes with which the Northwestern astronomers work.
"I remember waking up that day to a flurry of emails saying there is a gamma-ray burst in conjunction with a gravitational wave event," said Fong, a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at CIERA whose expertise is in gamma-ray bursts. "I thought, 'This is what we've been waiting for our entire careers.'
"To be involved in electromagnetic follow up of gravitational wave sources -- that's essentially what I was hired to do here at Northwestern," said Fong, who will become an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern in fall 2018. "Never did I realize that 17 days after I started, the event of the century would happen. Up until now, there have been decades of theories predicting what these sources should look like, and it's very exciting because this event remarkably matches these theories."
And this multi-messenger discovery of colliding neutron stars is only the beginning for all the astronomers, scientists and engineers around the globe involved in studying the cosmos. Astronomers know that two neutron stars merged into one compact object, but what exactly is it? And why was the gamma ray burst so surprisingly faint? These are only a few of the questions raised. Plus, there are many more extreme cosmic events to discover.
"One might say, 'Okay, you've done your job, now let's go home,'" Kalogera said. "But in reality, this is just the beginning for us. The more sources like this we detect, the more we can learn. The universe doesn't stop with one such collision, and not all collisions will be the same. We know that from the binary black holes. We're bound to find new mysteries."
Multimedia:
Podcast explaining the science via Northwestern University gravitational wave and electromagnetic experts: https://soundcloud.com/northwesternu/multimessengerastronomy/s-x35G4
Narrative YouTube video explaining the science via Northwestern University gravitational wave and electromagnetic experts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uJvSM8i0C8&feature=youtu.be
Northwestern's discovery team
Gravitational waves:
* Vicky Kalogera
Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA)
Daniel I. Linzer Distinguished University Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Northwestern University
Leading astrophysicist in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
office 847-491-5669
vicky@northwestern.edu
"We could see most clearly in the amazing gravitational-wave signal, which was 100 seconds long, that the cosmic event was a spiral dance with the eventual collision and death of a pair of neutron stars," Kalogera said.
"There was a burst of gravitational waves with the stars settling into a single compact object, the details of which are unknown to us. When that nuclear matter came crashing together, electromagnetic waves were emitted and detected by land-based and space-based observatories. This is the first time we've detected both gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves from a single cosmic source."
* Shane L. Larson
Research associate professor of physics and astronomy
Associate director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA)
Northwestern University
Member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration
office 847-467-4305
s.larson@northwestern.edu
"We're just seeing the tip of the iceberg of what might be possible -- multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves is what we are so excited about," Larson said. "We can measure the properties of how the objects are moving, its red shift, the atoms that are in the material, all of that sort of stuff, together with the gravitational wave information, which tells us how massive an object is, how dense it is, what the matter is doing and how it's moving and combining."
Electromagnetic radiation:
* Raffaella Margutti
Assistant professor of physics and astronomy
Member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA)
Northwestern University
office 847-491-8637
raffaella.margutti@northwestern.edu
"This is the first time we have put together light and gravitational waves, which means, also for the first time, we can tell you exactly where the cosmic event happened and how it happened," Margutti said.
* Wen-fai Fong
Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA)
Northwestern University
wfong@northwestern.edu
"Examining an event at just one wavelength gives you only a very small piece of the story, " Fong said. "So observing this event across the electromagnetic spectrum really gives us the full picture of what is happening.
"For a long time we've hypothesized that this mysterious class of explosions called short gamma-ray bursts originate from neutron star mergers. Now, after a few decades, it's really exciting to be able to be part of a discovery that proves that hypothesis," she said.
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo
LIGO is funded by the NSF, and operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived of LIGO and led the Initial and Advanced LIGO projects. Financial support for the Advanced LIGO project was led by the NSF with Germany (Max Planck Society), the U.K. (Science and Technology Facilities Council) and Australia (Australian Research Council) making significant commitments and contributions to the project. More than 1,200 scientists and some 100 institutions from around the world participate in the effort through the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which includes the GEO Collaboration and the Australian collaboration OzGrav. Additional partners are listed on the LIGO Scientific Collaboration's website.
The Virgo collaboration consists of more than 280 physicists and engineers belonging to 20 different European research groups: six from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France; eight from the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy; two in the Netherlands with Nikhef; the MTA Wigner RCP in Hungary; the POLGRAW group in Poland; Spain with the University of Valencia; and the European Gravitational Observatory, EGO, the laboratory hosting the Virgo detector near Pisa in Italy, funded by CNRS, INFN and Nikhef.
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Cellular aging could increase risks for mom and baby, researchers say
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Pregnant women who had low socioeconomic status during childhood and who have poor family social support appear to prematurely age on a cellular level, potentially raising the risk for complications, a new study has found.
Researchers at The Ohio State University examined blood from pregnant women to evaluate the length of telomeres - structures at the end of chromosomes that are used by scientists as a measure of biological (as opposed to chronological) age. Shorter telomeres mean an older cellular age.
The researchers also asked the moms-to-be about stressors, including low socioeconomic status and trauma during their childhood and current social support.
They found that women who reported low socioeconomic status as kids and who struggled with family support as adults were biologically older, as indicated by shorter telomeres.
This study didn't examine birth outcomes, but prompted the researchers to wonder if this rapid biological aging could put a woman at greater risk of premature delivery, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and other problems.
The research appears in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.
Previous research already has established worse birth outcomes in women with psychosocial risk factors, including low socioeconomic status. The cellular aging found in this study is one possible explanation, said Lisa Christian, the study's senior author and a researcher in Ohio State Wexner Medical Center's Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research.
"Access to support, care and resources is so important to expectant moms," she said.
The study included a racially diverse group of 81 pregnant women who were 25 years old on average. They were evaluated during each trimester of pregnancy and again about two months after delivery. Measures of trauma and low socioeconomic status during childhood, along with the measure of current social support, came from questionnaires the women filled out.
Family social support - but not support from partners or friends - emerged as a strong predictor of telomere length, as did low socioeconomic status during childhood.
Advanced maternal age is defined by doctors as 35 or older. It is well-understood that older mothers are at higher risk of having babies with medical and developmental challenges, and it is possible that this applies to moms with advanced cellular age as well, said the study's lead author, Amanda Mitchell, who was on the research team at Ohio State and is now a faculty member at the University of Louisville.
"What we are wondering is, how does biological age factor in? We know that there are younger mothers who have poor birth outcomes, and that chronological age is not a perfect predictor of outcomes," Mitchell said.
Telomeres are caps on the ends of chromosomes that shorten as cells replicate - part of the natural aging process. Mitchell compared them to the plastic covering on the end of a shoelace.
"With age - or stress - those plastic coverings wear away and the ends of the lace unravel," she said.
The good news: Telomeres can also lengthen, lowering biological age.
For now, telomere assessment is strictly used for research purposes and not something that would translate into clinical practice, Christian said.
But it's possible that the knowledge gained by research into cellular aging could prompt useful interventions in obstetrics practices - including greater focus on moms' psychological well-being and support systems, Christian said.
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The National Institutes of Health and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences supported the study.
Jennifer Kowalsky of Ohio State's the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research also worked on the study, as did researchers from the University of California San Francisco.
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CONTACT: Alexis Shaw, OSU Wexner Medical Center Public Affairs and Media Relations, 614-293-3737, alexis.shaw2@osumc.edu
For the first time, scientists worldwide and at Penn State University have detected both gravitational waves and light shooting toward our planet from one massively powerful event in space -- the birth of a new black hole created by the merger of two neutron stars. This detection is important because it marks the beginning of a new era of "multi-messenger" as well as "multi-wavelength" space exploration -- an era when gravitational-wave detectors are triggering a global network of other types of instruments to focus their special detection powers simultaneously on one fleetingly explosive point in space.
All the previous gravitational-wave detections since the first in September 2015 had been the result of two merging black holes -- objects much more massive than a neutron star -- which have left only gravitational waves as fleeting clues of their merger. "The evidence that these new gravitational waves are from merging neutron stars has been captured, for the first time, by observatories on Earth and in orbit that detect electromagnetic radiation, including visible light and other wavelengths," said Chad Hanna, assistant professor of physics and of astronomy & astrophysics and Freed Early Career Professor at Penn State. Hanna has served as co-chair of the Compact Binary Coalescence Group of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), and is one of the primary data analysts involved in this research.
"Several graduate students and post-docs on my Penn State research team were among the first in the world to see the alert triggered by LIGO when this new gravitational wave arrived," Hanna said. "Cody Messick -- a graduate student -- sent the first email to the broader collaboration notifying everyone of what had happened." Penn State's LIGO team, along with other members of the LIGO and Virgo collaborations, quickly alerted a worldwide network of observatories whose scientists then commandeered their telescopes and other detectors to look for more evidence. "Because we now have three gravitational-wave detectors -- the two LIGO detectors in the United States plus the Virgo detector in Europe -- we were able to triangulate the location of the source of the waves sufficiently well for several observatories to find the counterpart" Hanna said.
NASA's Swift, Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer missions, along with dozens of ground-based observatories, later captured the fading glow of the blast's expanding debris. Numerous scientific papers describing and interpreting these new observations are being published in "Science," "Nature," "Physical Review Letters" and "The Astrophysical Journal." Penn State scientists are leaders and innovators in many of the scientific collaborations contributing to these new multiwavelength discoveries. Penn State has earned a reputation rivaled by only a few other educational institutions for the breadth and depth of the contributions its scientists have made and are continuing to make in discoveries that enrich our understanding of the universe and its effect on our planet.
"We applaud this latest achievement of our many Penn State scientists and students who have helped to build and are helping to develop this innovative new technology and its system of international collaboration among many research teams worldwide," said Nicholas P. Jones, Penn State's Executive Vice President and Provost. "With their knowledge, skills, and creativity, our scientists are contributing to the evolution of this new way of exploring the universe."
Penn State scientists are leaders in the development and operation of NASA's Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer satellite. Two of Swift's three instruments were built with Penn State leadership, and Penn State continues to lead Swift's Mission Operations Center, which is located on the University Park Campus. "Swift's rapid response time enabled us to use it to rapidly search for and detect the electromagnetic counterpart of this gamma-ray burst after its detection by LIGO," said Jamie Kennea, associate research professor of astronomy and astrophysics, the leader of the Swift Science Operations Team at Swift's Mission Operations Center, located at Penn State's University Park campus.
"We saw ultraviolet light resulting from this gravitational-wave event as part of Swift observations of almost 750 different locations in the sky. Then, as this light rapidly faded from view, we intensely observed it with Swift's ultraviolet/optical telescope, the UVOT," Kennea said. "Because ultraviolet light from objects in space can be detected only by telescopes located outside Earth's atmosphere, Swift's UVOT telescope provided unique data on this event. These new data now present new questions for theorists to solve."
Penn State astronomers also are among the leaders in the development and use of NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. Gordon Garmire, Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics, is the principal investigator of the team that built one of the primary instruments on board the satellite. He also is a co-discoverer of high-energy gamma rays and is responsible for developing many of the data-analysis algorithms used today in high-energy astrophysics.
Penn State's Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, directed by Eberly Professor of Physics Abhay Ashtekar, includes Penn State's Center for Particle and Gravitational Wave Astrophysics, where leading scientists in both theoretical and experimental physics collaborate. The center's faculty are prominent participants in eight major international projects that are making rapid-response observations -- using extremely high-energy protons and nuclei, neutrinos, gamma-rays, X-rays and gravitational waves -- as quickly as possible after gravitational waves are discovered by the LIGO and Virgo detectors. These projects are the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer satellite, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory, the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational-waves (NANOGrav) and the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) TeV gamma-ray detector.
Long before it was possible to detect gravitational waves, highly respected theories about the kinds of evidence that two merging neutron stars could produce were developed by Peter Meszaros, Penn State's Eberly Family Chair in Astronomy & Astrophysics and Professor of Physics, together with his colleague Martin Rees. "Our theories predicted that neutron star binaries, which would inevitably merge as they emit gravitational waves, would produce a short and distinctive burst of gamma rays at the moment of their merger," Meszaros said. "Previously, as anticipated, gamma ray detectors had observed bursts of gamma rays such as were expected from neutron star mergers. However, we never before have had the important independent confirmation of the merger of two neutron stars that we now have obtained with this new gravitational wave detection. For the first time, exactly the evidence we needed has been provided by the gamma-ray detections that coincided with this new gravitational-wave burst."
The scientists now have not only gravitational-wave detectors but also a wealth of other types of observatories collaborating in this effort to capture a range of multimessenger signals from the sources that produce gravitational waves. "In order to facilitate this effort, Penn State is spearheading the new Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network (AMON) in our Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos," Meszaros said. These combined detection capabilities give us a much better tool, which we now can begin to use to gauge -- much more accurately than previously was possible -- the age of the universe and how fast it is expanding."
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CONTACTS:
Chad Hanna: crh184@psu.edu, (+1) 814-865-2924
Peter Meszaros: nnp@psu.edu, (+1) 814-863-4167 < http://personal.psu.edu/nnp/>
Bangalore Sathyaprakash: bss25@psu.edu, (+1) 814-865-3062 < http://www.phys.psu.edu/people/bss25>
Barbara K. Kennedy (PIO): bkk1@psu.edu, (+1) 814-863-4682
VIDEOS:
You can download two video clips -- of Chad Hanna and B. S. Sathyaprakash -- at this link https://psu.box.com/s/8p2t585xv02yqoagqx6w6p4y5w1t7g1x
(You may not be able to preview the videos from this link, but you will be able to download them.)
IMAGES:
You can download a photo from this link https://psu.box.com/s/917b028759p08ndb5blgkxf3mcnkc85w
Caption: Chad Hanna demonstrates gravitational waves via ripples in water.
Credit: Michelle Bixby, Penn State.
and
An artist's illustration from this link
https://psu.box.com/s/73thogh663mshtc727h2lwnyk5bwmer5
Caption: Before the Merge: Spiraling Black Holes. This artist's conception shows two merging black holes similar to those detected by LIGO. The black holes--which will ultimately spiral together into one larger black hole--are shown orbiting one another in a plane. They are spinning in a non-aligned fashion, which means they have different orientations relative to the overall orbital motion of the pair. There is a hint of this phenomenon found by LIGO in at least one black hole of the GW170104 black-hole system.
Credit: LIGO/Caltech/MIT/Sonoma State (Aurore Simonnet)
MORE INFORMATION:
--> Swift is managed in collaboration with Penn State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Orbital ATK Corp. in Dulles, Virginia, with international partners in the United Kingdom and Italy. NASA Goddard manages the Fermi, Swift and Hubble missions.
--> LIGO is funded by the NSF, and operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived of LIGO and led the Initial and Advanced LIGO projects. Financial support for the Advanced LIGO project was led by NSF with Germany (Max Planck Society), the U.K. (Science and Technology Facilities Council) and Australia (Australian Research Council) making significant commitments and contributions to the project. More than 1,200 scientists from around the world participate in the effort through the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which includes the GEO Collaboration. Additional partners are listed at http://ligo.org/partners.php. The Virgo collaboration consists of more than 280 physicists and engineers belonging to 20 different European research groups: six from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France; eight from the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy; two in The Netherlands with Nikhef; the MTA Wigner RCP in Hungary; the POLGRAW group in Poland; Spain with the University of Valencia; and the European Gravitational Observatory, EGO, the laboratory hosting the Virgo detector near Pisa in Italy, funded by CNRS, INFN, and Nikhef.
Arlington, Va. - Oct. 16, 2017 - The opioid epidemic is the most important health issue in West Virginia, above obesity, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and dental disease, according to a state-based public opinion survey commissioned by Research!America. A strong majority of West Virginians (84%) say prescription pain medication abuse and addiction is a major problem in their community, and more than two-thirds (71%) say they know someone who experienced pain so severe they sought prescription medicines to treat it.
When asked about barriers to effectively combating the opioid epidemic, respondents said overprescribing of opioids (70%), lack of coordination between state and federal governments to address the epidemic (49%), lack of access to treatment (45%) and lack of funding for research and prevention (41%). As for potential solutions, nearly two-thirds (63%) agree that a White House declaration that the opioid epidemic is a national emergency will support local efforts to address the crisis. A federal emergency declaration could expedite access to resources. More than three-quarters of respondents (77%) support increased federal funding for research to better understand and combat the opioid addiction.
A significant percentage of West Virginians (86%) also say it is important for medical records to prominently state whether a patient is recovering from addiction to prevent overprescribing of opioids in the same way they are marked if a patient is allergic to penicillin. And 54% agree that opioid deaths in the state can be reduced by increasing access to opioid overdose reversal drugs in the state's schools and public facilities such as libraries.
"West Virginia is grappling with a public health crisis that requires increased support for research and innovative solutions to save lives and revitalize communities hit hard by the epidemic," said Mary Woolley, president and CEO, Research!America. "Both the public and private sector play critical roles in preventing and treating opioid use disorders in the state and nationally."
Currently, the U.S. spends about 5 cents of each health dollar on research to prevent, cure and treat disease and disability. Sixty-one percent of West Virginians say it is not enough, a significantly higher percentage than the U.S. general population (40%). And in terms of jobs and incomes, a majority of West Virginians say spending money on medical research is important to the state's economy (78%). A strong majority agree that it is important for the federal government to support incentives for private sector investment in new treatments and cures (82%), as well as state government support for legislation to encourage private investments in medical research (82%).
West Virginians also agree that federal taxpayer funds should be used to support scientific research at public universities (77%), in addition to state taxpayer funds supporting such research (73%). Respondents also expressed strong support for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and careers in those fields, with 85% in agreement that the state and federal government should assign a higher priority to improving STEM education and careers.
"West Virginians value a statewide education system that stimulates interest in science and technology to support a 21st Century economy," said Dr. Mary J.C. Hendrix, president, Shepherd University. "With stronger investments in research, we can re-invigorate West Virginia's workforce and overcome health challenges associated with debilitating diseases in Appalachia and across the state."
Rural health research is important to West Virginians with an overwhelming majority (86%) in support of increased funding for research that focuses on issues important to the delivery of rural medical services, the viability of rural health care facilities, and the health of individuals in rural areas. Similarly, a strong majority (87%) say it is important to conduct research to eliminate health disparities, 14% higher than the U.S. general population, and support for basic scientific research supported by the federal government that advances the frontiers of knowledge, even if it brings no immediate benefits, is strong - 81% compared to 63% of the U.S. general population. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of the U.S. general population are willing to share personal health information, assuming that the appropriate privacy protections are in place, so public health officials can better track disease, disability and the causes, compared to 50% of West Virginians.
A strong majority (87%) of West Virginians say they value clinical research, often referred to as clinical trials, but only 13% say they or anyone in their family has ever participated in clinical trials. Among the factors that influence West Virginians' decision to participate as a volunteer in a clinical trial: whether they would have medical bills covered if they had an injury from the study (92%); understanding potential risks and benefits (91%); improving their own health (91%); and the opportunity to improve the health of others (91%). Opinions are split as to whether health care services they personally receive are based on the best and most recent research available - 43% said yes, 34% said no and 23% said not sure.
Among other findings:
A strong majority of West Virginians (89%) say it is important that the U.S. maintain its role as a world leader in medical research.
78% say it is important for the state to be a leader in medical and health research.
69% of respondents believe the U.S. government should help fund prevention research to help people make behavioral changes that can help them overcome health threats such as substance abuse, obesity, smoking, hypertension and diabetes.
66% say it is important to increase funding for social sciences research to understand aspects of human behavior and the functioning of society, including topics ranging from causes of unemployment to the best ways to help people quit smoking or lose weight.
The survey of 403 West Virginians was conducted by Zogby Analytics for Research!America in September 2017. The margin of error is +/- 4.9 percentage points. To view survey results click here.
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About Research!America Surveys
Research!America began commissioning surveys in 1992 in an effort to understand public support for medical, health and scientific research. The results of Research!America's surveys have proven invaluable to our alliance of member organizations and, in turn, to the fulfillment of our mission to make research to improve health a higher national priority. In response to growing usage and demand, Research!America has expanded its portfolio, which includes state, national and issue-specific surveys. Survey data is available by request or at http://www.researchamerica.org.
About Research!America
Research!America is the nation's largest nonprofit public education and advocacy alliance working to make research to improve health a higher national priority. Founded in 1989, Research!America is supported by member organizations representing 125 million Americans. Visit http://www.researchamerica.org.
Rochester Institute of Technology researchers played a significant role in an international announcement today that has changed the future of astrophysics.
The breakthrough discovery of colliding neutron stars marks the first time both gravitational waves and light have been detected from the same cosmic collision.
"Multimessenger astronomy," a new way of understanding the universe, will give us insight into how supernova explosions work, how gold and other heavy elements are created, how the nuclei in our body works and even how fast the universe is expanding.
"Multimessenger astronomy demonstrates how we can combine the old way with the new," said Manuela Campanelli, professor and director of RIT's Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation. "It has changed the way astronomy is done."
The breakthrough was made by the U.S.-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), the Europe-based Virgo detector and 70 ground- and space-based observatories.
"On Aug.17, the LIGO detectors observed two neutron stars spiralling into each other," said John Whelan, associate professor and principal investigator of RIT's group in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. "Two seconds later, the orbiting FERMI and INTEGRAL telescopes observed a burst of gamma rays. The LIGO and Virgo data gave us a location on the sky which agreed with the gamma-ray observations. We sent an alert out to dozens of observing partners who pointed their telescopes at that spot, and they saw a new light in a galaxy about 100 million light years away."
The results resolve longstanding astronomical mysteries, said Richard O'Shaughnessy, assistant professor in RIT's School of Mathematical Sciences, who was part of the LIGO team that measured the properties of the neutron stars.
Neutron stars--corpses of massive stars formed in supernova explosions--emit signals that can be observed by both gravitational-wave and traditional astronomy.
"This is like the Rosetta Stone for high-energy, multimessenger astrophysics," O'Shaughnessy said. "It will bring unprecedented transformations in our understanding of the universe."
The neutron star collision created a flash of gamma rays detected by the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on NASA's Fermi Space Telescope. The light was seen on Earth two seconds after LIGO-Virgo detected the gravitational waves. Signals of other forms of light, or electromagnetic radiation--X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared and radio waves--were also detected.
"By seeing the flash of light and the gravitational waves associated with the merger, we were able to pin down precisely what it was, and that it made multiple things happen at the same time," O'Shaughnessy said.
The single event created multimessenger astronomy and spawned multiple discoveries:
Gamma rays: These flashes of light are now definitively associated with merging neutron stars and will help scientists figure out how supernova explosions work, O'Shaughnessy said.
The initial gamma-ray measurements, combined with the gravitational-wave detection, further confirm Einstein's general theory of relativity, which predicts that gravitational waves should travel at the speed of light;
Gold: "We can probably account for all the gold that has ever been made," O'Shaughnessy said. "We know how often neutron stars merge and can predict how much of the radioactive material they eject. We can predict how much gold they make."
The detection confirms the "kilonova" theory that material left over from the neutron star collision blows out of the immediate region and far out into space. Light-based observations show that heavy elements, such as lead and gold, are created in these collisions and subsequently distributed throughout the universe;
Nuclear physics astronomy: "Eventually, more observations like this discovery will tell us how the nuclei in our body works," O'Shaughnessy said. "The effects of gravity on neutron stars will tell us how big balls of neutrons behave, and, by inference, little balls of neutrons and protons--the stuff inside of our body that makes up most of our mass"; and
Cosmology: "Scientists now can independently measure how fast the universe is expanding by comparing the distance to the galaxy containing the bright flare of light and distance inferred from our gravitational wave observation," said O'Shaughnessy.
RIT faculty in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration include Campanelli, O'Shaughnessy, Whelan, Carlos Lousto, Yosef Zlochower andHans-Peter Bischof. They are members of the Frontiers of Gravitational Wave Astrophysics, an RIT signature research initiative within the center, which supports research in multimessenger astronomy, and plays a leadership role in educating students and in developing space-based detectors.
The Findings of the LSC and the Virgo collaboration are published today in the journals Physical Review Letters, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and Nature. Among the authors of today's papers are Lousto, O'Shaughnessy, Whelan, post-doctoral researcher James Healy, and several student researchers at the Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation: Monica Rizzo, an undergraduate physics major; John Bero, an MS student in the astrophysical sciences and technology graduate program; and Ph.D. students in astrophysical sciences and technology (AST) Jacob Lange, Jared Wofford, Daniel Wysocki and recent Ph.D. recipient Yuanhao Zhang. Doctoral students Brennan Ireland (AST) and Nicole Rosato (mathematical modeling) are also members of RIT's group in the LSC.
Rizzo works closely with O'Shaughnessy on parameter estimation, a type of analysis that uses statistical methods to make predictions about the system that produced the gravitational waves.
"My favorite thing about this discovery is that it is the first of hopefully many of its kind," said Rizzo, a physics major from Buffalo, N.Y. "From this single detection, we were able to make inferences about the neutron stars in this particular binary."
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About RIT's Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation:
The Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation is a Research Center of the College of Science and a Research Center of Excellence at the Rochester Institute of Technology dedicated to research at the frontiers of numerical relativity and relativistic astrophysics, gravitational-wave physics, its connection to experiments and observations, and high-performance computation and scientific visualization.
Founded in 2007, the CCRG now includes tens of high-caliber faculty, research scientists, postdoctoral researchers, and an increasing number of graduate and undergraduate students across several departments and colleges. For more information, go to http://ccrg.rit.edu.
About LIGO:
LIGO is funded by the NSF, and operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived of LIGO and led the Initial and Advanced LIGO projects. Financial support for the Advanced LIGO project was led by the NSF with Germany (Max Planck Society), the U.K. (Science and Technology Facilities Council) and Australia (Australian Research Council) making significant commitments and contributions to the project.
More than 1,200 scientists and some 100 institutions from around the world participate in the effort through the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which includes the GEO Collaboration and the Australian collaboration OzGrav. Additional partners are listed at http://ligo.org/partners.php
The Virgo collaboration consists of more than 280 physicists and engineers belonging to 20 different European research groups: six from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France; eight from the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy; two in the Netherlands with Nikhef; the MTA Wigner RCP in Hungary; the POLGRAW group in Poland; Spain with the University of Valencia; and the European Gravitational Observatory, EGO, the laboratory hosting the Virgo detector near Pisa in Italy, funded by CNRS, INFN, and Nikhef.
Dr KC may need emergency care as his health declines
The health condition of Dr Govinda KC, who has been staging fast-unto-death for the last 11 days, has deteriorated further and might need an emergency medical care, according to doctors attending to him.
When it comes to seeking answers to questions about science, evangelical and black Protestants and Mormons are more likely than the general population to turn to religion, according to a new study by researchers from Rice University's Religion and Public Life Program, the University of Nevada-Reno and West Virginia University.
Thestudy, which is slated to appear in an upcoming edition of the journal Public Understanding of Science, is the first to measure whether people would actively consult a religious authority or source of information with a question about science, said lead researcher Elaine Howard Ecklund, the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, a professor of sociology at Rice and director of Rice's Religion and Public Life Program.
"Our findings suggest that religion does not necessarily push individuals away from science sources, but religion might lead people to turn to religious sources in addition to scientific sources," Ecklund said.
The study, "Scientists and Religious Leaders Compete for Cultural Authority of Science," is based on a survey of 10,241 Americans who provided information about their confidence and interest in science, their religious characteristics and their political ideology. The sample included a wide range of people, including all religious groups as well as the nonreligious.
"People have many places to look for scientific news and information: the internet, books or documentaries by science popularizers, museums or social media," Ecklund said. "But there is good reason to believe some look beyond scientific sources of information when questions arise about science. Some segments of the public, for example, are skeptical of the scientific community when it comes to topics like climate change, evolution or vaccines."
Ecklund and colleagues found that the general survey population was more likely to consult a scientific source than a religious source when seeking answers to scientific questions. This was also true when the researchers looked at mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians. For evangelical Protestants, black Protestants and Mormons, however, the gap between the likelihood of consulting a scientific source or a religious source was narrower.
While 16 percent of all survey respondents said they would be somewhat or very likely to consult a religious leader for answers to their science questions, this number jumps to 29 percent when just looking at evangelical Protestants or black Protestants and 25 percent when looking at Mormons. Similarly, 31 percent of evangelical Protestants, 30 percent of black Protestants and 31 percent of Mormons said they would be somewhat or very likely to consult a religious text for answers to scientific questions, compared with 18 percent of overall respondents. When asked whether they would be somewhat or very likely to consult people at their congregation about such questions, 27 percent of evangelicals, 26 percent of black Protestants and 31 percent of Mormons said yes, compared with 16 percent of overall surveyed respondents.
When asked about their views on consulting scientific sources, 37 percent of those surveyed said they would be somewhat or very likely to consult a book written by a Ph.D. scientist for answers to their questions, compared with 34 percent of evangelical Protestants, 39 percent of black Protestants and 46 percent of Mormons. And 53 percent of the general surveyed population said they would be somewhat or very likely to consult a scientific magazine, compared with 50 percent of evangelical Protestants, 52 percent of black Protestants and 66 percent of Mormons. Finally, 49 percent of all survey respondents said they would be somewhat or very likely to speak with a person working in a scientific occupation, compared with 46 percent of evangelical Protestants, 43 percent of black Protestants and 55 percent of Mormons.
The authors said the research provides helpful implications and insights for science communication.
"In order to reach the large swath of the U.S. population who are religious, scientists and science communicators should be targeting religious leaders and communities," Ecklund said. "If religious leaders are indeed already being approached with questions about science, it's possible they simply need the information in hand in order to translate accurate scientific information to the public or to connect religious people with scientists themselves."
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The study's other authors include Christopher Scheitle of West Virginia University and David Johnson of the University of Nevada at Reno.
This study was funded by the John Templeton Foundation and is available online at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0963662517718145.
This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Related materials:
Rice University Religion and Public Life Program: https://rplp.rice.edu
Elaine Howard Ecklund website: http://www.elainehowardecklund.com/
http://news.rice.edu/files/2012/05/0601_ECKLUND-b.jpg
Photo link: http://news.rice.edu/files/2012/05/0601_ECKLUND-b.jpg Photo credit: ThinkStockPhotos.com
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.
A better understanding of marijuana's effects on the developing brain is needed as the drug's rapidly changing legal status increases its recreational and medical use in the United States
Cellular-level changes to a part of the brain's reward system induced by chronic exposure to the psychoactive component of marijuana may contribute to the drug's pleasurable and potentially addictive qualities, suggests a study in young mice published in JNeurosci. The results could advance our understanding of marijuana's effects on the developing brain as the drug's rapidly changing legal status increases its recreational and medical use in the United States.
Drugs of abuse impact the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain, which is rich in dopamine neurons. Using juvenile and adolescent mice, Jeffrey Edwards and colleagues investigated the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical in marijuana responsible for its effects on cognition and behavior, on VTA GABA cells, an understudied inhibitory cell type in the reward system that regulates dopamine levels.
The authors found that a week of daily THC injections, but not a single injection, blocked the recovery of synapses onto VTA GABA cells in the mice. This finding suggests that persistent THC may alter the inhibitory function of these cells, increasing dopamine levels and the rewarding features of marijuana. These GABA neurons may represent a promising new target for treatment of cannabis use disorder, a common condition on the rise in the United States.
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Article: CB1-Dependent LTD in Ventral Tegmental Area GABA Neurons: a Novel Target for Marijuana DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0190-17.2017 Corresponding author: Jeffrey Edwards (Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA), Jeffrey_Edwards@byu.edu
About JNeurosci
JNeurosci, the Society for Neuroscience's first journal, was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.
About The Society for Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 37,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.
The first detection of gravitational waves from the cataclysmic merger of two neutron stars, and the observation of visible light in the aftermath of that merger, finally answer a long-standing question in astrophysics: Where do the heaviest elements, ranging from silver and other precious metals to uranium, come from?
Based on the brightness and color of the light emitted following the merger, which closely match theoretical predictions by University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicists, astronomers can now say that the gold or platinum in your wedding ring was in all likelihood forged during the brief but violent merger of two orbiting neutron stars somewhere in the universe.
This is the first detection of a neutron star merger by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors in the United States, whose leaders were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics two weeks ago, and the Virgo detector in Italy. LIGO had previously detected gravitational waves from four black hole mergers, and Virgo one, but such events should be completely dark. This is the first time that light associated with a source of gravitational waves has been detected.
"We have been working for years to predict what the light from a neutron merger would look like," said Daniel Kasen, an associate professor of physics and of astronomy at UC Berkeley and a scientist at Berkeley Lab. "Now that theoretical speculation has suddenly come to life."
The neutron star merger, dubbed GW170817, was detected on August 17 and immediately telegraphed to observers around the world, who turned their small and large telescopes on the region of the sky from which it came. The ripples in spacetime that LIGO/Virgo measured suggested a neutron star merger, since each star of the binary weighed between 1 and 2 times the mass of our sun. Apart from black holes, neutron stars are the densest objects known in the universe. They are created when a massive star exhausts its fuel and collapses onto itself, compressing a mass comparable to that of the sun into a sphere only 10 miles across.
Only 1.7 seconds after the gravitational waves were recorded, the Fermi space telescope detected a short burst of gamma rays from the same region, evidence that concentrated jets of energy are produced during the merger of neutron stars. Less than 11 hours later, observers caught their first glimpse of visible light from the source. It was localized to a known galaxy, NGC 4993, situated about 130 million light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Hydra.
The detection of a neutron star merger was surprising, because neutron stars are much smaller than black holes and their mergers produce much weaker gravitational waves than do black hole mergers. According to Berkeley professor of astronomy and physics Eliot Quataert, "We were anticipating LIGO finding a neutron star merger in the coming years but to see it so nearby - for astronomers - and so bright in normal light has exceeded all of our wildest expectations. And, even more amazingly, it turns out that most of our predictions of what neutron star mergers would look like as seen by normal telescopes were right!"
The LIGO/Virgo observations of gravitational waves and the detection of their optical counterpart will be discussed at a 10 a.m. EDT press conference on Monday, Oct. 16, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Simultaneously, several dozen papers discussing the observations will be published online by Nature, Science and the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Genesis of the elements
While hydrogen and helium were formed in the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, heavier elements like carbon and oxygen were formed later in the cores of stars through nuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium. But this process can only build elements up to iron. Making the heaviest elements requires a special environment in which atoms are repeatedly bombarded by free neutrons. As neutrons stick to the atomic nuclei, elements higher up the periodic table are built.
Where and how this process of heavy element production occurs has been one of the longest-standing questions in astrophysics. Recent attention has turned to neutron star mergers, where the collision of the two stars flings out clouds of neutron-rich matter into space, where they could assemble into heavy elements.
Speculation that astronomers might see light from such heavy elements traces back to the 1990s, but the idea had mostly been gathering dust until 2010, when Brian Metzger, then a freshly minted graduate student at UC Berkeley, now a professor of astrophysics at Columbia University, co-authored a paper with Quataert and Kasen in which they calculated the radioactivity of the neutron star debris and estimated its brightness for the first time.
"As the debris cloud expands into space," Metzger said, "the decay of radioactive elements keeps it hot, causing it to glow."
Metzger, Quataert, Kasen and collaborators showed that this light from neutron star mergers was roughly one thousand times brighter than normal nova explosions in our galaxy, motivating them to name these exotic flashes "kilonovae."
Still, basic questions remained as to what a kilonova would actually look like.
"Neutron star merger debris is weird stuff - a mixture of precious metals and radioactive waste," Kasen said.
Astronomers know of no comparable phenomena, so Kasen and collaborators had to turn to fundamental physics and solve mathematical equations describing how the quantum structure of heavy atoms determines how they emit and absorb light.
Jennifer Barnes, an Einstein postdoctoral fellow at Columbia, worked as a Berkeley graduate student with Kasen to make some of the first detailed predictions of what a kilonova should look like.
"When we calculated the opacities of the elements formed in a neutron star merger, we found a lot of variation. The lighter elements were optically similar to elements found in supernovae, but the heavier atoms were more than a hundred times more opaque than what we're used to seeing in astrophysical explosions," said Barnes. "If heavy elements are present in the debris from the merger, their high opacity should give kilonovae a reddish hue."
"I think we bummed out the entire astrophysics community when we first announced that," Kasen said. "We were predicting that a kilonova should be relatively faint and redder than red, meaning it would be an incredibly difficult thing to find. On the plus side, we had defined a smoking-gun - you can tell that you are seeing freshly produced heavy elements by their distinctive red color."
That is just what astronomers observed.
A 'treacherous prediction'
The August LIGO/Virgo discovery of a neutron star merger meant that "judgment day for the theorists would come sooner than expected," Kasen said.
"For years the idea of a kilonova had existed only in our theoretical imagination and our computer models," he said. "Given the complex physics involved, and the fact that we had essentially zero observational input to guide us, it was an insanely treacherous prediction -- the theorists were really sticking their necks out."
But as the data trickled in, one night after the next, the images began to assemble into a surprisingly familiar picture.
On the first couple nights of observations, the color of the merger event was relatively blue with a brightness that matched the predictions of kilonova models strikingly well if the outer layers of the merger debris are made of light precious elements such as silver. However, over the ensuing days the emission became increasingly red, a signature that the inner layers of the debris cloud also contain the heaviest elements, such as platinum, gold and uranium.
"Perhaps the biggest surprise was how well-behaved the visual signal acted compared to our theoretical expectations," Metzger noted. "No one had ever seen a neutron star merger up close before. Putting together the complete picture of such an event involves a wide range of physics - general relativity, hydrodynamics, nuclear physics, atomic physics. To combine all that and come up with a prediction that matches the reality of nature is a real triumph for theoretical astrophysics."
Kasen, who was also a member of observational teams that discovered and conducted follow-up observations of the source, recalled the excitement of the moment: "I was staying up past 3 a.m. night after night, comparing our models to the latest data, and thinking, 'I can't believe this is happening; I'm looking at something never before seen on Earth, and I think I actually understand what I am seeing.'"
Kasen and his colleagues have presented updated kilonova models and theoretical interpretations of the observations in a paper released Oct. 16 in advance of publication in Nature. Their models are also being used to analyze a wide-ranging set of data presented in seven additional papers appearing in Nature, Science and the Astrophysical Journal.
Not only did the observations confirm the theoretical predictions, but the modeling allowed Kasen and his colleagues to calculate the amount and chemical makeup of the material produced. The scientists inferred that around 6 percent of a solar mass of heavy elements were made. The yield of gold alone was around 200 Earth masses, and that of platinum nearly 500 Earth masses.
Initially, astrophysicists thought ordinary supernovae might account for the heavy elements, but there have always been problems with that theory, said co-author Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. According to Ramirez-Ruiz, the new observations support the theory that neutron star mergers can account for all the gold in the universe, as well as about half of all the other elements heavier than iron.
"Most of the time in science you are working to gradually advance an established subject," Kasen said. "It is rare to be around for the birth of an entirely new field of astrophysics. I think we are all very lucky to have had the chance to play a role."
Kasen's work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, and simulations were made possible by resources from the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). Kasen's and Quataert's work is supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Quataert is also supported by the Simons Foundation.
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Irvine, Calif. -- Exposure to high rates of conflicting information during an emergency is linked to increased levels of stress, and those who rely on text messages or social media reports from unofficial sources are more frequently exposed to rumors and experience greater distress, according to research led by the University of California, Irvine.
"During a crisis situation, like a school shooting or lockdown, people often seek information to stay informed about what's happening. However, when announcements and updates from official channels are lacking or irregular, there's a high risk that rumors will fill the void," said principal investigator Roxane Cohen Silver, professor of psychology & social behavior. "We wanted to explore how people coped with ambiguity during a campus lockdown and how a communications vacuum could lead to rumor generation, rumor transmission and distress."
Days after an active shooter event on a large university campus, Silver and doctoral student Nickolas M. Jones surveyed almost 4,000 students who were caught in a two-hour lockdown and evaluated their information-seeking activities and levels of acute stress. Jones then used a big-data approach involving a large-scale analysis of social media content to code and examine rumors that appeared on Twitter spanning about five hours surrounding the lockdown. The research paper describing the findings is published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
When danger is imminent and official information is disseminated inconsistently, public anxiety is elevated. In the past, people relied on radio and television broadcasts to reduce uncertainty. Today social media channels are frequently the source of updates, and users are exposed to a greater number of conflicting speculations and unverified reports. Moreover, this exposure is associated with greater distress. Jones' analysis of Twitter data showed that rumor generation and retweets were greatest during a 90-minute gap in communications from campus officials and were linked to heightened community-level negative emotion.
"In any uncertain and dangerous situation, it's important for officials to send frequent updates in real time and, when possible, include new details," Jones said. "Emergency management and public safety officers should monitor social media channels to mitigate rumors as they arise. We believe that studying the data generated during these events can provide insight into understanding how communities attempt to deal with crises, which can be used to help better prepare for future events."
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Research team members also include Rebecca R. Thompson, UCI graduate student in psychology & social behavior, and Christine Dunkel Schetter, psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 30,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. It's located in one of the world's safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County's second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit http://www.uci.edu.
Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.
The University of Houston and two of its divisions have been honored with the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award for the second year in a row.
The HEED awards, presented by INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, are the only national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion across their campus.
In addition to the university-wide award, the UH Law Center and UH College of Nursing were honored. Both colleges and the university received the awards in 2016, as well.
"I am elated that the University of Houston has distinguished itself on the forefront of diversity for a second year" said Paula Myrick Short, UH senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. "Last year, UH made history as the first institution to win three HEED awards in a single year, and it is gratifying to know that we are continuing to move the needle on diversity at our university."
The University is one of the most ethnically diverse in the country. For the 2016-17 academic year, 29.2 percent of students were Hispanic, 26.8 percent were white, 20.6 were Asian American and 9.7 percent were African-American. Almost 10 percent were international students. Three percent identified as multiracial. UH also has focused on improving faculty diversity, aided in part by a $3.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to increase the number of underrepresented minority faculty in science, engineering and other technical fields.
Although the numbers remain small, the number of underrepresented minorities hired for STEM and social and behavioral sciences faculty jobs at UH doubled between 2015-16 and 2016-17. University-wide, the increase in underrepresented minority faculty in tenured and tenure-track positions has increased by 23 percent over a three-year period.
Law Center Dean Leonard Baynes said the HEED award highlights not just the numbers, but the impact of the numbers.
"It is a humbling experience for the Law Center to be recognized two years in a row. It shows that the Law Center's considerable efforts at diversity and inclusion are garnering notice," he said. "But most importantly, it is satisfying that our programs are having an impact in everyday people's lives."
Kathryn Tart, founding dean of the College of Nursing, said increasing the diversity of the college's student body is essential for the health care workforce of the future.
"This builds a critical connection between culturally diverse health-care providers and culturally competent patient care," she said.
Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, said HEED award winners are chosen based on recruitment and retention of students and employees, along with leadership support for diversity and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion.
"We take a holistic approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a HEED Award recipient," she said. "Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being accomplished every day across their campus."
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UH is recognized as the second-most diverse public research university in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. It is designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI) by the U. S. Department of Education.
For more information about the 2017 HEED Award, visit http://www.insightintodiversity.com.
The amount of time spent sleeping in the United States has dropped significantly in the past twenty years with almost a quarter of women and 16 percent of men experiencing insufficient sleep. Now, a new study has found that lack of sleep among pregnant women may be a contributing factor to the development of gestational diabetes.
The findings are reported in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews.
"Links between reduced sleep duration and increased diabetes risk have been reported in several large studies in non-pregnant populations," said Dr. Sirimon Reutrakul, associate professor of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism in the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and lead author of the study.
A few studies have linked short sleep duration to elevated blood sugar levels in pregnant women, but many of them were small. "More information is needed to determine if short sleep duration is a contributing factor to the development of gestational diabetes," said Reutrakul.
Gestational diabetes is a condition that most often occurs in the second or third trimester. Most health care providers suggest that pregnant women undergo a blood sugar screening test between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. Elevated blood sugar levels indicate that a woman is at an increased risk for having gestational diabetes, and an additional test is then needed to diagnose gestational diabetes.
Gestational diabetes affects between three and seven percent of all pregnancies in the United States. Usually, there are no symptoms in the mother, and blood sugar levels return to normal after the baby is born. Babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes tend to have high birth weights. Women who have gestational diabetes are at an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes later. Their babies are also at an increased risk for type 2 diabetes as well as obesity.
Reutrakul and her colleagues performed a meta-analysis of eight studies that included 17,308 pregnant women who were assessed for sleep duration (all studies used self-reported questionnaires except one which measured sleep objectively using an accelerometer) and gestational diabetes. The researchers also obtained raw individual participant data from the authors of four additional studies that included measurements of blood sugar levels and measured sleep duration objectively in 287 pregnant women with gestational diabetes for further analysis.
In their analysis of the studies, the researchers found that average sleep duration of less than 6 hours was associated with a 1.7 fold increase in the risk of being diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Among participants from studies where sleep was measured objectively and where individual patient data were made available, those who slept less than 6.25 hours per night had a 2.84 fold increase in risk for having gestational diabetes compared to women who slept more than 6.25 hours per night, and also had higher blood sugar levels on their screening test.
"This is the first meta-analysis to find that both self-reported and objectively measured short sleep duration was associated with elevated blood sugar levels in pregnancy as well as an increased risk for developing gestational diabetes," said Reutrakul. "More research is needed to confirm our findings, and to determine whether sleep extension may be beneficial in lowering the risk of gestational diabetes."
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Dr. Thunyarat Anothaisintawee and Ammarin Thakkinstian of Mahidol University, Bangkok; Dr. Sharon Herring of Temple University; Bilgay Balserak of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Dr. Isabelle Marc, Universite Laval, Quebec, are co-authors on the paper.
Fanged kangaroos - an extinct family of small fanged Australian kangaroos - might have survived at least five million years longer than previously thought.
A University of Queensland-led study has found the species might have competed for resources with ancestors of modern kangaroos.
Research into species diversity, body size and the timing of extinction found that fanged kangaroos, previously thought to have become extinct about 15 million years ago, persisted to at least 10 million years ago.
The fanged kangaroos, including the species Balbaroo fangaroo, were about the size of a small wallaby.
UQ School of Earth and Environmental Sciences PhD student Kaylene Butler said the research involved Queensland Museum holdings of ancient fossil deposits from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, where kangaroo fossil evidence goes back as far as 25 million years.
"Fanged kangaroos and the potential ancestors of modern kangaroos are both browsers - meaning they ate leaves - and they scurried, but did not hop," Ms Butler said.
"Northern Queensland was predominantly covered in rainforest when these fanged kangaroos first appear in the fossil record.
Balbaroo fangaroo, a fanged kangaroo from the Riverlseigh World Heritage Area. Image: Kaylene Butler"There is a lot of research to be done before we can be sure what their canine teeth were used for but some have suggested they were used to attract potential mates. We do know that despite their large canines they were herbivorous (plant eaters).
"We found that fanged kangaroos increased in body size right up until their extinction."
Ms Butler said the research aimed to fill significant gaps in the understanding of kangaroo evolution, and new fossil finds were helping to bring ancient lineages into focus.
"Currently 21 macropod species are listed as vulnerable or endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species," she said.
She said understanding when and why kangaroos went extinct in the past could help with understanding what drove extinction of such animals.
"Currently, we can only hypothesise as to why balbarids became extinct - the original hypothesis related to events during a change in climate 15 million years ago but the balbarids persisted past that," she said.
"This new finding of their persistence until 10 million years ago means something else must have been at play, such as being outcompeted by other species."
Ms Butler last year discovered two new ancient species of kangaroo, Cookeroo bulwidarri and Cookeroo hortusensis.
She has worked on fossil material as part of her PhD research supervised by former UQ Robert Day Fellow Dr Kenny Travouillon, now of the Western Australian Museum, and UQ's Dr Gilbert Price.
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Riversleigh research leaders Professors Michael Archer and Suzanne Hand, of the University of New South Wales, contributed to the work. Riversleigh specimen collection was undertaken by UNSW-led researchers supported by ARC grants.
The research is published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (doi: 0.1016/j.palaeo.2017.08.016)
An Australian group was the first in the world to confirm the radio emission from a gravitational wave event, discovered by collaborators in the United States being announced today.
The discovery of gravitational waves in 2015 was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics this year. The discovery of these ripples in space-time, produced by massive, accelerating bodies, like orbiting black holes (which cannot be seen directly) or neutron stars, confirms a prediction made by Albert Einstein in 1916.
Now, a group led by Associate Professor Tara Murphy, from the University of Sydney and the Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), has confirmed radio-wave emission from a gravitational wave event discovered on 17 August this year.
The discovery is a world-first by the Sydney-based astronomers.
The results are included in a Science paper published today with co-author institutions including the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Oxford University; simultaneously teams from the international science community are publishing related research in other leading journals, demonstrating the second epoch in gravitational waves discovery.
Scientists representing LIGO-Virgo, and some 70 observatories today reveal the gravitational waves discovery - the first to produce light and radio waves, not just gravitational waves.
The explosion, produced by a pair of neutron stars merging, took place in galaxy NGC 4993, about 130 million light-years away. The first follow-up detection was optical, about 11 hours after the event, and was detected by a number of groups worldwide. X-ray emissions were detected nine days later and radiowaves after 15 days.
University of Sydney Associate Professor Tara Murphy, who leads the radio astronomy follow-up in Australia, said she was in the United States with colleague David Kaplan when they saw the gravitational wave announcement come through on the private email list of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO).
"We immediately rang our team in Australia and told them to get onto the CSIRO telescope as soon as possible, then started planning our observations," she said.
"We were lucky in a sense in that it was perfect timing but you have to be at the top of your game to play in this space. It is intense, time-critical science."
PhD candidate Dougal Dobie spent hours observing on the telescope. More details in today's piece by Associate Professor Murphy in The Conversation (Australian edition).
The team used the CSIRO's Australia Telescope Compact Array to monitor the gravitational wave event for more than 40 hours over several weeks.
Dr Douglas Bock, Director of CSIRO's Astronomy & Space Science team, said this extraordinary detection by an Australian team, using Australian facilities, made a significant contribution to the global discovery.
"Running a national facility involves providing researchers with access - fast - so they can monitor unexpected astronomical events of extraordinary scientific interest," Dr Bock said.
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Waves (OzGrav) director Professor Matthew Bailes said: "Never before have we seen where in the Universe gravitational waves came from; the subsequent avalanche of science was virtually unparalleled in modern astrophysics."
University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor and Principal Dr Michael Spence said: "This international discovery, with Sydney playing an integral role, demonstrates that the best science and modern innovation is intrinsically a collaborative effort.
"What a terrific way to confirm that Einstein's theory of relativity was correct, gain insights into massive bodies like black holes and, with this knowledge, start to re-think our understanding of the Universe," Dr Spence concluded.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
Associate Professor Murphy and other astronomers, including the University of Sydney's Christene Lynch and PhD student Dougal Dobie and CSIRO's Keith Bannister, detected radio waves from the merging neutron stars, an event first signalled by a burst of gravitational waves on 17 August 2017.
The team had the telescopes ready to go when the target rose in the sky above Australia. Other optical, radio and gamma-ray telescopes around the world also swung into action.
When a source near the potential host galaxy, NGC 4993, was seen brightening, the Australian team zeroed in on it. They picked up the radio source on 5 September with CSIRO's Compact Array telescope at Narrabri in the New South Wales' North West Slopes.
The radio observations will tell astronomers about the mass and velocity of the material blasted out by the event, information they cannot get any other way. The radio glow is expected to continue for some time. Future observations will help astronomers understand the physics of the neutron star merger and the environment in which it occurred.
The Australia Telescope Compact Array is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is funded by the Australian Government for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO.
30-SEC VIDEO EXPLAINER : Gravitational wave discovery: Sydney detects radio emission from gravitational wave event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPFP0_xzggc&feature=youtu.be
When making important purchase decisions, consumers often consult multiple sources of information.
A new study from The University of Texas at Dallas examines how consumers allocated their time when searching offline and on the internet as they shopped for a new automobile, and what the outcomes were for price satisfaction.
Dr. Ashutosh Prasad and Dr. Brian Ratchford, marketing professors in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, recently published the study online in the Journal of Interactive Marketing. It will appear in the journal's November issue.
"Our data says that it's very common for a person to spend time searching online and offline prior to making a big purchase," said Ratchford, who holds the Charles and Nancy Davidson Chair in Marketing.
"The same information is available both places for the most part -- whether it's a manufacturer's website or a brochure at the dealer. It's just a matter of which one a person is more comfortable accessing."
Over the long term, consumer searches have been moving online, Ratchford said. It's more convenient, and consumers can do more on the internet than before, such as take a virtual test drive or configure a vehicle according to their preferences.
By analyzing survey data on automobile purchases between 2002 and 2012, the researchers compared time spent on internet sources with time spent on offline sources, such as car dealerships.
Generally, those who search more online tend to spend more time with offline sources, the study found. In contrast, previous studies looked at the internet as a substitution for offline sources.
The analysis also revealed insights into buyer demographics and the impact of national brands, Prasad said.
Consumers older than 50 spend less time searching, both online and offline, before making a vehicle purchase, according to the study. Many people don't search at all. They merely buy the same type of automobile they already had.
"Men were more likely to search online comparison websites than women," Prasad said. "Married consumers spent more time at dealerships and were more likely to be satisfied with the price paid. The time spent at dealerships was significantly more for buyers of Korean brand cars versus U.S. brands. Knowing even minor differences in behavior can help fine-tune marketing campaigns."
Generally, longer search times were associated with higher price satisfaction -- except for time spent at the dealer, the researchers found.
Ratchford said that finding is possibly related to the price negotiation process.
"We don't know exactly why, but chances are they're spending time trying to get a better deal, and they are getting frustrated," he said.
The study also found that time spent on manufacturer websites was less effective at generating price satisfaction, possibly because offline manufacturer and dealer sources, such as advertisements and brochures, perform similar functions. Dealer websites remain important because they list inventory and provide online price quotes, researchers said.
The study's results may have practical implications for manufacturers and dealers.
For example, the use of independent websites was associated with reduced time at the dealer. If dealers could identify those who obtain information online, they could save considerable demonstration time, lowering costs as a result.
Manufacturers also may want to rethink the content of their websites. According to the study, consumers who searched longer on manufacturer websites reduced their time on independent websites but increased their time on dealer websites. This suggests that more informative manufacturer websites can deter consumers from visiting comparison websites to get information.
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Dr. Sungha Jang, assistant professor of marketing at Kansas State University, was a co-author of the study. He graduated from UT Dallas with a PhD in marketing in 2011.
Beneath the peaceful rolling waves of a lake is a rumble, imperceptible to all but seismometers, that ripples into the earth like the waves ripple along the shore.
In a study published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research Solid Earth, scientists at the University of Utah report that these small seismic signals can aid science. As a record of wave motion in a lake, they can reveal when a lake freezes over and when it thaws. And as a small, constant source of seismic energy in the surrounding earth, lake microseisms can shine a light on the geology surrounding a lake.
Its kind of a new phenomenon, says Keith Koper, director of the University of Utah Seismograph Stations and co-author of the study. We don't really know how it's created.
Discovering quaking lakes
Seismologists have long known that wind-driven ocean waves generate small seismic waves, called microseisms. These microseisms are generated as waves drag across the ocean floor or interact with each other. They are part of the background seismic noise in coastal areas.
We've recently found that the waves on lakes actually generate these microseisms too, Koper says. Lake microseisms had been previously recorded near the Great Lakes, Canadas Great Slave Lake and Utahs own Great Salt Lake. In the paper, Koper and colleagues present additional observations from Yellowstone Lake and three lakes in China, exploring the characteristics of the respective lakes microseisms.
Koper says the tremors are very small. You wouldn't be able to feel em, that's for sure, he says. But by averaging seismic signals over a long period six months, for example a consistent signal emerges.
Scanning the Earth
The signal can be used to produce what Koper calls a CT scan of the Earth, or seismic tomography. Seismic waves travel through different geological materials at different speeds, so observing how waves change as they emanate from a source can reveal subsurface geology. Researchers can create these seismic sources with methods like a hammer on a metal plate, an explosion, or a specially outfitted truck with a vibrating plate. Lakes, Koper says, provide a natural, regular source. It would take quite a bit of effort and work to generate this level of energy.
The area that could be explored using lake microseisms is limited to the region close to a lake, but Koper writes that lake microseisms emanating from the Great Salt Lake might reach far enough to visualize how seismic waves would move beneath Salt Lake City, which sits on the Wasatch Fault, in a major earthquake. Likewise, Lake Tahoe microseisms could extend to Reno, Nevada, and Lake Michigan could provide microseisms to image the geology beneath the Chicago area.
Tracking ice in lakes
Microseisms can perform another function, says Aini Mokhdhari, a senior majoring in geology. Because the tremors are caused by wind-driven waves, microseisms cease when a lake freezes over in winter. They resume again when it thaws in the spring. Thus, rather than relying on satellite or eyewitness observations, lake freezing and thawing could be monitored by an autonomous seismometer.
Mokhdhari looked at microseismic data from Yellowstone Lake, a well-observed lake for which the freezing and thawing dates are known. We compare the data we got from the seismograph to see if it's the same, she says. So far it is. Seismological observations may not be needed at Yellowstone Lake, but could be useful for monitoring more remote lakes for long-term changes to ice cover duration. Mokhdhari will present results of her work on lake microseisms at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, to be held Dec. 11-15 in New Orleans.
Listening to Yellowstone Lake
Next summer, Mokhdhari and Koper will join colleagues in a further seismic study of Yellowstone Lake. Theyll place an array of small seismometers called geophones around the perimeter of the lake, and also place an array of special waterproof seismometers on the lake floor. Additionally, they will use a buoy on the lake to measure wind and wave conditions. Their colleagues are looking to understand the hydrothermal vents in Yellowstone Lake, but Mokhdhari and Koper are much more interested in capturing microseisms from all angles.
If we can record at the same time on land and underwater, Koper says, we can get a better idea of how these things are generated.
This press release can be found here.
Find the full study here.
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Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagicAs a child, The Band's Robbie Robertson would often visit family at the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve outside of Toronto, where his mother was born and raised. Saturday, the 74-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer was honored by the reserve with its first-ever lifetime achievement award for his work with The Band, as a solo artist, and as a film composer, BrantNews.com reports.
At a ceremony held at Six Nations' recently opened convention center, The Gathering Place, Robertson said receiving the honor gave him a chance to pay tribute to his late mother. He also pointed out that the community was where he developed his passion for music, by observing his relatives playing instruments and singing together in what he described as a family music club.
"I said to myself, 'I've got to get in,'" Robertson recalled at the ceremony. He also credited an uncle and a cousin with helping him learn to play guitar.
"That was the genesis of my whole music career," Robertson maintained. "They started it and I didn't want it to stop."
Robbie also said he became captivated at an early age by his the Native American tradition of storytelling, which he later would incorporate into the way he wrote songs. "When I was young I told my mother I wanted to be a storyteller," he noted, "and like most mothers she just looked at me, smiled and said, 'Oh, I know you will be.'"
Robertson also was welcomed as an official member of the Six Nations during his visit.
Copyright 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Delay in imports: Farmers likely to face fertiliser shortage in winter
The country is likely to face acute shortage of fertilisers in the coming days due to delay in imports of the key agricultural input. This is expected to hit farmers who plant wheat and legumes during the winter.
As hospitals seek to improve inpatient satisfaction, one effective way takes only a few minutes and no expensive equipment. A study at the University of Virginia School of Medicine recently found that a daily five-minute conversation that focused on hospitalized patients "as people" significantly improved their satisfaction with their medical care.
Family Medicine doctors at the University of Virginia Health System studied whether making a small but significant change - talking with patients about their overall well being as well as medical symptoms - would make a difference in patient satisfaction. UVA associate professor and clinical psychologist Claudia Allen, JD, PhD, regularly teaches a brief psychosocial intervention called BATHE (which stands for Background, Affect, Trouble, Handling and Empathy) to Family Medicine doctors in training, known as residents. Patients often share psychological or life problems as well as medical symptoms, and BATHE is designed to help doctors address those psychosocial issues briefly and effectively. Doctors using BATHE encourage patients to talk about anything that is bothering them, and then doctors respond with empathy and encouragement.
Knowing that doctors - especially those on inpatient units - can be pressed for time, the BATHE technique can be adjusted based on how much time a care provider has available. "BATHE includes an entry and an exit script," Allen said. "You can spend three minutes doing it or you can spend an hour doing it."
BATHE is used frequently in outpatient clinics nationally, Allen said, but had not been tested with inpatients. After a Family Medicine resident told Allen that he had found BATHE helpful with distressed patients in the UVA Emergency Department, she and a team of residents decided to examine the technique's effectiveness with Family Medicine inpatients at UVA Medical Center.
From February-March 2015 and February-March 2016, 25 UVA Family Medicine inpatients were randomly chosen to receive either BATHE or standard care, which is focused on treatment plans and how patients are recovering from their illness or injury.
Patients who had the brief BATHE conversation daily with a resident were significantly more likely to rate their medical care as excellent and to express a high degree of satisfaction with their hospital stay. Asked to rate on a five-point scale whether their medical care was excellent, patients receiving BATHE gave their doctors an average score of 4.77 compared with an average score of 4.0 for patients receiving standard care, which is a statistically significant difference.
Interestingly, that improvement in patient satisfaction didn't occur because BATHE patients had lengthier visits with their doctors, Allen said. There was no significant difference in the average score of BATHE and non-BATHE patients when they were asked to rate how much time they spent with their doctors. Rather, the improvement in satisfaction was associated with the BATHE patients' perceptions that their physician "showed a genuine interest in me as a person."
The technique also received good reviews from the Family Medicine doctors, who reported that using BATHE didn't add significantly to the time they spent with patients; it just better focused their conversations. "The beauty of the intervention is that it doesn't ask doctors to do anything radically different or add something totally extra," Allen noted. "It just tweaks what they're already doing to make it significantly more effective."
Physicians also noted that using BATHE might save time. Patients receiving BATHE were less likely to seek extra attention from doctors or nurses out of anxiety.
Allen is now exploring ways to study whether the use of BATHE improves medical outcomes and to expand the use of BATHE on UVA inpatient units.
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Findings Published
Researchers from the UVA Department of Family Medicine and the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Psychology conducted the study, which has been published in the journal Family Medicine. The research team included Emma J. Pace, Nicholas J. Somerville, Chineme Enyioha, Joseph P. Allen, Latrina C. Lemon and Claudia Allen.
The work was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, grant 9R01 HD058305-11A1.
Leading organisations call for all young people to learn life saving CPR to help improve cardiac arrest survival rates Research conducted at the University of Warwick
An estimated one in five adults in the UK witness someone collapse who needs immediate CPR, yet the majority of people do not act, according to new research funded by the British Heart Foundation (1).
The surprising findings have been released today on Restart a Heart Day - an annual day to increase awareness of the importance of CPR. This year, more than 150,000 young people across the UK will be trained in CPR in the largest ever event of its kind.
Cardiac arrest survival rates in the UK have remained stubbornly low and a collaboration of leading organisations are calling for all young people to be trained in CPR to help save more lives.
The BHF, Resuscitation Council (UK), St John Ambulance, British Red Cross, Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) and all the UK NHS ambulance services along with Fire & Rescue services are working together to address this.
Researchers at the University of Warwick carried out a survey of 2,000 people across the country to find out how likely people are to witness a life-threatening cardiac arrest. In addition to the vast numbers of people who have seen someone suffer a cardiac arrest, they also found that people were nearly three times more likely to perform CPR if they had received training (1). This highlights the importance of learning CPR to help improve survival rates.
Survival rates for out of hospital cardiac arrest in the UK are still worryingly low with less than one in ten people surviving. The BHF estimates that 10,000 people die every year in the UK (2) as rates of bystander CPR are as low as 39% (3) in some parts of the country. This is significantly worse than other places such as the Netherlands (66%), Seattle (69%), Victoria, Australia (69%) and Norway (73%) (1).
Every minute without CPR or defibrillation can reduce a person's chance of surviving a cardiac arrest by around ten per cent (4). If CPR is taught more widely, it's estimated that thousands of lives could be saved every year (6).
A survey conducted by the BHF (5) revealed that an overwhelming 89% of respondents also believe that CPR should be taught in all schools in the UK. The same survey showed that there is a significant reluctance to perform CPR with 40% of respondents stating that they lacked the skills and knowledge to perform CPR.
On and around 16 October, events will be taking place across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, in a bid to create over 150,000 new young lifesavers on Restart a Heart Day.
Prof Gavin Perkins, Professor of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Warwick, who led the research, said:
"Our research shows just how important it is for everyone to learn CPR. It is staggering to think that 1 in 5 of us will at some point have the opportunity to save a life by giving CPR.
"CPR is a vital step in the chain of survival after a cardiac arrest. The chance of surviving is almost zero if people collapse and receive no bystander CPR until the emergency services arrive. Thousands of deaths could be prevented if more people learn CPR."
Simon Gillespie, Chief Executive at the British Heart Foundation, said:
"CPR is the difference between life and death for thousands of people every year in the UK who suffer a cardiac arrest. Every second counts, and it simply isn't enough to hope that someone who knows CPR is present. We need everyone to learn this life-saving skill to give them the confidence to step in and give CPR when someone collapses after a cardiac arrest. That's why we are urging secondary schools across the UK to apply for our free training kits and help create a Nation of Lifesavers."
Federico Moscogiuri, Chief Executive Officer of the Resuscitation Council (UK), said:
"The young people who receive CPR training today will become the lifesavers of tomorrow. Today, over 150,000 young people will receive both face-to-face and online instruction through our free Lifesaver app, which can be played on a mobile device anytime, anywhere and downloaded from Lifesaver.org.uk. The CPR these young people learn today will be a skill they carry with them throughout their lives."
Dr. Andrew Lockey, Honorary Secretary of the Resuscitation Council (UK), said:
"For this year's Restart a Heart day, we will see unprecedented numbers of young people being taught the vital lifesaving skill of CPR. Endeavours ranging from individual effort through to nationally coordinated activity will show that there is a desire to improve the chances of survival for victims of cardiac arrest. Everyone can be a lifesaver and the skills are easy to learn, either online or with face-to-face training. Most out of hospital cardiac arrests happen in the home, so everyone should ensure that they are those around them are skilled up to save a life."
Jason Carlyon, Clinical Development Manager for Yorkshire Ambulance Service, said:
"Since we pioneered the mass CPR training event at Yorkshire's secondary schools with our partners on Restart a Heart Day in 2014, we have seen improvements in our out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates as well as an increase in the number of people willing to use CPR when someone suffers the ultimate medical emergency. The value of events like Restart a Heart Day cannot be underestimated."
Mel Fox, Director of Training at St John Ambulance, said:
"We're thrilled that so many schools have chosen to take part, and we recognise that many more train first aid at other times of the year. Now's the time for first aid education to be available to all our young people. Learning CPR and other life saving skills should be part of their passage into adulthood and with many free resources available for schools like our Big First Aid Lesson on 3rd November, there is plenty of opportunity for children to become life savers."
Joe Mulligan, head of first aid education at The British Red Cross said:
"We want all young people to feel confident and willing to help when faced with a first aid emergency. Learning first aid helps to increase confidence levels and we believe it's a life skill everyone should have.
"Ultimately the British Red Cross would like everyone to have the opportunity to learn first aid throughout their lives, starting at school, so that a generation of people can be equipped with the skills they need to help in an emergency.
"Our free teaching resources and workshops are designed to give young people the skills, confidence and willingness to act in an emergency."
Sir Bruce Keogh, Medical Director for NHS England said: "When one in five people witness someone collapsing who clearly needs CPR but the majority don't feel able to help, it's time to act. Teaching CPR to school children equips them with the knowledge
that will ensure they can act in times of need. Empowering a young person with such a skill will allow them to take control in such a situation and possibly ultimately save a life."
There are more than 30,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests across the UK every year but less than one in ten people survive. Mandatory training of all secondary school children in CPR would improve this rate of survival.
The BHF's Call Push Rescue CPR training kit is free for eligible secondary schools in the UK. Accredited by The PSHE Association for use in PSHE and PSE lessons, the kit comprises quality training equipment and resources needed to teach children life saving CPR skills.
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To find out more about CPR or how to apply for a kit visit: bhf.org.uk/cpr
To interview Prof Gavin Perkins please get in touch with Nicola Jones, Media Relations Manager, University of Warwick 07920531221 or N.Jones.1@warwick.ac.uk
For more information please call the BHF press office on 020 7554 0164 or 07764 290381 (out of hours) or email newsdesk@bhf.org.uk
Notes to Editors
References
1) Perkins et al. Attitudes to CPR and Public Access Defibrillation: a survey of the UK public. Resuscitation, 2017;118:e39 http://www.resuscitationjournal.com/article/S0300-9572(17)30428-8/abstract
2) Rajagopal S., et al.Characteristics of patients who are not resuscitate in out of hospital cardiac arrest and opportunities to improve community response to cardiac arrest. University of Warwick. Resuscitation. 2016 Dec;109:110-115 doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2016.09.014
3) Hawkes C, Booth S, Ji C, Brace-McDonnell SJ, Whittington A, Mapstone J, et al.Epidemiology and outcomes from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in England.Resuscitation 2017;110:133-40. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2016.10.030.
4) Philips (2013) Chain of Survival - Timing is everything
5) YouGov Survey - Figures are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 4306 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 14th - 18th September 2017. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
(6) BHF estimate comparing survival rates seen in the UK with those reported in Stavanger, Norway (Linder TW et al. Good outcome in every fourth resuscitation attempt is achievable. Resuscitation 2011.)
Key event details happening across UK
Yorkshire Ambulance Service
Where: Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Unit 7 & 8 Ignite, Magna Way, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, S60 1FD
When: 9.15am
What: Fifteen-year-old Herbie Colton will be presented with a Yorkshire Ambulance Service Certificate of Commendation for saving his dad's life by performing CPR when he had a cardiac arrest. The ambulance staff who attended the incident and nominated Herbie for the award will also attend the presentation.
Where: Leeds West Academy, Intake Lane, Rodley, Leeds LS13 1DQ
When: All day
What: The pupil who was resuscitated by the school's first aid team will be available for interview along with one of his life-savers Sarah Stead. Lizzie Jones, widow of Welsh International and Keighley Cougars Rugby League player Danny Jones, will be helping with CPR training and talking to youngsters about her experience of why CPR training is vital (pm). Manchester
Where: Harrop Fold School, 69 Hilton Ln, Worsley, Little Hulton, Manchester, M28 0SY.
When: Monday, October 16, 11am - 12pm.
What: Students will be trained in CPR. Mayor Andy Burnham will be attending the event.
British Heart Foundation
For over 50 years we've pioneered research that's transformed the lives of people living with heart and circulatory conditions. Our work has been central to the discoveries of vital treatments that are changing the fight against cardiovascular disease. But so many people still need our help. From babies born with life-threatening heart problems to the many Mums, Dads and Grandparents who survive a heart attack and endure the daily battles of heart failure. Join our fight for every heartbeat in the UK. Every pound raised, minute of your time and donation to our shops will help make a difference to people's lives. For more information visit bhf.org.uk Warwick Medical School (WMS)
Established in 2000, Warwick Medical School (WMS) forms the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Warwick, one of the UK's top universities.
Home to the UK's largest graduate-entry MB ChB programme, WMS also offers tailored opportunities for professional development across the healthcare sector.
Alongside a range of educational opportunities, WMS has a reputation for research excellence, investigating solutions to significant global health challenges.
The harlequin ladybird, officially known as Harmonia axyridis, was widely introduced across continental Europe to limit the population of pest insects. In Britain, harlquins arrived primarily by spread from mainland Europe, and it is now very common and widespread over most of England and Wales. A new Insect Conservation and Diversity study shows a clear decrease in the numbers of a native ladybird species--the 2-spot ladybird (Adalia bipunctata--on lime trees over an 11 year period in which the harlequin invaded England.
Harlequin ladybirds accounted for up to 70% of all the ladybirds recorded on the trees. They are known to feed on 2-spots at times, and this predation may be an important driver of the changes observed.
"This long-term field study shows just how numerous harlequin ladybirds have become," said co-author Dr. Peter Brown, of Anglia Ruskin University, in the UK. "The 2-spot used to be one of our most abundant ladybird species but is now quite tricky to find. The study shows clear changes in the ladybird community as a result of the harlequin's dominance."
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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Oct. 16, 2017 -- Glioblastoma is the most aggressive cancer that originates in the brain. Current therapies can slow the disease, but more often than not can't cure it.
However, thanks to a $9.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center will continue working to develop new, more effective treatments and delivery systems to attack this difficult to manage form of cancer.
"One of the major obstacles to glioblastoma treatment is the accessibility of the tumors to drugs because of the blood-brain and blood-brain tumor barriers," said the principal investigator of the study, Waldemar Debinski, M.D., Ph.D., professor of cancer biology, radiation oncology and microbiology and immunology at Wake Forest Baptist.
"In addition, a surgical approach is often hampered by the inability to fully visualize tumor cells that have migrated away from the tumor and remove them surgically without potentially damaging vital areas of the brain."
Debinski, director of the Brain Tumor Center of Excellence at Wake Forest Baptist, pioneered a method to destroy malignant brain tumor cells without harming healthy cells.
The goal of the five-year grant is to use clinically relevant models to develop the next generation of molecularly targeted drugs to directly attack the tumor mass and cancer cells in surrounding areas where they may have infiltrated. The team also is designing new drug delivery systems to increase access to the tumors by directly accessing the tumor and its vicinities or by disrupting the blood-brain and blood-brain tumor barriers to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of novel drugs, Debinski said.
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The Wake Forest Baptist multi-disciplinary team will work with scientists at the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas at Austin and Columbia University, with whom they have a long history of collaborative research.
Leaders of the research team are: Steve Tatter, M.D., Ph.D., Ralph D'Agostino, Ph.D., and Christopher Whitlow, M.D., Ph.D., of Wake Forest Baptist; Christopher Rylander, Ph.D., of the University of Texas at Austin; Rafael Davalos, Ph.D. and John H. Rossmeisl, Jr., D.V.M., of Virginia Tech, and Akiva Mintz, M.D., Ph.D., of Columbia University.
An estimated 120 million people worldwide are infected with lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic, mosquito-borne disease that can cause major swelling and deformity of the legs, a condition known as elephantiasis. Health-care workers rely on leg measurements to assess the severity of the condition. However, measuring legs that are severely swollen often proves cumbersome and impractical.
But now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, working with collaborators in Sri Lanka, have shown that a portable scanning device can measure limb enlargement and disfigurement faster and more easily in patients with elephantiasis. The research tool makes it easy to obtain accurate measurements and determine whether treatments to reduce swelling are effective.
The study is published online Oct. 16 in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
"This is important because it will allow doctors and researchers to take very accurate limb measurements in developing nations, where there are often limited tools to monitor swollen limbs," said senior author Philip J. Budge, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Washington University.
In patients with elephantiasis, the parasitic worms that cause the disease make their way into the lymphatic system and prevent the lymph vessels from working properly, which leads to swollen legs. This condition also is referred to as lymphedema.
"Unfortunately, the medication does not usually reverse lymphedema in those already affected," Budge said. "The ability to get these measurements rapidly will make it much easier to treat patients, including those in clinical trials exploring better treatment therapies."
The device is essentially an infrared sensor, mounted on an iPad, that produces a highly accurate, virtual 3-D reconstruction of the legs using scanning technology similar to that found in Microsoft's Xbox Kinect video game system. It was created by Atlanta-based startup LymphaTech to measure lymphedema that sometimes develops in cancer patients after lymph nodes are removed during surgery.
After learning about the technology, Washington University researchers Budge and Ramakrishna Rao, PhD, an associate professor of medicine, teamed up with international partners to test the device on 52 patients with varying stages of lymphedema at a clinic in Galle, Sri Lanka. Working with physicians at the clinic, the team compared scanner results with results from two other techniques frequently used to ascertain the severity of elephantiasis: use of a tape measure, and water displacement.
Tape measures allow researchers to measure limb circumference near the knees, feet and ankles. However, Budge said, the method can be difficult to standardize and unreliable in assessing leg volume because of bumpy, uneven skin surfaces caused by the swelling.
The water displacement procedure entails patients submerging a leg in a water tank and then measuring how much water is displaced. Each leg is done separately. "This is the gold standard for measuring limb volume, but it is cumbersome and impractical to use in field studies," Budge said. "Some patients have lymphedema so severe, they have difficulty getting a leg into the water tank or standing still long enough for all the water to drain out. Or they may have open wounds that complicate the process."
The study showed that the infrared scanner provided measurements of leg volume and of limb circumference at multiple points that were just as accurate and precise as those obtained by tape measure and water displacement.
"But the most encouraging news is that the scanner produced highly accurate results in only a fraction of the time of the other tests," Budge said.
Researchers found that the average time required for scanner measurements of both legs was 2.2 minutes. In comparison, the tape measure and water displacement methods took an average of 7.5 minutes and 17.4 minutes, respectively.
"The scanning tool also offers convenience," Budge said. "Many patients with swollen limbs often have great difficulty traveling from their homes to the clinic to have their measurements taken. The scanner should make it possible to take extremely accurate limb measurements in the patients' homes or villages, without cumbersome equipment or inconveniencing patients.
"To our knowledge, this is the first time that infrared 3-D scanning technology has been used in patients with filarial lymphedema," he added. "It worked so well that it has been added as a measurement tool in a future clinical trial in which we are collaborating."
That study is a two-year, multisite, international clinical trial to determine whether the antibiotic doxycycline can reduce the severity of swelling and disfigurement in patients with lymphatic filariasis. Enrollment for Washington University's partner site in Sri Lanka is scheduled to start this fall.
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Monday, October 16, 2017
With Before I Die ABQ Festival events taking place at locations all around Albuquerque, weve made a Google Map with all the locations and events listed. The festival runs from October 20 to 25, 2017. From the South Valley to the North Valley, Downtown to the Northeast Heights, check out the wide range of free and low-cost events.
The lower numbered spots indicate the events closer to the beginning of the festival, the higher numbers indicate later dates. Click on the arrow/box next to the Albuquerque Festival Events title for a listing of events, locations, dates, and times.
Attendees at all Before I Die ABQ Festival events can enter drawings for a free cremation from The Neptune Society of Albuquerque and a cedar coff-urn from The Old Pine Box.
The Before I Die ABQ Festival is made possible by these sponsors:
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Govts package will cover tenant farmers
The government has assured that all every flood-affected farmer will be compensated for the damaged they suffered in the August floods.
Monday, October 16, 2017
Hurricanes and floods on the Gulf Coast. Devastation in Puerto Rico. Raging fires in Northern California. Earthquakes in Mexico. The list of natural disasters seems to be growing at an epic rate, and its hard to know where to give to best support relief and recovery efforts.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of places that can bridge the gap between those wanting to give and those in need. Well-known charities like the American Red Cross or The Salvation Army do good work and provide immediate relief for those hit by natural disasters. I consider these and others important front-line resources worthy of support.
But we all know that disaster relief is the tip of the iceberg. Most communities will face years, if not decades, of recovery and rebuilding. In my mind, there is no better way to support those efforts than to support the community foundations that serve areas hit by disaster. Community foundations can not only deploy quick relief funds, but can also create strategies for long-term rebuilding and recovery that include the voices and vision of community members. In doing so, they can help ensure that communities emerge from disaster in better shape than they were before the flood, storm, fire or earthquake struck.
Here are several community foundations working in the areas most recently affected by natural disasters. Whats more, community foundations all over the country are creating emergency relief funds for communities in other locales, making it possible to give locally and respond globally. You can assess the reputation of a community foundation through websites like Charity Navigator and Guidestar.
Northern California
Community Foundation Sonoma County, The Community Foundation of Mendocino County, Napa Valley Community Foundation all have created relief and recovery funds to respond to the wildfires. In addition, these three community foundations also have created the Northern California Fire Fund, housed at Silicon Valley Community Foundation to provide support for nonprofit organizations as they help individuals, families and the community recover and rebuild. The Latino Community Foundation is raising funds for three Latino nonprofit organizations that will serve farmworkers and their families. You can find more information about these and other options on the Northern California Grantmakers website.
Puerto Rico
Fundacion Communitaria de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Community Foundation) has created the Puerto Rico Community Recovery Fund to support relief efforts for those communities impacted by Hurricanes Irma and Maria and encourage donations to it and to several other partners listed on the Funds web page.
Houston and Surrounding Areas
The Greater Houston Community Foundation has established a Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund. The Communities Foundation of Texas has a Long-Term Disaster Fund, a Mass Care Task Force Fund that supports coordinated services of the American Red Cross North Texas Region, the Salvation Army DFW Metroplex Command, the North Texas Food Bank, and VolunteerNow, and a Harvey HELP fund for college students.
Florida and the Southeast Coast
Several community foundations have established funds for recovery after Hurricane Irma, including Southwest Florida Community Foundation, The Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties, Community Foundation of Sarasota County, and The Miami Foundation. The Community Foundation of Tampa Bay and Pinellas Community Foundation have teamed up with other funders to create the Tampa Bay Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund.
Mexico
The International Community Foundation is currently directing all contributions to its International Disaster Relief Fund to relief and recovery efforts in the wake of the earthquakes that rocked Oaxaca and Chiapas in September.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. You can also find community foundations near you or near places where disaster has occurred by visiting the Community Foundation Atlas. I also encourage you to visit the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. The Center operates its own disaster recovery funds for Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Harvey, the Mexico Earthquakes and other recovery efforts. It also provides information for funders who want to learn more about preparedness, recovery and rebuilding.
2017 Kris Putnam-Walkerly. All rights reserved. Permission granted to excerpt or reprint with attribution.
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Kris Putnam-Walkerly, MSW, has helped to transform the impact of top global philanthropies for over 18 years. A member of the Million Dollar Consultant Hall of Fame and named one of Americas Top 25 Philanthropy Speakers. Author of the award-winning book Confident Giving: Sage Advice for Funders, which was named one of The 10 Best Corporate Social Responsibility Books. For more ways to improve your giving, visit Putnam Consulting Group.
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Advisory Services
Kris Putnam-Walkerly serves as a trusted advisor to foundation leaders and high-wealth donors across the globe. As an advisor, Kris transfers learning to leaders and their teams so they have the ability to build their own internal capacity to be successful in their work. Kriss clients report immediate and dramatic improvement in both personal performance and philanthropic impact.
Whether you are the CEO of a larger foundation, the sole staff member charged with decision-making, or a high-net worth donor, the questions Kris can address cover a broad spectrum of professional and personal issues. As an advising client, youll have unlimited access to Kris during regular business hours by phone, Skype, email and, when desired, face to face. With over 18 years of experience working with top global philanthropies, Kris understands how to build an impactful organization that integrates your philanthropic passions and the challenges that must be overcome to get there.
Learn more about this and other services offered or contact Kris today to begin a trusted advisor relationship.
Upcoming Speaking Events
Looking for a provocative yet practical speaker at your next event? Kris Putnam-Walkerly was named one of Americas Top 25 Philanthropy Speakers in 2016 and 2017. Learn more or book Kris today for your next conference or event.
October 16, 2017 CONNECT Conference, Exponent Philanthropy, Denver
Out of Your Bubble and Into Your Community
October 19, 2017 National Forum on Family Philanthropy
Achieving EquityHow Exactly?
November 2, 2017 The Michael Chatman Giving Show http://www.unity.fm/program/TheMichaelChatmanGivingShow
November 10, 2017 Forefront Webinar
Poverty, Abundance, and Delusional Altruism
November 14, 2017 Southeastern Council on Foundations Annual Conference, Trustees-Only Luncheon, Orlando, FL
How Will Trustees Lead Into the Future?
Book Kris for your next conference or event!
Editors Note: In September of 2017, communicators around the world recognized Measurement Month, the annual celebration of research in public relations organized by The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication. To contribute to this effort, a group of international public relations research opinion leaders contributed advice for those communicators traveling on their path to communications research enlightenment. Demonstrating the Value of Communication (eBook) is available for free download here, was conceived by Denmarks Jesper Andersen with contributions from ten authors including Australias Jim Macnamara, the UKs Elayne Phillips and Swedens Ann-Sofie Krol. Today, we share the advice of Americas Mark Weiner, CEO of PRIME Research, who offers research advice based on four elements in the PR continuum: objectives-setting, strategy development, tactics creation and evaluation for continuous improvement.
Download the complete version of this invaluable collection of research insights and guidance for the professional communicator.
Welcome to the News Release Wire Selection Control Panel.
Instant News Wire
Monday, October 16, 2017
An OnAudience.com study reveals that the use of ad blockers continues to rise in the U.S., with 26% of consumers now using them, up from 22% in 2016, reports MediaPost, which added that OnAudience.com estimates a loss of more than $15.8 billion in publisher revenue, up from nearly $11 billion last year. The U.S. contributes just under $45 billion to the $100 billion global display market.
Internationally, the loss of publisher revenue from ad blocking rose to $42 billion up from $28 billion in 2016. At the time, the worldwide display market was valued at $84 billion.
eMarketer in March 2017 reported a slightly lower number with about 28% of U.S. consumer blocking ads on desktop and laptop, and 11.8% do so on a smartphone.
The results from the U.S. reflect a broad increase globally in ad blocking, although consumers in Europe are most likely to block ads, with 32% of internet users in the region using ad-blocker plugins.
Poland has the highest rates at 46%, followed by Greece at 44%, Norway at 42%, Germany at 41%, and Denmark at 40%. The UK, the Netherlands, and Ireland all rank at 39%.
Internet users in Japan are equally as likely as consumers in the U.S. to block ads, at 26%, but the lowest rates were found in Latin America. Paraguay recorded the least ad-blocked page views at 5%, while Peru and Venezuela scored the second- and third-lowest ad-blocking rates globally at 13% and 10%, respectively.
Maciej Sawa, chief commercial officer at OnAudience.com, does not believe enough is being done to resolve the issue for the industry.
MediaPost also reported that OnAudience.com estimates a loss of more than $15.8 billion in publisher revenue, up from nearly $11 billion last year. The U.S. contributes just under $45 billion to the $100 billion global display market.
Wagyu is considered a delicacy in Japan, famous for its Kobe beef. Only a limited number of Wagyu cattle were introduced to the U.S. in the early 70s before exports were banned in the late 90s.
The American Wagyu Association estimates there are 30,000 Wagyu-influenced cattle being raised domestically, with less than 5,000 being full blood. Here are five things you may not know about the Wagyu breed.
1Taste sensation
Wagyu have a natural propensity to marble as a high prime cut of beef, according to Francis Fluharty, Ohio State University researcher. The marbling cuts through the beef versus around it.
Wagyu has a slightly lower melting point than most beef; it has a high monounsaturated fatty acid profile and is high in Omega 3 and Omega 6, giving it a savory taste sensation.
2Slow growers
Wagyu are not as big and fast as Angus cattle, said Wagyu cattle producer Francis Pang, of Navarre. They are leaner, finishing at around 1,500 pounds and take around 400-450 days to finish out.
But, they also consume less in that longer period of time. Fluharty said Wagyu gain around two pounds per day and have a dry matter intake of around 1.9-2 percent. The gain they put down is concentrated in fat.
3Docile
The Wagyu breed is generally more docile than other breeds of cattle. They adapt well to different environments and can be raised on traditional beef operations.
They are not an exotic animal, said Brooke Pidgeon, beef farmer from Homeworth. They are born and raised here (in the U.S.).
4Birth efficiency
Wagyu cattle tend to have a better birth efficiency because cattle are born smaller (around 60 pounds). And, according to Pidgeon, they are good mothers.
5Dairy industry
Wagyu could play a role in helping the dairy industry. Research is being done with the American Jersey Cattle Association to see how crossing Jersey cattle with Wagyu could help dairies develop a niche market for Jersey beef. Jersey beef also has a lower melting point and slightly better marbling than other cattle breeds.
For more information visit Ohios Wagyu industry page.
(Farm and Dairy is featuring a series of 101 columns throughout the year to help young and beginning farmers master farm living. From finances to management to machinery repair and animal care, farmers do it all.)
More Farming 101 columns:
BASF has signed an agreement to acquire significant parts of Bayers crop science business for 5.9bn (5.25bn).
Bayer intends to divest these assets in the context of its planned acquisition of Monsanto.
It is hoped the sale will calm the EU's worries about Bayers planned 49.7billion acquisition of the US group.
In August, the European Commission opened an investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Monsanto by Bayer under the EU Merger Regulation.
The assets to be acquired include Bayers global glufosinate-ammonium non-selective herbicide business, commercialized under the Liberty, Basta and Finale brands, as well as its seed businesses for key row crops in select markets: canola hybrids in North America under the InVigor brand using the LibertyLink trait technology, oilseed rape mainly in European markets, cotton in the Americas and Europe as well as soybean in the Americas.
The transaction also includes Bayers trait research and breeding capabilities for these crops and the LibertyLink trait and trademark.
For the full year 2016, sales of the business to be purchased from Bayer amounted to around 1.3 billion and EBITDA to around 385 million.
The transaction is subject to the closing of Bayers acquisition of Monsanto and approval by relevant authorities. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.
With this investment, we are seizing the opportunity to acquire highly attractive assets in key row crops and markets. It will be a strategic complement to BASFs well-established and successful crop protection business as well as to our own activities in biotechnology, said Dr. Kurt Bock, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE.
The acquisition will further enhance our agricultural solutions offer, which is a core pillar of BASFs portfolio.
The UKs major retailers decision to only source non-cage eggs from 2025 should be the incentive farmers need to diversify into free range egg production, according to rural surveyors.
Statistics from the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA) show that the free range egg sector has grown rapidly to occupy about 60% of the market share of retails egg sales, produced by over 20 million hens.
With a population increase and steady growth in market share in the years leading up to 2025 it predicts another growth in sales of free range eggs.
BFREPA predicts an additional 1.8million hens will be required to fulfil a 5% increase in demand.
The group said farmers will 'innovate and invest' to meet any rise in demand for their product.
Consumer demand for the use of British egg products, and clearer labelling of the origin of eggs used in prepared foods, has increased significantly following the Fipronil scandal, according to research.
Consumer demand
Richard Corbett, partner at rural surveyors firm Roger Parry said: Over the last five years there has been more and more farms diversifying in this way. Farmers, especially Welsh hill farmers, are worried about the price of sheep and beef.
This commitment from UK major retailers should be seen as reassurance to current producers but more importantly, as an incentive for those currently considering applying for planning to move into producing free range eggs on their farm.
Mr Corbett continued: Consumer demand for the use of British egg products has increased significantly. According to recent research three quarters of UK shoppers say British eggs should always be used in prepared foods.
Tom Davies from Lloyds Animal Feeds explains the advantages of free range egg production and why it appeals to those farmers looking to diversify.
He said: Free range egg production has the advantage of being sustainable in the long term, profitable and compatible with other enterprises.
It's not reliant on subsidy, so it is less exposed to government interference, which increases the appeal as Brexit looms. The Lion standard protects the industry from imports as no supermarket will stock non-Lion (effectively non-UK) egg.
UK-Australia trade deal 'gave away far too much', Eustice admits
Heavyweight candidates in all constituencies of Jhapa
Names of top leaders of major political parties have been recommended for the upcoming parliamentary and provincial elections from Jhapa district.
Varun Dhawan To Get Immortalized At A Wax Museum
Yes, you heard that right! The 'Judwaa 2' actor is the first Gen Y star to get a wax statue at the prestigious Madame Tussauds in Hong Kong.
He's Way Too Excited
Varun was quoted as saying, "It was a great experience to work with Madame Tussauds. I am so excited to get my wax figure in Hong Kong!"
Varun Can't Wait To Stare Down His Wax Figure
The actor tweeted, "Huge honour can't wait to come there and stare down my wax figure. Thank you."
KJo Too Had Something To Say
Karan Johar who gave Varun his first big break in Bollywood with 'Student Of The Year' wrote, "Guess who is at Madam Tussauds now?? In Honk Kong! Presenting @Varun_dvn ....it's on its way!!!!"
The Prep
A group of skilled Madame Tussauds sculpting team specially travelled to Mumbai to meet Varun and conduct a detailed sitting process. More than 200 measurements were taken, the team also matched the hair and eye colour of the actor. Varun also worked closely with the team and kept sharing his ideas on the pose of the figure.
Varun Will Unveil His Wax Statue Next Year
Reportedly, Varun will be the 4th Indian figure to join Madame Tussauds, Hong Kong with Mahatma Gandhi, Narendra Modi and Amitabh Bachchan, currently on display. He will unveil his figure in Hong Kong early next year.
Based On Mamankam
If reports are to be believed, this upcoming big budget movie will be based on Mamankam and Mammootty will be seen playing the role of a warrior in this movie. This yet-to-be-titled film will be helmed by debutant Sajeev Pillai.
More About Mamankam..
Mamankam is a medieval fair, which is conducted in every 12 years in the banks of Bharathapuzha in Thirunavaya region. Apart from trading and various art performances, Mamankam also is the perfect stage for various contest between soldiers of different regions. Mammootty is expected to play one such warrior in the film. Rest of the details regarding the cast & crew are expected to be revealed in the coming days.
Once Again With A Debut Film-maker
This upcoming big budget movie will be directed by a debutant film-maker. Most of the upcoming projects of the Megastar is paving way for the entry of debut directors. Mammootty's upcoming movies like Uncle, Parole, Street Lights, Anrahaminte Santhathikal etc., will introduce new film-makers to the industry.
Chengazhi Nambiar..!
Meanwhile, another big budget project is in the making, which has been titled as Chengazhi Nambiar. Earlier, the makers of the film had come up with a poster of the film featuring Tovino Thomas in it. No further deatils have been revealed about the project.
Mammootty's Upcoming Projects..!
Meanwhile, Mammootty is busy with the shoot of his upcoming film Uncle, directed by Gireesh Damodar. The actor's next release will be Street Lights, which is a bilingual movie, directed by Shamdatt.
Pranav Mohanlal, the son of Mollywood's complete actor Mohanlal, is all set to enter the film industry with the upcoming movie Aadhi. The highly anticipated movie, which is said to be a complete action thriller, is written and directed by Drishyam fame Jeethu Joseph.
Aadhi, which revolves around a serial killer and young man who chases him, will have Pranav Mohanlal playing the titular character. The movie, which will not have a romantic track, will feature Jagapati Babu, Siddique, Anusree, Adithi Ravi, Lena, Siju Wilson, Sharaf U Dheen, etc., in the supporting roles.
The latest talk in the social media is about Pranav Mohanlal's leaked location stills, which were clicked during the stunt shoot of Aadhi. Scroll down for Pranav's candid shoot pictures and some interesting details about him...
After a 15-year bull market that started near the turn of the millennium, the gold market has largely been treading water over the past several years. That has led Franco-Nevada (FNV 0.58%) to turn some of its attention away from gold- and silver-streaming deals and instead look for promising financing opportunities in the oil and gas exploration and production market. Even with the strategic shift, Franco-Nevada still gets the vast majority of its revenue and profit from precious metals, and that's unlikely to change in the near future.
Franco-Nevada expects to release its third-quarter financial results on Monday, Nov. 6, and analysts following the streaming company expect declines in both revenue and net income. Yet with recent strength in precious metals, the future could look brighter for the natural resources financing specialist. Let's take an early look to see what Franco-Nevada investors should be watching for in its coming report.
Stats on Franco-Nevada
Analyst EPS Estimate 0.25 Change From Year-Ago EPS (17%) Revenue Estimate $165.5 million Change From Year-Ago Revenue (3.8%) Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters 4
What's ahead for Franco-Nevada's earnings?
Investors have had mixed views in recent months about Franco-Nevada's earnings prospects. They've boosted their estimates for the current year, but they've made small reductions in their expectations for earnings in 2018. The stock has continued to do well, rising 9% since mid-July.
Franco-Nevada's second-quarter results were generally positive. Sales were up 8%, helping to send adjusted pre-tax operating earnings higher by about 4%. Production climbed significantly, with especially large gains in gold and platinum group metals. Revenue from oil and gas assets was up a quarter compared to levels from 12 months previously, and recent deals to boost Franco-Nevada's exposure to key energy-production areas in Oklahoma and Texas point to even greater prospects for that segment of the company's business.
One way that Franco-Nevada is still boosting its exposure to precious metals is by fulfilling existing funding commitments. For instance, it increased its stake in the Cobre Panama project, one of the largest repositories of lucrative metals in the world, with key resources like copper, gold, silver, and molybdenum. Franco-Nevada is providing more financing for the project in exchange for an even bigger streaming interest. With further capital calls likely in the future, Franco-Nevada has a strong relationship with its partners in Cobre Panama.
Going beyond gold?
One massive opportunity that many investors have neglected could be playing out right now. In the platinum group metals complex, the price of palladium has gone through the roof, soaring from about $600 per ounce a year ago to nearly $1,000 per ounce today. Franco-Nevada's exposure to platinum and palladium comes largely from its streaming agreement with Stillwater, which was purchased by Sibanye Gold (SBSW -0.55%) earlier this year. Even with palladium prices at high levels, Sibanye has seen pressure because of the way that it had to finance its acquisition. If Sibanye's stock remains at a discounted price, the mining company could turn to Franco-Nevada for further financing in connection with Stillwater-related assets. That in turn could give Franco-Nevada even more favorable exposure to platinum group metals prices.
Franco-Nevada's strategy thus far has been popular not just among growth investors but also with those who like to get income from their investments. The stock has made dividend increases for 10 straight years, a feat that looks even better when you consider that many precious metals stocks don't bother making dividend distributions at all.
When Franco-Nevada releases its earnings report, investors will want to focus on whether the company can continue to take advantage of all its opportunities for growth. With oil and gas rebounding and with the recent rise in palladium prices, Franco-Nevada has to be smart about choosing the best investments -- and then make its money work as hard as possible for shareholders.
Normally, the bigger the company is, the less likely it is that any single decision or event will impact it significantly. But that isn't the case with oil giant ExxonMobil (XOM 0.63%), which has gone all in on an unexpected oil play.
Luckily for the company -- and its partner, the smaller oil industry player Hess (HES 1.84%) -- its gamble seems to be paying off. Here's what ExxonMobil did and why it may cause both companies to outperform.
Completely ignored
In the oil business, what looks like a promising field can sometimes be a dud. BP found this out firsthand when it discovered gas in the Katambi Block off the coast of Angola in 2014. What looked like an area ripe with hydrocarbon potential turned out to be a big letdown, as the Katambi gas block was deemed to be noncommercially viable. That resulted in a $750 million writedown for BP when it finally gave up on the play.
Conversely, a region that the entire industry dismisses can sometimes pay off handsomely for companies that make a minimal investment. Take Apache Corporation's new Alpine High play in West Texas: Due to industry misconceptions about the region's hydrocarbon potential, the company was able to snap up land for the incredibly cheap price of $1,300 per acre. Apache now estimates the land contains more than 3 billion barrels of oil and 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Success seemed unlikely for ExxonMobil when it first explored for oil and gas off the shores of Guyana. There had never been a successful oil find in Guyana, and two wells drilled in 2012 were disappointments. But in 2015, Exxon's Liza-1 well discovered 90 meters of oil-bearing sandstone, and the goodies just kept on coming.
Cashing in
By the end of September, Exxon had made three more oil discoveries, in addition to Liza-1. These discoveries -- named Payara, Snoek, and Liza Deep -- made the company very optimistic about prospects for the rest of the play.
On Oct. 5, ExxonMobil announced a fifth discovery at its Turbot-1 well. The well encountered a reservoir of 75 feet of high-quality, oil-bearing sandstone, similar to previous finds in the area. Exxon now expects to drill another well at the Turbot site in 2018. Meanwhile, following completion of the Turbot-1 well, the Stena Carron drillship will move north to the "Ranger" prospect to see if it has continued success.
Exxon expects the first oil to begin flowing from Liza by 2020 after it has time to develop the block. That may seem like an eternity, but it's actually pretty speedy by deepwater standards. Jeff Woodbury, ExxonMobil's vice president of investor relations and secretary, referred to it as "industry-leading" in the company's Q2 earnings call.
And there may be more where all this came from.
On the block, in the neighborhood
These latest discoveries occurred in the 6.6 million acre (about 10,350 square miles) Stabroek Block. Exxon's subsidiary Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited is the operator and holds 45% interest in the block. Hess' subsidiary Hess Guyana Exploration Ltd. holds 30% interest, with the remaining 25% interest held by Chinese company CNOOC Nexen Petroleum Guyana Limited.
"The results from this latest well further illustrate the tremendous potential we see from our exploration activities offshore Guyana," said Steve Greenlee, president of ExxonMobil Exploration Company. "ExxonMobil, along with its partners, will continue to further evaluate opportunities on the Stabroek Block."
And the company is doing more than just evaluating the Stabroek Block: It's purchased stakes in neighboring blocks as well. These include the Kaieteur and Canje blocks in Guyana and the less cleverly named Block 59 in next-door Suriname:
The company has begun seismic testing in the Kaieteur Block but may not get around to the other two blocks for years. That's fine: Clearly, Exxon has plenty in the Stabroek Block to keep it occupied. And if all of the other discoveries do as well as the ones the company has already found, Stabroek could be the proverbial cash cow for Exxon and Hess for years to come.
A win for investors
That the good news keeps on flowing (pardon the pun) from Exxon and Hess' Guyana operations should make investors very happy. The companies took a risk and it seems to have paid off in spades. The only downside is that it will take three years -- or more -- for the oil to start flowing in earnest, so there likely won't be an immediate impact to either company's bottom line.
For long-term investors, though, this strengthens the buy thesis for both of these companies, particularly for the smaller Hess, whose solid fundamentals and beaten-down stock price make it ripe to outperform if oil prices stabilize or rise. Increased production from Guyana would be the icing on the cake.
Indian Home Ministry directs to pull paramilitary personnel from Darjeeling
The Home Ministry of central government of India has issued a directive to pull paramilitary personnel from Darjeeling, the hill district of the Indian state, mostly dominated by Nepali-speaking people.
Qualcomm wants China to ban iPhone sales and manufacturing: Files a new lawsuit against Apple News oi -Samden Sherpa Apple and Qualcomm are engaged in what will likely be a yearslong and epic battle.
Well, Qualcomm Inc and Apple have been battling out with lawsuits for quite some time now. While the war seemingly began in the U.S. now it has gone worldwide. If you are unaware, Qualcomm has now filed lawsuits in China, seeking to halt the manufacture and sale of Apple Inc's iPhones in the country.
According to Bloomberg, the company has filed a second lawsuit in a Beijing intellectual property court, claiming patent infringement and is seeking injunctive relief. Qualcomm has reportedly said that Apple is in violation of three non-standard essential patents. The patents are said to cover power management and the iPhone's Force Touch feature.
The inventions "are a few examples of the many Qualcomm technologies that Apple uses to improve its devices and increase its profits," a Qualcomm spokesperson told Bloomberg. "Apple employs technologies invented by Qualcomm without paying for them." Apple's shares were marginally up, while Qualcomm shares were marginally down in late-afternoon trading.
However, in response, Apple has stated that the claims were "meritless," and that it would take great effort to stop its business. The company has suggested that Qualcomm's effort was opportunistic because in many years of ongoing negotiations Qualcomm hadn't brought up the patents and had now issued them just recently.
"Apple believes deeply in the value of innovation, and we have always been willing to pay fair and reasonable rates for patents we use," an Apple spokesperson said. "Regulators around the world have found Qualcomm guilty of abusing their position for years. This claim is meritless and, like their other courtroom maneuvers, we believe this latest legal effort will fail."
The spokesperson also added, "Apple's not going to miss one day of production," he said. 'If for any reason they get a negative judgment, they'd go back to paying Qualcomm in the short term. They're not going to risk their business model for this."
In any case, Qualcomm made the filings on Sept. 29 at the Beijing court. The court is yet to give its final verdict on the matter.
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UNICEF says future of 4.5 Yemeni schoolchildren at stake
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 02:45PM
The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has warned that the future of up to 4.5 million schoolchildren in the war-torn Yemen is uncertain as thousands of teachers refuse to attend classes for not receiving their salaries during the past year.
"The future of 4.5 million students hangs in the balance," Rajat Madhok, the spokesman of the UN the UNICEF warned, as classrooms in the capital Sana'a and Yemen's northern regions remained largely closed to students on Sunday, the belated first day of school in the country.
Schools in Yemen were supposed to open on September 30 as the start of the scholastic year but were forced to postpone the opening day for two weeks amid a persisting deadly war imposed by Saudi Arabia and the ensuing hunger, a cholera epidemic and an economic collapse.
The economic crisis largely began last year, when the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh, who has occupied Yemen's southern areas, including the southwestern port city of Aden, with the help of Saudis and his militia, moved the country's central bank from Sana'a to Aden.
He claimed that the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, which is in control of large areas of Yemen, including the capital, looted the bank; an allegation that was categorically rejected by the Houthis.
Hadi's controversial move left the Houthis, who have been running state affairs and defending the nation against the Saudi war machine, unable to pay monthly salaries of more than three-quarters of Yemeni teachers, some 73 percent, since last October, prompting them to turn to other occupations to feed their families.
The UN has already said that Hadi's move in relocating the central bank to Aden had deprived more than one million civil servants of their salaries and pushed families toward starvation.
Back in April, UNICEF Representative in Yemen Mertixell Relano warned that the ongoing war might prevent a whole generation of children from education this year.
"At the moment, we have more than 166,000 teachers in the country that have not received a salary since October last year," she said at the time, adding that the out-of-school boys might then be easily recruited by militia groups and "the girls might be at risk of being married earlier."
Since March 2015, Yemen has been heavily bombarded by Saudi warplanes as part of a brutal campaign against the impoverished country in an attempt to reinstall Hadi and crush the Houthis. The regime in Riyadh has failed to achieve its objective.
Latest tallies show that the imposed war has so far killed over 12,000 Yemenis and wounded thousands more. The Saudi aggression has also taken a heavy toll on the country's facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.
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Death toll from twin blasts in Somalia's capital rises to 231
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 10:32AM
The death toll from two recent bomb blasts in busy locations in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, has jumped to 231 with at least 275 people injured, making them the deadliest attacks to have ever happened in the country.
Police said on Saturday that a truck bomb exploded in a busy area outside a hotel in the K5 intersection, which is lined with government offices, restaurants, and kiosks, flattening several buildings and setting dozens of vehicles on fire.
Two hours later, another blast, also said to be from a car bomb, struck the capital's Medina district.
Police and emergency workers were still searching the rubble of destroyed buildings on Sunday, recovering dozens of corpses, most of which had been charred beyond recognition.
Hundreds of people came to the junction in search of missing family members, and police cordoned off the area for security reasons.
An earlier police announcement had said 85 people had died in the attacks.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo declared three days of national mourning and called for donations of blood and funds to the victims of the Saturday attacks.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, so far. However, al-Shabab, a Takfiri militant group linked to al-Qaeda, is often behind such deadly terrorist attacks in the conflict-stricken country, which is located on the Horn of Africa.
The Takfiri group has in the past carried out terrorist attacks in Mogadishu and other parts of Somalia in a bid to intimidate the country's vulnerable government and drive out African Union (AU) peacekeeping troops sent there for support.
Government forces have been battling al-Shabab militants since 2006. The militants controlled Mogadishu between 2007 and 2011. In 2011, the Takfiri militants were driven out of the capital with help from the AU troops, and a period of relative calm started in Mogadishu.
However, since last month, the group seems to have started to resume its attacks in Mogadishu.
Outside the capital and beyond specially protected zones, the militants are still a threat, reportedly roaming freely.
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UAE planned to attack Qatar with US-trained mercs: Ex-official
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 05:57AM
Qatar's former deputy prime minister says the United Arab Emirates planned a military invasion of Qatar with thousands of US-trained mercenaries, but it failed to secure Washington's support.
Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah told the Spanish daily ABC earlier this week that the UAE hired a "Blackwater-linked" private security contractor to train the mercenaries, referring to the notorious American company that is now called Academi.
The training, he said, was aimed at invading Qatar to topple the Persian Gulf country's emir and replace him with a ruler subservient to the Saudi-led bloc which has been boycotting Doha over the past months.
The UAE plan for the military action was prepared before the Qatar rift, but it was never carried out as US President Donald Trump did not give the green light to it, Attiyah added.
An unidentified official source told ABC that the mercenaries had received training at an Emirati military base at Liwa Oasis in Abu Dhabi.
Back in June, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, and the UAE imposed a trade and diplomatic embargo on Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism, an allegation strongly denied by Doha.
They presented Qatar with a list of demands, among them downgrading ties with Iran, and gave it an ultimatum to comply with them or face consequences. Doha, however, refused to meet the demands and said that they were meant to force the country to surrender its sovereignty.
Earlier reports
In September, two people close to Trump told Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia and the UAE had been considering use of force in the early stages of their dispute with Qatar before the US president warned them to back off.
Additionally last month, a leaked email sent by Emirati Ambassador to the US Yousef al-Otaiba to former US diplomat Elliott Abrams showed that Saudi Arabia had come close to "conquering" Qatar.
In the May 2017 email, Otaiba told Abrams that conquering Qatar would "solve everyone's problems and King Abdullah of Saudi came pretty close to doing something in Qatar a few months before he died in January 2015.
In 2011, The New York Times reported that dozens of Colombians posing as construction workers had entered the UAE to become part of a secret mercenary army set up by Blackwater with over $500 million in financing from the monarchy.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the UAE, according to the report.
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Spain to seize Catalonia unless it gives definite stance on independence
Iran Press TV
Sat Oct 14, 2017 11:34PM
The Spanish government has announced that it will take control of Catalonia if its leader, Carles Puigdemont, refrains from giving Madrid a definite answer on whether it has declared independence.
"The answer must be without any ambiguity. He must say Yes' or No," said Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido on Saturday. "If he answers ambiguously, it means he doesn't want dialogue and thus the Spanish government will have to take action."
On Wednesday, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy gave Puigdemont eight days to dismiss the independence bid or face the suspension of Catalonia's political autonomy as stated in article 155 of Spain's Constitution.
Last week, the Catalan leader signed a symbolic declaration of independence following the referendum but held off on officially declaring independence. Puigdemont claimed that 90 percent of the voters in the referendum had backed secession, but the turnout had been put at only 43 percent.
Spain has been in turmoil since the separatist government in Catalonia held a disputed referendum on October 1.
The Spanish government went out of its way to avert the referendum, raiding venues and confiscating ballot boxes and papers, arresting officials, and even installing police forces at sites where polling stations managed to get set up to physically remove voters. Security forces used batons and rubber bullets to disperse crowds of voters, wounding nearly 900 people.
Despite the crackdown, some 2.26 million of Catalonia's 5.3 million registered voters managed to cast their ballots, according to figures released by the regional government. Ninety percent of the participants voted in favor of secession from Spain, the regional government said.
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Afghan Authorities Say Truck Bombing Foiled In Kabul
RFE/RL October 15, 2017
Afghan authorities say they have foiled a potentially deadly blast in the capital, Kabul, after seizing a truck loaded with explosives.
The Interior Ministry said on October 15 that police officers shot and wounded the driver of the vehicle after he failed to stop at a security checkpoint.
"The driver was wounded and the truck stopped" in the incident late on October 14, a statement said.
Mohamed Salem Almas, the head of criminal investigations in the Kabul police, said that the truck was carrying more than 2,700 kilograms of explosives.
Almas added that the Haqqani network, a group that has ties to the Afghan Taliban, was behind the attack, which he said was to be carried out in a crowded part of the city.
Security has been ramped up in Kabul since a massive truck bomb ripped through the city's diplomatic quarter on May 31, killing about 150 people and wounding hundreds of others, mostly civilians.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack -- the deadliest in the city since 2001 but the government blamed the Haqqani network for the bombing. Western officials said it was caused by more than 1,500 kilograms of explosives packed in a truck.
Despite the enhanced security measures, militants have continued to carry out deadly attacks in the capital.
On September 29, suicide attackers detonated a bomb near a large Shi'ite mosque in Kabul, killing at least six people as worshippers prepared to commemorate Ashura, the holiest celebration in the Shi'ite religious calendar. The extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Western-backed government in Kabul is struggling to beat back insurgents in the wake of the exit of most NATO forces in 2014.
The administration of President Donald Trump has recently unveiled a strategy to try to defeat the militants, and officials said more than 3,000 additional U.S. troops are being sent to the country to reinforce the 11,000 U.S. troops already stationed there.
With reporting by AP and AFP
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-truck -bombing-foiled/28795721.html
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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At Least 231 Killed In Massive Truck Bomb In Somali Capital
October 15, 2017
The death toll from a massive bomb attack in a busy area of Somalia's capital has risen to at least 231, making it the deadliest single attack the country has ever seen, police and health officials said.
Officials said on October 15 that the death toll could rise further as more than 275 others were wounded, some of them seriously.
A truck packed with explosives detonated on October 14 outside a hotel at a Mogadishu intersection that is lined with government offices, restaurants, and kiosks.
The death toll jumped after dozens of bodies were recovered from the rubble and some of those wounded died of the injuries they sustained in the blast.
Authorities said at least two people were also killed in a second bomb attack in the city's Madina district.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Somalia's government blamed the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab extremist group for the attacks.
"They don't care about the lives of Somali people -- mothers, fathers, and children," Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said.
Information Minister Abdirahman Omar said the blast near the entrance of the Safari Hotel, which was largely destroyed, was the largest the city had ever seen.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared three days of mourning and urged Somali people to donate blood for the wounded victims.
Al-Shabaab militants are waging a campaign against the Somali government in a bid to impose a fundamentalist Islamic state.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/somalia- truck-bomb/28796005.html
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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Jeenbekov Wins Kyrgyz Presidential Election Outright, Preliminary Vote Count Shows
RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service October 15, 2017
Kyrgyz election officials say preliminary results from Kyrgyzstan's presidential vote indicate that Sooronbai Jeenbekov, a political ally of incumbent President Almazbek Atambaev, has won more than 54 percent of the vote, appearing to negate the need for a second-round runoff.
With 97 percent of the votes tallied, Jeenbekov's main rival, Omurbek Babanov, gained just short of 34 percent, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on October 15. Preliminary figures showed voter turnout at just over 50 percent.
A total of 11 candidates, including one woman, were listed on the ballot to replace Atambaev, who is constitutionally barred from running for a second consecutive six-year term. The three leading contenders -- Babanov, Jeenbekov, and Temir Sariev -- were all prime ministers during Atambaev's term in office, raising expectations of policy continuity in a country that has to balance the often-competing interests between neighbors Russia and China.
Speaking shortly after the preliminary results were announced, Jeenbekov praised the country's "great achievements and developments in all sectors in the past six years," referring to Atambaev's term in office.
"My task is to preserve what has been achieved, to strengthen what has been started," Jeenbekov said.
Asked if he has thought about asking Babanov to join his team, Jeenbekov said he has "never had such intention."
Babanov is expected to speak to the media on October 16. While voting was still under way, Babanov said: "There is no fair election today. Law enforcement authorities are interfering with the election. Is this what they call a fair election?"
A spokeswoman for Babanov was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying that they were conducting "a parallel count."
Barring any unrest, the vote would be the first peaceful transfer of power from one popularly elected president to another in Central Asia since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
While dirty tricks, arrests, and the alleged abuse of the levers of power cast a pall over the campaign, a smooth election and orderly succession would bolster Kyrgyzstan's credentials as an island of democracy in the region's authoritarian sea.
"I am proud of my freedom-loving people who have staged two national revolutions against dictatorial regimes over the last 12 years and have proven that people are the only possible source of power in the Kyrgyz Republic," Atambaev said during the campaign.
Atambaev said that Kyrgyzstan had achieved peace and stability in recent years and claimed it is "the first and only country in post-Soviet Central Asia with a parliamentary democracy."
Having battled through two revolutions and several noisy election campaigns, the 6 million mainly Muslim citizens of this mountainous former Soviet republic have become an anomaly among the region's five ex-Soviet states: the most democratic country in a predominantly authoritarian region.
Jeenbekov, a 58-year-old political ally of Atambaev, used his political leverage and support from the incumbent to wage a heated battle with 47-year-old Babanov, a wealthy entrepreneur and former oil trader from the north.
Neither had been able to gain a strong upper hand, with a September poll by the Western-backed NGO Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society giving Jeenbekov 41 percent to about 39 percent for Babanov.
Amid concerns of potential unrest and political confrontation, Sariev, the other leading candidate, said that "there shouldn't be any tension" in the country after the election.
"The election must finish tonight," he said.
Atambaev said that the authorities have "jailed and will continue to jail" those planning unrest "so that they don't spoil our celebration."
"For elections in Kyrgyzstan, one must expect the unexpected," according to Michal Romanowski, an expert in Eurasian affairs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
"Citizens have proved to those in power that in the end they call the shots and authorities will be held accountable for their actions. The attitude promotes political pluralism and a substitute for real electoral competition," he said.
The campaign was littered with accusations of dirty tricks and outright corruption, underlying the instability that led to the ouster of two leaders through revolutions in 2005 and 2010.
Government critics said the campaign was marred by a criminal conviction handed down to opposition Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party leader Omurbek Tekebaev in August after a trial his backers say was politically motivated.
Meanwhile, the government accused Babanov of trying to buy votes and late last month detained one of his supporters, saying there were efforts to plot a coup during the election.
Babanov denied the accusations and in turn alleged the government has used "administrative resources" against his candidacy and in favor of Jeenbekov.
While Kyrgyzstan's key ally Russia has stayed neutral, neighboring Kazakhstan's autocratic President Nursultan Nazarbaev made a surprise appearance in the campaign in September by appearing to endorse Babanov.
That sparked a strong rebuke from Atambaev, who blasted Nazarbaev in a speech lauding his country's democratic principles and accusing Kazakhstan of being ruled by corrupt "sultans."
In a sign of building tensions and in a thinly veiled criticism of Babanov on October 13, Atambaev also called an unnamed leading contender in the elections a "flunky" of a foreign country.
Kazakhstan's government called the remarks "unacceptable" and introduced tighter controls this week on the Kyrgyz border, citing security concerns.
With reporting by AFP and RFE/RL correspondent Alan Crosby
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan- presidential-election-atambaev-babanov- sariev-jeenbekov/28794893.html
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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MBBS candidates paid up to Rs500,000 for entrance help
MBBS candidates had paid as much as Rs300,000 to Rs500,000 to fraudsters who had promised aspiring students to help with their entrance test through wireless devices.
In Kyrgyzstan, An Unexpected Victory For Atambaev's Chosen Candidate
Bruce Pannier October 15, 2017
Sooronbai Jeenbekov has won Kyrgyzstan's presidential election by a wider margin than anyone could have predicted during the campaign.
It was apparent several weeks ahead of polling day that the election would essentially be a contest between Jeenbekov, the candidate from the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) who had the support of incumbent President Almazbek Atambaev, and Omurbek Babanov, the multimillionaire leader of the Respublika party.
But polls by media outlets and predictions by the pundits suggested a much closer race than was actually the case on October 15.
Barely an hour after polls closed, preliminary results already showed Jeenbekov receiving more than 900,000 votes, easily more than the 50 percent-plus-one vote needed to be declared the outright winner of the election.
Kyrgyzstan's Central Election Commission said some 1.65 million eligible voters cast ballots.
Babanov will undoubtedly challenge the results.
As voters were still casting ballots, Babanov declared, "There is no fair election today. Law enforcement authorities are interfering with the election. Is this what they call a fair election?"
Babanov's complaints are unlikely to change anything. Atambaev anticipated such a response, saying as he voted on October 15 that "nobody will allow any nullification of the election results. Whoever the people elect will be elected."
The final weeks of the campaign were marred by attacks on Babanov by some state media outlets, who insinuated the candidate had connections to oligarchs in Kazakhstan, especially after he met with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev on September 19; accused Babanov of inciting Kyrgyzstan's ethnic Uzbeks to violence during a speech in southern Kyrgyzstan at the end of September; and said he may have been part of a plot to unleash a campaign of unrest in Kyrgyzstan if he lost.
Jeenbekov was equally dogged by accusations that administrative resources were being used to boost his chances on election day, accusations that will likely be repeated in the coming days as many question how Jeenbekov was able to gather so many votes.
For months there has been the question of who would win. But equally important was the question of how any announcement of victory would be received by Kyrgyzstan's population.
The specter of revolutions in Kyrgyzstan in 2005 and 2010 that ousted previous presidents haunted this latest campaign. It remains to be seen how the country's people will react to an outcome that just a few weeks ago seemed all but impossible.
There will be many doubts expressed about the results of the October 15 presidential election.
Babanov might have lost officially, but he still received more than one-third of the votes cast, including nearly 90 percent of the votes cast in his native Talas Province.
Much now will depend on whether Babanov gracefully accepts the results of this election.
As the apparent victor, Jeenbekov inherits a raft of problems, foremost the current feud with Kazakhstan, touched off by Atambaev's continued criticism of what he believes was Kazakh interference in the election.
Atambaev's public jabs at Kazakhstan, and at Nazarbaev, led Kazakhstan to tighten control over border crossings with Kyrgyzstan on October 10, a situation that remained as of election day in Kyrgyzstan.
Since Atambaev publicly supported Jeenebekov, it will likely now fall to Kyrgyzstan's president-elect to figure out how to repair this damage to relations with one of Kyrgyzstan's key partners, especially since, as Kazakh officials reminded, Kyrgyzstan's main routes to the outside world run through Kazakhstan.
And while Jeenbekov vowed to continue the policies of Atambaev, many question how effective Atambaev's policies have actually been for Kyrgyzstan.
While Kyrgyzstan has not suffered unrest under Atambaev, the country is far from prosperous, with hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz working abroad as migrant laborers, mainly in Russia and Kazakhstan, making Kyrgyzstan one of the most remittance-dependent countries in the world.
There are still no signs Kyrgyzstan's economic prospects stand to improve anytime soon.
And there is the security problem.
Since citizens of Kyrgyzstan are accused of being involved in the deadly bombing of the St. Petersburg subway in April, Kyrgyzstan's security forces have been hunting for, and finding, people allegedly connected to extremist groups.
Detentions of such people are reported regularly now, whereas not long ago such detentions happened but were infrequent, raising the question of just how bad Islamic militancy is in Kyrgyzstan.
Jeenbekov's victory -- with some 55 percent of the vote -- represents the smallest percentage of votes ever received by a winner in a presidential election in Kyrgyzstan. So while Jeenbekov may have won, his mandate is not as solid as those of any of his predecessors.
The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan- presidential-election-analysis- jeenbekov/28796176.html
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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Macedonians Vote In Municipal Elections In Test Of Support For Zaev Government
RFE/RL's Balkan Service October 15, 2017
Macedonians voted on October 15 in municipal elections that are seen as a test for the new left-wing government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, five months after it came to power following an extended period of political instability.
More than 1.7 million people in the Balkan nation were eligible to vote in the first round for mayoral candidates and members of local councils in some 80 municipalities, including the capital, Skopje.
Runoff elections are scheduled for October 29.
Candidates from 19 parties and coalitions along with independent candidates competed in the elections, with results expected early on October 16.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said it would send more than 300 observers to Macedonia for the vote.
Opinion polls gave a slight advantage to Zaev's governing coalition of Social Democrats (SDSM) and the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), which came to power following national elections in December 2016 and after protracted negotiations.
Former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party leads the opposition, which has been dominant in local politics leading up to the vote.
The most closely watched contest will be the mayoral battle in Skopje.
Eight candidates are competing, with SDSM candidate Petre Silegov holding a 2.6 percentage point lead over incumbent Koce Trajanovski of VMRO-DPMNE. Trajanovski is seeking a third term.
On the national level, Zaev has vowed to lead Macedonia to NATO and European Union membership.
He has also promised to resolve investigations into alleged wiretapping and election abuses that were launched by the special public prosecutor against members of the former Gruevski government related to the conservative party's 11 years in power.
Zaev has urged voters to "free the country from the remnants of the VMRO-DPMNE criminal regime."
The VMRO-DPMNE denies any wrongdoing, blaming foreign spies for the wiretapping scandal.
VMRO-DPMNE candidates have focused on "national issues."
They claim that Zaev's SDSM plans to change the country's name in deference to Greece, as it looks to enhance its accession chances with NATO and the EU.
Athens has long insisted that the name Macedonia should only be used for its own northern province, and it has vetoed Skopje's attempts to join NATO and to start EU accession talks over the dispute.
Athens, Brussels, and the United Nations refer to the Balkan country as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).
The U.S. ambassador to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison, told The Washington Post that Macedonia was a likely candidate to become the next NATO member, but she said the country must first resolve the name issue in a manner acceptable to Macedonia and Greece.
Meanwhile, VMRO-DPMNE also has raised ethnic issues, slamming Zaev's government for proposing to make Albanian Macedonia's second official language.
Albanians make up about 25 percent of Macedonia's total population of some 2.1 million people, and Zaev only managed to secure a majority when he reached a coalition deal with Albanian parties after the December election.
Macedonia had been thrown into political turmoil after VMRO-DPMNE finished first in the parliamentary vote but was unable to secure a governing majority.
Second-place Zaev was eventually able to form a coalition with the ethnic Albanian DUI party, a move that ignited nationalist protests in some parts of Macedonia.
The European Council on Foreign Relations lamented that "in Macedonia, a domestic political crisis has caused interethnic tensions and even violence" and urged the EU to become more involved in supporting democracy throughout the Balkans.
"Renewed clashes are not imminent," it added, "but the larger crisis rambles on. Leaders like former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski continue to play the 'ethnic card' for political gain, which risks reigniting violence."
Zaev has also bid to improve relations with Macedonia's neighbors in the region.
In August, Zaev signed a friendship treaty with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in an attempt to end years of feuding with the EU-member nation.
The two countries said they would also heighten economic ties, renounce territorial claims, and improve human and minority rights.
With reporting by AP, Sofia News Agency, and European Western Balkans
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/macedonia -municipal-elections- zaev-albania/28795298.html
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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Kurz-Led Austria's People's Party Winning Parliamentary Elections
Sputnik News
21:58 15.10.2017(updated 22:43 15.10.2017)
Sebastian Kurz's Austrian People's Party (OVP) is winning the snap parliamentary elections in Austria, securing over 30 percent, according to the preliminary results of the vote as all ballots except those sent by mail have been counted.
Kurz, as head of the OVP, will become Austria's next leader, according to projections from Sunday's parliamentary election result. Short of a majority, his party will have to build a coalition government with the far right.
According to preliminary data as of over 96 percent of votes counted, less than one percent divides the results of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO) and the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) with the party expected to come second in the vote not being clear.
The Austrian Interior Ministry responsible for the election in the country confirmed the leading positions of the Austrian People's Party (OVP) in the recent snap parliamentary vote, as the party gathered support of over 31 percent of voters. According to preliminary results published by the country's media, the OVP led by Kurz gathered support of 36.45 percent of voters and finished first.
According to the figures published on the ministry's website, the OVP is followed by the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) backed by 27.4 percent of voters, while the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO) finished third with 26.7 percent of votes.
The ministry added that the results were published without the ballots cast during the early voting.
Austria is currently governed by the Grand Coalition of Social Democratic Party (SPO) and the Austrian People's Party (OVP), but the victory of OVP may significantly change the power balance.
Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz called for a snap election after being chosen as the new leader of the conservative the Austrian People's Party in May amid tensions with a coalition partner, the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SPO).
The foreign minister, who at 31 may become one of the youngest European leaders in modern history if his party wins the election, also announced that he would replace the regular OVP constituency selection process with a list of independent candidates backed by the party.
The right-wing Austrian party is likely to repeat the success of the right-wing Alternative for Germany that entered the Bundestag for the first time as a result of gaining 94 seats in the parliament.
Sputnik
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Four-Way Afghan Peace Talks Set to Resume in Oman
By Ayaz Gul October 15, 2017
Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States are set to resume four-way discussions Monday in Oman in a renewed bid to seek a politically negotiated settlement to the Afghan war.
The meeting of the so-called Quadrilateral Cooperation Group, or QCG, in the Gulf state is taking place after a gap of 16 months. Senior foreign ministry officials from the four nations will lead their respective delegations at the talks.
"The objective is to bring the warring factions within Afghanistan to the negotiating table. It is upon all members of QCG to meet and decide on how to move forward in this context," Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said on the eve of Monday's meeting.
The QCG was launched in January 2016. The aim was for members to use their respective influence on the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgency to nudge them to the negotiating table.
But the peace process broke down after a fifth session in May of that year, when a U.S. drone attack killed the Taliban Chief, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, while he was traveling through the Pakistani province of Baluchistan.
The insurgents' reluctance to engage in peace talks with the Afghan government and Kabul's strained relations with Islamabad also hampered previous QCG sessions from making any significant headway.
While officials have reported a thaw in bilateral relations following recent high-level meetings between Afghan and Pakistani leaders, the Taliban has reiterated its stance of not engaging in peace negotiations with Kabul until all American and NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan.
A senior insurgent official told VOA his group has "nothing to do" with the QCG process.
"Nobody has contacted us, nor are we participating in this meeting," the official said requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to publicly discuss Taliban political matters.
The Islamist insurgency currently controls or contests more than 40 percent of Afghan territory and continues to make battlefield gains despite intensified ground operations and airstrikes by U.S.-backed Afghan security forces.
Pakistani officials blamed Washington for scuttling the four-way process by eliminating Mansoor.
For their part, Afghan and U.S. officials complained Islamabad was not doing enough to prevent the Taliban from using sanctuaries on Pakistani soil to orchestrate insurgent attacks in Afghanistan, charges Pakistan denied.
Diplomatic sources told VOA that participating nations this time have agreed to revive the QCG process with a commitment to maintain secrecy of its proceedings.
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Egyptian Army: Terror Plan Foiled in Sinai Peninsula
By Noor Zahid October 15, 2017
Egyptian security forces have foiled a militant attack on army installations in the Sinai Peninsula, a day after half a dozen policemen were killed by insurgents in the region, a military statement said.
A statement by the Egyptian army on Saturday said a group of insurgents breached a heavily-guarded army installation in the city of el-Arish in northern Sinai to carry out a "terrorist attack."
The militants, disguised in Egyptian army uniforms, were armed with grenades and firearms and carrying explosive belts used in suicide attacks Tamer El-Refaie, a spokesperson for the Egyptian army, said in the statement.
Rafaie did not provide the number of militants killed in the attack. But at least one militant was killed after his explosive belt went off.
The attack came a day after six policemen and another four were wounded in a militant attack on a checkpoint in the outskirts of el-Arish.
Egypt has been battling an increasingly violent insurgency in parts of the northern Sinai, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel. The militant campaign accelerated after the Egyptian military overthrew elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
State of emergency extended
The country has been under months-long state of emergency. Last week, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi extended the state of emergency for another three months, which had already been extended once.
Several militant groups, including Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, are active in large swaths of the peninsula and frequently target police and security forces.
In July, Islamic State affiliates killed 23 Egyptian soldiers in a remote checkpoint in Sinai.
The volatile security situation in Sinai has also provided a fertile ground for the emergence of IS in the region. The group has also targeted local Coptic Christians in Sinai, causing more than 100 Christian families to flee from el-Arish.
Analysts say that IS and other militant groups capitalize on the Egyptian regime's alienating policies towards the local Bedouin tribes in Sinai. Locals accuse the government forces of indiscriminate bombing of their villages. Some militants hide among the local population and use locals as human shields.
Furthermore, Sinai is one of the most underdeveloped regions in Egypt and has largely been neglected by the central government in Cairo. Local tribes have repeatedly protested the harsh military actions and the poor economic situation with which they are faced.
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Somalia Blast Toll at 276 as Residents Protest Al-Shabab
By Harun Maruf October 15, 2017
The death toll from Saturday's massive truck bombing in the Somali capital Mogadishu - the deadliest terror attack in the country's history - has topped 270.
Abdirahman O. Osman, Somalia's minister of information, tweeted that the number killed is now 276, with about 300 wounded. He also laid blame for the bombing on the Islamist militant al-Shabab group.
In other tweets, Osman acknowledged Kenya, Ethiopia, and Turkey for sending medical aid to Somalia.
Angry protesters took to the streets condemning al-Shabab. The militant group, which often claims attacks in Mogadishu, has so far stayed silent. But the Somali government and terror experts strongly believe the group was responsible.
"Whether they claim or not claim makes no difference, we know the act that has happened, it's al-Shabab," former intelligence officer Abdi Hassan Hussein told VOA. "The information we are getting so far shows this is the work of al-Shabab, it has their hallmarks."
Hundreds of residents on Sunday marched to the scene of the attack, condemning the militant group.
"Where is my child, fight against the wicked, to hell with them, my god condemn the evil" said one elderly angry women. Other protesters shouted anti al-Shabab statements like, "We don't want blood thirsty elements".
Some protesters wept as they reached the scene and saw the apocalyptic aftermath of the explosion. The truck bomb turned one of Mogadishu's most beautiful junctions into death and destruction.
US reaction
In Washington, the U.S. State Department condemned the attack "in the strongest terms."
"In the face of this senseless and cowardly act, the United States will continue to stand with the Somali government, its people, and our international allies to combat terrorism and support their efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity," a statement said.
Mohamed Yusuf, a doctor at Medina hospital, described what happened when the explosion happened at around 3:20 pm local time on Saturday.
"We were preparing to leave work for the day but then huge blast occurred, we were shocked, within five minutes ambulances brought in the wounded," he said. "We have received many dead people, unlike we have ever seen. The hospital is working, we are lacking intensive care equipment, we get support from ICRC but we are still lacking full capacity."
The victims
Maryan Abdullahi, 21, just finished Banadir University where she studied medicine. She left her voluntary work at Banadir hospital Saturday and was waiting a bus when the explosion occurred. She was killed instantly. He mother Hindo Yuusuf immediately called her number when she heard about the location of the explosion.
"I called her number immediately but someone else answered and they said the owner of the phone died, her body is near the hotel [Safari]," she told VOA Somali.
Abdullahi's father flew from London Saturday to attend his daughter's graduation from the university. He arrived in Mogadishu Sunday morning and attended her funeral instead.
Also killed were five members of the same family who were running a clothing shop.
Aweys Moallim Ali is a cousin to the family. He too was wounded in the attack. He said his relatives own two shops but they gathered into one before the explosion.
"They were doing accounting work about the sales made so far so that they can make zakat [alms] payment, they closed the other shop and were meeting in a shop near Hotel Safari," He said.
VOA reporter
Hundreds were wounded in the attack including VOA reporter in Mogadishu Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle.
Abdulle sustained injuries to the neck, hand and burns throughout the body. But he was in good spirits as he spoke about his condition.
"I'm injured in the lower neck, there is shrapnel inside. I have a second injury on the right hand, maybe it's broken, and third, my body is burned in particular on the torso," he said. "I have smaller injuries throughout the body, facial injuries, I had about 4 stitches on the face, I have multiple injuries."
Abdulle recounted what happened at the time of the explosion
"I remember leaving the building near Safari hotel, I wanted to get into my car, as I stepped towards the car the explosion went off, that is all I remember," he said.
'The next thing I know is this morning when I woke up at 10am when I saw people standing around my bed."
The Somali government has called for three days of national mourning and lowering the flag at half-mast. President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has condemned the attack as "barbaric."
Sahra Ahmed, Asha Aden, Jafar Kukay and Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this report.
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Conservatives Win Austrian Parliamentary Election
By VOA News October 15, 2017
After more than six decades of moderate and centrist governments, Austria appears to be shifting to the right after conservative Sebastian Kurz and his People's Party won Sunday's parliamentary election.
With almost all the votes counted, the People's Party took nearly 32 percent of the vote while the far-right anti-immigrant Freedom Party won 27 percent. It was barely ahead of the ruling Social Democrats, who finished with a little less than 27 percent. They had been in a coalition with the conservatives.
The 31-year-old Kurz, Austria's current foreign minister, will likely become Europe's youngest leader.
"Today is not the day of triumph over others, but today is our chance for real change in this country," he told cheering supporters Sunday night.
Short of an absolute majority, Austrian political observers say Kurz is likely to form a coalition with the Freedom Party and send Austria on a right-wing path after decades of centrism. Many Austrians have been complaining about stagnant leadership.
The Freedom Party has been working to shake off its neo-Nazi image. The last time it was in the Austrian government was 17 years ago when the European Union imposed sanctions on Austria.
Immigration dominated the 2017 campaign. The People's Party and Freedom Party called for a tougher immigration policy, including cuts in social services for migrants and asylum seekers, most of whom are Muslim.
Kurz also campaigned for tax cuts and reduced EU regulations, although observers don't see Austria leaving the EU.
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Two Projectiles Launched at Israel From Sinai Peninsula - Israeli Defense Force
Sputnik News
00:14 16.10.2017(updated 03:18 16.10.2017)
The Israeli Defense Force reports that sirens in the Eshkol region were triggered by the two rockets fired from the Egypt's Sinai area.
TEL AVIV (Sputnik) Southern Israel's Eshkol region was targeted by two rockets fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said Sunday.
"A short while ago, two rockets were fired from the Sinai area at the Eshkol Regional Council, SE of Gaza," the press service of the IDF said on its Twitter account.
There is still no information about casualties or inflicted damage caused by the attack.
This is not the first time, when the Israeli territory is hit from the Sinai Peninsula, for example the similar incidents took place in April and May.
The missiles were launched hours after the Egyptian military reported that attacks on security checkpoints in North Sinai near the town of Sheikh Zweid killed six servicemen. Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The northern part of the Sinai peninsula is considered to be one of the hotspots of Egypt. The insurgency in North Sinai is led by Islamist militants many of which are affiliated with Daesh terror group. Unprecedented clashes between Egyptian security forces and militants started in 2013 when Egypt's islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted as a result of the coup d'etat.
Inspite of the tensions in bilateral relations and Israeli criticism that Egyptian military cannot control the situation on the peninsula, Israel and Egypt are actively cooperating in fighting terrorism. In 1979 Israel and Egypt signed Camp David Accords which imposed restrictions on the presence of Egyptian military forces on Sinai. However, because of the unrest in the insurgency area, which borders with Israel and Gaza strip, in 2015 Israel announced that it allows Egypt to ignore the provisions of the Accords pertaining to the military presence and operate voluntarily in order to ensure security in the region.
Sputnik
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CPC Central Committee plenum makes full preparation for key congress
People's Daily Online
(Xinhua) 08:57, October 15, 2017
BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- The four-day Seventh Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded in Beijing Saturday with a communique issued.
Entrusted by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a work report at the meeting.
It was decided that the 19th CPC National Congress, a five-yearly event, will be convened from Oct. 18 in Beijing, according to the communique.
A report to be made by the 18th CPC Central Committee to the 19th CPC National Congress, a work report of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) to the congress, as well as an amendment to the CPC Constitution were discussed and approved.
It was decided that the three documents will be submitted to the upcoming congress for examination and deliberation.
The amendment to the CPC Constitution must include the key theories and strategic thought presented by the report to be delivered at the 19th CPC National Congress, according to a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Sept. 18.
The amended constitution must fully represent the latest sinicization of Marxism, new governance concepts, thoughts and strategies of the CPC Central Committee since the 18th CPC National Congress, as well as new experience in adhering to and strengthening Party leadership and in strict Party governance, it said.
The plenum was presided over by the Political Bureau.
Xi gave an explanation on the draft report to the 19th CPC National Congress, and Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, gave an explanation of the draft amendment to the CPC Constitution.
Altogether 191 members and 141 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee attended the meeting, with members of the CCDI and leading officials of related departments present as non-voting delegates.
Eleven new full members, who had been alternate members of the 18th CPC Central Committee, were admitted to the Central Committee during the plenum.
"FOUR GREATS"
The plenary session comprehensively analyzed the current situation and tasks and conducted in-depth discussion on several important issues which focus on "Four Greats," making full preparation for the 19th CPC National Congress.
The issues under discussion include "engaging in the great battle with many new historical features, embarking on the new great project in Party building, advancing the great cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and realizing the great dream of revival of the Chinese nation under new situations," read the communique.
The plenum fully affirmed the work of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee since the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee held a year ago.
The meeting reached consensus that the Political Bureau has held high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and thoroughly implemented the spirits of the 18th CPC National Congress and ensuing plenums of the Central Committee.
The Political Bureau has followed the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents and the Scientific Outlook on Development, and thoroughly carried out the essence of Xi's series of important remarks and new governance concepts, thoughts and strategies, according to the communique.
The Political Bureau has united and led the entire nation to continue seeking progress while maintaining stability for its economic work, keep in mind both the domestic and international situations, continue to adopt an overall approach to promote economic, political, cultural, social and ecological progress, as well as to advance coordinated development of the "Four Comprehensives."
It has been firm in implementing new development concepts, advancing difficult reforms, building a clean CPC and fighting against corruption, effectively dealing with various risks and challenges, and innovating and improving macro control.
It has also managed to coordinate work for stabilizing growth, promoting reform, adjusting economic structure, improving people's wellbeing, and preventing risks.
It has deepened military reform and construction, taken initiative in handling well the work involving the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan, carried forward a big country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in an all-round way.
It strengthened Party discipline comprehensively, maintained stable and healthy economic development as well as social harmony and stability, according to the communique.
LOYALTY TO PARTY
Senior officials should remain loyal to the Party and willingly safeguard the authority of the Party's central leadership and the unity of the Party, said the communique issued after the key plenum.
The Party's leading position should be ensured in all aspects and its role of overseeing all work and coordinating all parties should be guaranteed.
The Party principles should be upheld and its policies implemented, the document stressed.
All local authorities and departments should carry out the decisions of the CPC Central Committee in the first instance, it said.
Senior cadres should set an example for all Party members to keep the Party and the people at heart and be keenly aware of what should and should not be done.
They should display strong political and moral integrity, obedience to Party disciplines and resistance to corruption, the document said.
Being a party of more than 89 million members and the ruling party leading more than 1.3 billion people in the drive for reform and modernization, without the authority and centralized leadership of the CPC Central Committee and without strict political disciplines, rules and a clean political environment, the CPC would compromise its creativity, cohesion and effectiveness, weaken the foundation and ability of its governance and fail its mission, the document said.
The document called on all Party members to firmly safeguard the authority of the Party leadership, follow its lead and stay in accordance with the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core.
"CRUSHING MOMENTUM" CONSOLIDATED
China has gained and consolidated "crushing momentum" in its fight against corruption, read the communique, adjusting previous judgement made late last year at a Political Bureau meeting, which only stated that the fight "has gained crushing momentum."
Participants at the session looked back on the work of the 18th CCDI over the past five years, and agreed that discipline inspection commissions at all levels have fulfilled the duties endowed by the Party Constitution, and have comprehensively pushed forward the strict governance of the Party.
The discipline inspection commissions have been working hard to build a clean Party and fight against corruption, firmly upholding the eight-point frugality code, according to the communique.
The communique also stated that the commissions have made full use of their inspections, prioritizing discipline, and have deepened the reform of discipline inspection and the country's supervisory system.
Moreover, the commissions have built groups of cadres in discipline inspection and supervision that both the Party and the people can trust, while consistently improving the accountability system, uncompromisingly containing the spreading of corruption and purifying the political ecology within the CPC, the communique said.
The plenum endorsed a decision made by the Political Bureau to expel Sun Zhengcai and eleven other senior Party officials from the CPC.
"PROFOUND, FUNDAMENTAL" CHANGES
Summarizing progress made by the CPC over the past five years, the communique said China has witnessed profound and fundamental changes during the period, while its achievements are comprehensive and groundbreaking.
These historic changes and achievements indicate that China's development stands at a new historical starting point, which is of great and far-reaching significance for the cause of the Party and the country, according to the communique.
The plenary session summarized the work of the past five years since the 18th CPC National Congress and held that the five years was an "extraordinary" period.
China has made historic achievements in reform and opening up, as well as socialist modernization, it said.
Over the past five years, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core raised a series of new concepts, thoughts and strategies, formulated a string of important guidelines and policies and rolled out many significant measures, it said.
Many deep-rooted problems and issues that were too difficult to be resolved before have been addressed during that period, which promoted the historic changes for the cause of the Party and the country, according to the document.
"The country also saw major achievements in economic development and major breakthroughs in comprehensively deepening reform. Democratic and legal system construction has taken great steps. Ideological and cultural construction has made important progress. People's living standards have constantly improved," it said.
"The ecological environment has been remarkably improved. The building of a strong army has made new headway. New progress was made in work related to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan," it said.
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China's ruling party expels ex-justice minister
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 06:01AM
A former Chinese justice minister has been banished from China's ruling Communist Party apparently over corruption.
In a statement released by the Communist Party's Central Committee on Saturday, Wu Aiying's name was listed as one of a number of officials to have been expelled from the party.
Wu, 65, had been justice minister from 2005 until February this year.
Other names listed included former Chongqing City party boss, Sun Zhengcai. His name had been announced earlier, though.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said Wu had had "serious discipline problems," using a common euphemism for corruption, but gave no other details.
Wu had spent most her career working in the eastern province of Shandong, where she rose to become a deputy provincial party chief, before moving to Beijing in 2003 to work at the Justice Ministry.
China's party officials have been one of the main focuses of President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption. The formerly powerful domestic security chief, Zhou Yongkang, and many of his allies and former associates have been jailed over corruption.
The announcement about Wu comes a few days before the party opens a key, once-in-five-years Congress on Wednesday.
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NC, Maoists should remain key partners until the peace process is complete
In the wake of the announcement of the leftist electoral alliance between CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN-UML and Naya Shakti Party Nepal, Nepali Congress (NC) scrambled to put together an opposing Democratic electoral alliance.
Diplomacy with Pyongyang 'until the first bomb drops,' Tillerson vows
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 09:10PM
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praises his boss's policy towards North Korea, vowing to continue diplomacy "until the first bomb drops."
The US top diplomat made the comments in an interview with CNN on Sunday.
"Those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops," Tillerson said. "The president has also made clear to me that he wants this solved diplomatically He is not seeking to go to war."
Since US President Donald Trump assumed office in January, his administration has been battered by various scandals and dismissals.
Relations between Trump and the former ExxonMobil CEO went sour after the president said in a tweet several weeks ago that Tillerson was "wasting his time" by trying to negotiate with North Korea.
The president's comments came right after Tillerson announced from the Chinese capital Beijing that he had direct lines of communication with North Korea and was seeking to cool tensions.
In his Sunday appearance on the US news media channel, Tillerson further praised the president for "implementing of sanctions and the implementing of diplomatic pressure," against Pyongyang.
"We now have the most comprehensive sanctions in place that have ever been put in place to strangle the North Korean regime's economic revenue streams."
During a TV interview with NBC on Friday, General Barry McCaffrey said Trump could be at war with the North by summer.
"Something has to be said here. I think the president has lost almost all credibility with the international community. They're going to wait him out. So I wouldn't overstate the damage he's doing," said the highly respected general. "The problem is we've got so many crises going on now, potentially, that he's overloading the diplomatic effort, as well as the US armed forces' ability to deal with it."
"I don't want us to take our eye off North Korea. The current language out of the administration, that lack of a diplomatic and serious engagement strategy, in my view, has us sliding toward war by next summer," the retired general said.
Tensions escalated between the two countries after Trump warned to "totally destroy" North Korea during a speech to the UN General Assembly last month.
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North Korea threatens Australia with 'disaster'
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 06:50AM
North Korea has threatened Australia with "disaster" for aligning itself with South Korea and the United States in stepping up pressure on Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
"Lately, Australia is showing dangerous moves of zealously joining the frenzied political and military provocations of the US against the DPRK (North Korea)," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Saturday quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
"Should Australia continue to follow the US in imposing military, economic and diplomatic pressure upon the DPRK despite our repeated warnings, they will not be able to avoid a disaster," the official added.
The spokesman also condemned Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's support for US and South Korean policies, including her consideration of all options, including the use of force, against Pyongyang to halt its missile tests and nuclear program.
The KCNA said there were media reports that Australia was "preparing for a war on the Korean Peninsula," and advised Sydney to stay away from "reckless remarks and conducts" in support of Washington's so-called "military option."
Responding to Pyongyang's threats, Australian Veterans' Affairs Minister Dan Tehan said that Sydney "will not be cowed by the North Koreans" and will continue to do all it can to protect and support its allies.
"The North Koreans should do what the international community have asked them to do: obey all the Security Council resolutions which have been passed condemning their missile activity, condemning their attempts to develop nuclear weapons," he told Sky News.
"If they did that, then the rest of the international community would look to work with them. If they don't, we will continue to support our allies: the South Koreans, the Japanese, and everyone else who is threatened by this unpalatable behavior by the North Koreans," Tehan said.
This comes as news reports have claimed that the North is "highly likely" preparing to test-launch a ballistic missile capable of reaching US territory ahead of an upcoming joint naval drill by Washington and Seoul.
The US and South Korea are set to hold a joint navy drill from October 16 to 26 in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea.
The United States and North Korea have been at loggerheads over Pyongyang's weapons programs.
Pyongyang says it will not give up on its nuclear deterrence unless Washington ends its hostile policy toward the country and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea. Thousands of US soldiers are stationed in South Korea and Japan.
Tensions have recently significantly risen between North Korea and the US. The two countries have been trading threats of military action against one another, and there is a potential for an actual armed conflict to erupt.
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N Korea Rationalizes Nukes and Missiles as Way to Protect Itself From US
Sputnik News
19:58 15.10.2017(updated 00:33 16.10.2017)
A member of North Korea's Parliament spoke about the threat of destruction the country faces from the United States.
"We would like to make a statement that our country faces a threat that its existence is challenged and could be destroyed by the United States. History shows proof that we should protect ourselves on our own and our nuclear programs are the programs of nuclear deterrence aimed at the protection of our independence," An Tong Chun, the first deputy speaker of the North Korean parliament, said Sunday.
The lawmaker added that North Korea has to defend itself and develop its nuclear program because the country's existence is at stake due to hostile actions taken by the United States.
North Korea also called on the United States to stop its hostile policy in regards to Pyongyang, following Pyongyang's recent statements at the 137th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in St. Petersburg.
"We want the United States to end its hostile policy as for North Korea," said An Tong Chun, who is leading the North Korean delegation.
Earlier the delegation claimed it to be impossible to "even talk" about negotiating the recent tensions on the peninsula.
The statement comes as the US-South Korean drills are set to kick off on Monday. Earlier, the US flew two B-1B strategic bombers over the Korean Peninsula and test-fired ground-attack missiles. Moreover, the USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered US submarine, arrived in the South Korean port of Busan amid the ongoing escalation of tensions.
Pyongyang has responded to the war games by saying that the US and South Korea will "ignite an aggressive nuclear war against us," calling the arrival of B-1b bombers and nuclear submarines "reckless military provocation." Moreover, media reports suggested that North Korea is allegedly preparing for a missile launch amid the US-South Korea drills.
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Tillerson on N Korea: US to Continue Diplomatic Efforts 'Until First Bomb Drops'
Sputnik News
16:44 15.10.2017(updated 17:27 15.10.2017)
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has commented on Washington's stance on the North Korean issue and the Iranian nuclear deal after Donald Trump's decision not to certify Tehran's compliance with the agreement.
The US will continue diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean crisis, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in an interview with CNN.
"He [Trump] wants this solved diplomatically he is not seeking to go to war The diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops," Tillerson said in an interview to "State of the Union."
Tillerson said that Trump doesn't consider diplomacy a waste of time with regard to North Korea. Trump "has also made clear to me that he wants this solved diplomatically," Tillerson reiterated.
He said that Trump "is not seeking to go to war" with North Korea.
The statement comes after the US president took to Twitter to say that Tillerson is "wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man," adding that "we'll do what has to be done," prompting speculations of an upcoming military response to the North Korean issue.
Later, Trump wrote that "only one thing will work" with regard to Pyongyang as "talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid hasn't worked."
This week another top US official, Secretary of Defense James Mattis also reiterated that the US still resorts to diplomacy toward North Korea, adding, however, that the US army must ensure that the country has military options in case talks fail. He also said that the UN Security Council twice in a row voted unanimously in favor of imposing stronger sanctions on Pyongyang over its ballistic and nuclear missile launches.
On September 11, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted its toughest resolution yet against North Korea over its latest nuclear test and repeated missile launches. The move prompted harsh criticism from Pyongyang which subsequently vowed to use any means possible to retaliate against the United States.
The tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been further aggravated in recent months as Pyongyang has held several rounds of missile launches and nuclear tests. The most recent one was conducted on September 15, when North Korea launched a ballistic missile, which flew over Japan before falling into the northern Pacific some 20 minutes after the launch.
Iran Nuclear Deal
Commenting on Trump's decision not to certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal, Tillerson said that Washington would work on Iran nuclear deal with other parties.
"Under the nuclear agreement, the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action], that is a multilateral party agreement, there have been a number of technical violations Our response has been to work with other parties and demand we be much more demanding of the enforcement of the agreement, much more demanding inspections, much more demanding disclosures," Tillerson told CNN.
Washington wants to fully enforce the Iran nuclear deal as it is and "then begin the process of addressing the flaws," Tillerson said, emphasizing that the agreement is in the best interest of the United States.
On Friday, Trump decided not to certify the Iran nuclear deal on Friday as part of the new US strategy, prompting Tehran's statements, saying that the country would respond if its interests under the agreement are harmed. The US leader also ordered the Department of the Treasury to impose new sanctions against the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for allegedly providing assistance to terrorist groups, a claim denied by the elite Iranian forces and official Tehran.
In his turn, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reiterated that the country uses weapons and missiles only as means of defense. The same day, Director General of the IAEA Yukiya Amano confirmed that the Iranian authorities are fulfilling all obligations they have undertaken within the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA).
After Trump's announcement, many members of the P5+1 group that brokered the historic deal in 2015 yet again stated that they believe Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal. Commenting on Washington's move, Moscow said that Russia remains committed to the deal, is interested in preserving it and calls on all other participants of the agreement to do the same.
In July 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1 group of nations, a group comprised of the five permenant members of the UN Security Council China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States plus Germany. The nuclear deal came into force in January 2016, and provides for the gradual lifting of economic and diplomatic sanctions imposed on Tehran by Western countries in exchange for closing Iran's nuclear program.
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North Korea Blasts Trump as a 'Strangler of Peace'
Sputnik News
15:42 15.10.2017(updated 15:57 15.10.2017)
A new round in the US-North Korea war of words came Sunday, with a Pyongyang state-run newspaper calling American President Donald Trump a "strangler of peace" who is pushing the situation on the Korean Peninsula "to the brink of war."
A commentary from the Rodong Sinmun newspaper claimed that Trump's decision to increase arms deliveries to Japan and South Korea has created a "hair trigger situation" in the region.
"Trump called for total destruction of our state and people at the UN arena, and continues to bring nuclear strategic assets into South Korea and its vicinity, pushing the situation on the peninsula to the brink of war," the commentary said, as cited by CNN.
The decision to give its allies increased access to US weaponry was made by the White House in September, following another North Korean missile test. At the time, Trump was blasted by North Korean media as a "war merchant living on human blood."
Sunday's commentary came amid reports in South Korean media claiming that Pyongyang may be currently preparing for a new missile launch in response to a major US-South Korean naval exercise that is scheduled to kick off on Monday.
According to the Dong-A Ilbo daily, a US satellite took pictures of a ballistic missile mounted on launchers being transported out of a hangar to several areas in North Korea. Sources told the newspaper that US military officials believe this could indicate preparations for a launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).
Earlier, KCNA published an article threatening the US with a missile strike on Guam if Washington continues to expand its military activities in the region and Trump continues to convey warmongering statements on social media.
The situation around North Korea has escalated in recent months, following a series of missile and nuclear tests by the country.
North Korea conducted its latest missile launch on September 15, with a ballistic missile flying over northern Japan before splashing into the Pacific. The launch came just days after the UN Security Council approved sanctions against Pyongyang over its missile and nuclear program. On September 3, the North conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date, which many believe to be an H-bomb.
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S Korea Prepares for Drills With US, But Urges North to Return to Negotiations
Sputnik News
14:40 15.10.2017(updated 15:46 15.10.2017)
South Korean parliament speaker and a North Korean parliamentarian are both attending the 137th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly. Seoul urges talks, Pyongyang refuses due to the upcoming US-South Korean joint drills on the Peninsula and political pressure.
"I once again call on North Korea to return to the negotiating table and to resolve the problem [of the Korean Peninsula] in the near future," Speaker of the South Korean Parliament Chung Sye-kyun said at the 137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in St. Petersburg.
At the same time, a North Korean delegation member claimed it is impossible to "even talk" about negotiations due to the unprecedented pressure from Washington, and also taking into account the upcoming exercises of South Korea and the United States on the Korean Peninsula. He underlined that his delegation had no plans to meet with South Korean parliamentarians.
On Saturday, Chung Sye-kyun also told Sputnik that the delegation of South Korea was not planning to hold a meeting with the delegation of North Korea on the sidelines of the summit.
The statement comes as the US, South Korea joint drills are set to kick off on Monday, October 16. Earlier, the US flew two B-1B strategic bombers over the Korean Peninsula and test-fired ground-attack missiles. Moreover, the USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered US submarine, has arrived in the South Korean port of Busan amid the ongoing escalation of tensions.
Pyongyang has responded to the war games by saying that the US and South Korea "ignite an aggressive nuclear war against us," calling the arrival of B-1B bombers and nuclear submarines "reckless military provocation." Moreover, media reports suggested that North Korea is allegedly preparing for a missile launch amid the US-South Korea drills.
Russia Still Urges Parties to Hold Bilateral Meeting
Russia's St. Petersburg is currently hosting the 137th IPU Assembly that kicked off on October 14 and will continue until October 18. As both parties attend the event, Russian Parliament's upper house Speaker Valentina Matvienko will propose once again on Monday to hold a meeting between the delegations, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev said Sunday.
"Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko will reiterate this proposal during tomorrow meetings [with South, North Korean delegations]. If such antagonistic countries might meet anywhere, then it should be in a parliamentary format and, of course, on the sidelines of the IPU," Kosachev said.
Kosachev added that the possibility of such a meeting remained as there was no information that the meeting would not be held.
The situation around North Korea has escalated in recent months, following a series of missile and nuclear tests by the country. In September, the UNSC unanimously passed a new round of sanctions in retaliation for North Korea's most powerful nuclear test ever conducted on September 3. The US imposed its own sanctions against North Korea on September 21; the sanctions target Pyongyang's information technology, manufacturing industries, as well as fishing and textiles.
This summer Russia and China proposed the so-called "double freeze" plan aimed at the settlement of the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. According to the plan, North Korea should stop nuclear tests, while Washington and Seoul should refrain from joint drills to ease tensions. However, the US rejected the plan, while there was no official response from Pyongyang. Last week, the Russian presidential aide said that the plan is still on the table.
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Washington's, Seoul's Actions Leave No Chance for Any Talks - N Korean Lawmaker
Sputnik News
12:54 15.10.2017(updated 14:12 15.10.2017)
A member of the North Korean delegation to the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union has criticized the upcoming South Korean-US war games amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang has repeatedly slammed the joint drills in the region, saying that they risk provoking a further escalation.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) Due to the unprecedented pressure from Washington, and also taking into account the upcoming exercises of the South Korea and the United States on the Korean Peninsula, representatives from Pyongyang and Seoul, as well as Pyongyang and Washington, are unlikely to sit down at the negotiating table, a member of the North Korean delegation told Sputnik on Sunday.
"Amid the upcoming joint exercises of the United States and South Korea, and also taking into account the unprecedented sanctions of the United States, can we even talk about getting to the negotiating table?" the parliamentarian said at the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
The North Korean lawmaker added that his delegation had no plans to meet with South Korean parliamentarians. "No such plans yet," he said, answering the relevant question.
The statement comes as the US-South Korean drills are set to kick off on Monday. Earlier, the US flew two B-1B strategic bombers over the Korean Peninsula and test-fired ground-attack missiles. Moreover, the USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered US submarine, has arrived in the South Korean port of Busan amid the ongoing escalation of tensions.
Pyongyang has responded to the war games by saying that the US and South Korea "ignite an aggressive nuclear war against us," calling the arrival of B-1b bombers and nuclear submarines "reckless military provocation." Moreover, media reports suggested that North Korea is allegedly preparing for a missile launch amid the US-South Korea drills.
The situation around North Korea escalated in recent months, following series of missile and nuclear tests by the country. In September, the UNSC unanimously passed a new round of sanctions in retaliation for North Korea's most powerful nuclear test every conducted on September 3. The US imposed its own sanctions against North Korea on September 21; the sanctions target Pyongyang's information technology, manufacturing industries, as well as fishing and textiles.
This summer Russia and China proposed the so-called "double freeze" plan aimed at the settlement of the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. According to the plan, North Korea should stop nuclear tests, while Washington and Seoul should refrain from joint drills to ease tensions. However, the US rejected the plan, while there was no official response from Pyongyang. Last week, the Russian presidential aide said that the plan is still on the table.
No Direct Contact Between the South and the North
Russian State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy also commented on the issue and said that South Korean and North Korean delegations will not meet on the sidelines of Inter-Parliamentary Union's Assembly.
"There will be no direct contact between the delegations of two Koreas," Tolstoy told Sputnik.
Russia's St. Petersburg is currently hosting the 137th IPU Assembly that kicked off on October 14 and will continue until October 18.
On Saturday, Chung Sye-kyun, South Korea's delegation's head and parliament speaker, told Sputnik that the delegation of South Korea was not planning to hold a meeting with the delegation of North Korea on the sidelines of the 137th IPU summit.
"So, we do not have any set meeting now, and we are not planning to meet [with each other]. That's why, I have nothing to tell you at the moment," Chung said.
The head of South Korea's delegation indicated that steps should be taken by both parties in order to arrange a meeting.
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Merkel's main rival SPD wins state election in Lower Saxony
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 06:06PM
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party (CDU) suffers a significant setback by losing more supporters in a key state as a rival party and a potential partner in her future coalition government manages to win the elections.
Exit polls of the regional elections in Lower Saxony announced on Sunday showed that the Social Democrats (SPD) gained 37.5 percent of the votes, while the CDU took 35 percent.
The CDU which well outperformed the SPD and won recent elections in Germany, had garnered 36 percent of the votes in the last election in Lower Saxony in 2013. The SPD, a partner in previous federal governments which has now decided to go into opposition, has governed the state with the Greens over the past four years.
The defeat in Lower Saxony, home to carmaker Volkswagen and rich in agriculture, is a setback for Merkel as she struggles to form a trilateral coalition with two low-ranking parties of the September parliamentary votes, namely the Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens.
The so-called Jamaica coalition, the name chosen to designate the rare form of partnership between the three parties whose colors match those of the flag of Jamaica, has proven to be difficult from the very beginning. Merkel has lost the support of many voters over her liberal asylum policy and now she faces a difficult task of reaching agreement with the Greens and the FDP on issues like immigration, European Union reform, tax and environmental protection.
The votes in Lower Saxony, a key state with around six million eligible voters and slightly bigger than the Netherlands, came after a Greens lawmaker defected to Merkel's CDU, causing the SPD-Greens coalition to lose its majority and triggering a snap election.
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Iran: Additional Protocol implementation depends on nuclear deal
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Tehran, Oct 15, IRNA -- Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said that the Islamic Republic will remain committed to its obligations under the Additional Protocol as far as the nuclear deal is respected.
[Iran: Additional Protocol implementation depends on nuclear deal]
Ali Akbar Salehi said in a televised interview that 'Iran's commitment to the Additional Protocol would continue as far as the nuclear deal is alive, because the protocol is not ratified by the Parliament yet, and Iran is implementing it voluntarily.'
Iran and the world major powers signed a nuclear agreement in 2015, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran accepted to limit its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions lift.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed Iran's commitment to its obligations under the deal in eight periodic reports.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he will not certify Iran's abidance by the nuclear agreement. He also threatened to roll back the deal completely if the US Congress cannot find a solution to change the deal.
He has also claimed that Iran's missile program is a violation of the deal's spirit.
Salehi also rejected the US President Donald Trump's demand on having access to Iran's military sites.
As to any situation in which the deal is cancelled, he said that 'Iran not only has not burnt its bridges, but also has constructed more bridges'.
If Iran's authorities come up with the conclusion that the JCPOA is no longer beneficial to the country, and decide to resume 20 percent enrichment in Fordo, Iran can implement the decision in four days, according to the Iranian nulear chief.
'As the President (Rouhani) said, some activities can be resumed and the limitations be removed just in hours,' he added.
He warned that 'Iran is not willing to get involved in the challenging field, so we warn against prompting us to give reaction on the issue'.
Salehi said that the country would act upon an order by the parliamentary committee monitoring the implementation of the nuclear deal. Meanwhile, he reiterated that Tehran is interested in pursuing the deal, and hoped that the other party comes to its senses.
The Iranian official also rejected Trump's claims on Iran allegedly violating the nuclear deal, and said that the claim is rooted in the issue of Zionist regime of Israel.
'The policies currently being adopted by the US are derived from the Zionist regime's demands.'
Referring to Trump's use of 'Arabian' to refer to the Persian Gulf, Salehi said that the use of a fabricated term for the Persian Gulf that prompted more national solidarity among the Iranians.
As to Iran's cooperation with Russia on nuclear issues, Salehi said that the cooperation was going well, and his Russian counterpart would visit Iran in the near future to officially launch the implementation phase of two nuclear power plants.
He also pointed to plans of investment in constructing small nuclear power plants in cooperation with China as new approach of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
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JCPOA still triumph of diplomacy: Zarif
ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency
Sun / 15 October 2017 / 14:31
Tehran (ISNA) - Iran's foreign minister stresses that the 2015 nuclear agreement is still a triumph of diplomacy because other signatories are standing solidly with the Islamic Republic in maintaining the accord.
Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reportedly made the remarks in Tehran to CBS News, which the broadcaster published on its website on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump said in an insulting speech on Friday that his administration "cannot and will not" certify the agreement even as the UN and other world countries support it.
Trump had already endorsed the agreement twice but on Friday he handed its fate to US Congress, entrusting the landmark deal's future to some of its staunchest critics.
After Trump's speech, the UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany, which are the other parties to the accord, reiterated their continued commitment to it.
Zarif said Trump's move would undermine US credibility internationally.
"Nobody else will trust any US administration to engage in any long-term negotiation because the length of any commitment, the duration of any commitment from now on with any US administration would be the remainder of the term of that president," he said.
Before his speech, Trump called Iran a "terrorist nation" and used "A.r.a.b.i.a.n Gulf" to refer to the waters separating Iran and the regional Arab states, which are historically known as the Persian Gulf.
Iranians responded with anger and mockery to the incendiary remarks which also served to unite the nation across the political spectrum.
Zarif said, "I believe the Trump administration is closing its eyes on the realities of our region."
"We believe it will be important for the United States, for the Trump administration to exercise a reset in its cognitive disorder with regard to our region," he said.
In his first reaction to the speech, the Iranian foreign minister wrote on Twitter, "Everyone knew Trump's friendship was for sale to the highest bidder. We now know that his geography is too," referring to the US alliance with Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia was Trump's first stopping point on his maiden foreign trip as president, where he signed deals worth more than $300 billion, including $110 billion in arms sales.
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Nearly 1,300 Nepalis lose job in Qatar
As many as 1,300 Nepali migrant workers, including nearly 300 women, working for the Qatar-based United Cleaning Company have lost their jobs following the firms collapse.
US to stay in Iran nuclear deal: UN ambassador
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 06:34PM
The United States is going to stay in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal despite President Donald Trump's move not to recertify it, says US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, asserting that Iran is not in breach of the agreement.
"I think right now you are going to see us stay in the deal," Haley told NBC News on Sunday, two days after Trump's refusal to certify Tehran's commitment to the landmark agreement between Iran and six world powers the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.
"Right now, we're in the deal to see how we can make it better and that's the goal," Haley said, claiming the US was trying to help American people "feel safer."
Under the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to limit parts of its peaceful nuclear program in exchange for removal all nuclear-related sanctions against the country.
While then-President Barack Obama hailed the deal as one of his greatest achievements, Trump has blasted the JCPOA as "the worst deal ever negotiated."
The Republican president has been desperately trying to undo the agreement, which prevents him from adopting harsher policies against the Islamic Republic.
In his speech on Friday, Trump accused Iran of committing "multiple violations of the agreement," a claim repeatedly rebuked by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), America's European allies and even officials within his own administration.
The billionaire-turned-politician added that he would no longer make regular certifications that the lifting of sanctions under the deal had been in US interests.
Iran 'partially' committed
In a separate interview with ABC News, the UN ambassador was struggled to give a clear response when asked whether "decertifying" meant Iran was in breach of the JCPOA.
"We are not saying they are in breach of the agreement," she said. "No they are doing exactly what they claim to do."
"No, decertifying implies that all of those other things that are in the UN resolution are not happening, "Those are total violations," Haley said, referring to the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed the deal. She did not clarify what parts of the resolution had been violated.
The Trump administration says Iran's development of ballistic missiles for defensive purposes and its support for "terrorist groups" amount to violations of the nuclear deal.
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US Treasury plans new sanctions on Iran's IRGC: Mnuchin
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 04:37PM
The US Treasury Department is planning to introduce new sanctions against Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), according to US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Mnuchin said he had already discussed the matter with his counterparts in other countries at the latest meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
"I've had very direct conversations with my counterparts about what we're trying to do with Iran," Mnuchin said. "We're going to be working with them on that."
The sanctions are part of US President Donald Trump's supposedly new diplomatic offensive against Tehran, which he unveiled on Friday by refusing to certify the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 groupthe US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.
The Republican president also said in his speech that his administration was going to place "tough sanctions" on the IRGC.
Following Trump's announcement, the US Treasury added the IRGC to its anti-terrorism sanctions list, claiming in a statement that the elite military force is "providing support to a number of terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as to the Taliban."
The statement said that the force has "played a central role to Iran becoming the world's foremost state sponsor of terror."
The US Treasury also slapped sanctions on four entities three based in Iran and one based in China over claims of providing "support to the IRGC or Iran's military."
IRGC advisers are currently assisting the Iraqi and Syrian forces in their anti-terrorism campaign against foreign-backed Daesh Takfiri militants and other terrorist groups wreaking havoc in both countries.
On Thursday, Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami warned that blacklisting the IRGC would only promote terror and instability in the region and the entire world.
Hatami also praised the IRGC as "the most powerful" force "on the frontline" of the fight against terrorism.
Last week, the IRGC's commander, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Iran would treat US troops in the region like Daesh terrorists if Trump designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
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Britain, Germany renew commitment to JCPOA
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 02:49PM
Britain and Germany have reiterated their commitment to the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries despite US President Donald Trump's refusal to certify the deal, a UK government spokeswoman says.
The spokeswoman said in a statement on Sunday that British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone call had "discussed Iran and President Trump's decision not to certify the nuclear deal."
"They agreed the UK and Germany both remained firmly committed to the deal," the spokeswoman said.
The US president laid out the United States' new strategy on Iran on Friday in which he said he would not certify Iran's nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany.
Apart from his refusal to certify the JCPOA, Trump also warned that he might ultimately terminate the deal, in defiance of other world powers and undermining a landmark victory for multilateral diplomacy.
While Trump did not pull Washington out of the nuclear deal, he gave the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the pact. Reimposing sanctions would put the US at odds with other signatories to the accord and the European Union.
During his speech, the American businessman-turned-politician also said he was authorizing the US Treasury Department to impose further sanctions on "the entire" Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) for what he claimed was "its support for terrorism."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani slammed Trump's speech against the Islamic Republic as nothing more than insults and delirious talk, urging the US president to brush up on his world history and geography to improve his understanding of international obligations and global civility, etiquette and conventions.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday slammed the move by the US Treasury Department to blacklist the IRGC, saying that Iranian people from all walks of life strongly supported the defenders of the country and the region against terrorism.
"Today, Iranians boys, girls, men, women are ALL IRGC," Zarif said on his official Twitter account.
He added that the Iranian people were "standing firm with those who defend us & the region against aggression & terror."
British FM urges support for JCPOA
In a related development on Sunday, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson threw his country's weight behind the nuclear deal with Iran.
Johnson, who was speaking during a telephone conversation with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, reiterated his country's full support for the JCPOA.
The top British diplomat also called on all signatories to the historic deal to remain committed to their obligations in accordance with the JCPOA.
The call was the second phone conversation between the two foreign ministers after Johnson spoke with his Iranian counterpart on Tuesday.
Denmark pledges to support Iran nuclear deal
Meanwhile, Danish Ambassador to Tehran Danny Annan said on Sunday that his country would continue to fully support the JCPOA, which has considerable advantages.
He added that Denmark and other member states of the European Union knew that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had announced eight times that Iran had been living up to its commitments under the JCPOA.
The Danish diplomat noted that many European countries were improving their relations with Iran after the implementation of the JCPOA.
Annan said Iran and European countries had increased trade ties by 95 percent during the first six months of 2017 compared to the previous years, adding that Denmark's exports to Iran showed a 55-percent boost over the same period.
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Iran to stop Additional Protocol if JCPOA nixed: Salehi
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:38AM
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says the Islamic Republic will stop implementing the Non-Proliferation Treaty's (NPT) Additional Protocol if the nuclear agreement is nixed.
"If the JCPOA collapses, we will suspend the implementation of the Additional Protocol because we are now implementing it voluntarily and it has not been approved by the parliament," Ali Akbar Salehi said in an interview on Sunday, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as the nuclear deal is officially called.
He also stressed that Iran is committed to the inspections and meets its obligations only under the JCPOA and not beyond that framework.
Salehi further said that returning Iran's nuclear program to the level before the JCPOA took "hours" for some activities while it was a matter of days or several months for some other activities and in a particular case one year and a few months.
"If one day authorities see that the JCPOA has no more benefits for our country and decide to resume the 20-percent enrichment [of uranium] at Fordow [facility], we can begin it in four days," he added.
Salehi also condemned US President Donald Trump's recent anti-Iran speech, saying his comments were "disgusting and rude."
On Friday, the US president gave a speech filled with anti-Iran insults. He said he would not certify Iran's compliance with the terms of the nuclear accord under a domestic American law.
Trump threatened to "terminate" the JCPOA if he could not "reach a solution working with Congress and our allies" to change it.
He also claimed that the Iranian government had "intimidated international inspectors into not using the full inspection authorities that the agreement calls for."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed the remarks of the American businessman-turned-politician as a "pile of delusional allegations."
Additionally, Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reconfirmed in a statement after Trump's speech that Iran was fully implementing its commitments under the nuclear deal.
On October 9, Amano met with Salehi and the Iranian official that political developments, particularly in the US, would not influence the IAEA's reporting on the Islamic Republic.
The JCPOA was reached between Iran and the P5+1 countries namely the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016. Under the deal, Iran undertook to apply certain limits to its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.
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Iran FM: Nuclear deal still triumph of diplomacy
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 09:33AM
Iran's foreign minister says the 2015 nuclear agreement is still a triumph of diplomacy because other signatories are standing solidly with the Islamic Republic in maintaining the accord.
Mohammad Javad Zarif reportedly made the remarks in Tehran to CBS News, which the broadcaster published on its website on Saturday.
US President Donald Trump said in an insulting speech on Friday that his administration "cannot and will not" certify the agreement even as the UN and other world countries support it.
Trump had already endorsed the agreement twice but on Friday he handed its fate to the US Congress, entrusting the landmark deal's future to some of its staunchest critics.
After Trump's speech, the UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany, which are the other parties to the accord, reiterated their continued commitment to it.
Zarif said Trump's move would undermine US credibility internationally.
"Nobody else will trust any US administration to engage in any long-term negotiation because the length of any commitment, the duration of any commitment from now on with any US administration would be the remainder of the term of that president," he said.
Before his speech, Trump called Iran a "terrorist nation" and used "Arabian Gulf" to refer to the waters separating Iran and the regional Arab states, which are historically known as the Persian Gulf.
Iranians responded with anger and mockery to the incendiary remarks which also served to unite the nation across the political spectrum.
Zarif said, "I believe the Trump administration is closing its eyes on the realities of our region."
"We believe it will be important for the United States, for the Trump administration to exercise a reset in its cognitive disorder with regard to our region," he said.
In his first reaction to the speech, the Iranian foreign minister wrote on Twitter, "Everyone knew Trump's friendship was for sale to the highest bidder. We now know that his geography is too," referring to the US alliance with Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia was Trump's first stopping point on his maiden foreign trip as president, where he signed deals worth more than $300 billion, including $110 billion in arms sales.
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Report: Iraqi forces advance on Kurdish-held Kirkuk
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 09:56PM
Iraqi Forces have started to advance toward Kurdish-held Kirkuk, Reuters reports Kurdish and Iraqi officials as saying.
The announcement was made late on Sunday, several hours after Iraq's central government accused Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) authorities of bringing militants from Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to the Kirkuk, saying it considered the move as a "declaration of war."
The Iraqi government has announced that it will impose its authority over Kirkuk and other disputed areas.
The statement came just hours before the expiry of a deadline for Kurdish Peshmerga fighters to withdraw from strategic areas in Kirkuk.
The latest incidents come amid simmering tensions between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over a recent controversial referendum on the secession of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region.
The plebiscite took place on September 25, sparking strong objection from Baghdad. Iraq's neighbors and the international community also voiced concerns about the repercussions of the vote, which was only supported by Israel.
Kirkuk, with some 10 percent of Iraq's oil reserves, has long been contested by Baghdad and Erbil.
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Iraqi govt.: PKK presence in Kirkuk amounts to declaration of war
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 06:30PM
The Iraqi government has accused authorities of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of bringing militants from Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to the disputed oil province of Kirkuk, saying it considered the move as a "declaration of war."
Iraq's National Security Council, headed by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, said in a statement on Sunday that the presence of "fighters not belonging to the regular security forces in Kirkuk" was a "dangerous escalation."
"It is impossible to remain silent" when faced with "a declaration of war towards Iraqis and government forces," the statement said, adding, "The central government and regular forces will carry out their duty of defending the Iraqi people in all its components including the Kurds, and of defending Iraq's sovereignty and unity."
The Iraqi government has said that it will seek to impose its authority over Kirkuk and other disputed areas.
The statement came just hours before the expiry of a deadline for Kurdish Peshmerga fighters to withdraw from strategic areas in Kirkuk.
Kurdish fighters have already rejected a call from the Iraqi government forces to withdraw from a strategic location in Kirkuk's southern region. Earlier on Sunday, a Kurdish security official announced that Peshmerga fighters had not withdrawn from a key junction south of Kirkuk.
Peshmerga forces moved into Kirkuk in 2014, when Daesh Takfiri terrorist group launched an offensive across Iraq.
Iraqi Kurds deny presence of PKK militants
Later on Sunday, Kurdish Iraqi officials denied that any PKK militants were present in Kirkuk.
"There are no PKK forces in Kirkuk, but there are some volunteers who sympathize with the PKK," said General Jabar Yawer, the secretary general of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region's Peshmerga Ministry.
Tensions have been simmering between the central government in Baghdad and the KRG over a recent controversial referendum on the secession of the region.
The plebiscite took place on September 25, drawing strong objection from Baghdad. Iraq's neighbors and the international community also voiced concern about the repercussions of the vote, which was only supported by Israel.
On Sunday, Kurdish leaders dismissed the Iraqi government's demand that the KRG annul the results of last month's independence referendum.
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Kurdish leaders reject Baghdad's demand to cancel referendum results
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 03:13PM
Kurdish leaders have dismissed the Iraqi government's demand that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) annul the results of last month's independence referendum in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
During a meeting between KRG President Massoud Barzani, Iraqi President Fuad Masum and Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, the widow of deceased former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in the Kurdish town of Dokan on Sunday, Kurdish leaders renewed their offer to "resolve peacefully" the crisis with Baghdad.
However, they rejected what they described as "military threats" from Iraqi forces against Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, and pledged to defend the Kurdistan region in case of an offensive, Barzani's aide, Hemin Hawrami, wrote on his Twitter page.
The report came shortly after Mala Karim, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) official, told Arabic-language al-Ghad Press news agency that Iraqi Turkmen fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) had taken control of the Kurdish political party's organizational committee headquarters in the ethnically-mixed city of Tuz Khurmatu, located some 88 kilometers south of Kirkuk.
He added that the pro-government PMU forces -- better known by their Arabic name as Hashd al-Sha'abi had established their control over the building after PUK members evacuated it.
Karim stressed that there was no gun battle between Turkmen fighters and Kurdish forces.
The referendum on secession of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region was held on September 25 despite strong opposition from the central government in Baghdad, the international community, and Iraq's neighboring countries, especially Turkey and Iran.
Following the vote, Baghdad imposed a ban on direct international flights to the Kurdish region and called for a halt to its independent crude oil sales.
On October 12, an Iraqi government spokesman said Baghdad had set a series of conditions that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) needed to meet before any talks on the resolution of the referendum crisis could start.
"The KRG must first commit to Iraq's unity. The local authorities in the [Kurdistan] region must accept the sovereign authority of the federal government on oil exports, [as well as] security and border protection, including land and air entry points," the unnamed Iraqi official added.
The remarks came in response to an offer for dialogue made earlier by Kurdish authorities.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has already demanded the annulment of the referendum results.
During a recent press conference in Paris, Abadi said his government did not seek confrontation with Iraqi Kurds, but reiterated Baghdad's position that the referendum was illegal and that problems should be solved within the framework of Iraq's constitution.
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Nearly 700,000 Iraqis still displaced months after Mosul recapture: NGO
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 01:35PM
An independent humanitarian organization says hundreds of thousands of people are still displaced from Iraq's strategic northern city of Mosul, which served as Daesh terror group's last urban bastion and its de facto capital in the Arab country, months after government forces and their allied fighters liberated it from the clutches of the extremists.
"One year since the start of the battle to retake Mosul from Daesh, some 673,000 Iraqis from the city and its surroundings remain displaced and unable to go back to their destroyed neighborhoods," the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Sunday.
"More than half of them may have lost their official civil documents -- from birth certificates to property deeds -- which will make rebuilding their lives even harder," the humanitarian group pointed out.
On July 10, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory over Daesh extremists in Mosul, which served as the terrorists' main urban stronghold in the conflict-ridden Arab country.
In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha'abi, had made sweeping gains against Daesh since launching the operation on October 17, 2016.
The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.
"The battle of Mosul is over; but for hundreds of thousands who fled the city, their suffering and despair continues," the NRC's Iraq country director Heidi Diedrich said.
She added, "People we work with are still missing some of the most basic necessities and have no idea if they will ever be able to go back to their homes."
Diedrich also called on the international community "to stand in solidarity" with the displaced Iraqis, and urged the Baghdad government to ensure the internally displaced persons' rights "are at the forefront" of reconstruction efforts.
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Iran denies closing land border with Iraq's Kurdistan region
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 01:07PM
Iran has denied reports that the country has closed its land border with the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Region in response to last month's independence referendum in the region.
"As we have already announced, we have closed our airspace to the Iraqi Kurdistan Region at the request of the central government of Iraq, and as far as I am aware, no new development has occurred in this regard," ISNA quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi as saying on Sunday.
A spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Keyvan Khosravi, said on September 24 that Iran had closed its airspace to all flights to and from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq at the request of the country's federal government.
"At the request of the central government of Iraq, all flights from Iran to Sulaymaniyah and Erbil airports as well as all flights through our country's airspace originating in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region have been halted," Khosravi added.
However, Iran's Foreign Ministry announced on September 25 that the country's land border with the Kurdish region remained open despite its independence referendum.
"The land borders between Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region are open and these borders have not been closed," the ministry said, adding that only air borders between Iran and the region were currently closed.
Qassemi's Sunday comments came after the official website of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) quoted Sirwan Mohammed, the head of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region's Chamber of Commerce in Sulaymaniyah, as saying that Tehran had closed its border crossings with the Kurdistan region since Sunday morning.
"The Kurdish authorities do not yet know why these crossings have been closed," Mohammed added.
The Iraqi Kurdistan Region held an independence referendum on September 25 in the face of strong objections from the central government in Baghdad and urgent calls from the international community to scrap the vote.
Over 90 percent of the voters in the semi-autonomous region said 'Yes' to the region's separation from Iraq, according to local officials.
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NHRC tells parties to incorporate HR in poll manifestos
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has urged the political parties to incorporate their commitment to human rights in their election manifesto for the elections scheduled for November 26 and December 7.
Iraqi, Kurdish Troops In Tense Standoff As Deadline Nears
RFE/RL October 15, 2017
Iraqi troops and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were locked in an armed standoff in Kirkuk Province as tensions continue to rise following the holding of an independence referendum by Kurdistan officials last month.
Kurdish commanders said they had rejected an early morning deadline set for October 15 by Baghdad for Peshmerga fighters to relinquish positions they had taken during the fight against Islamic State (IS) extremists.
Both sides are U.S. allies, and Washington has military advisers stationed with the each group in the standoff working to ease tensions, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said.
A reporter for the AFP news agency reported seeing armored vehicles bearing the Iraqi national flag posted on the bank of a river outside the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Peshmerga fighters were seen behind an embankment reinforced with concrete blocks and flying the Kurdish flag.
A Peshmerga commander said Kurdish fighters had "taken all the necessary measures" and were "ready for a confrontation" if necessary.
An Iraqi army officer told AFP that "our forces are not moving and are now waiting for orders from the general staff."
Kirkuk is just outside the Kurdish autonomous region, but Peshmerga forces in 2014 moved in when Iraqi forces fled in the face of an IS assault. Peshmerga fighters managed to defend Kirkuk's oil fields from the extremists.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has said he was "not going...to make war on our Kurdish citizens."
Nevertheless, thousands of heavily armed Iraqi troops and members of the Popular Mobilization forces, dominated by Iran-backed Shi'ite militias, have massed around Kirkuk.
Mattis told reporters on October 13 that "we are trying to tone everything down and to figure out how we go forward without losing sight of the enemy."
"Everybody stay focused on defeating [Islamic State]. We can't turn on each other right now," he said.
The Iraqi and Kurdish sides have exchanged angry words since Kurds on September 25 voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum that Baghdad refused to acknowledge.
The referendum was held in the three provinces of the autonomous Kurdish region, but also in adjacent Kurdish-held areas, including Kirkuk.
Bagdad has rejected any discussion of increasing the area of the autonomous region to surrounding provinces until the independence referendum is annulled.
The United States and other Western powers and the United Nations opposed the Kurdish referendum, expressing concerns it would destabilize Iraq and disrupt the fight against Islamic State.
Neighbors Turkey and Iran, which have large Kurdish minorities, also vehemently opposed the referendum.
With reporting by AFP and Reuters
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iraq-kurdistan-referendum-united- states-mattis-troops/28795301.html
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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Iran Denies Shutting Border Crossings With Northern Iraq
RFE/RL October 15, 2017
Iran denies reports that it has closed border crossings with northern Iraq in response to an independence referendum in the autonomous Kurdish region last month.
"As we announced earlier, we blocked our airspace to the Kurdish region on a request from the central government of Iraq, and as far as I know, nothing new has happened in this area," the semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi as saying on October 15.
Iran's Tasnim news agency earlier reported that Iranian authorities had closed the Bashmakh border crossing with Iraq's Kurdish region.
Meanwhile, Shakhwan Abu Bakr, a customs official on the Kurdish side of the border, said that the Islamic republic had closed its three border crossings with the region.
Tensions have been on the rise since Iraqi Kurds on September 25 voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum that the Baghdad government refused to acknowledge.
Neighbors Iran and Turkey, which have large Kurdish minorities, also vehemently opposed the referendum.
Tehran has halted flights to and from the Kurdish region and carried out military exercises near the Kurdish border.
Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP
Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-iraq- kurdish-region-border-crossings-closure- denials/28795839.htmll
Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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Source in Iranian Foreign Ministry Denies Closure of Border With Iraqi Kurdistan
Sputnik News
16:31 15.10.2017(updated 16:33 15.10.2017)
Earlier in the day, Iran's Tasnim news agency said Iran had closed its border with Iraqi Kurdistan. Tehran has refuted the report as false.
"The border checkpoints with the Kurdistan region have not yet been closed, they are working as usual," a source in the Iranian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik on Sunday.
Iran opposed the referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan conducted on September 25.
Earlier in the day, a Tasnim report suggested that Iran, "considering the developments in Iraq's Kurdistan", has closed its Bashmagh border checkpoint.
According to the latest statement from Hemin Hawrami, the aide to the leader of the Kurdistan region Masoud Barzani, the region has rejected demands of Baghdad to cancel the outcome of the independence referendum, calling them "military threats" from Baghdad against Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, adding that Kurdish-controlled territory would be defended in the event of a potential attack. However, Iraqi Kurdistan renewed its offer to "peacefully" resolve the crisis that erupted as a result of the independence vote.
More than 90 percent of voters backed Kurdish independence from Baghdad in a referendum held in Kurdistan and other de-facto Kurdish controlled areas of Iraq. Baghdad declared the referendum illegal, while Turkey and Iran criticized the vote amid fears that it might strengthen separatist feelings in their own ethnic Kurdish minorities.
Sputnik
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Iraq's Kurdish Leadership Rejects Baghdad Demand to Cancel Independence Vote
Sputnik News
15:45 15.10.2017(updated 16:14 15.10.2017)
The demand by the Iraqi authorities to cancel the results of the Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum has been rejected by Erbil.
Leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan have rejected the demand of Baghdad to cancel the outcome of the independence referendum, Hemin Hawrami, the aide of the leader of the Kurdistan region Masoud Barzani said.
"There will not be any unilateral negotiation with Baghdad by either PUK or KDP. If there be any negotiation with Baghdad it will be a joint delegation representing all Kurdistan parties. KDP/PUK reject any demands to nullify the referendum results. Refuse preconditions," he said on Twitter.
He said that Iraqi Kurdistan rejects what the region's authorities consider to be "military threats" from Baghdad against Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, adding that Kurdish-controlled territory would be defended in case of a potential attack.
However, according to him, Iraqi Kurdistan renewed its offer to resolve the crisis that erupted as a result of the independence vote "peacefully."
Erbil's decision was made at a meeting to discuss the situation in the Kurdish town of Dokan attended by Barzani and Iraqi President Fuad Masum among others.
The tensions between the federal government and the autonomous region were high following the September 25 referendum. More than 90 percent of voters taking part in the referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan backed the region's independence from Baghdad. Iraqi authorities declared the referendum illegal, while Turkey and Iran criticized the vote amid fears that it might strengthen separatist feelings in their own ethnic Kurdish minorities.
Following the referendum, the Iraqi parliament voted in favor of dismissal of all the Kurdish public sector employees, involved in the vote. Moreover, the Iraqi court ruled to arrest those behind an independent commission for holding a referendum.
Most recently, the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) accused Baghdad of preparing a large-scale military operation to restore control over the oil rich Kirkuk province, which has been de-facto under the control of the Kurdish Peshmerga militia for three years. On the following day, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi refuted the claims.
Sputnik
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Bangladesh beefs up border security amid Rohingya concerns
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 01:59PM
Bangladesh has stepped up security along its western border with India amid concerns that hundreds of Rohingya Muslim refugees could be pushed into its territory.
Lieutenant Colonel Tariqul Hakim, an area commander of the Border Guard Bangladesh, said on Sunday that the Rohingya could be seen gathering opposite the Putkhali frontier post, where only a narrow river divides the two countries.
"We have stepped up surveillance and patrols so that no Rohingya can be pushed into our territory," Hakim said.
He said Rohingya communities inside India could be attempting to reunite with their families in southeastern Bangladesh, where over half a million Rohingya refugees had arrived since late August from Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Abdul Hossain, a Bangladesh border guard official, said villages along the frontier were on high alert. "We've been patrolling the border day and night to prevent their entry. Local villagers have also joined us in the patrols."
Newly-arrived refugees said they had been encouraged by Indian guards to cross the border.
Nazrul Islam, Bangladesh's local council member said over a dozen Rohingya who crossed at a southwestern part of the frontier on Friday reported Indian guards opening a section of barbed wire to allow them to pass easily.
Patrols have also been stepped up along the frontier with India's West Bengal state, where Indian border guards say they have been ordered in recent weeks to steer the Rohingya into Bangladesh.
An Indian border guard in West Bengal said patrols had previously turned over all the Rohingya intercepted at the frontier to local police. "But now our directions are very clear, and that is to push all Rohingya into Bangladesh," he said, adding, "We are trying to accomplish our task with active local support."
There are 40,000 Rohingya in India but the Indian government wants them deported.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled from Myanmar, with many taking refuge in Bangladesh, and some then crossing a porous border into Hindu-majority India.
Many have also headed to Southeast Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs.
An estimated 536,000 refugees have fled from the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine state to Bangladesh since Myanmar's military launched a crackdown. Bangladesh already hosts at least 800,000 Rohingya, including those who fled earlier crackdowns in Myanmar.
The unprecedented influx of refugees has put immense pressure on Bangladeshi authorities and charities. They have described the crisis as one of the world's most pressing humanitarian emergencies.
Myanmar has long faced international criticism for its treatment of Rohingya Muslims, who are denied citizenship and live in conditions rights groups have compared to those of the Blacks under the former apartheid regime in South Africa.
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US-backed SDF militants start final assault on Daesh-held Raqqah
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 04:50PM
Militants from US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have launched an operation to retake the last pocket of the northern Syrian city of Raqqah, which served as Daesh Takfiri terrorist group's de facto capital in the war-ravaged Arab country.
The SDF announced in a statement on Sunday that the operation would continue "until all the city is cleansed from terrorists who refused to surrender."
On June 6, the SDF said it had launched an operation aimed at pushing Daesh out of Raqqah.
The city of Raqqah, which lies on the northern bank of the Euphrates River, was overrun by Daesh terrorists in March 2013, and was proclaimed the center for most of the Takfiris' administrative and control tasks the following year.
The US-backed Syrian militants said most of Daesh terrorists who remain in Raqqah, located about 455 kilometers (283 miles) northeast of the capital Damascus, were foreigners.
The SDF said the initiative by local tribesmen and members of the Raqqah Civil Council "succeeded in evacuating civilians who were still in the city and the surrender of 275 local mercenaries and their families."
Meanwhile, SDF spokesman, Talal Sello, said between 200 and 300 Daesh terrorists, mostly foreigners, remained in Raqqah, adding that more than 3,000 civilians had fled the city.
"More than 3,000 civilians left on Saturday night as part of a deal and went to areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces," he said.
The SDF spokesman further noted that "Raqqah is now empty of civilians, who had been taken as human shields. Only 250 to 300 foreign terrorists, who refused the deal and decided to stay and fight until the end, remain in the city and relatives of some [Daesh] members are with them."
Sello said the evacuation deal had been negotiated between local officials from the Raqqah Civil Council and Daesh militants.
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Daesh terrorists quit Raqqah under US-backed deal
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:03AM
The US-backed alliance of militants, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), says last Daesh terrorists have been evacuated from their one-time bastion of Raqqah as part of an agreement.
"Last night, the final batch of fighters (who had agreed to leave) left the city," SDF spokesman Mostafa Bali said on Sunday, not clarifying where the Takfiri terrorists had been transferred.
He also said Daesh elements had refused to release the civilians they had allegedly taken as human shield until they arrived at their destination.
Omar Alloush, a senior official of the Raqqah Civil Council, told AFP that a deal had been reached to allow the militants, including both Syrian and foreign-born terrorists, out of the city.
He said it was "possible" that they had been taken to the neighboring Dayr al-Zawr Province where Syrian government forces are currently in the midst of fierce clashes with Daesh.
The evacuation came at a time when sweeping gains made by Syrian government forces against the foreign-sponsored militants have put them on the brink of total defeat in Dayr al-Zawr.
On Saturday, Syrian government forces liberated the strategic eastern city of Mayadin, more than one month after they broke the three-year-long Daesh siege on the neighboring Dayr al-Zawr city.
Earlier this week, Russia's Defense Ministry said that the US military had reduced its airstrikes in Iraq to allow militants to stream into Syria and that Washington was only pretending to be battling Daesh.
Observers say the US military plan currently is to take territory from Daesh terrorists and give it to the militants under its support and shepherd the Takfiri terrorists to the battlefields against Syrian government forces and their allies.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in several reports recently that the US had airlifted a number of Daesh commanders near Dayr al-Zawr, where Syrian troops were closing in on the terrorists.
The reports by the London-based Observatory which is a regular source of news from Syria for the mainstream Western media were met with a blackout.
The assault by US-led Kurdish militants to capture Raqqah began on June 6. Nuri Mahmud, a spokesman for the militants, said Daesh was "on the verge of being finished in Raqqah in the coming days."
The Syrian army soldiers and their allies are also engaged in a battle around Raqqah and the operations by US-led militants who do not coordinate them with the Syrian military have raised the possibility of a confrontation between them.
In recent weeks, SDF has reportedly shelled the positions of government troops on several occasions. Last month, the militants rushed to occupy several fields in the oil-rich Dayr al-Zawr as the Syrian army broke Daesh's defense lines.
Raqqah was the first big Syrian city to fall to Daesh as it declared a "caliphate" and rampaged through Syria and Iraq in 2014, becoming an operations center for attacks abroad and the stage for some of its darkest atrocities.
On Sunday, the Reuters news agency said the SDF's decision to hasten the battle's end by allowing Daesh terrorists to leave Raqqah was at odds with Washington's stated goals and earlier objections to negotiating safe exits for the extremists.
Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US coalition, said it was not involved in the evacuation but added: "We may not always fully agree with our partners at times. But we have to respect their solutions."
The US move to allow Kurdish-dominated forces to take control of the Arab-majority Raqqah is seen by many as a prelude to further flare-up of tensions.
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US forces carpet-bombed Raqqah residential areas: Russia
Iran Press TV
Sun Oct 15, 2017 02:20AM
The US and its coalition forces have carried out carpet-bombing of residential areas of Syria's northeastern Raqqah city, damaging its water resources in the purported battle to flush out the Daesh (ISIL) terrorists from what used to be called their capital, the Russian defense ministry says.
"Carpet bombing of residential areas accommodated by civilians, which the United States and [the US-led] coalition carry out, along with deliberate destruction of all natural water sources in Raqqah have brought about nothing but several thousand victims among the 'liberated' population and vivid examples of that military operation's faulty planning," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenokov said on Saturday as quoted by state news agency TASS.
Konashenkov further described US military actions in Raqqah in support of local Kurdish and other anti-government militants as a sign of "deadlock" in the US-led coalition command and a stark contrast to the concurrent successful offensive by Syrian government troops against another ISIL stronghold in the war-ravaged country near the eastern city of al-Mayadin.
Moscow has repeatedly voiced concerns over the course of the Raqqah operation with Russian foreign ministry reporting numerous "mistakes" by the US-led coalition war planes as well as the lack of humanitarian aid delivery to civilian victims and predicting likely humanitarian catastrophe in the city.
The Russian official also announced the completion of an offensive by Syrian government forces aimed at the elimination of Daesh terrorists in al-Mayadin.
"The Syrian government troops have completed the operation to destroy Daesh militants in the town of al-Mayadin. Assault units of the Syrian army broke the fierce resistance of terrorists in the central and southern districts and completely liberated the city," Konashenkov said.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.
Russia has been conducting air raids against the positions of Daesh and other terrorist groups in the country upon the Damascus government's request since September 2015.
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Turkish Troops Deployment in Syria Was Joint Decision by Astana Guarantors - MP
Sputnik News
21:33 15.10.2017(updated 00:34 16.10.2017)
Damascus calls the recent deployment of the country's troops to the Syrian Idlib province an invasion, while Turkey defines it as a move coordinated with other states.
ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) The deployment of Turkish troops to the northern Syrian Idlib province was a joint decision by the Astana process guarantor states, taken as a follow-up to the peace talks, Ismail Kahraman, a speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, told Sputnik on Sunday.
"Yes, this move was coordinated with other states. That is a move that was taken as a follow-up to the Astana process. This is a joint decision," Kahraman said answering a question about the coordination of the deployment of troops with other countries.
"Turkey, Russia and Iran have come together in Astana and have made a joint decision in their capacity as guarantor states for Syria. They have made a common plan in order to de-escalate the situation through the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria and to ensure territorial integrity. The conflict in Syria has been going on for seven years. It is important to de-escalate this conflict and to put an end to this conflict. To this end measures are taken to make this possible and which are, in fact, normal measures and they will continue," the Turkish official said on the sidelines of the 137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in St. Petersburg.
The deployment of the Turkish troops has been criticized by the Syrian side. Earlier in the day, Hammoudeh Sabbagh, a speaker of the Syrian Parliament, said that the legislative body condemned the Turkish invasion of Idlib and considered Ankara's move as a threat to the safety of the country's nationals and to Syria's sovereignty. According to him, the Turkish operation wasn't discussed during the Astana talks and violates international law.
According to the Turkish General Staff, Turkish armed forces operating in the Idlib de-escalation zone, which will observe the cease-fire, ensure humanitarian aid deliveries and create conditions for the population to return to their homes, began setting up their observation posts on October 12, within the framework of agreements reached in Astana.
Diplomatic Dispute With US
The speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly also commented on the recent diplomatic tensions in Ankara's relations with Washington, saying that they have a temporary nature and the crisis would be settled before it becomes a real problem for the two states.
"I believe that it is a temporary dispute, which will be settled quite soon and the context will take place to settle it. Turkey and the United States are allies. They act together under NATO. Turkey and the United States work together to establish global peace and stability. So this is going to be settled before it becomes an issue between Turkey and the United States," Ismail Kahraman said.
On October 8, the US Embassy announced the suspension of non-immigrant visa services at the US diplomatic facilities in Turkey. This step was taken over the recent arrest of an employee of the US Consulate General in Istanbul, which Ankara explained by the worker's alleged ties with Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen. In response, Turkish authorities decided to suspend US visa applications.
Upcoming EU Summit in Brussels
The Turkish Parliament speaker also touched upon the upcoming EU summit in Brussels.
"They will be unofficial meetings, in fact, and I hope that at the end of these meetings no decisions that may impact Turkey-EU relations will be taken," Kahraman said.
On Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the European leaders would discuss the tense relations with Turkey during the meetings in Brussels, adding that it was too early to talk about the final decision on Turkey's EU accession process.
A two-day meeting of European Union member states will kick off in Brussels on October 19.
Relations between Ankara and a number of European countries deteriorated following the failed coup attempt in Turkey in July 2016. Ankara has accused Europe of providing asylum for coup plotters, while Brussels has strongly criticized the detention of journalists and human rights activists in Turkey and suspended the preparation of new chapters of Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union.
In early September, Merkel vowed to discuss the suspension and potential termination of Turkey's membership talks with the European Union at the EU meeting in October.
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Syrian Parliament Condemns Turkish 'Invasion' in Idlib, Demands Troops Pullout
Sputnik News
17:53 15.10.2017(updated 18:24 15.10.2017)
The Syrian parliament has reiterated Damascus' reported demand concerning the Turkish troops' withdrawal from Idlib amid Ankara's military operation in the region previously announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The speaker of the Syrian parliament has strongly condemned the Turkish military campaign in Idlib, calling it an "invasion" and an "aggression" violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.
"The Syrian parliament demands withdrawal of Turkish forces without any preconditions," Hammoudeh Sabbagh, the speaker of the Syrian parliament, said, delivering a speech at the Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.
The official said that the Turkish operation wasn't discussed during the Astana talks and violates international law.
"We consider this attack an invasion of our territory, a threat to the security of our citizens. We consider this to be a violation of the norms of international law. This shows the close relationship between the Turkish regime and the terrorist groups that are destroying Syria, sheds the blood of the Syrian people and contributes to the destabilization of the situation in Syria," Sabbagh said.
The statement comes a day after a source in the Syrian Foreign Ministry told SANA news agency that Damascus demands "immediate" pullout of the Turkish army from the Syrian territory. The source called Turkey's Idlib operation a "blatant aggression against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and a flagrant violation of international law and norms" and said it "has nothing to do" with the agreements reached during the latest round of the Syrian peace talks in Astana brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey.
The Syrian parliament speaker's statement was the first official Damascus' comment on the newly-launched Turkish operation in the country as Turkish soldiers, including special forces, and 30 armored vehicles entered the Idlib de-escalation zone on Thursday night.
According to the Turkish General Staff, Turkish armed forces operating in the Idlib de-escalation zone will observe ceasefire, ensure humanitarian aid deliveries and to create conditions for the population to return to their homes, began setting up their observation posts on October 12, within the framework of agreements reached in Astana.
The Turkish military operation to support the Free Syrian Army rebels' fight against al-Nusra Front terrorists in Idlib was announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on October 7.
Currently, Idlib is mostly controlled by Tahrir al-Sham, a militant group led by al-Nusra Front terrorist group (banned in Russia), al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate. The group is not party to the agreement on setting up a de-escalation zone in Idlib agreed upon during the Syrian peace talks in Astana brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey.
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Row over justices appointment ends
With the Supreme Court dropping a writ petition filed by two advocates demanding a certiorari order against the appointment of 11 apex court justices one-and-a-half years ago, the row has ended.
US-Backed Syrian Democratic Forces Rebels Begin Final Assault on Daesh in Raqqa
Sputnik News
16:29 15.10.2017(updated 17:29 15.10.2017)
The US-backed Syrian rebels have announced the final stage of their operation to free the former so-called Daesh "capital," Raqqa, from terrorists.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said that they have started the final assault on Raqqa after the evacuation of civilians and Daesh terrorists, who agreed to leave the city.
"The battle will continue until the whole city is clean of the terrorists who refused to surrender, including the foreign fighters," a statement by the SDF said on Sunday.
Earlier, the US-led coalition announced that an agreement has been reached to evacuate civilians from Raqqa. After a convoy with evacuees left the former "capital" of Daesh terrorist group, the final battle with remaining terrorists began. Reuters reported citing a militia spokesman that 275 Daesh fighters from Syria left Raqqa, according to the agreement, while 200-300 militants mostly of foreign origin remained in the city.
"We still expect there to be difficult fighting," US-led coalition's spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon said.
A source in the Syrian Democratic Forces that are conducting the Raqqa operation on the ground with the coalition's support, told Sputnik on Friday that the city is set to be liberated from militants within 2-3 days. The source added that the strength of the terrorists is running out; their defeats in Raqqa have undermined their morale and prevent them from fighting back.
According to SDF representatives, the Syrian rebels currently control about 90 percent of Raqqa.
Raqqa has been under Daesh control since 2013. On November 6, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, also consisting of Arab, Assyrian and Turkmen fighters, among others, announced the start of the military operation to liberate the Syrian city of Raqqa from Daesh terrorist group with the assistance of the US-led coalition's airstrikes. Raqqa's Old City was freed from Daesh last month.
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US-backed Militias Launch Final Assault on IS Stronghold in Raqqa
By Ken Bredemeier October 15, 2017
U.S.-backed militias said Sunday they have launched their final assault on Raqqa, the northern Syria city Islamic State has claimed as the self-declared capital of its religious caliphate.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) said that about 275 Syrian Islamic State fighters and their families were allowed to leave the city held by the jihadists since a 2014 takeover, leaving "no more than" 200 to 300 militants to fight on.
Raqqa's fall could be imminent, with the SDF saying the operation would continue "until all the city is cleansed from terrorists who refused to surrender."
But Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the U.S.-led international coalition supporting the Kurdish and Arab militias fighting to seize Raqqa, said, "We still expect there to be difficult fighting." Islamic State took over Raqqa as it claimed vast swaths of Iraq and Syria three years ago before steadily losing back territory in the last two years.
The SDF decided to hasten the end of fighting in Raqqa by allowing the 275 Islamic State fighters and their families to leave, but the jihadists did not release them as originally agreed, instead taking them further away to another stronghold. The SDF described the civilians as human shields for the fighters.
Dillon said the U.S.-led coalition did not agree with the SDF's evacuation plan, "but we have to respect their solutions."
Fighting over Raqqa has raged since June 6, a city where Islamic State at times had celebrated its battlefield victories with parades. The jihadists imprisoned its captives there, executed dozens of captured Syrian soldiers and created a slave market for Yazidi women captured in Iraq and given to fighters.
The U.S.-led coalition said Raqqa was the hub for international terrorist attacks abroad, including the November 2015 attack that killed 130 people in Paris.
In more recent times, Islamic State not only faced the SDF offensive, but also attacks from the Syrian army supported by Russia, Iran and allied Shiite militias.
Activists say more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Raqqa since the battle to retake the city began. Nearly 270,000 people have fled since April.
Before the departure of the group of 275, an SDF spokesman said that any Islamic State fighters left behind would be forced to "surrender or die."
On Friday, scores of civilians fled Raqqa ahead of the anticipated final push into the city by the U.S.-backed fighters.
Residents said local IS fighters had been surrendering recently, but the militants still held on to a few areas of the city, including the stadium and national hospital.
Many of the residents who escaped the city were malnourished after being trapped by the fighting for several months.
"Those who manage to escape speak of deteriorating conditions inside the city," U.N. refugee spokesman Andrej Mahecic said. "Food, water, medicine and electricity are scarce."
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Trump Administration Accused of Aiding Iranian Militias in Syria
By Jamie Dettmer October 15, 2017
U.S. President Donald Trump lambasted Iranian expansionism in the Middle East Friday when disavowing the international nuclear deal with Tehran, citing in particular Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But analysts charge his strategy to check Iran in the region remains inconsistent, especially when it comes to Syria.
In his statement announcing he's withholding certifying Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), President Trump accused Tehran of fueling "sectarian violence in Iraq, and vicious civil wars in Yemen and Syria."
He added: "In Syria, the Iranian regime has supported the atrocities of Bashar al-Assad's regime."
But U.S airstrikes have been helping Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias in Syria consolidate territorial gains by the Assad regime, and in recent weeks American-led coalition bombing raids have been assisting the militias, which are recruited, trained and directed by Iranian revolutionary guardsmen, to retake territory from the Islamic State militants in the province of Deir el-Zour, neighboring Iraq.
Inconsistent strategy
"There's certainly a lack of coherence in the Trump administration's policy with respect to Iran," says Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, an analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based policy research group. "This lack of coherence is reflective of the extraordinary complexity of the Syria/Iraq conflict, and also, in my view, of the great difficulty that the U.S. has in thinking strategically."
Last month, Syrian regime forces lifted a vicious 32-month IS siege of a loyalist enclave in Deir el-Zour city, marking a significant battlefield success. Since then the Syrian army and Shi'ite militias have been moving fast to advance in the wider oil-rich province as well as to oust IS militants from pockets in Deir el-Zour city itself.
On Saturday, Syrian military officials claimed government forces had retaken the town of Mayadin from IS militants, who appear to have abandoned their positions 44 kilometers southeast of Deir el-Zour city along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River after a week-long assault.
There are two simultaneous offensives against IS underway in Deir el-Zour with the Euphrates River acting as an informal demarcation line between them. The U.S.-backed Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been pushing north of the river, towards the border with Iraq; while the Assad forces have been advancing south of the Euphrates.
A moving wall of airstrikes by coalition warplanes well as Russian and Syrian jets have been helping the advances of both but U.S. airstrikes have not been restricted to areas north of the Euphrates.
On Saturday, officials with the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve reported coalition warplanes conducted three strikes near Abu Kamal, claiming to have destroyed an IS headquarters building.
On September 29, they reported that earlier in the month airstrikes had killed three IS drone experts near Mayadin as well as destroying a drone factory. "The removal of these key ISIS leaders disrupts and degrades ISIS' ability to modify and employ drone platforms as reconnaissance and direct fire weapons on the battlefield," said Coalition Spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon.
U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in eastern Syria have for several months targeted IS positions on the Syrian regime's "side" of the unofficial demarcation line in Deir el-Zour city and elsewhere with Mayadin since April, often in the crosshairs as it appeared IS leaders were abandoning Raqqa and in effect moving the terror group's de facto there.
In May, for example, coalition airstrikes targeted in two rounds of raids buildings housing IS fighters and their families in Mayadin, prompting criticism from rights groups because as many as 106 civilians, including 42 children, were killed.
Strange bedfellows
The latest phase in the long-running Syrian conflict is presenting a dizzying picture of strange bedfellows and temporary battlefield deals as sectarian groups, President Assad and overseas powers, including the United States, Russia and Iran, maneuver to gain an edge or to steer the war to a resolution.
The current maneuvering reflects the shifting priorities of external states as they try to shape an interim set of pre-settlement conditions, splitting the wrecked country into territorial zones of control, say analysts.
The map is becoming increasingly clear with Assad and his Iran-commanded Shi'ite allies controlling the west and center and parts of the east, the U.S.-backed Kurds the northeast of the country, and anti-Assad rebels bottled up in northern Idlib province and a small part of the south.
But the effect of the maneuvering in Syria, including U.S. actions there, pull away, say some analysts, from Trump's stated policy aim of checking Iran's expansion in the region. Trump's Iran strategy "promises a new 'balance of power' in the region, but the main imbalance in the region is not in conventional forces but in Iran's proxy militia presence in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen," says Paul Salem, an analyst at the Middle East Institute, a U.S.-based policy research group.
He complains there is no explanation about how "the U.S. plans to push back against this asymmetric warfare imbalance."
Speaking last month at a think event in Washington, and before Trump's disavowal of the Iran nuclear deal, U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster emphasized one of the Trump administration's chief objectives is to block Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, the radical Lebanese Shi'ite militia, from consolidating their territorial gains in Syria as IS is defeated.
According to the Washington Post, when asked to articulate the plan to achieve that goal, he said, "I can't tell you," although he said there is strategy and it is "to weaken Iranian influence across the region broadly." McMaster acknowledged the Assad offensive assisted by Iranian militias and Russian warplanes helps in the war against IS in the short term but remains hugely problematic in the longer term.
But for some, the administration has merely compounded the problem by withdrawing support from Syrian rebels battling to overthrow Assad and by assisting the Syrian regime when it is fighting IS.
Gartenstein-Ross blames not only the Trump administration for contradictions in Iran policy. "It is consistent rather than inconsistent with the Obama administration's approach. U.S. efforts to push back IS, in both the Obama and Trump administrations, has helped advance Iranian interests, in particular Iranian-backed militias."
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IS Fighters Expected to Evacuate Raqqa
By VOA News October 15, 2017
A group of Islamic State fighters has evacuated the Syrian city of Raqqa under a withdrawal agreement with the U.S.-backed Syrian militias surrounding them.
A militia spokesman said Sunday the fighters had taken civilians with them to use as human shields.
Meanwhile, fighting has continued between the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and Islamic State militants. Reuters news agency quoted an SDF spokesman as saying "the operation has finished and the battle continues" against the militants who remained in the city.
Earlier, a spokesman said any Islamic State fighters left behind would be forced to "surrender or die."
On Friday, scores of civilians fled Raqqa ahead of the anticipated final push into the city by the U.S.-backed fighters aiming to retake it from the IS militants.
Hundreds of civilians have left Raqqa in recent days from the remaining neighborhoods held by Islamic State fighters, taking advantage of the slowdown in the fighting by coalition troops meant to help civilians safely evacuate.
Residents said local IS fighters had been surrendering recently, but the militants still held on to a few areas of the city, including the stadium and national hospital.
Many of the residents who escaped the city were malnourished after being trapped by the fighting for several months.
"Those who manage to escape speak of deteriorating conditions inside the city," U.N. refugee spokesman Andrej Mahecic said. "Food, water, medicine and electricity are scarce."
U.S.-backed fighters of the opposition Syrian Democratic Forces have been on the offensive in Raqqa since June 5, capturing more than 80 percent of the city.
Raqqa, on the banks of the Euphrates River, is the de facto capital of the Islamic State fighters.
Activists say more than 1,000 civilians have been killed in Raqqa since the battle to retake the city began in June. Nearly 270,000 people have fled since April.
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U.S.-Taiwan forum weighs impact of Trump policies on national defense
ROC Central News Agency
2017/10/15 16:23:20
Taipei, Oct. 15 (CNA) An annual conference between Taiwan the United States, which opens Sunday in New Jersey, will focus this year on the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Northeast Asia and their potential impact on Taiwan's defense affairs.
The 2017 U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference will also discuss the threat and response options for Taiwan and how it could exploit China's weakness in both traditional and emerging domains, covering air, land, sea and cyberspace, according to information on the conference's website.
Now in its 16th year, the conference is considered an important platform for dialogue on Taiwan's national security needs, weapons procurement and defense cooperation with the U.S.
The Taiwan delegation to the three-day conference in Princeton is being led by Deputy Defense Minister General Chang Guan-chung (), who will deliver a keynote address on Oct. 16.
Chang is scheduled to speak after introductory remarks by American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman James F. Moriarty.
On the U.S. side, David F. Helvey, acting assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, will also give a keynote speech later in the day.
The discussions at the conference will include input by Ian Easton, research fellow at the U.S-based think tank Project 2049 Institute and author of "The Chinese Invasion Threat."
On Oct. 17, business representatives from Taiwan's information security, shipbuilding, and aviation industries will join the discussions.
The participants will examine the potential implications of the Trump administration's policies for developing business opportunities in the defense and security industries in both Taiwan and the United States.
The annual conference, which is being held Oct.15-17, has been hosted by the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council since 2002.
At the first conference, which was held in Florida, Taiwan's then Minister of National Defense Tang Yiau-ming () gave the keynote address. ( By Lu Hsin-hui and Joseph Yeh)
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Former firefighter sent to prison on sexual exploitation charge
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A former Fletcher firefighter was sentenced to four years and three months in prison on Oct. 10 after pleading guilty to five counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, a crime charged when a person knowingly possesses material containing a visual representation of a minor child engaged in sexual activity, District Attorney Greg Newman announced.
Aaron Lanning, 39, pleaded guilty to all five charges after Newman refused to offer him any reduced plea. Lanning possessed several sexually explicit images of underage children on his computer at the Fletcher Fire Department.
The images on his computer, which he admitted were his, were very disturbing, Newman said in a news release. The images portrayed young boys and girls engaged in a variety of sexual acts and lewd poses. Their ages ranged from 5 to 11. I wish I knew who produced this filth. Clearly, these kids are being abused and exploited for the gratification of sick individuals. What I saw was appalling."
Lanning used a computer chat room to express his sexual interest in younger girls, court records said. He was identified by an agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in another region of the country, who then alerted local Homeland Security agents. Lanning was interviewed by both federal agents and Henderson County Sheriffs investigators where he was confronted with his comments. A subsequent search of his work place computer was conducted and the illegal images were found. He was fired from his job at the fire department and has been living in Alabama most recently.
Lanning will be eligible for release after serving 18 months in a North Carolina prison.
Check your Multi-Match ticket. You could be $765,000 richer
A Multi-Match lottery ticket worth $765,000 in the Nov. 14 drawing was sold at a bar near Hagerstown, the Maryland Lottery said.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced today that a Hyatt affiliate has entered into a management agreement with ORIX Corporation for a Hyatt Centric hotel and Hyatt House hotel in Kanazawa, Japan"s north coast in the Hokuriku region. The hotels, expected to open in mid-2020, will mark Hyatt"s first joint development and first Hyatt House hotel in Japan.
Chosen for their sought-after locations and locally inspired designs, Hyatt Centric hotels serve as a launch pad for guests to explore and discover the best of the destination. Hyatt Centric Kanazawa will occupy the entire 14-story left tower and will offer approximately 250 guestrooms, a restaurant, a rooftop bar, a fitness center, and meeting facilities.
Katherine Lugar, president/CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), has been selected to serve as a member of the Department of Labors Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion. The U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta shared that Lugar and 19 other members will serve on the task force that will work to identify strategies and proposals to promote apprenticeships, especially in sectors where apprenticeship programs are lacking. They will report their plans to the president of the United States. AHLA and its foundation (AHLEF) created a national program that will provide current employees with new career advancement opportunities. The Department of Labor-approved apprenticeship program offers competency-based learning curriculum including skills to be successful in the industry. AHLAs commitment to the DOL includes enrolling some 2,250 apprentices in the industry over the next five years, while immediately adding 225 apprentices by September. To date, AHLA has exceeded that goal by more than 175%, securing more than 400 commitments from its membership. The task force is instructed to submit to President Trump a report on strategies and proposals, including federal initiatives to promote apprenticeships; administrative and legislative reforms that would facilitate the formation and success of apprenticeship programs; the most effective strategies for creating industry-recognized apprenticeships; and the most effective strategies for amplifying and encouraging private-sector initiatives to promote apprenticeships. The secretary appointed 20 individuals from several hundred applications who work for or represent the perspectives of American companies, trade or industry groups, educational institutions and labor unions.
Lodging Interactive, an award winning digital marketing and social media engagement agency exclusively serving the hospitality industry, today offered some insightful looks into the return on investment of live chat for hotels.
"I am often asked by hoteliers what is the return on investment, or ROI, when implementing a live chat service on their website," stated DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive's Founder and President. "Like any new product or service that is leading the way to something new and better for an industry, there is always a hesitation at first, as business operators attempt to justify the return on investment of this shiny, new thing."
It has often been said that Customer Service is the new marketing for businesses. And for those businesses that can return valuable time to their consumers, studies have shown loyalty and engagement increase between the consumer and the brand for those businesses. This is supported by the fact that, as consumers, we lead increasingly busy and hectic lifestyles. "So time has become the new currency for the way we live," added Mr. Vallauri.
Hotel operators should be extremely excited with the widely accepted technology and service opportunity known as website live chat. The excitement should stem from the fact that millions of people around the world are very comfortable with the technology and are already utilizing live chat services in other industries such as banking and insurance. It is very rare to find a technology that has been widely used by millions of consumers around the world and see that same technology having such a profound impact on the return and profitability of a hotel website.
Live Chat Saves Consumers Time and Builds Trust.
Hotel websites have predominately always been a self-service model for consumers. Meaning when a consumer visits a hotel website, they are left on their own to navigate through what may be a complex structure of interlinked web pages in order to find what they are ultimately searching.
For many years website analytics professionals have always looked at the time spent on the website. This KPI or metric measurement has been utilized for the last 15 years as an indication of success when someone remains on your website for an extended period of time. After all, the longer they stay on the website, the assumption is made that they are browsing through all the website content pages finding and enjoying the content.
When in fact many consumers are spending more time than they need to spend on a hotel website because they simply cannot find what they need, quickly and efficiently. This can be evidenced by a couple attempting to research for an upcoming wedding they are planning. During the planning stages they will visit a hotel website to check out the wedding facilities and photo gallery as well as dig through the website to seek out any wedding packages or, better yet, catering menus and pricing. "Many times these activities are not as seamless as they should be, and they take time. And time brings me back to my initial comments of saving time for consumers," said Mr. Vallauri.
Live Chat Provides Live Sales Assistance.
According to recent data provided by Forrester, 53% of online buyers are likely to abandon a website if they can't find answers to their questions quickly. And 44% of consumers stated that having questions answered by a live person is one of the most important features a website can offer.
Live Chat Increases Event RFPs.
Now consider a hotel website that has a live chat service enabled. The couple arrives at the hotel website and immediately is greeted with a welcome and an opportunity from a real person providing assistance. A conversation ensues. The couple is guided to the exact pages they are looking for, and is even provided with catering menus, wedding packages and pricing by document sharing in real time. Even an entire wedding sales and marketing media kit or PDF document can be shared with the consumer by the live chat agent in real time. This provides instant gratification and savings of time. The conversation continues. The live chat agent offers the couple an opportunity to have someone from the hotel's catering department contact them immediately or the next day to follow up and answer any questions or check wedding venue availability.
It's all about instant gratification and saving time for the consumer. Isn't this what we all want from companies we do business with?
Increase Direct Booking Opportunities.
Now consider the consumer who is planning to make a direct booking on your website but is confused about the particular view or location of a room. They want to know the difference between an oceanfront room and a partial view oceanfront room. As they pass through the booking engine, the hotel's live chat service agent is always available to answer and clarify information for the consumer. Again doing so in real time and with the potential of moving the consumer towards placing the booking rather than leaving the website in total frustration.
And when you think about the real-time marketing opportunities that a live chat service can provide to your hotel website visitors, it really gets exciting. Live chat agents are always in a position to promote specials, discounted rates or an upgrade, as they engage with the consumer in real time. This can be simply handled by providing the consumer with a specialized booking link or SRP code within the live chat engagement session with the consumer.
Customer Service is the NEW Marketing.
Clearly the way businesses and hotels can differentiate themselves from their competitive sets, is to implement a live chat service on their website. We believe live chat service for hotels will become as ubiquitous as online booking engines have become. When you have a technology that is widely adopted around the world by millions of people, saves time and provides human engagement between consumers and brands, you win the hearts and wallets of consumers.
Lodging Interactive, through its CoMMingle Live Chat Service, offers 7-day a week live chat services coverage. U.S.A. based live chat agents are all employed by Lodging Interactive and are fully trained to understand the unique attributes of the hotel customers they serve. For more information please visit: www.LiveChatForHotels.com or call us at 877-291-4411 extension 701.
About Lodging Interactive
Headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, Lodging Interactive is a full-service digital marketing and social media engagement and reputation management agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry. Through its web design and search optimization division as well as its CoMMingle Social Media Division, Lodging Interactive provides effective Internet marketing services to hundreds of branded and independent properties as well as management companies, restaurants and spas. CoMMingle has established itself as the largest provider of reputation management services for the hospitality industry, handling over 200,000 guest review responses. The company also offers fully managed Live Chat agents for hotel websites through its LiveChatForHotels.com division.
Lodging Interactive is an HSMAI Adrian Award winner, and has won awards from the International Academy of Visual Arts, Interactive Media Awards, Horizon Interactive Awards, Web Marketing Association, Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts, and Travel Weekly's Magellan Awards recognizing Lodging Interactive as an industry leader.
Lodging Interactive is a proud supporter of the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and the company's president, DJ Vallauri, currently serves on the Board of Directors of HSMAI's New York Chapter and is a Forbes Agency Council contributor. For more information, please contact [email protected], 877-291-4411 or visit the company's website
DJ Vallauri
President & Founder
+1 877 291 4411
The James New York-NoMad Hotel
His previous positions have been General Manager of the W New York Downtown, The Roger New York, The Nolitan New York, and Hotel Gansevoort New York, as well as Director of Operations and Rooms Division Manager at The Shore Club Miami Beach.
Denihan Hospitality, an independent owner and operator of boutique hotels in New York and Chicago, announced that Patrick Horstmann has joined as Managing Director of The James New York NoMad and James New York SoHo. Patrick's luxury boutique hotel experience will be instrumental in successfully leading these two properties and further developing The James brand.
He joins the Denihan team shortly following the soft opening of The James New York - NoMad, located at 29th street and Madison Avenue. Acclaimed designer Thomas Juul-Hansen transformed the 344 room property with today's modern traveler in mind. Later this year, LDV Hospitality's signature restaurant Scarpetta along with a new cocktail bar concept is arriving to the newest property.
Through a mindfully modern lens, The James New York - NoMad embraces the brand's core identity through Connection, Consciousness and Community, in both its design and guests experience.
"We are elated to announce the appointment of Patrick Horstmann as our new Managing Director for The James New York NoMad and James New York - SoHo. He is a seasoned and accomplished professional who will help us achieve great results for our properties and continue to build The James Hotels brand. Patrick joins Denihan Hospitality with vigorous knowledge of the luxury hotel industry that will strengthen and grow our company," said Vera Manoukian, President/COO, Denihan.
Mr. Horstmann has a dynamic and strong background with over 20 years' experience in lifestyle, 5 star/5 diamond luxury hotels. His previous positions have been General Manager of the W New York Downtown, The Roger New York, The Nolitan New York, and Hotel Gansevoort New York, as well as Director of Operations and Rooms Division Manager at The Shore Club Miami Beach. He has opened five properties, and most recently was part of the opening team of the Hudson Valley Montreign Hotel and Casino Complex (Empire Resorts). Additionally, as General Manager of the W New York Downtown, lead the renovation and re-launch of The Living Room Bar & Terrace.
Horstmann attended Cologne University for Business Administration. He received training from hotel management apprenticeship positions at Intercontinental Cologne in Germany and Hotel Plaza Athenee New York.
Hotel Breakwater South Beach
The Ascend Hotel Collection announced the addition of Hotel Breakwater South Beach, Casa Victoria Orchid and Hotel Ocean properties in South Beach, FL to the brand's portfolio.
These three boutique hotels offer truly distinctive South Beach experiences for all travelers. Located in Miami's historic Art Deco district, Hotel Breakwater South Beach is an eclectic hotel offering a rotating art program and aquarium-style pool; the Casa Victoria Orchid property is situated on the legendary Espanola Way and features inspired European charm; the luxurious accommodations and breathtaking ocean views of Hotel Ocean are the perfect setting for a true beach escape.
Unique in their own right, the properties serve an essential role in the history of Miami Beach. The hotels, having roots in the 1930s, are an ideal stay for history seekers and modern travelers alike. The storied facades of Hotel Ocean and Hotel Breakwater South Beach are considered icons on Ocean Drive as they were originated during the colorful Art Deco epoch, affording travelers with a glimpse into the past while still maintaining modern amenities and charm. Tucked away in the stoned pathways of the Historic Espanola Way, Casa Victoria Orchid beckons its guests to take a journey back in time via its European-inspired stucco building with all the comforts of home.
"We are delighted to welcome these beautiful properties to the Ascend Hotel Collection, all of which embody the local authenticity and sophistication of South Beach. These hotels are a true representation of what the Ascend Hotel Collection is all about," said Janis Cannon, senior vice president of upscale brands for Choice Hotels. "South Beach is a hotspot for travelers seeking an experience that's reflective of the community, and now guests can immerse themselves in this vibrant South Florida city, all while having the benefits of booking through Choice Hotels and earning Choice Privileges loyalty rewards."
"We're excited to become an Ascend Hotel Collection member," said Reynaldo Ramirez, Director of Sales and Marketing. "Our hotels are each unique in their own way and being a part of the Ascend Hotel Collection allows the hotels to keep their identity, while at the same time, be a part of one of the largest international hotel companies."
Each property offers a range of amenities, including fitness centers, pools, complimentary breakfast and comfortable accommodations. As part of the introduction to the Ascend portfolio, the three properties are excited to offer guests 15% off for bookings made during the month of October 2017 utilizing booking code "LADVANTAGE."
24hrs, previously known as Rizzy Rock, recently blessed us with the DJ-Drama hosted mixtape 12 AM In Atlanta. Now, the Atlanta rapper continues his hustle with two brand new tracks, both of which feature the king of autotune, T-Pain. The first of which is called Go Up, and considering who came along for the ride, its no surprise that strippers are involved to some capacity. In fact, the entire song is an ode to the noble profession of stripping, an art-form of which 24hrs and T-Pain are self-proclaimed connoisseurs.
The tracks double-entendre refrain of go up, now come down sets a playful tone of things to follow, and 24hrs kicks things off with an autotune-laced verse. Clothes come off spend a whole bunch of money, if you kiss her Ima blow more money, sings 24 hrs, before revealing a more progressive and accepting side. You know I like what you do, Im not gon ever judge you, he professes, before painting an idyllic fantasy of cruising in a drop-top with his new stripper chick.
Over a bouncy beat, 24hrs passes the mic to T-Pain, who slides onto the scene with some hilarious imagery in his opening lines. Im up in the air like that McDonalds sign look like open legs, girl I been drankin straight Henny all day put some Coke in there, sings T-Pain, somehow managing to make the fast-food conglomerate sound sensual. His gravitas is notable, and its hard to argue that T-Pain steals the show here; after all, he more or less pioneered this very sub-genre of hip-hop, and his anthem Im N Luv was a notable predecessor to Go Up.
If you enjoyed this, be sure to check out 24hrs second T-Pain collaboration, the What You Like (Remix). Remember, T-Pain is set to drop his new Oblivion album on November 17th.
Quotable Lyrics
Im up in the air like that McDonalds sign look like open legs
Girl I been drankin straight Henny all day put some Coke in there
When the world wasnt looking, the King of Crunk became the King of Doing Good for the children of Ghana.
As reported by Vibe, the rapper you know as Lil Jon recently celebrated the completion of a primary school that he helped commission and build in order to increase education efforts in an eastern part of Ghana. Over the weekend, she shared some images and video of the new Abomayaw D.A. Kindergarten over social media, a school block he is funding alongside the education organization Pencils of Promise. Three fully-furnished classrooms, bathroom facilities and an office were part of the construction. Check out some of the Instagram posts of the school below.
The Ghana radio outlet StarrFM Online said that this new building replaced its dilapidated predecessor in a rural area of the Asuogyaman district. Prior to this, children who live in this part of Ghana would have to attend schools in sheds and were forced to stay home when rainy days made conditions impossible to study or teach in. As a result, many farmers would avoid sending their kids to school at all. Speaking to the local media, Lil Jon shared not only his excitement for the finished project, but also how it carries the memory of his mother, the late Carrie Smith-Williams.
This is the first project weve done together of this kind and it is amazing to see the community come out to support [it], he said. I just feel like Im lost for words of how amazing it feels to give the community something like this school. As of this writing, the school is home to just 75 of the 200 children that reside in the area, but the endeavor has been underway for less than a year. If you can provide an appropriate environment for education, it can make learning very easy for them, he added. Im glad I can help facilitate that for these kids looking at where they came from (open basically sheds outside). You can imagine the heat and the obstruction. Now they have a well building if it rains.
Lil Jon was known primarily for his work on tracks like Get Low and Snap Yo Fingers, as well as his work with the likes of Usher and Ludacris.
Lil Jon
Gondhoraj Momos Take Over West Bengal; Have You Tried Them Yet?
Mandakini Bansal in her novel aStruggled Till Lasta claims that this story is based on real-life events that her mother had faced.
And indeed, it is a heart rending story of a strong woman, a story that is both inspirational and awe-inspiring.
Women are considered as the weaker sex but stories like these prove that strength is not determined by physical prowess or by ones gender; it is the inner strength that matters.
Struggled Till Last is about a woman who has the heart of a lioness.
Ruhi is going to Shimla where her mother isshe is broken, something is amiss in her job and she is leaving behind a world that she had created for herself.
On the way she meets her ex-roommate, Sanjana, and the two girls get talking.
Ruhi is going through a difficult emotional phase and it is Sanjana who comes forward to help her with healing words and encouragement.
As the two friends spend time with each and talk openly, we learn the story of Ruhis life, of the struggle that she had endured throughout her life.
Ruhi was affected by an incurable eye defect at an early age of nine and her world had turned upside down.
The doctors gave up on her and yet Ruhi was not ready to give up.
She could not see properly and her vision problems made life hell for her at school.
Her teachers were not ready to accept her problem and cooperate with her. They taunted her and made her feel miserable. Her classmates made fun of her.
But little Ruhi never backed out.
Life had snatched her happiness and dreams away from her but she would not let life have the last word.
Success and victory have different definitions for different people and the definition that is portrayed here is really humbling.
The most disturbing and heart-rending feature of this story is not the struggle of the protagonist but the attitude that this society has for helpless victims of fate.
Ruhi is going through a physical ailment that creates a serious setback for her but even elders who are responsible for her are not in a mental condition to understand her.
Her teachers, her own elder brotherthey are all insensitive to her condition. Nothing can be more tough than losing your eyesight and then getting criticised and ridiculed for that loss.
This story just shows how insensitive and mean the world can be sometimes and yet we have to survive and rise above everything.
Reading novels is mostly a recreational habit in our busy lives but when we read stories like "Struggled Till Last", it adds immeasurable value to the whole experience.
We all go through our own struggles and many times we dont have anyone to hold our hands and support us.
Stories like these can truly inspire us in such critical moments and little girls like Ruhi can become our true friends.
(Reviewed by Priya Das)
Image: Website grab from The New Indian Express
Bengaluru, Oct 16 (IBNS): A woman techie in Bengaluru faced the wrath of a 100-member mob after she reported against them to the police for illegal cow slaughtering, reports said.
The victim has been identified as Nandini, who accused the mob of beating her and destroying her vehicle.
She also questioned the police's role in handling the matter.
"Police assured us they will take necessary action. We sat there at the station and noticed at least 15-20 policemen there. When they were leaving to locate the area we mentioned, we requested them to take us along so that we could direct them," she was quoted as saying by India Today.
"Two constables got into my car (Innova). When we reached the lane where cow slaughter was going on, I could see crowds there. I thought it could be people gathering seeing police vehicles," the victim added.
"Assuming there would be police inside the lane, we went inside. There, I was shocked to see that we were alone. Not one cop was there. The mob got into a frenzy and hurled bricks at my vehicle," she said.
The incident took place on Saturday night.
According to the victim, she was driving by Avalahalli area near Tippu Circle in the city's JP Nagar with a couple of friends when she spotted sensed something wrong going on.
She added that a friend spotted cows were being taken to a secluded spot and killed, following which she decided to file a complaint.
However, to her dismay, things took a turn for the worse.
Coming down heavily on the police, she told India Today, "I now feel the SI work hand-in-glove with those criminals. It looked like a trap to teach us a lesson. I have lodged another complaint but they have watered down the IPC sections."
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the situation, the BJP has taken a jab at the Congress, the incumbent party in the state.
Questioning the law and order situation in Karnataka, senior BJP leader and state president of the party, BS Yeddyurappa tweeted, "Condemn the brutal mob-attack on the woman who exposed illegal cow slaughter. This violent attack today in Bengaluru is another proof law & order breakdown under @cmofkarnatakaSh. @siddaramiah."
Image: Website grab from The New Indian Express
Gandhinagar, Oct 16 (IBNS): With less than two months to go for the assembly election in Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a rally in the state on Monday.
The Prime Minister will address a rally in Gandhinagar where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers from the state will be present.
Modi, who was also the Gujarat chief minister till 2014, tweeted: "I bow to the people of Gujarat for blessing BJP for decades. We will always fulfil the dreams of every Gujarati with full strength & vigour."
However, the Election Commission of India has so far did not announce the poll dates in the state.
The principal opposition party, the Congress, has already alleged the BJP of pressuring the Election Commission to delay the announcement of the poll dates in the states to facilitate Modi to offer some benefits to the people just few days before the election.
The BJP is in power in Gujarat since 1995.
Guwahati, Oct 15 : The Assam police have sounded a high alert across the state following intelligence inputs that foreign-backed elements have been trying to create disturbance in the state ahead of draft publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
A notification has been sent to the Assam police headquarters to take appropriate measures against any such attempt.
The Supreme Court has recently directed the Assam state coordinator office for the NRC to update and publish the draft rolls by December 31, 2017.
Assam police ADGP (Special Branch) Pallav Bhattacharya said forces in all districts and security agencies have been asked to tackle any untoward situation.
The alert notification says that few organisations operating within and outside Assam and being backed by some foreign countries have establish their footprints in various parts of the state and are trying to create untoward situation before NRC update.
A top IB official said these organisations are mostly from South India, Northern India and Bangladesh.
Some organisations of Pakistan and gulf countries are also trying to contact local organisations. They are apprehending that the names of most of the minority people (Muslim), who are residing in Assam, will not be registered in the much awaited draft publication of NRC update. Some organisations have raised the issue in group meetings held in mosques, madrasas, the top IB official said.
ADGP Bhattacharya said adequate measures have been taken to tackle any situation.
The state home department has urged the Union home ministry to send additional forces to the state.
According to the reports, around 96 per cent verification process of NRC update has been completed so far.
The state coordinator for the NRC, presently updating the 1951 list under the supervision of the apex court to detect undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh, had submitted a report before the Supreme Court on October 12, saying that of 47.09 lakh applicants who have submitted Panchayat certificates to get included in NRC, 17.40 lakh are original inhabitants.
A top official of the state coordinator office for the NRC said that several fake documents were found during the verification process.
Over 68 lakh families of the state had submitted their required documents with the NRC application forms.
The All Assam Students Union (AASU) has urged the NRC authorities to publish an NRC roll, free from illegal foreigners.
(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Allahabad, Oct 16 (IBNS): Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, who have been acquitted of charges of killing their 14-year old daughter Aarushi and servant Hemraj , will be released from jail on Monday, media reports said.
Aarushi's parents, Rajesh and Nupur, were convicted by a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in 2013.
The Allahabad High Court judge, who acquitted Aarushi's parents of the double murder charges on Thursday, said there were no concrete evidences against Rajesh and Nupur Talwar.
Citing that the CBI had failed to prove 'guilt beyond reasonable doubt' in the Aarushi Talwar murder case, the Allahabad High Court on Thursday acquitted parents Nupur and Rajesh Talwar of murder charges.
After the conviction by a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in 2013, parents of Aarushi, Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar, had appealed to Allahabad High Court.
Aarushi was found murdered at her residence on May 16, 2008, which led to the suspicion that domestic help Hemraj had killed her.
However, a day after Aarushi;s murder, Hemraj was found dead in the terrace.
In 2009, the CBI had handed over the murder case to a new team and suggested a closure of it.
The CBI had suspected Aarushi's father Rajesh Talwar to commit the double murders based on circumstantial evidence, though the CBI did not convict him due to lack of proper evidence.
However, the court rejected the CBI's claim of lack of evidence.
The sensational murder case, which shook the nation, has drawn diverse opinions from different sections of the society.
Kolkata, Oct 16 (IBNS): Following the withdrawal of the central paramilitary forces by the union government in Darjeeling, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to destabilise the hills in the state.
At a press conference, after meeting with all hill parties, Banerjee uttered some strong words against her political rival, the BJP, alleging the latter of playing a political game at a time when Darjeeling is getting back to normalcy after the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) called off their strike last month.
Accusing the central government, Banerjee said: "The withdrawal of the central forces is a conspiracy by the BJP party to divide Bengal and destabilise."
She even vented out her anger against the Centre for not consulting with the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government before withdrawing the forces.
The chief minister even said the decision to withdraw the central forces was taken from the BJP party office.
Banerjee wrote letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Rajnath Singh to convey her dissatisfaction in the whole issue.
The forces were withdrawn couple of days back after a police officer was killed and at least four cops were seriously injured in a crossfire between security forces and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) supporters loyal to Bimal Gurung.
According to sources, acting on a tip off that Bimal Gurung had returned to Darjeeling from neighbouring state Sikkim and taken shelter in an illegal arms factory-cum-warehouse at Takvar area near Gurung's political-base Patlebas, a heavy police force cordoned off the area and had began search operation.
When police were searching houses at Limbu Basti, the GJM activists had reportedly started fire aiming at the cops on Thursday midnight.
Following an appeal of Union home minister Rajnath Singh, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), finally called off an indefinite strike in Darjeeling after 104 days on September 27.
The indefinite strike was called with the demand of a separate Gorkhaland.
The protest by the GJM had started after West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee held an administrative meeting in Darjeeling months ago.
Banerjee's meeting was followed by a protest by the GJM supporters who had ransacked several government properties, leading to a complete shutdown in the hills.
The WB CM on Monday said the meeting with the hill parties was "very good and positive". They will next meet on November 21 in Darjeeling.
Image: Facebook/@AITCofficial
Srinagar, Oct 16 (IBNS): A militant was killed in a scuffle after the murder of a former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sarpanch in Imamsahab area of Shopian district of south Kashmir on Monday evening.
Police said that Muhammad Ramzan Sheikh (50) was shot at by gunmen at his residence at Homun, Imamsahab of Shopian .
He was shifted to nearby primary health hospital for treatment where doctors declared him dead on arrival.
Director General of police (DGP) SP Vaid said that a militant was killed in the scuffle.
In a tweet, Vaid said that three militants fired and killed ex -sarpanch of PDP Mohammad Ramzan in Shopian.
In scuffle, he said, one militant Shaukat Falahi was also killed.
(Reporting by Saleem Qadri)
New York, Oct 16(Just Earth News): United Nations Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres on Sunday commended the first responders and residents of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, for mobilizing to aid in what is being called Somalia's worst-ever bomb attack.
In a statement from his spokesperson, the Secretary-General urged all Somalis to unite in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism and work together in building a functional and inclusive federal state.
Strongly condemning the attacks, he conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families, as well as his wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured.
According to media reports, at least 200 people were killed and an even greater number of people were injured.
The Secretary-Generals Special Representative in Somalia, Michael Keating on Sunday said that the UN and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) were working closely to support the response by the Federal Government of Somalia and local government authorities, including the provision of logistical support, medical supplies and expertise in the aftermath of the bombings.
It is a revolting attack both in terms of its intent and impact, the Special Representative said.
The Special Representative said that the immediate priority is to support efforts led by the authorities to recover from the attack and help all those affected, especially the injured and newly homeless.
The international community will do everything possible to help the people and government of Somalia to overcome this tragedy, he said.
According to media reports, a massive car bomb detonated outside the entrance to a hotel in the city's K5 junction, which is home to government offices, hotels and restaurants.
Later in the day, a second bombing was reported in the city's Madina district.
Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, Oct 16(Just Earth News): Voicing concern over restrictions on protests as well as attacks on judiciary and civil society in the run-up to presidential elections in Kenya, a group of United Nations independent human rights experts called on the Government to honour its obligations and protect the rights of Kenyans.
It is precisely when political tensions are high that governments should do their utmost to let people express their grievances and to protect their rights, said the experts in a news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Kenya is facing a choice. We urge it to choose to uphold its constitution and pursue strengthening of its democracy, to avoid deepening political divisions and exacerbating tensions.
According to the human rights experts, a pattern of police brutality, excessive use of force, consistent harassment of judges and threats to civil society has been witnessed even before the ban was imposed.
Under the restrictions, protests are forbidden in parts of the nation's three largest cities Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu until further notice, protests in other parts of the country require prior police permission and organizers can be held criminally liable for any offence by any participant.
In the news release, experts noted that while some previous protests had been marred by violent incidents, they stressed that response to any violence must be proportional to the level of threat and that security forces must prioritize dialogue and non-violent means.
The presidential elections are to be held on 26 October.
An 'alleged climate of impunity'
The rights experts also said that there was currently an alleged climate of impunity for law enforcement officers despite the launching of several investigations, including one into the violence that followed the 8 August general election, when dozens of people were killed and many injured as a result of police action.
In particular, they highlighted an incident on 28 September, when 27 students and staff at the University of Nairobi were reportedly injured when police used tear gas, beat them with wooden clubs, robbed them and threatened them with sexual violence.
A few days later, on 2 October, police reportedly used tear gas in a nursery in Nyalenda (a suburb of Kisumu) injuring at least three children.
We call for a prompt, independent and thorough investigation into all allegations of police brutality, the experts said, adding: impunity fosters a culture of violence and mistrust, the opposite of what Kenya needs as it prepares for a repeat of the presidential elections.
'Robust checks and balances are the prerogative of every democracy'
Further in the release, the experts expressed serious concern over reports of repeated attacks against individual judges and the judiciary in general and attempts to limit the courts' role in hearing election-related petitions.
Robust checks and balances are the prerogative of every democracy, they said, stressing that the independence of the judiciary must be protected.
They also underscored that the role of the civil society must also be preserved and denounced fake information being circulated online on social media, seeking to denigrate human rights organizations, including members of the Kura Yangu Sauti Yangu initiative which works for free and fair elections.
This is unacceptable and must immediately stop, the experts said. Over the years, we have repeatedly raised concerns with the Government of Kenya about shrinking civil society space and attacks on individual human rights defenders.
The UN human rights experts noted above include Michel Forst, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Agnes Callamard, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Diego Garcia-Sayan, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; Nils Melzer, the Special Rapporteur on torture; and David Kaye, the Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council the highest intergovernmental forum in the UN system on rights issues to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
Photo: Jean-Marc Ferre
Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, Oct 17(Just Earth News): Meeting the Palestinian Prime Minister on Monday, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, and discussed the implementation of the intra-Palestinian agreement signed in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on 12 October.
In particular, the agreement provides for the return of the crossings of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority by 1 November.
The timely and effective implementation of this provision and concrete steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis will be critical for effectively empowering the Palestinian Government in Gaza, said Mladenov after his meeting with Prime Minister Hamdallah in Ramallah this afternoon, local time.
The agreement is also an important step towards achieving the goal of Palestinian unity under a single, democratic and legitimate Palestinian national authority, added Mladenov.
The senior UN official also noted that the Organization will continue to work with the Palestinian leadership, Egypt and the region in support of the process, highlighting its importance for reaching a negotiated two-state solution and sustainable peace.
Following the agreement last week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres congratulated by phone, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the State of Palestine, on the agreement and emphasized the need to urgently address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, particularly with regard to the electricity crisis, and improved access to and from the territory.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe
Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, Oct 17(Just Earth News): Africa must focus on young people, empower women and girls, and be innovative in leveraging resources and financing for development, Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres said Monday as the United Nations kicked off Africa Week.
Africa Week is to raise awareness and mobilize support. I am convinced that, together, we can meet the challenges, Guterres said in his remarks to the high-level inaugural event at UN Headquarters in New York.
The Secretary-General said the international community must change the way it looks at the African continent.
Africa is a land of resilience, and above all, it is a land of opportunity, he emphasized, highlighting the continents recent progress in reducing poverty, diversifying its economies, building the middle class and nurturing growth in a variety of sectors.
To further unleash such potential, he said, young people must play a central role as Africa has the fastest growing youth population in the world.
We can help make the most of this demographic dividend through greater investments in education, especially in science and technology and by ensuring to enable youth participation in economic development. People need skills that match the needs of on Monday and tomorrow, he said.
Empowering Africas women and girls is also crucial, as gender inequality is costing sub-Saharan Africa tens of billions of dollars a year, like everywhere else in the world.
Another key is to be innovative in leveraging resources and financing for development, including tax reform by African countries themselves and international efforts to fight tax evasion, money laundering and the illicit financial flows that have depleted Africas resource base, he added.
Also addressing the inaugural event was UN General Assembly President Miroslav LajAak, who said that in the past, Africa was expected to listen, and accept the ideas and conditions of others.
That era is over [] When it comes to its own development, Africa now has the most powerful voice of all. We need to listen to it, and learn from it, he said.
Among other priorities, he stressed the importance of cooperation between the African Union (AU) and the UN, particularly in the area of sustainable development. The AUs Agenda 2063 and the UNs 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development both outline a sustainable future for the planet and the people.
They must be implemented in complementarity, he said, noting that better and more regular engagement between the two entities is necessary at all stages, including planning, implementation, financing and review.
The events during Africa Week centre around the theme: Supporting an Integrated, Prosperous, People-Centred and Peaceful Africa: Towards the Implementation of Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Photo: Trevor Samson/World Bank
Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, Oct 17(Just Earth News): The General Assembly on Monday elected, by secret ballot, 15 States to serve on the Human Rights Council, the highest intergovernmental body in the United Nations system for matters relating to protection and promotion of human rights worldwide.
Newly elected to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council are Afghanistan, Angola, Australia, Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Qatar, Senegal, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine.
All would serve three-year terms beginning on 1 January 2018.
The 15 new members were elected according to the following pattern: four seats for African States; four seats for Asia-Pacific States; three seats for Latin American and Caribbean States; two seats for Eastern European States; and two seats for Western European and other States.
On the basis of equitable geographical distribution, Council seats are allocated to the five regional groups as follows: African States, 13 seats; Asia-Pacific States, 13 seats; Eastern European States, six seats; Latin American and Caribbean States, eight seats; and Western European and other States, seven seats.
Created by the General Assembly in 2006, the 47-member Council is responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and making recommendations on them.
Its meetings are held at the UN Office at Geneva, located at Palais des Nations, which used to house the League of Nations, until its dissolution in 1946.
Credit: UN Photo/Kim Haughton
Source: www.justearthnews.com
Image: Wallpaper
Dhaka, Oct 16 (IBNS): At least eight people died after a boat carrying Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar capsized in Naf river on Bangladesh-Myanmar border on Monday, local media reports said.
The boat sank near Shah Porir Dwip, the southern-most tip of Bangladesh, at around 3.30 am.
Rohingya Muslims attempting to cross the river into Bangladesh for safety, were on the boat, the reports quoted Government sources as saying.
Bangladeshi coastguards along local residents found bodies of four children and four women from the river that separates Bangladesh from Myanmar.
Many others are believed to have gone missing.
The rescuers found 21 people alive and helped them come ashore.
An estimated 537,000 Rohingya Muslims have reportedly entered Bangladesh since the Myanmar army launched an anti-insurgency crackdown in Rakhine state, according to International Migration Agency.
Nearly 180 Rohingya have drowned while trying to cross the border over the Naf river since the violence began on August 25.
Image: Wallpaper
New York, Oct 17(Just Earth News): Senior United Nations officials are urging the international community to come together in support of a 23 October pledging conference to asend a strong message to Rohingya refugees and their generous hosts in Bangladesh that the world is there for them in their greatest time of need.a
Since late August, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya trying to escape discrimination and persecution in Myanmars Rakhine state have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, sparking the worlds fastest-growing humanitarian emergency, according to the United Nations.
We call on the international community to intensify efforts to bring a peaceful solution to the plight of the Rohingya, to end the desperate exodus, to support host communities and ensure the conditions that will allow for refugees eventual voluntary return in safety and dignity, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a joint statement Monday.
The origins and, thus, the solutions to this crisis lie in Myanmar, added the UN High Commission for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, the UN aid chief, Mark Lowcock, the Director General, of IOM, William Lacy Swing.
They underscored that Bangladesh has kept its borders open, offering safety and shelter to fleeing families.
We have been moved by the welcome and generosity shown by the local communities towards the refugees, the senior officials stated, while noting their respective agencies have been working in overdrive with the Government of Bangladesh, local charities, volunteers and non-governmental organizations to provide assistance. Still much more is urgently needed.
The refugees are fully dependent on humanitarian assistance for food, water, health and other essential needs as basic services are under severe strain and some sites lack access to potable water and sanitation facilities, raising health risks for both the refugees and the hosting communities.
The efforts must be scaled up and expanded to receive and protect refugees and ensure they are provided with basic shelter and acceptable living conditions. Every day more vulnerable people arrive with very little if anything and settle either in overcrowded existing camps or extremely congested makeshift sites, the statement continued.
It announced that the ministerial-level pledging conference, set to be held in Geneva on 23 October, organized by OCHA, IOM and UNHCR and co-hosted by the European Union and Kuwait, will provide Governments an opportunity to show their solidarity and share the burden and responsibility.
Their further generous support for the Joint Response Plan, which was recently launched by the UN and partners, is urgently needed to sustain and scale up the large humanitarian effort already under way. The plan requires $434 million to meet the life-saving needs of all Rohingya refugees and their host communities together an estimated 1.2 million people for the difficult months to come, added the statement.
Photo: UNHCR/Roger Arnold
Source: www.justearthnews.com
Image: Wallpaper
Kenner, Oct 16 (IBNS): At least seven people were injured, some gravely, after an oil rig explosion in Lake Pontchartrain in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, rocked the adjoining area, media reports said.
The mishap took place on Sunday evening, Kenner Police Department spokesman Sgt. Brian McGregor told reporters.
The casualty is expected to rise, the police said.
According to officials, rescue operations are underway, jointly conducted by the Kenner Police Department and Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.
The CBS affiliate WWL-TV reported that Coast Guard New Orleans Division is also helping in the rescue effort with a boat and a helicopter.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto was quoted in the media as saying that the team is treating it as a "search and rescue" operations.
Jefferson Parish spokesman Antwan Harris said that many people have been rescued thus far from the active fire on the rig.
"Several people have been rescued from the active fire on the rig," he said.
Image: wallpaper
Ottawa, Oct 16 (IBNS): The Taliban have denied Canadian man Joshua Boyle's allegations that the kidnappers had raped his wife and killed one of his children in the captivity, media reports said.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Boyle's wife had a "natural miscarriage" following an illness and she could not be treated with doctors as they were in a remote area.
"No one has either intentionally murdered the child of this couple and neither has anyone violated or defiled them" Mujahid said in the statement.
He also denied Boyle's allegations that his wife was being raped in the captivity.
Joshua Boyle (34) and Caitlan Coleman (31), who were kidnapped by the Taliban linked Haqqani network in 2012 as the couple crossed into Afganistan, reached Canada on Friday after the release..
Coleman was pregnant at a time the couple was kidnapped in 2012 and they had four children in the captivity.
Interacting with media, after reaching Canada last week, Boyle said: "The stupidity and evil of the Haqqani network's kidnapping of a pilgrim and his heavily pregnant wife engaged in helping ordinary villagers in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorising the murder of my infant daughter."
The Pakistan government issued a statement on Thursday to confirm the news of the rescue of the Canadian family with the help of an operation carried out by the troops and intelligence agencies of the country.
In a youtube video uploaded in 2016, Boyle, as per the instructions given by the kidnappers, urged the Afganistan government that if it did not stop killing the Talibani prisoners then his family will be killed.
Later, Boyle's parents made a video to address the captivators, saying: "Weve done the best an ordinary Canadian family can do. Ive personally written to several of the most senior government officials in Afghanistan, those with great power over the execution of your brothers.
Weve done what youve asked of us, were now respectfully asking you to show mercy to our family members in return. Please" Boyle's father said while addressing the captivators.
Expressing relief over the release of the couple, Canadian foreign affairs minister, Chrystia Freeland, said: "Canada has been actively engaged with the governments of the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan and we thank them for their efforts, which have resulted in the release of Joshua, Caitlan and their children."
"Joshua, Caitlan, their children and the Boyle and Coleman families have endured a horrible ordeal over the past five years. We stand ready to support them as they begin their healing journey, he added.
(Reporting by Suman Das)
After the super success of Dangal, Aamir Khan and Fatima Sana Shaikh are working together in Thugs Of Hindostan. Fans were thrilled and also shocked to know that the on-screen father-daughter duo will romance in the film.
But then there were rumours about how Katrina might be playing the title role along with AK and not Fatima. But now Aamir has spoken about how Fatima continues to be the central character of the film. Yes!
NDTV
Talking to the media, Aamir revealed how Fatima has the main role in their upcoming film Thugs Of Hindostan. He was also asked if women should get equal role in the films like actors to which he said,
My every film has women in a significant role. Even in Ghajini Kalpana (Asin)s role was much better than Sanjay Singhania (Aamir). She is the heart of the film and that is the character which is author backed and the one you go home with. In Rang De Basanti also, the story is basically about the British girl, she comes down, she moves everything, she makes the film. Even in Thugs of Hindostan, the central role is the girl which is being played by Fatima Sana Shaikh. The story of the film is about her .
SantaBanta
Indeed Fatima is damn lucky to have Aamir as her mentor as he believes in equality.
Recently at MAMI film event, Fatima also shared her experience of working with Aamir and Amitabh Bachchan in Thugs, I am fortunate to work with a legend like Amitabh Bachchan. My equation with Aamir Sir is the same, I continue bullying him.
(ALSO READ: Dangal Girl Fatima Sana Shaikh Gets Trolled On Instagram For Wearing A 'Saree'. Seriously?)
Midday
Well, Fatima is definitely enjoying all the attention, while reports suggested that Kat is upset with AK for giving Fatima more importance than her in the film. Thugs Of Hindostan is set to release during Diwali, 2018.
An uproar couldn't be avoided when the Uttar Pradesh government dropped the iconic Taj Mahal from its list of tourist destinations published recently.
Also read: ASI Ends Debate On Taj Mahal, Tells Court That Mughal Monument Is Not A Temple But A Tomb
reuters
The new booklet, titled 'Uttar Pradesh Paryatan-Apaar Sambhavanaayein', instead mentions temples in Mathura, Ayodhya, and Gorakhpur. The booklet was released last week by tourism minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi.
UP Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath had earlier also criticised the gifting of Taj Mahal replicas to foreign dignitaries. He had said that it did not reflect the Indian culture.
Also read: Now You Cant Visit Taj Mahal Museum & These Other Places With A Selfie Stick
After the opposition labelled the Yogi government as "communal", the state's tourism ministry issued a press release detailing the ongoing and future development projects being undertaken by the state, for the state.
reuters
The release also said, "The government, with the help of the World Bank, has proposed projects worth Rs 370 crore, of which projects worth Rs 156 crore are meant for development of the Taj Mahal and Taj Mahal region."
@WorldBank - 370 Government of UP (@UPGovt) October 2, 2017
@TajMahal 156 Government of UP (@UPGovt) October 2, 2017
- Government of UP (@UPGovt) October 2, 2017
Government of UP (@UPGovt) October 2, 2017
Also read: ISIS Terrorists Vow To Intensify Attacks On India, Declare Plan To Target Taj Mahal
The booklet, therefore, highlights the UP government's work in the tourism sector and other development projects for Varanasi, Mathura, Ayodhya, Gorakhpur, Devipatan, Naimisharanya, Allahabad, Chitrakoot, Kushinagar, Bundelkhand, Mirzapur, and Sonbhadra.
For the first time, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has stated in a court that the Taj Mahal is a tomb and not a temple. According to officials, a 1920 notification to protect the Taj Mahal has been made the basis for this affidavit in a local court here.
reuters
The Union culture ministry in November 2015 had already clarified in the Lok Sabha that there was no evidence of any temple at the Taj.
In April 2015, the Agra district court had admitted a suit filed by six lawyers that the Taj Mahal is a Lord Shiva temple (Tejo Mahalaya) and Hindu devotees should be allowed access inside the premises. The court had issued notices to the central government, Union ministry of culture, home secretary and ASI to file their replies.
The ASI submitted its reply on Thursday. The ASI once again challenged the jurisdiction of the local court to 'hear and decide' the case. The court while giving time to the plaintiffs in the case to file their reply fixed September 11 as the next date of hearing.
reuters
The ASI also challenged the 'locus standi' of the plaintiffs in the matter arguing that while Taj is a Islamic structure, the latter belonged to different religions with no such religious offering intended there ever.
"Historically and even according to records as available there is an ancient monument named as Taj Mahal alone at the bank of river Yamuna at Agra duly declared by the government to be of national importance having gained the worldwide recognition as the 7th wonder of the world. As per available records right from the British period since 1904, the monument Taj was declared a protected monument by notification on December 22, 1920, ASI stated in its affidavit.
The archaeological body categorically denied that no such temple or Shiv Linga as stated by the plaintiffs existed in the Taj Mahal.
reuters
It is specifically denied that the name Tejo Mahalaya mandir as stated ever existed at the place of present Taj Mahal and is being misrepresented and misconceived hence not admitted at all...The property in the suit was not usurped but was obtained in exchange from Raja Jai Singh.
While urging the court to dismiss the petition, ASI said contentions of the plaintiffs were without any basis or ground and are "concoction" of plaintiff's imagination.
In the suit Lawyer Harishankar Jain and his colleagues' had sought a direction from the court for removing all alleged burials under the Taj Mahal; as well as to restrain worship by Muslims. Interestingly, the lawyers in their suit have named Lord Agreshwar Mahadev Nagnatheswar Virajman, as the main plaintiff to claim the owner ship of the property, while Jain claimed to be his next friend.
reuters
In his plea, Jain wrote that during the 12th century (1212 AD) Raja Paramardi Dev had built Tejo Mahalaya temple palace, which at present in common parlance is known as Taj Mahal. The temple was later inherited by 'Raja Maan Singh', the then Maharaja of Jaipur, after him in 17th Century the property was held and managed by 'Raja Jai Singh' but was annexed by Shah Jahan (1632) during his regime."
The lawyer further claimed, "After the death of Mumtaz-ul-Zamani eminently known as Mumtazmahal, temple Tejo Mahalaya was converted into a memorial for Shahjahan's wife. Certain portions of the complex and its surroundings were altered to bring in a few Islamic features."
Counsel for the plaintiffs Rajesh Kulshrestha said, "The reply filed by ASI is baseless. Many of the facts presented in the affidavit are contradictory. We will counter its argument on the next hearing."
In a tragic incident that took place in Murshidabad district in West Bengal on Sunday, a 19-year-old college student was lynched by an angry mob after his motorbike had hit an electric pole that caused the wires to topple and electrocuted a passerby. He was riding the motorbike with his two friends.
The incident took place in Rajanagar village that comes under Raghunathganj police station which is about 250 km from Kolkata. Two persons have been admitted to hospital in Jangipur.
When the bike rammed into the pole, it collapsed and fell on on Kiran Rabidas. The mob got angry at the reckless driving that caused the death of the passerby and started beating the 19-year-old. They tied the three boys to tress and thrashed them. Later all three were rescued in a critical condition.
We have started an investigation, Raghunathganj police station in-charge Saikat Ray told Hindustan Times.
Bapon Mondal, succumbed to his injuries. None have been arrested so far.
Bapan was riding at a high speed. He appeared intoxicated and couldnt control the bike. Some villagers couldnt control their anger when they saw a person die for reckless driving and the three were beaten up, said Arjun Das, a local.
Rajesh Mondal, who was riding pillion told Hindustan Times that, Due to the poor condition of the road Bapan Mondal couldnt avert the accident, and the bike hit the electric pole. Thereafter, I saw some persons take away an unconscious person elsewhere. Some others dragged us to a nearby area, tied us to a tree and started beating us.
Bapan had acute stomach pain when we were rescued. He was administered some medicines at this hospital but died within an hour, said Rajesh Mondal.
Sikha Mondal, the mother of Bapan Mondal, said, My son is a student of BA in a college in Piyarapur. On Sunday night after returning from tuitions, he got a phone call from Rajesh Mondal to join a party. I had no idea what they did thereafter. Later in the night, I was informed that my son has been lynched.
A BSF commanding officer was critically injured after he was attacked by suspected cattle smugglers along the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura.
bccl/representational image
The second-in-command rank officer, Deepak K Mondal, commanding the 145th battalion of the border guarding force is critical and has been air evacuated to Kolkata.
ANI
The incident happened at about 2 am on Monday near the Belardeppa border post in the Sipahijala district of the state when the officer was allegedly hit by a four-wheeler being used by the smugglers.
He was patrolling the area with his team to check cattle smuggling and other illegal activities along the international border which is "unfenced" here, he said.
bccl/representational image
Mondal saw some cattle smugglers and challenged them, he said, adding the officer along with his guard and driver tried to stop them.
"The group of about 25 smugglers were carrying bricks, lathis and machetes. When challenged, the smugglers tried to gherao the officer and the patrol party. Smugglers' vehicle hit the officer from behind and he sustained a severe injury to his head and legs and he is critical," he said.
In a unique and unusual degree, Northern Michigan University is offering a degree programme in Marijuana. Yes, you read it right.
The university began its medical plant chemistry program this semester with a dozen students, the Detroit Free Press reported. The program combines chemistry, biology, botany, horticulture, marketing and finance.
Reuters
It's an unusual program because the Northern Michigan's program is unique because the university is offering a four-year degree addressing the science and business behind growing marijuana. While Other universities offer classes on marijuana policy and law. And places such as Oaksterdam University, Cannabis College, and Humboldt Cannabis College, all in California; and THC University, the Grow School and Clover Leaf University in Denver offer certificates in a variety of disciplines.
"When they hear what my major is, there are a lot of people who say, 'Wow, cool dude. You're going to get a degree growing marijuana,'" said Alex Roth, a sophomore in the program. "But it's not an easy degree at all."
Brandon Canfield, an associate chemistry professor at Northern Michigan, said students don't grow marijuana plants in the program, but instead look to other plants that are traditionally recognized with medicinal value but aren't illegal to grow.
Students learn how to measure and extract the compounds in the plants that can be used for medicinal purposes, then transfer that knowledge to marijuana, which has been used to treat a variety of illnesses, including chronic pain, nausea, seizures and glaucoma.
Reuters
Canfield said he got the idea while attending the American Chemical Society's annual meeting in San Diego last year. "It was my off day and I saw there was a cannabis chemistry group that was putting on a whole series of talks," he said. "I heard all about the need for analytical chemists and all sorts of interesting talks. That was the initial spark."
University officials say the program fills a need because 29 states have legalized medical marijuana, including eight states where marijuana is also legal for recreational use.
As the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh tries damage control over the omission of Taj Mahal from the tourism brochure, controversial MLA from Sardhana, Sangeet Som has come out all guns blazing against the iconic building.
BCCL/ File
"Many people were disappointed that the Taj Mahal was removed from Uttar Pradesh tourism booklet. What history are we talking about? The creator of Taj Mahal (Shahjahan) imprisoned his father," Som said on Monday.
"Taj Mahal was built by rulers who wanted to wipe out Hindus from India and Uttar Pradesh. I guarantee you that the history will be changed now. Taj Mahal cannot be a part of our history," he added.
AFP
While BJP Spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao, backed Mr Som while speaking to a TV channel, the party has distanced itself from the MLA known for his controversial comments.
The UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is also one of the seven wonders of the world has been mired in a political controversy ever since the Yogi Adityanath government assumed office in UP.
AFP
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had decided to replace the replica of Taj with a copy of Gita as a gift to visiting foreign dignitaries. According to the UP CM, the Taj did not represent the Indian culture.
Taj had also failed to find mention in the Yogi government's first budget in the special section on cultural heritage.
However, it snowballed into a massive controversy after the Taj was not featured in the state government's tourism booklet.
Faced with massive protests the Yogi government kept on changing its stands.
AFP
UP Tourism Minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi said, The Taj Mahal has been the legacy of Uttar Pradesh and hence, claiming that the government is ignoring it is wrong.
Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary, the minister in charge of religious affairs and culture said the 17th-century monument was "rightly kept out and should instead be replaced with the Guru Gorakhnath peetha".
At least 276 people have been killed in the double car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia. According to Somalia's Ministry of Information, almost 300 people remained in hospitals after the October 14 attack. The blast happened at a junction in Hodan, a commercial district of the capital Mogadishu which has many shops, hotels and businesses. Immediately after the blast, world leaders from the United State, Britain and France have strongly condemned the worst attack in the country.
The chairman of the African Union Commission asked the government to show renewed unity at this critical time and overcome divisions, to rebuild cohesion at all levels of the federal institutions. (Source: AFP photo)
The United States condemned the bombing in the strongest terms in a statement released by the State Department.
230 people have died in a bomb attack. This might be the first you've heard, since it happened in Somalia & our media doesn't seem to care. Alternative NOAA (@altNOAA) October 15, 2017
My heart is with Somalia tonight. The lack of media presence in non English, non Christian majority countries is disgusting, it truly shows how prejudice Western/European countries are. Where is the news coverage, the support, the love? #PrayForSomalia Ashlyn Kajol Gill (@ashlynkgill) October 16, 2017
Over 200 people died in Somalia but "no one is Somalia"...may Allah have mercy on the souls of the departed and heal the wounded #Somalia Hafsah Ibrahim (@waleedarh) October 15, 2017
Although Somalia just experienced the worst terrorist attack in their history, 276 dead, they are rebuilding and recovering together. pic.twitter.com/LSdLiFvb1k Teymour (@Teymour_Ashkan) October 15, 2017
#Somalia 100's of Somalis at Banadir junction to donate their blood for the victims of yesterday's attack. The humanity of my people pic.twitter.com/oYMfvS4Fzm Leyla Hussein FRSA (@LeylaHussein) October 15, 2017
Washington will continue to stand with the Somali government, its people, and our international allies to combat terrorism and support their efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity that, the statement added.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said his country condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly attacks in Mogadishu, which have claimed so many innocent lives.
More pain around the world. Praying for Somalia Chizzy (@chizzyakudolu) October 15, 2017
Sending my thoughts & love to all those affected by the recent attack in Somalia. https://t.co/1xJ2IeOwUT Mohamed Salih (@MohamedMOSalih) October 15, 2017
My condolences to the families of victims of attacks in #Mogadishu. Canada stands with #Somalia. We condemn these terrible acts. Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) October 15, 2017
A bomb attack in Mogadishu, Somalia killed over 200 people. This is a terrorist attack. RT - the world must know about this. #PrayForSomalia Luke Waltham (@lukewaltham) October 15, 2017
Grief stricken by the loss of 276 lives to the inhuman,cowardly,terror attack in Somalia's capital.My heartfelt condolences 2 their families pic.twitter.com/HTrUnjDOJE Om Prakash Mathur (@OmMathur_bjp) October 16, 2017
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: Solidarity with Somalia. Support to the African Union against Islamist terrorist groups. France stands by your side.
afp
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission asked the government to show renewed unity at this critical time and overcome divisions, to rebuild cohesion at all levels of the federal institutions.
It said the pan-African body, which has deployed a peacekeeping mission in the east African country, would continue its support to the Somali government and people in their efforts to achieve sustainable peace and security.
afp
Police official Ibrahim Mohamed told AFP that the death toll could rise further because there are more than 300 wounded, some of them seriously.
afp
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Shabab, a militant group aligned with Al-Qaeda, has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in its bid to overthrow Somalias internationally-backed government.
On a recent tour of India, Apples Senior VP for internet software and services Eddy Cue talked about his plans for the company in India, particularly where their content arm aims to go in the next few months.
Reuters
Eddy Cue says part of the reason he was hosting Bollywood stars in India was because of the companys plans for Apple Music, both here and in the rest of the world. Theres a lot more that we want to do with music in India, he told Economic Times. Secondly, there is a lot we want to do with bringing Indian music outside to the rest of the world.
Cue believes there are three main efforts Apple needs to make in India to boost Apple Music subscriptions. One way theyre attempting is through the rollout of student discounts and family subscription plans. However, the company is also trying to improve its discover functions, to help listeners find new music thatll keep them coming back for more. Another plan they have is to generate related content like behind the scenes videos and the like.
Cue says Apple believes India is a huge market for the companys content business, especially as its so integrally tied into their devices arm. I think there is a huge opportunity in India, he said. I also think of the opportunity as global. One there are Indian people all over the world. And two, they are discovering Indian music and Indian talent and Indian moviesand we knows how to do that really, really well too.
The company aso reportedly plans to launch Apple Pay in India, though Cue says they dont care what the mechanism itself involves. Its quite likely the company would tie up with another payment platform here like Paytm, where youd walk into a supermarket and swipe your device against an Apple Pay machine, for the balance to deduct from your Paytm wallet. However, thats just speculation right now and how it turns out remains to be seen.
Cyborgs are a common trope in sci-fi movies; humans endowed with machine parts to make them stronger, faster and, in some cases, smarter. But before we get to metal-enhanced super soldiers, there are other applications for a neural-computer interface, and experts believe we may actually see them within the next 20 years.
According to John McNamara, who works at the IBM Hursley Innovation Centre, we may inject ourselves with artificially intelligent nanomachines within the next two decades that will help repair and improve our muscles, cells, and even brains.
In a report presented to the House of Lords Artificial Intelligence Committee in the UK, McNamara says technology will soon leap forward to the point where we can effectively meld synthetic hardware and biological tissue, boosting our neural capacity in the process. Utilising technology which is already being explored today we see the creation of technology that can meld the biological with the technological, and so be able to enhance human cognitive capability directly, potentially offering greatly improved mental, as well as being able to utilise vast quantities of computing power to augment our own thought processes, McNamara said.
Using this technology, embedded in ourselves and in our surroundings, we will begin to be able to control our environment with thought and gestures alone.
Indeed, scientists are already developing devices capable of giving us an improved healing factor, simply by allowing it the capability to reprogram our skin cells with genetic information to turn them into other cells that need to be replaced. It could have applications in a variety of medical conditions, from Alzheimers to cancer.
Meanwhile, McNamara also predicted something called Political Avatars, algorithms that will be able to scour news and government websites for a recommendation to people on who they should vote for based on their ideologies and policies.
However, he also warns of the socioeconomic impact of this kind of AI-based technology, particular for people working in the retail and service sectors. Whereas today, being poor means being unable to afford the latest smart phone, tomorrow this could mean the difference between one group of people potentially having an extraordinary uplift in physical ability, cognitive ability, health, life span and another much wider group that do not, said McNamara.
On a different tangent, scientists also worry about how AI technology becoming commonplace could effectively dumb down the population. They believe that, when people begin using AI and trusting it to make smart decisions, they could eventually begin trusting it more than their own thoughts, despite the fact that researchers have yet been unable to impart any sort of moral or ethical learning to algorithms. Simply put, a computer has no emotion, and therefore no empathy for indirect consequences.
Yes, Elon Musk and others may worry about how AI could eventually get much smarter than us and the sort of ramifications that would have. Unfortunately, some of the biggest problems AI could cause may actually be of our own design, in the here and now.
Burma Businesses in Nine Sectors Must Submit Environmental Plans: Govt
A factory in Mawlamyine Industrial Zone. / Hintharnee / The Irrawaddy
MAWLAMYINE, Mon State Businesses in nine sectors marked as potentially harmful to the environment will be asked to submit environmental management plans (EMP), according to the Mon State government.
The National-level Environmental Conservation and Climate Change Central Committee decided in June that all firms in food and beverage production, cement production, textile dying, foundry, leather processing, pulp and paper production, and sugar production must submit EMPs for approval.
But progress has been sluggish on the matter, with Mon State minister for resources and environmental conservation Dr. Min Kyi Win saying, We have yet to inform the concerned businesspeople.
The Directorate of Industrial Supervision and Inspection under the industry ministry licenses factories and workshops. But there is little cooperation between the natural resources and environmental conversation ministry and the industry ministry, said Dr. Min Kyi, which breeds irresponsible business operations.
He cited the state governments recent surprise checks on some factories in Mawlamyine in which the majority of the operations were found to be violating guidelines.
The environmental conservation department has issued guidelines to factories regarding environmental conservation. It will shut down factories that fail to implement the guidelines, said the departments deputy director U Soe Naing.
The department will ask factories to make any necessary changes over a certain period of time in order to avoid damaging the environment, he said.
If they fail to fix [the issues] beyond that period, well take legal actions, U Soe Naing told The Irrawaddy.
He added that the ministry is too under-resourced to detect all industrial pollution and supervise factories and workshops.
After lawmakers in the state parliament raised questions about strong-smelling rubber processing plants on the Mawlamyine-Mudon highway in September, the Mon State chief minister suspended the plants production until they submit EMPs to the state government.
Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Analysis: Why Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Shunned UN General Assembly
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi addresses diplomats, ministers, and press on Rakhine State affairs at a gathering in Naypyitaw. / Reuters
When Aung San Suu Kyi decided to send her vice president U Henry Van Thio to deliver a speech at the UN in New York she was denounced for avoiding questions and criticism on the plight of self-identifying Rohingya and violence in Rakhine State.
Some insiders, however, say that the State Counselor had more pressing issues at home.
Since the crisis erupted, President U Htin Kyaw has been undergoing treatment in Bangkok. The generals wanted to declare a state of emergency in Rakhine State as clearance operations were launched.
If Daw Aung San Suu Kyi decided to go to New York while U Htin Kyaw was in a Bangkok hospital receiving treatment, U Myint Swe would be in charge and the army could declare a state of emergency in Rakhine State.
Since day one, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has objected to declaring a state of emergency in Rakhine State.
Vice president U Myint Swe is a former top general and served as Yangon chief minister under the U Thein Sein administration and was known as a military hardliner under the Snr-Gen Than Shwe regime.
After reading the precarious situation, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi decided not to go to New York and instead delivered a diplomatic briefing addressing Rakhine State in English. Simultaneously, rallies to support Daw Aung San Suu Kyi were held in some major cities to condemn mounting international pressure on the State Counselor.
U Htin Kyaw came back from medical treatment but Daw Aung San Suu Kyi cancelled her planned trip to Prague.
Instead, she went to Brunei to attend the Golden Jubilee gala of King Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiahs succession to the throne. She was seen with several Asean leaders who have expressed concern on the situation in Rakhine State.
Malaysia decided to disassociate itself from a statement on Rakhine issued by the Filipino chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It said that the statement misrepresents the reality of the situation and omits references to Rohingya Muslims.
In any case, under the 2008 Constitution, the army can declare a state of emergency. But there is process.
Only the President can declare a state of emergency after consulting and coordinating with the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services and Home Affairs. This declaration must be submitted to the National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) for approval as soon as possible, according to the Constitution.
It should be noted that under the current administration, regular NDSC meetings do not take place.
The commander-in-chief would have sovereign power, but he would have to seek NDSC approval to extend the emergency period to six months or more.
He also has to report to an emergency session of the Union Parliament. This scenario is likely if the country is perceived as facing a serious emergency situation or a formidable threat to sovereignty.
Among diplomats and observers, there are still rumors of a coup.
China, India and other of Myanmars close neighbors watch the ongoing power play in Naypyitaw knowing that relations between State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Snr Gen Min Aung Hlaing are at a low point.
Monday, Oct 16th, 2017 (12:01 am) - Score 1,089
The Governments Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has started to hunt for the first test locations to support a future rollout of 5G based Mobile and Fixed Wireless Broadband technologies across the United Kingdom, which is supported by an initial public investment of 25m.
Tens of millions of pounds in public funding have already been contributed to setup a number of 5G focused research centres in the UK, while todays pot of investment is specifically intended to support Phase 1 of the initial testbeds and trials that will help to develop the countrys 5G ecosystem. Interested parties from all across the country are now being invited to propose their projects, which are to be supported by match funded grants worth up to 5 million a pop.
Related projects are expected to focus on anything from exploring the potential of 5G to deliver benefits for businesses; developing new 5G applications and services; exploring new business models around key 5G technologies or reducing the commercial risks associated with investment in 5G.
The funding stems from last years commitment by the Government to invest 740m from the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF) into the countrys digital infrastructure (here), which will aim to catalyse private investment in full fibre (FTTP/H) networks and to support 5G trials.
Matt Hancock, UK Minister for Digital, said: To stay competitive we must be at the cutting edge of new technology and we are determined to be one of the first countries in the world to use 5G. In these very early stages we want all ideas, from all parts of the country, that will help us get the technology and the roll-out right to have a nationwide network of 5G innovators. Its all part of our determination to make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a digital business, and deliver for all citizens now and in the years to come.
An earlier report from the Future Connectivity Challenge Group suggested that the countrys leadership in 5G could result in the opportunity to create 173 billion of incremental UK GDP growth over a ten year period from 2020 to 2030, although its unclear how much of that will actually stem from the specific improvements achieved via 5G alone.
Andrew Jones MP, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said: Improving productivity requires targeted and sustained investment, which is why we are backing the UKs digital infrastructure with over a billion pounds of government funding. Whether we are doing business online or the weekly grocery shop online, strong and reliable connections are crucial to this. Todays announcement is a big step forward in bringing 5G to the UK and ensuring our digital infrastructure is fit for the future.
As usual theres a lot of 5G hype and plenty of talk about cementing the UKs position as a world leader in the development of 5G technology, which is despite the fact that a good number of countries are also putting similarly strong efforts into developing and trialling the technology (some have been conducting trials since last year).
At the very least we in the UK seem to be much more proactive about encouraging and developing 5G than we were about 4G. However the technologys success will also depend on Ofcoms ability to settle the tiresome threats and legal challenges from Three UK and EE (here), which continue to delay the regulators planned auction of related spectrum. Similar issues may yet threaten future auctions too.
Meanwhile 5G is still developing towards its expected commercial launch from 2020 onwards. Arqiva and Samsung have already launched one of the UKs first trials of a 5G based Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband network in London, which uses the 28GHz millimetre wave radio spectrum band to deliver speeds of around 1Gbps (note: the IMT-2020 specification for 5G allows for up to 20Gbps). The first official standard is due to be finalised in 2018.
Initial real-world deployments are likely to be a bit different from this. Generally its expected that the 700MHz band will prove useful for cheaply delivering wide 5G coverage in rural areas, albeit at much slower speeds. Meanwhile the bands around 3-6GHz will focus more on urban areas (limited range will confine their use to areas of high demand) and of course the very high frequencies above 24GHz (e.g. millimetre Wave) should support very large bandwidths, providing ultra-high capacity and very low latency (i.e. fixed wireless links to homes or businesses etc.).
Details of future funding opportunities for additional testbeds and trials will be available as the programme develops. It is likely that future funding will also include large multi-year projects that could be focused in areas that align with the Governments strategic priorities, or which help to address deployment or technical challenges that help to deliver the objectives of the 5G strategy.
We understand that those interested in applying to setup such trials (no doubt this will include all of the major mobile operators) will be able to do so here, from about 10am this morning: https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/search .
People have an intuitive feel for technology. Some trust it and some do not. In the case of autonomous vehicles (AVs), the general feeling is that they will eventually be safer than human drivers. There are problems, to be sure. But AVs dont drink and drive, apply makeup while driving, text or (as I have seen) drive on the Long Island Expressway at high speeds with a newspaper spread across the steering wheel.
That doesnt mean that AVs are foolproof and completely safe. An October 15th New York Times editorial pointed to many of the dangers of AVs. The piece sets up the AV-specific list by pointing out that software reliability and computer security generally are problematic. Then it lists issues with AVs: They struggle in the rain, when branches are low, on bridges, and on roads with faded lane markings.
Real-world politics are an issue, as always:
Yet, members of Congress, encouraged to do so by auto and tech lobbyists, have proposed bipartisan bills that would let industry roll out automated cars more quickly by exempting them from existing safety regulations, like those that govern the performance of steering wheels, airbags and brakes, and by directing the Department of Transportation to come up with new rules instead.
The editorial then highlights what seem to be serious shortcomings of the legislation. In the final analysis, the editorial writer or writers are not against AVs. Indeed, they see great potential to increase safety and provide other benefits and options such as encouraging people who would be able to spend their commute working or being entertained to live further from their workplaces. The technology, however, must be eased in sensibly.
Setting automobiles and trucks onto streets is a very complex matter. The software involved has to be able to do far more than stop at red lights. TechRepublic offers a very interesting piece that builds on what it says is the well-known trolley question posed by Philippa Foot. The premise is simple. Suppose a trolley cant stop. It is headed down a track on which five people are stranded. The only option is for the worker to switch the trolley onto a second track, on which one person is stranded. What is the ethical choice?
The story highlights ethical guidelines to AVs being developed by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. The report, Ethics Commission: Automated and Connected Driving, says that such systems must favor protecting human life over property. If injury is unavoidable, the choice cannot be based on attributes such as age or sex. The story links to the press release with a full description of the document.
The point is that the software necessary to carry out these mandates will be very sophisticated and complex. It seems unlikely that the domestic AV industry is ready.
Privacy is a deeply related issue. A huge amount of data must flow from an AV to a central source for analysis, and some of this data could be useful to crackers. A story on the topic at Venture Beat does a good job of framing the issues but doesnt offer examples. They are not hard to dream up, however.
For instance, a familys car that is receiving directions in Utah suggests that the home in South Carolina may be vacant and ripe for a burglary. Likewise, law enforcement would be very interested in knowing whose car was reported near a bank the night it was robbed. A persons employer likewise would be interested in knowing if an employee visited a competitors office or was at the mall when he or she should have been on a sales call. The issues get even dicier when the AV elements are linked to infotainment and onboard personal communications gear.
The scariest possible scenario is terrorism. It is theoretically possible for a massive hack to instruct a great number of AVs to perform a certain action. That doesnt seem likely, but it cant be ruled out.
The bottom line is that many questions remain, on many different topics and at many levels of difficulty, about AVs. Perhaps it would be wise to take our foot off the gas pedal until these questions are answered.
Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
Security for the Internet of Things (IoT) has suffered a major blow. So has the security for any device that uses Wi-Fi connections.
Security researchers have discovered a serious vulnerability in the protocol for almost every of device that relies on Wi-Fi. As described by the researchers who discovered the flaw:
An attacker within range of a victim can exploit these weaknesses using key reinstallation attacks (KRACKs). Concretely, attackers can use this novel attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted. This can be abused to steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails, photos, and so on. The attack works against all modern protected Wi-Fi networks. Depending on the network configuration, it is also possible to inject and manipulate data. For example, an attacker might be able to inject ransomware or other malware into websites.
The warnings about KRACK first came to light a couple of months ago. According to ZDNet, around the time that Mathy Vanhoef spoke of the problem at Black Hat, U.S. Homeland Securitys cyber-emergency unit sent out an alert about it to security experts and manufacturers who develop Wi-Fi-connected devices. That, Dr. Steven Murdoch, Innovation Security Architect, VASCO Data Security, and Principal Research Fellow at University College London, told me in an email comment, gave manufacturers two months to address the bug before todays public disclosure. Thats good news for new products in development, but bad news for the devices already in use because, Murdoch pointed out, manufacturers often do not fix vulnerabilities in older products, particularly those that arent being actively promoted.
What does this mean for the security of the Wi-Fi-connected devices used for your business? Murdoch said:
The vulnerability is serious, but to exploit it the criminal has to be physically near the computer they want to attack. For this reason, the more valuable the network, the more likely it is criminals will make the effort to carry out the attack, so businesses are at a higher risk than average home users.
Bottom line, security is going to fall on the shoulders of IT departments and organizations, as Rich Campagna, CEO with Bitglass, told me in an email comment:
Theres no stopping users from connecting to public Wi-Fi hotspots, so its up to the enterprise to layer on protection mechanisms. This vulnerability speaks to the importance of ensuring that all connections from endpoints leverage strong encryption, such as the latest versions of Transport Layer Security (TLS). Intermediary proxies can ensure that regardless of what the application supports, all connections from end-user devices leverage strong encryption.
It will be interesting to see how this ends up affecting IoT security in the coming months.
Sue Marquette Poremba has been writing about network security since 2008. In addition to her coverage of security issues for IT Business Edge, her security articles have been published at various sites such as Forbes, Midsize Insider and Toms Guide. You can reach Sue via Twitter: @sueporemba
Dublin-based connectivity platform firm Cubic Telecom has signed a memorandum of understanding with Telstra Wholesale to deliver content to its automotive customers in Australia.
The deal was signed during an Irish Government trade mission to Australia, organised as part of the Australia visit by Ireland President Michael Higgins.
A statement said Cubics partnership with Telstra Wholesale would enable in-car access to infotainment apps and a Wi-Fi hotspot throughout Australia via Cubic's integrated e-SIM and software platform.
Cubic is a private company with more than 75 million in funding by Audi Electronics Venture GmbH, Qualcomm, Valid, Enterprise Ireland and the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, among others.
Cubic Telecom chief executive Barry Napier commented: "We are delighted to join forces with Telstra Wholesale, the leading wholesaler of telecommunications and network services in Australia. Together we are enabling our global automotive customers to roll-out an exciting and robust in-car connectivity solution for drivers in Australia."
Back row (left to right): Lee Finniear, Aoife OSullivan, Cubic Telecom; Julie Sinnamon, chief executive, Enterprise Ireland; Irish President Michael Higgins, Mary Kinnane, Enterprise Ireland, Brad Joyner, Telstra, and Gary Bhomer, Cubic Telecom. Front row (left to right): Steve Pittman, Barry Napier, chief executive, Cubic Telecom with Glenn Osbourne, executive director of sales at Telstra Wholesale, and Jamie Coleman, Telstra.
Glenn Osborne, executive director of sales at Telstra Wholesale, said: Telstra Wholesale seeks to continuously adopt an innovative partnership approach to drive its commercial success in the Australian market. The MoU with Cubic Telecom is testament to that approach and we look forward to a successful partnership together.
Julie Sinnamon, chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Government agency that helps Irish companies start, grow, innovate and win export sales in global markets, said: "This is a tremendous milestone for Cubic Telecom, a company that Enterprise Ireland has been supporting to achieve its global ambition.
"Irish companies are ranked as some of the leading innovative companies in the world and it is this key competitive advantage that they bring to markets worldwide. Cubic Telecom is a great example of how innovative Irish companies can successfully enter and scale in new markets.
"Enterprise Irelands trade and investment programme is the largest that we have undertaken in the region to date and indicative of the opportunities that we see for innovative Irish companies in the Australian market."
Intelligent search and automated workflow tools maker InfoTrack has bought CreditorWatch, which is claimed to be Australia's fastest growing credit reporting company.
The terms of the sale were not disclosed. A statement said CreditorWatch founder Colin Porter and his team would continue to run the business as a standalone unit with its existing branding.
CreditorWatch was set up in 2011 and now has 50,000 clients. It uses proprietary technology platforms and processes and is claimed to be challenging the existing credit bureau duopoly in Australia.
The two firms dominating the industry are both US companies Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet which share one common feature: both suffered massive data breaches this year.
CreditorWatch collects data from multiple sources to provide users with an understanding of credit risk across customers, prospects and suppliers.
Porter said the company's early focus was on small to medium enterprises (SMEs) which were identified as being under-serviced by traditional industry providers.
Three years ago we had a staff of six and now there are more than 50 people working for CreditorWatch," Porter said. "Our trajectory as a business has been incredible and the momentum remains amazingly strong. It was definitely time to partner up with a larger group that understood our ambition and could invest in order to cement us as a truly legitimate alternative to the incumbent players in this space.
We are really excited about becoming part of the InfoTrack family. Relentless client focus and technology innovation are hallmarks of our culture and strategy. And we have seen those traits demonstrated consistently in InfoTrack and among its staff and leadership.
"In addition to being able to leverage unique data across both businesses, InfoTrack will also provide us with excellent support across sales, distribution, marketing, technology and product development to accelerate our growth.
InfoTrack executive chairman Stephen Wood said: "InfoTrack and CreditorWatch are tremendously complementary and there is simply a huge opportunity to create value for our respective client bases. In particular, there is a very exciting product integration potential where we can bring data and insights from CreditorWatch together with our best in class search capability to deliver unique and unrivalled products and services for our customers."
If your business offers a cut-down, basic mobile website compared to your much more advanced desktop site, Google's move to prioritise mobile-first sites next year could see you drop a lot of traffic.
Digital marketing and SEO firm, StewArt Media, is advising businesses with cut-down, mobile versions of their full website to "move to mobile responsive sites ahead of Googles switch to a mobile-first index in the new year".
Chief executive Jim Stewart said "some big brands still have separate mobile websites, known as m-dot sites, which is what were used when we first had phones that couldnt access websites.
A mistake a lot of businesses have made is that they have a separate version of their desktop site as their mobile (m-dot) site. In many cases this is a cut-down version of the full website which only provides limited information and functionality."
Stewart continued: When Google moves to a mobile-first index early next year, these businesses are going to lose a lot of traffic to their websites.
As far as Google is concerned, separate mobile sites, that in many cases dont provide the full range of information that is available on a regular website, will become the most important piece of content for these businesses. This will result in a significant drop in Web traffic because the information that is hidden on the mobile site isnt searchable.
To make matters worse, if a company has two websites, Google may only index the mobile site which means people searching from a PC will have this version displayed on their desktop, creating display issues and a dodgy user experience. Obviously, this does nothing to encourage repeat visits.
The other problem for businesses operating separate mobile sites it that they need a whole separate site for desktop which just means they have the hassle and cost associated with maintaining two separate websites, Stewart said.
The solution?
It is simply "to get rid of separate, mobile sites and sub domains and embrace a mobile responsive technology, which has been available for years already."
Stewart added: Mobile responsive design automatically re-sizes the site so it can be viewed on any device and businesses only have one site to maintain. My advice to businesses that are still operating m-dot sites is to move to a mobile responsive site before Google introduces its mobile-first index early next year.
Some big players, like Ford for example, are moving away from their separate mobile sites, which is a good thing, Stewart concluded.
Obviously, Stewart's company isn't the only web design or SEO firm that can help you ensure your company's website is fully mobile-ready, fully responsive and fully recognised by Google as being so, but the advice is sound if you want to continue being listed in Google, you'll need to ensure you're compatible.
A new air conditioning unit dubbed as "revolutionary" with patented Aussie tech requires no pipes, costs 75c per night and uses a refrigerant, so no water or ice needed.
Australian air-conditioning company Close Comfort has released a portable air-conditioning unit featuring revolutionary patented Australian technology.
If differs from traditional air-conditioners by "offering personal comfort through localised cooling", meaning it "presents a sustainable option and offers significant savings to household energy bills".
The unit in question is the Close Comfort PC9+Plus, and it is billed as an efficient cooling solution when compared to existing ducted and portable air conditions on the market.
We're told it operates at just 300 watts (which is "less than four incandescent light bulbs"), and thus has an estimated cost per night of usage at only 75c on average.
At 17Kg, it is a lightweight unit, and unlike traditional portable air-conditioners, "does not require pipes enabling instant use and castor wheels provide portability from room to room. It uses a refrigerant to cool not requiring water or ice providing convenient self-operation".
In addition, unlike split system air conditioners, "windows can remain open allowing fresh air to circulate in a room, making it a healthier alternative".
As you can imagine, it is billed as "the ideal cooling solution for indoors and can also extend to recreational activities like camping, boating and picnics".
The company notes that the air-conditioning segment is saturated by overseas brands, with this "Australian-owned invention by engineering Professor James Trevelyan set to compete internationally and with planned expansion to additional markets".
Between 2007 and 2009, the West Australian engineer "trialled the idea of a compact localised cooling solution. Through continued research, development of prototypes and subsequent modifications, Close Comfort PC9+Plus was to provide quality and convenient air conditioning affordable to all".
And, as a testament to robust performance, "Close Comfort was successfully piloted in one of the hottest climates internationally, Pakistan, having experienced its highest temperature of 53.3C in 2010".
Key features:
Low running costs
Portable at 17kg
Localised cooling
No installation
Environmentally friendly
Healthier alternative
Click here for more information on how it works, while a more detailed spec sheet is here.
The unit retails for $649, and is available to order from the Close Comfort website now.
Here is the company's video:
A Revolution in Air Conditioning from Close Comfort on Vimeo.
Supply chain group SmartTrans has entered into a binding heads of agreement to acquire logistics software solutions business Resource Connect and its patented logistics management platform iCuro for $16.6 million.
The proposed deal is still subject to a number of conditions, including receipt of necessary ASX and ASIC approvals, completion of due diligence inquiries, SmartTrans shareholder approval and SmartTrans entering into a share purchase agreement with shareholders of Resource Connect and iCuro.
The proposed all-scrip acquisition includes the issue of a total of approximately 2778 million new SmartTrans shares in exchange for 100% of the shares in each of Resource Connect and iCuro.
SmartTrans has two divisions. The first operates an e-commerce platform in China called RooLife that sells Australian products to consumers in China, and also offers a range of intellectual property and payments services for Australian companies looking to do business in China.
And the other division, based in Australia, offers a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service platform allowing businesses to manage their workforce from their smartphone.
SmartTrans (ASX:SMA) chairman Mark Vaile a former Australian trade minister said: Resource Connect is a highly complementary and strategic business that has rapidly established a strong market position across the resource, energy and construction industries. Its cloud-based technology platform and our Software as a Service (SaaS) capability has considerable potential across other industry sectors.
We have carefully assessed a number of avenues to grow Resource Connect and this merger with SmartTrans gives us the base to more fully capitalise on the large number of opportunities we have open to us, said Resource Connect managing director Geoff Jamieson
We are firmly of the view that Resource Connect is still in the early stages of its growth and have identified a number of new markets that have compelling growth prospects. The opportunity to tap into the Chinese market is also appealing.
According to SmartTrans managing director Brendan Mason, the acquisition gives both companies the ability to help new customers.
Geoff Jamieson will continue to lead the growth and development of Resource Connect and will take an active role in SmartTrans wider operations. Minimal business integration is required to realise acquisition benefits, Mason said.
Following the acquisition, three nominees from Resource Connect will join the SmartTrans board of directors.
In its ASX statement SmartTrans reports that Resource Connect's FY2017 revenues were $7.5 million and the company has been "consistently profitable" since 2013, paying fully franked dividends for the past three financial years.
The company's data management solutions are used to help its mainly banking clients clients to comply with the rules around anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing.
Violation of these rules can spell trouble as was evident recently in the case of the Commonwealth Bank which was sued by the monitoring agency AUSTRAC over allegations of violating Australian anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws.
Lyckr recently signed Bloomberg and IBM as clients, adding to other big names like Citi Group and Bank of Ireland.
Kyckr's database connects to more than 180 regulated primary sources, in over 120 countries, providing real-time company registry information on about 80 million businesses globally.
The company said in a statement that about 11.76 million new fully paid ordinary shares would be issued at $0.17 per share, representing a 15% discount on the last closing price.
It said the proceeds would be used for additional operational support and product capabilities, investment in business development resources and office locations.
David Cassidy, managing director of Kyckr, said: "We are delighted at the response from existing and new investors, and particularly from a number of institutional investors whom we welcome to the register.
"The money raised ensures Kyckr is well-positioned to capitalise on recent opportunities secured with blue-chip clients including Bloomberg and IBM.
To meet the needs of our global aggregator clients we will invest in our technical support and business development resources to ensure a successful launch and roll-out of Kyckrs services by these clients.
A survey on the uptake of Office 365 has found that the prime factor worrying 92% of respondents is ransomware, with 47% saying they had been victims of this scourge.
Security, networking and storage products Barracuda Networks conducted the survey in April 2017. It covered more than 1100 organisations, ranging from single-person businesses to companies with more than 10,000 employees in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Australia was not covered by the survey.
Titled "Office 365 Adoption Survey: Drivers, Risks, and Opportunities", it was aimed at measuring trends around the adoption and use of Microsoft Office 365, including what influenced decisions about migration versus remaining with an existing platform.
The survey also collected information about use of third-party security and data protection solutions with Office 365, and their engagement with value-added resellers and managed service providers.
Nearly two-thirds of the respondents (63.3%) were already using Office 365 with Exchange Online being the most common (87.3%) feature in use. Other features used by more than half the respondents were OneDrive for Business (70.9%) and SharePoint for Online (56.8%).
But more than half (51.3%) of those who had not yet taken up Office 365 said they did not intend to migrate.
Asked about the reasons for not migrating, some had a single reason, others cited multiple factors. Some (32.1%) had a "no cloud" policy, others 43.6%) cited security concerns, some (30.4%) mentioned hassles in migrating while some (38.4%) said they had no budget. (As the respondents often cited multiple reasons, the percentages do not add up to 100).
In Barracuda's previous survey, carried out in 2016, the "no cloud" policy was the most widely cited reason for not migrating to Office 365.
Among those who had moved over, nearly 70% said they had serious concerns about advanced threats. This figure was higher (76.3%) among those who were planning to migrate.
But the percentage who said they were worried about latent malware in emails was much higher - 90%.
Among the respondents 86.8% had fears about phishing, spear phishing, impersonation, or social engineering attacks. And 46.3% of the organisations in the survey said they had already experienced such attacks.
Despite their fears about attacks from malicious code, more than half (52.5%) had not set up Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) and DomainKeys Identified Mail/Sender Policy Framework (DKIM/SPF) for their email systems.
These standard protocols help to cut down on phishing, spear phishing and social engineering threats.
Of those who had been attacked by ransomware, 87.3% said the threat came via email, 70.9% said Web traffic was the culprit, while 56.8% said network traffic was to blame. Once again, multiple factors affected the respondents so the percentages do not add up to 100.
While Microsoft Office offers an email security subscription service called Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), the survey found very few (15.6%) Office 365 users had taken up the service.
"Overall, respondents reported significant doubts about the effectiveness of native security and other features of Office 365. In particular, they had concerns about these features ability to protect them effectively against ransomware, phishing, and spear-phishing or social-engineering attacks," the survey said.
Belgian researcher Mathy Vanhoef of imec-DistriNet, KU Leuven has revealed details of a major flaw in the WPA2 protocol that is used for wireless security.
Vanhoef said tonight (Australian time) that attackers within range of a victim could exploit these weaknesses using key reinstallation attacks (KRACKs). (A detailed paper on the flaws is here.)
"Concretely, attackers can use this novel attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted. This can be abused to steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails, photos, and so on," he wrote.
"The attack works against all modern protected Wi-Fi networks. Depending on the network configuration, it is also possible to inject and manipulate data. For example, an attacker might be able to inject ransomware or other malware into websites."
Vanhoef said the flaws were in the Wi-Fi standard itself, and not in individual products or implementations.
"Therefore, any correct implementation of WPA2 is likely affected. To prevent the attack, users must update affected products as soon as security updates become available," he wrote.
"Note that if your device supports Wi-Fi, it is most likely affected. During our initial research, we discovered ourselves that Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD, MediaTek, Linksys, and others, are all affected by some variant of the attacks."
Vanhoef said there was no need for a WPA3 implementation.
"No, luckily implementations can be patched in a backwards-compatible manner. This means a patched client can still communicate with an unpatched access point, and vice versa," he wrote
"In other words, a patched client or access points send exactly the same handshake messages as before, and at exactly the same moments in time. However, the security updates will assure a key is only installed once, preventing our attacks. So again, update all your devices once security updates are available."
The research behind the attack will be presented at the Computer and Communications Security conference, and at the Black Hat Europe conference, to be held from 30 October and 2 December respectively.
As a proof of concept, Vanhoef said he had carried out a key reinstallation attack against an Android smartphone.
"In this demonstration, the attacker is able to decrypt all data that the victim transmits. For an attacker this is easy to accomplish, because our key reinstallation attack is exceptionally devastating against Linux and Android 6.0 or higher," he wrote.
"This is because Android and Linux can be tricked into (re)installing an all-zero encryption key. When attacking other devices, it is harder to decrypt all packets, although a large number of packets can nevertheless be decrypted.
"In any case, the following demonstration highlights the type of information that an attacker can obtain when performing key reinstallation attacks against protected Wi-Fi networks."
I wrote about WPA2 Krack Attacks on Wi-Fi - what it realistically means to you https://t.co/vB0CqsaPgn Beaumont Porg, Esq. (@GossiTheDog) 16 October 2017
The main attack that Vanhoef demonstrated was against the 4-way handshake of the WPA2 protocol that is executed when a client wants to join a protected Wi-Fi network.
It is used to confirm that both the client and access point possess the correct credentials (e.g. the pre-shared password of the network). Simultaneously, the 4-way handshake also negotiates a fresh encryption key that will be used to encrypt all subsequent traffic. All modern protected Wi-Fi networks use the 4-way handshake.
Explaining the attack, Vanhoef said in a key reinstallation attack, the adversary tricked a victim into reinstalling an already-in-use key.
"This is achieved by manipulating and replaying cryptographic handshake messages. When the victim reinstalls the key, associated parameters such as the incremental transmit packet number (i.e. nonce) and receive packet number (i.e. replay counter) are reset to their initial value.
"Essentially, to guarantee security, a key should only be installed and used once. Unfortunately, we found this is not guaranteed by the WPA2 protocol. By manipulating cryptographic handshakes, we can abuse this weakness in practice."
Well-known British security researcher Kevin Beaumont made a list of the takeaways from the detailed research paper. They were:
It is patchable, both client and server (Wi-Fi) side.
Linux patches are available now. Linux distributions should have it very shortly.
The attack doesnt realistically doesnt work against Windows or iOS devices. The Group vuln is there, but its not near enough to actually do anything of interest.
There is currently no publicly available code out there to attack this in the real world you would need an incredibly high skill set and to be at the Wi-Fi base station to attack this.
Android is the issue, which is why the research paper concentrates on it. The issue with Android is people largely dont patch.
The CVE identifiers assigned to track the products affected specific instantiations of the key reinstallation attack are given below:
CVE-2017-13077: Reinstallation of the pairwise encryption key (PTK-TK) in the 4-way handshake.
CVE-2017-13078: Reinstallation of the group key (GTK) in the 4-way handshake.
CVE-2017-13079: Reinstallation of the integrity group key (IGTK) in the 4-way handshake.
CVE-2017-13080: Reinstallation of the group key (GTK) in the group key handshake.
CVE-2017-13081: Reinstallation of the integrity group key (IGTK) in the group key handshake.
CVE-2017-13082: Accepting a retransmitted Fast BSS Transition (FT) Reassociation Request and reinstalling the pairwise encryption key (PTK-TK) while processing it.
CVE-2017-13084: Reinstallation of the STK key in the PeerKey handshake.
CVE-2017-13086: reinstallation of the Tunneled Direct-Link Setup (TDLS) PeerKey (TPK) key in the TDLS handshake.
CVE-2017-13087: reinstallation of the group key (GTK) when processing a Wireless Network Management (WNM) Sleep Mode Response frame.
CVE-2017-13088: reinstallation of the integrity group key (IGTK) when processing a Wireless Network Management (WNM) Sleep Mode Response frame.
In our previous article in the series, we introduced three security leaders who in the last twelve months have impressed us with the way they have navigated through their own challenges to improve productivity and skills in their teams and achieve positive outcomes within their organisations.
These security leaders, in particular CISOs, have enabled transformation within their organisations through the practice of reducing risk in accordance to the overall appetite of the business, re-organised and enabled their teams.
In this third and final instalment, we want to revisit two critical lessons we have learned collectively from these three CISOs. Before we do that,it is worth reminding ourselves of some fundamental truths that organisations today are facing:
1. Relentless cyber threat attacks against global market brands - the threats we face are real, the adversaries are determined and skilled, and the failures are far too common (for e.g., the failure of running a basic hygiene task of applying security patches)
2. Limited visibility is deterring rapid response The failures do not only reside in the technical process but also in the workflow and execution of remediation measures to mitigate the risks.
3. Breaking through the silos - Security is no longer just a technology issue. While many organisations can claim they have board members now understanding and discussing security and risk, it is still a long journey for many.
4. Overcoming FUD - CISOs are inundated with widespread industry scare tactics and influx of information. Like in a game of Buzzword Bingo a CISO could easily spend thousands of dollars in extra budget and for every point scored in the Bingo game they could probably employ an extra security specialist every year. What then to prioritise, which risks to overcome first, which assets are more critical to protect?
The CISOs highlighted in our stories have shared successes in seeing through the FUD. Being able to clearly identify and articulate to board members about what is most important to protect within the organisation is what a business driven security approach is all about.
So, what made these CISOs exemplars to follow? The answer is that they have each pivoted their own security programmes to enable transformation in the business through:
- The adoption of new technologies and workplace transformation
- The development of new service delivery capabilities
- Changing how their organisations measure their risk profile and appetite
Therein, lies the two critical lessons - The importance of filtering out the FUD and be driven by facts; and, the ability to enable positive transformation by reducing business risk impacts.
As we close out this series, we would like to offer our Top TEN suggestions based on the learnings of the CISOs:
1. Know exactly what is happening in your environment. We dont mean do a pen-test once a year, we dont mean collect log data from your preventative controls, and we dont mean install a magic AI-enabled black box machine that learns by itself and emits a chirpy ping and whorls some lovely 3D graphics in the event of a perceived anomaly. We mean - to collect and analyse as much logging data as you can on your network and have an accurate inventory of all your endpoints, applications, and (network connected) non-IT devices. Gain the visibility and the ability to dive deep into all three information collection domains and investigate anomalous behaviour using the skills and behavioural analysis of a human analyst.
2. Have a mechanism to collect and analyse evidence and the trail of breadcrumbs that show not just what happened, but when and how and what may happen next.
3. Have a defined and agreed matrix of ownership; who is responsible for all aspects of BAU and break-fix operations.
4. Have an agreed and tested risk register and an agreed level of risk appetite that is signed off by the business stakeholders.
5. Know the process for investigating, resolving and learning from a breach. Include all areas of business impact like technical operations, business operations, law enforcement, regulations and policies, supply chain parties. Test the process!
6. Know what the top business development priority is for your CEO, be ready with a gap analysis of the current and future risk state and be able to articulate your plan based on priorities of risk impacts.
7. Identify and groom your replacement and nurture the next batch of talent.
8. Gain a thorough understanding of the operations in your organisation - where each supply chain contributes (positively or negatively) to your own risk posture and collaborate both upstream and downstream in the supply chain to help each other.
9. Intelligence sharing and learning - contribute to the greater good and network, network, network. Go to every industry conference you attend with the personal goal of meeting ten to fifteen new peers and learning from them, teaching them whatever you can and staying in touch.
10. Hire new graduates and mentor them so that we help resolve the ongoing skills shortages in our country.
Always remember we are all connected in the hyper connected world. What each individual does, will make a difference. In his book, we are all leaders Leadership is not a position, its a mindset. Fredrik Arnander suggests that everyone is a leader regardless of their station in life, title on business card or position in family or community. For this to be true, we all need lean in and lead for a better and safer digital world.
Find out how to boost your security team, doing more with the team you have Download RSAs free ebook 5 Tools to Boost Your Security Teams Impact
Authors
Simon Perry, Threat Detection and Response Business Manager, RSA
Andrew Bonehill, Threat Detection and Response Snr Technology Consultant, RSA
The pace of the national broadband network rollout has picked up as connections hit the three million mark, but with the operator, NBN Co, cautioning that the increase in connections and activations presents new customer connection and experience issues.
NBN Cos chief network engineering Peter Ryan says that while three million connections have now been completed at a rate of more than 40,000 premises every week and one million activations in the last six months alone the increase has put extra pressure on the customer service experience.
We know the vast majority of NBN access network users are connected without an issue and go on to have a great experience on the network but, unfortunately, thats not the case for everybody, Ryan says.
Indeed, in some respects the speed of the build is one of the key reasons behind some of the challenges were facing in terms of customer experience.
When NBN Co was activating around 3000 to 4000 premises per week across the country which was pretty much the case until mid-2016 when our FttN activations really kicked in activation issues could be easily managed.
Fast forward to now and were regularly activating more than 40,000 premises every week, which means were pretty much activating a city the size of Canberra every single month. This huge increase naturally puts pressure on the customer service experience.
But, while admitting there are customer issues to be dealt with, Ryan says the good news is that NBN Co is already hard at work doing what we can to improve the connection experience and the online experience once people are connected.
He says that in terms of getting customers connected, NBN Co is now focused on what it calls aged tickets within the NBN system or customers whove been waiting too long to connect to the NBN access network.
Aged tickets happen when something out of the ordinary occurs that means we cannot connect the premises to the NBN access network. It can be something as crazy as an unclaimed car being left for months right on the exact spot where we need to conduct some civil works. Yes, really, he notes.
But according to Ryan, NBN Co is now working flat out to resolve aged tickets older than four weeks out of the system".
We want these premises connected to the network as soon as possible, he says.
At the same time, were also turning our attention to making sure that these aged tickets dont appear in the first place by working with our delivery partners and Internet providers to ensure were all properly aligned in the activations process and know exactly what is going on with each premises.
"Our ultimate aim is to stop customers getting ping-ponged between NBN and RSPs to solve a problem we know this has to stop.
Symbio Networks, part of the MNF Group, has launched an international toll-free service which it says allows wholesale customers to offer their end-users local toll free numbers in more than 90 countries, including major business centres such as Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and the US.
The service allows end-users to operate a toll-free number in an overseas country without having a physical presence in that region and, an ITFS number simply terminates to the users existing phone service. Symbio says this means there is no hardware or equipment upgrade requirements.
In todays interconnected world, small and medium businesses are looking for solutions that will help them reach international markets our service for wholesalers is one piece of the puzzle to help them get there, said Rene Sugo, chief executive of Symbio Networks parent company MNF Group.
In our experience, industries that will particularly benefit from ITFS include airlines and travel agents that need to provide a global presence, and global businesses that require frequent international conferencing.
According to Symbio, ITFS is also popular with conferencing providers looking to offer local toll free dial-in options for international callers and it says it can provide new ITFS numbers or port customers existing numbers to its smart network to provide the convenience of a single domestic carrier.
Symbio says the extensive coverage offered by the ITFS is enabled by leveraging bilateral international agreements with telecommunications carriers around the world, which are delivered through its sister-company and global voice carrier TNZI, also part of MNF Group.
Members of the International Electrotechnical Commission's Technical Committee 106 are discussing global testing and assessment standards of 5G and electromagnetic energy at an Australian conference being held from 16 to 20 October.
Global engineering and telco infrastructure advisory, design, delivery and asset management firm Aurecon is hosting the meeting at its offices in Melbourne's docklands.
The company believes that "the next evolution in wireless data communications, fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology, will create challenges and opportunities within the global telecommunications industry".
And, as integration of next generation 5G networks forges ahead, we're told "there is the need for industry players and government bodies to address safety and security requirements concurrently for the first time as well as define standards to ensure proper interoperability".
As a company in the global engineering and telco infrastructure advisory player, Aurecon notes its representation on the International Electrotechnical Commissions Technical Committee 106 (IEC TC 106), which is "the global leader in electromagnetic energy compliance standards".
More than that, Aurecon is hosting, in conjunction with Standards Australia, the IEC TC 106 committee at the Aurecon Centre, Docklands, for the conference titled Methods for the assessment of electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields associated with human exposure, where members will discuss global testing and assessment standards of 5G and electromagnetic energy".
Travis Strong, Aurecons client director, Data and Telecommunications, said: "The importance of building a stable 5G technology framework cannot be over-emphasised. The impact that early 5G adopters will have on mobile-based businesses and multimedia services will be felt far and wide.
Being able to participate in this milestone TC 106 plenary is a privilege and allows us to participate in setting the bar for 5G wireless technology deployment. Aurecons deep technical experience in related projects allows us to offer valuable insights that we believe will be of benefit to the whole telecoms industry.
Wide-reaching in its scope, the conference will cover such topics as:
Characterising electromagnetic environments relating to human exposure;
Measurement methods;
Instrumentation, procedures and calculation methods;
Assessment methods on the exposure produced by various sources;
Defining basic standards for other sources; and
Assessment of uncertainties.
We're also told this event serves as a significant milestone for the telecoms industry as:
Over 60 international delegates from at least 28 IEC member countries will attend, to represent telco companies, government regulatory organisations and manufacturers.
It ensures that a new technology and its governance to implement are being considered concurrently.
Holding a full plenary meeting in Australia marks a first for the IEC TC 106.
Brendon Woods, EME Compliance Manager, who is representing Aurecon on the committees, said: "Aurecons hosting of the event and participation in the conference complements our commitment to deliver compliance support and digital innovation in the telco space.
Our leadership in the EME compliance space and technical expertise allows us to both advise and deliver solutions to keep clients ahead of the curve and to facilitate compliance with the emergence of new, associated electromagnetic energy standards for 5G.
Vodafone is anticipating a bumper weekend of network activity as "more fans than ever before take to social media to share their favourite moments from the Vodafone Gold Coast 600" this Friday 20 October to Sunday 22 October.
The telco says this comes following a "record weekend of Bathurst network activity at Mount Panorama, with the Vodafone mobile network in the area experiencing four times the traffic of a normal weekend".
Vodafone explains that it is implementing "special network parameters in the precinct, including the racing circuit", with the network tweaks "regularly used at a range of large public events to support spikes in data usage from social media, video and photo-sharing".
Vodafone Consumer business director Ben McIntosh noted that as fans flock to the Gold Coast, Vodafone teams will be "constantly monitoring and managing network performance to ensure a consistent experience across the weekend."
McIntosh added: From our no-fuss plans, to our in-store service, to the experience on the ground at the Vodafone Gold Coast 600 were all about giving customers what they love.
Aussies love their sport and technology, so were expecting a significant jump in social sharing across the weekend as fans let their mates know that theyre in the thick of the excitement at the Vodafone Gold Coast 600.
Vodafone regional manager for Queensland, Rhys Morgan, said that the Vodafone network had grown from strength-to-strength in Queensland.
Morgan said: We are investing in our network across the state and locally on the Gold Coast. This includes both the upgrade of existing sites and new sites, totalling an investment of $115 million from 2015 to the end of 2017.
The Vodafone Gold Coast 600 commences on 20 October and runs through to 22 October with a full calendar of media and public events in the week leading up to the event.
Microsoft today revealed that it quietly patched Windows last week against vulnerabilities in the Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) protocol used to secure wireless networks.
Details of the security update were only published Monday to Microsoft's Security Update Guide, the catalog-like portal that earlier this year replaced the decades-old practice of delivering explanatory bulletins.
All supported versions of Windows received the update, according to the catalog listing, including Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2016.
The vulnerabilities were revealed today by Mathy Vanhoef, a researcher at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. On a website that went live Monday, Vanhoef said that weaknesses in WPA2 allowed criminals to read information transmitted over a Wi-Fi network thought to be encrypted by the protocol.
"Attackers can use this novel attack technique to read information that was previously assumed to be safely encrypted," Vanhoef wrote on the site. "This can be abused to steal sensitive information such as credit card numbers, passwords, chat messages, emails, photos, and so on."
Vanhoef dubbed the attack "Krack," for "Key Reinstallation Attacks."
[ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ]
Microsoft included the anti-Krack update in its October security slate released on Oct. 10, but the company held the news until today because information about Krack was scheduled to be issued this morning by Vanhoef, numerous security organizations and multiple vendors. "In partnership with the International Consortium for Advancement of Cybersecurity on the Internet (ICASI), Microsoft participated in a multi-vendor coordinated disclosure to acknowledge and describe several Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) vulnerabilities," Microsoft said in its update description.
The Windows security updates patched the client and server flavors of Microsoft's OS, but even then, users may be at risk, the firm warned. "When affected Windows-based systems enter a connected standby mode in low-power situations, the vulnerable functionality may be offloaded to installed Wi-Fi hardware," Microsoft said. "To fully address potential vulnerabilities, you are also encouraged to contact your Wi-Fi hardware vendor to obtain updated device drivers."
Windows PCs with Automatic Updates enabled have probably received the patches by this point. Managed devices must get the green light from IT personnel, as usual.
Vanhoef and Frank Piessens, another security researcher at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, will present a paper on Krack Nov. 1 at a conference in Dallas, Texas. The paper can be found here.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |
The Voice of Iraq reports that last night artillery duels broke out between Iraqi army forces and Kurdish Peshmerga paramilitary personnel to the south of the city of Kirkuk. The report is sourced to Peshmerga officers who declined to have their names used. For their part, Iraqi officers loyal to Baghdad spoke of the exchange of katyusha rocket fire in the south of Kirkuk.
Ordinarily the US president would have swung into action to call the leaders concerned and attempt to forestall the outbreak of hostilities. There are likely some 10,000 US troops in the country in the Iraq Command reestablished by Barack Obama in 2014. The US forces have a close relationship with the Kurds, their best allies during the 2003-2008 occupation of Iraq, and have been crucial to the defeat of ISIL by prime minister Abadi. If the US had a real president instead of a petulant and self-absorbed toddler, likely this new Arab-Kurdish war in Iraq would not have broken out.
h/t wikipedia
Both sides agree that Iraqi troops have begun an advance on the city of Kirkuk, which was seized by Kurdistan Peshmerga forces in 2014 during a time when ISIL had occupied the neighboring Sunni Arab areas of Iraq. The autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, which had been part of the Baghad government of Iraq from 2003, recently voted to secede.
The KRG consisted of the provinces of Sulaymaniya, Erbil and Dohuk, but had long wished to add the mixed province of Kirkuk to its confederacy. The KRG became autonomous in the 1990s because of the no-fly zone initiated by George H. W. Bush after the Gulf War of 1990-91, from fear that dictator Saddam Hussein would conduct reprisals against Kurds for throwing off Baath Party rule during that war.
Iraqi Turkmen and Arab residents of Kirkuk object to the annexation, and Baghdad is signalling that now that ISIL is largely defeated, it will not any longer accept Kurdish dominance of Kirkuk. The 2005 constitution crafted mainly by Shiite and Kurdish members of the Iraqi constituent assembly, with strong American input, had scheduled a referendum in Kirkuk itself to decide the fate of the province, but that referendum has never been held.
A Kurdistan municipal body reported on twitter that Iraqi troops and allied Shiite militias had also begun moving to take control of K1 military base and of disputed petroleum fields in Kirkuk province, advancing from Tuz Khurmato south of Kirkuk city. The Kurdistan Regional Governments paramilitary, the Peshmerga (those who stand before death), invaded and took over the K1 base from the 12th Iraqi Division in June, 2014.
The advance by the Iraqi army was preceded by accusations launched by PM Abadi that the Kurdistan Regional Government, headed by Massoud Barzani, had brought guerillas of the PKK (Turkeys Kurdistan Workers Party) to Kirkuk to help defend it. The KRG denied the charge. (If it were true, or if Ankara thought it were true, it would enrage the Turkish government and make it more likely to support Baghdad in taking back Kirkuk).
Abadi referred to the alleged PKK mobilization as a declaration of war.
Baghdad had given the KRG an ultimatum to withdraw from Kirkuk by last Friday.
The PKK is engaged in a hot insurgency against the Turkish army in eastern Anatolia and has bases in the Qandil mountains inside Iraqi Kurdistan, which are thought to be winked at by the KRG.
The Barzani government of Iraqi Kurdistan is conservative, capitalist and right wing compared to the far left PKK, but both are characterized by a strong Kurdish nationalism. Their love-hate relationship may be tilted to the love side at the moment.
Hadi al-Ameri, the head of the Shiite Badr Corps militia (which is linked to Irans Revolutionary Guards Corps), had personally led militiamen to the Kirkuk front.
Since most Kurds are Sunni Muslims and many are left of center, the inclusion of right-wing theocratic Shiite militiamen in the Baghdad forces heading into Kirkuk will inflame ethnic and religious tensions. About half of the Turkmen who also claim that Kirkuk city has long been theirs are Shiites, however, so the militiamen see themselves as upholding their rights. Kirkuk province has a population of about 1.2 million, and Turkmen are probably only about ten percent nowadays; there is likely a Kurdish majority, though there is also a substantial Arab population.
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Related video added by Juan Cole:
Kurdish referendum: Clashes break out between Iraqi and Kurdish forces
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TeleSur |
In our 10-year experience as first responders in Mogadishu, we havent seen anything like this, the Aamin Ambulance service posted on Twitter.
Somali officials say the death toll from Saturdays truck bombing in Mogadishu has risen to 276, with another 300 people injured. Medical personnel in the Somali capital have described horrific scenes of bodies burnt beyond recognition.
In our 10 year experience as first responders in Mogadishu, we havent seen anything like this, the Aamin Ambulance service posted on their Twitter account.
Security official Mohamed Adan told AFP that the blast resulted from a truck loaded with explosives. Police Captain Mohamed Hussein said the explosion appeared to target a hotel and destroyed several other buildings and vehicles.
Somalias President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has declared three days of mourning for the victims, calling on citizens to aid victims in any way they can.
Todays horrific attack proves our enemy would stop nothing to cause our people pain and suffering. Lets unite against terror, he tweeted.
I call on our citizens to come out, extend help, donate blood and comfort the bereaved. Lets get through this together, Mohamed said.
A second attack took place in Madina district. It was a car bomb. Two civilians were killed, Siyad Farah, a police official told Reuters. A gun battle between security forces and armed men followed the blast.
The fighters first detonated a bomb outside the hotels gate, and then about four gunmen on foot gained entry into the hotel and started shooting at the patrons and also the security of the hotel, Farah said, according to Al Jazeera.
The hotels security staff, together with the police, are engaging in a gunfight inside and outside the hotel, he added.
It was a normal day. Very quiet and not much work to do, Abdulkadir Abdirahman, director of Mogadishus ambulance service, told Al Jazeera.
All of a sudden, I heard a very big blast. Everything shook. I have never heard anything that loud before. Within a few minutes, the sky was covered with very dark smoke that covered even the sunlight, he said.
The blast occurred two days after the head of the U.S. Africa Command was in Mogadishu to meet with Somalias president. It also came 48 hours after both the defense minister and army chief left their posts without giving any reasons.
The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was sickened by the attack, and tweeted that the world must show unity in the face of terrorism.
While the International Committee of the Red Cross posted, Were mourning the loss of 5 Somali Red Crescent volunteers, also killed in this attack.
The U.S. military recently increased drone strikes targeting the al-Shabaab group, which have increased attacks on army bases across south and central Somalia.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, although the Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which is allied to al-Qaida, stages regular attacks in the capital and other parts of the country.
The group is waging an insurgency against the U.N.-backed government and its African Union allies in a bid to topple the weak administration and impose its own strict interpretation of Islam.
The militants were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 and have been steadily losing territory since then to the combined forces of African Union peacekeepers and Somali security forces.
But al Shabaab retains the ability to mount large, complex bomb attacks. Over the past three years, the number of civilians killed by insurgent bombings has steadily climbed as al Shabaab increases the size of its bombs.
Via TeleSur
Related video added by Juan Cole:
Al Jazeera English: Somalia: Mogadishu rocked by twin bomb blasts, dozens killed
Highlights include:
Hole C17-65 1.01 grams per tonne gold and 0.30% copper over 242 metres
Hole C17-69 1.61 grams per tonne gold and 0.20% copper over 132 metres
Hole C17-70 1.87 grams per tonne gold and 0.54% copper over 138 metres
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 16, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lumina Gold Corp. (TSX-V:LUM) (the Company or Lumina) is pleased to announce additional drill results from the Cangrejos infill and depth extension program. A new, central higher-grade zone has now been defined by holes C17-58, 69 and 70. Results from hole C17-58 were previously released on June 26, 2017 and included a 126 metre zone (from 292 to 418 metres) averaging 3.69 grams per tonne gold and 0.30% copper. Holes C17-65, 69 and 70 were step out holes drilled in proximity to hole C17-58 and demonstrated continuity of a deep higher-grade zone. In addition, holes C17-65, 66 and 67 intersected mineralization starting at surface. In total the six holes (table below) represent 2,771 metres of drilling.
The 7,186 metres drilled since March 2017, along with prior drilling, will form the basis of the updated mineral resource estimate expected in Q4 2017. The updated mineral resource estimate will be used as the basis for a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) that is expected by Q2 2018. It is anticipated that the remainder of the drill program will be completed in the first half of 2018. In support of the PEA, a metallurgical testing program has been initiated by C.H. Plenge & CIA S.A. and a geotechnical characterization and stability review for PEA pit slope design has been initiated by Wyllie & Norrish Rock Engineers, Inc. In addition, Ausenco has completed a preliminary siting study for project plant site, tailings and waste rock storage facilities and access roads.
Summary Drill Results
Hole Number From
(m) To
(m) Interval
(m) Au Grade
(g/t) Cu Grade
(%) Azimuth
() Dip
() C17-65 10 252 242 1.01 0.30 330 -66 including 144 198 54 2.24 0.50 and 362 446 84 1.18 0.32 and 458 530 72 0.64 0.13 C17-66 8 296 288 0.57 0.17 330 -81 and 318 338 20 0.33 0.06 C17-67
and 0
64 20
357 20
293 0.21
0.54 0.13
0.19 330 -83 C17-68 4 50 46 0.19 0.11 150 -84 C17-69
and
including
and 98
292
308
474 138
424
382
606 40
132
74
132 0.51
1.61
2.33
0.45 0.05
0.20
0.27
0.09 150 -80 C17-70 92 568 476 0.95 0.32 330 -78 and 212 350 138 1.87 0.54
Note: 0.2 g/t Au nominal cut-off grade with a maximum 10 metres of continuous internal sub cut-off grade material carried in any of the stated intervals. Sample lengths, apart from the final sample in a hole, are 2 metres. In addition to the above results there were significant intercepts of lower-grade material in the drill holes.
Quality Assurance
All Lumina sample assay results have been independently monitored through a quality control / quality assurance ("QA/QC") program including the insertion of blind standards, blanks and pulp and reject duplicate samples. Logging and sampling are completed at Luminas secure facility located at the Cangrejos project. Drill core is sawn in half on site and half drill-core samples are securely transported to ALS Limiteds (ALS) sample preparation facility in Quito, Ecuador. Sample pulps are sent to Lima, Peru for analysis. Gold content is determined by fire assay of a 30 gram charge with total copper content determined by four-acid digestion with ICP finish. ALS is independent of Lumina.
Qualified Persons
Leo Hathaway, P.Geo, Senior Vice President of Lumina and the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for the Cangrejos project has reviewed, verified and approved the contents of this news release.
About Lumina Gold
Lumina Gold Corp. (TSX-V:LUM) is a Vancouver, Canada based precious and base metals exploration and development company focused on gold and copper projects in Ecuador. The Companys Cangrejos Gold-Copper project is located in El Oro Province, southwest Ecuador, and its Condor Gold-Copper project is located in Zamora-Chinchipe Province, southeast Ecuador. The Company also holds a large and highly prospective land package in Ecuador consisting of 135 thousand hectares. The Company has an experienced management team with a successful track record of advancing and monetizing exploration projects. The Company intends to continue to identify, acquire and advance mineral exploration properties that have large scale potential.
Philadelphia, 10/16/2017 /SubmitPressRelease123/
Philadelphia slip and fall attorney discusses premise liability and negligence when a slip and fall happens in a store or business. When a person has a slip and fall accident inside or outside a business or store, there may be a premise liability claim. The owner or the renter of the premise may be partially or completely at fault for the accident. However, the individual who was injured will have to prove that there was negligence involved and the he or she acted reasonably.
Who is Responsible for a Slip and Fall Accident the Premise Owner or Renter?
Its very common that the owner of a business is not the owner of the building where the business operates. Business owners often rent space for their company, so when a slip and fall accident occurs, its not always evident who is liable; sometimes its the business owner, sometimes its the building owner, and sometimes its both who are responsible.
If a person has a slip and fall accident because there is a defective floor, leaking pipe, or another structural issue, then the owner of the property is typically liable. But if a person has a slip and fall accident due to the actions (or inactions) of the business owner, or an employee of the business owner, then the business owner is usually liable.
When a slip and fall accident happens due to a structural issue and both the business owner and the property owner were both aware of the problem, but did nothing to fix it, then they can both be held liable for the accident.
What Must be Proven in a Slip and Fall Accident Case?
In order to prove a personal injury claim for a slip and fall accident, you have to show two things. First, you have to prove that the building owner and/or the business owner was negligent. A person can be negligent due to actions or inactions. Secondly, you have to prove that the negligence was what caused the slip and fall accident.
That means that not all slip and fall accidents involve negligence. The owners (property and business) cannot always foresee, warn, or prevent all hazards. Neither can you always anticipate or notice all hazards. However, the owners do have to reasonably anticipate hazards and take action to prevent injuries. If they dont, then they can be found liable.
Contact a Philadelphia Slip and Fall Attorney for Help
If you or a loved one has been injured in a slip and fall accident at a store or business, its important that you contact a slip and fall attorney to help you determine if you have a case.
Follow Attorney on Facebook for more information.
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The Telegraph reports:
An Oxford College has banned the Christian Union from its freshers fair on the grounds that it would be alienating for students of other religions, and constitute a micro-aggression. The organiser of Balliols fair argued Christianitys historic use as an excuse for homophobia and certain forms of neo-colonialism meant that students might feel unwelcome in their new college if the Christian Union had a stall. Freddy Potts, vice-president of Balliols Junior Common Room (JCR) committee, said that if a representative from the Christian Union (CU) attended the fair, it could cause potential harm to freshers.
Well Islam historically is also a colonising religion, so will they ban a Muslim group from their fair also? We all know the answer. The only acceptable religions to discriminate against are Christianity and Judaism.
Mr Potts, writing on behalf of the JCRs welfare committee, told the CU representative at Balliol, that their sole concern is that the presence of the CU alone may alienate incoming students. In email correspondence, seen by The Daily Telegraph, he went on: This sort of alienation or micro-aggression is regularly dismissed as not important enough to report, especially when there is little to no indication that other students or committee members may empathise, and inevitably leads to further harm of the already most vulnerable and marginalised groups.
I think anyone who refers to micro-aggression is themselves a micro-aggressor.
The move sparked a backlash among students, with others within the College criticising it as a violation of free speech.
T he JCR passed a motion on Sunday evening condemning the JCR committees for barring the participation of specific faith-based organizations.
The motion said the ban was a violation of free speech, a violation of religious freedom, and sets dangerous precedents regarding the relationship between specific faiths and religious freedom. Some hope for them, that the majority think this is nuts.
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By Andrei Lankov
Some 10 years ago I published a column which then led to some controversy. I stated that, contrary to the oft-repeated cliche, widely believed by Koreans themselves, the history of Korea prior to the mid-19th century was not a history of never-ending foreign invasions and ever-present external threat. To the contrary, if compared to other countries outside East Asia, until the mid-19th century Korea had an unusually peaceful and non-violent history. Indeed, in no European or Middle Eastern country of comparable size one can find centuries-long periods of completely unbroken peace.
If so, where does this perception of "eternal victimhood," nearly universal in Korea, come from? One of the sources seems to be a sour experience of the last 150 years when Korea indeed was an area where imperialist ambitions of collided empires. The traumatic period of 1860-1910, as well as following periods of colonial modernization and national division, produced a huge impact on the Korean psyche.
Who was fighting over Korea between 1860 and 1910? To start with, in the 1860s Korea was the only East Asian country which continued with the policy of self-isolation. The policy once was once common for entire region, but China was pressed into abandoning it by the British invasion of 1839-1840 and Japan gave in under U.S. threats in 1853-54. By 1860 it was clear that the forced opening of Korea by some imperialist power was merely a matter of time.
For a while, the French Empire looked best positioned to press Korea into openness (and then, perhaps, make it into a colony). Around that time it took over Indochina, and in 1866 staged a naval expedition to Korea, using bloody persecutions of the local Catholics as a morally sound excuse. France, however, soon dropped out of the competition, being undermined by a domestic crisis.
Korea was finally "opened" in 1876 by Japan. It was an unlikely candidate: Japan herself was just beginning to create modern economy and westernize itself. However, in those days being modern' also meant to be imperialistic, and Japanese strategists saw Korea as a natural springboard for their future expansion in Asia.
However, for the following two decades Japanese ambitions were checked by China. Korean was a Chinese vassal for centuries, but this did not mean much: dependency was largely symbolic. However, in the 1880s Chinese government was not satisfied by the symbolic dependency and tried to replace it with more conventional forms of control. In 1884 the Chinese troops were called by the local conservatives to suppress a reformist coup. They succeeded and since then for over a decade the Chinese (in the person of young Yuan Shi-kai, a future president of the Chinese Republic) were running the country. Chinese businesses enjoyed numerous privileges, and no important political decision could be made without prior consultation with Yuan Shi-kai.
However, 1894 a war between China and Japan erupted, provoked by the clash of their interests in Korea. The Japanese won a swift and spectacular victory. In Seoul they installed a pro-Japanese puppet regime which, however, introduced much needed reforms (including the abolition of slavery). The conservatives tried to resist and intrigue, but the Japanese suppressed them with great brutality. The conservative-minded Queen Min, King Gojong's consort, was killed by Japanese agents who stormed into the palace for this purpose.
The king, however, soon escaped to the Russian Legation, creating a unique situation: for a year he ran the country from a foreign mission, being protected by the international laws of extraterritoriality (well, the presence of Russian marines did not hurt either). Gojong had to return to the palace eventually, only to find Korea being torn by the rivalry of Russia and Japan. Their uneasy balance lasted until 1904.
The conservatives, having lost their faith in clearly powerless China, sided with Russia (Russia's autocracy looked quite attractive to them), while progressives, traditionally allied with Japan, began to worry about Tokyo's true intentions, so some of them began to drift towards Washington. However, on that stage the US involvement remained marginal.
The Russo-Japanese rivalry led to a military clash. The Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05 was fought largely in China and Korea, and ended, to almost everybody's surprise, by Japan's spectacular victory, the first victory of an Asian state in a modern war against a European government. Japan's triumph was widely applauded across Asia, but not in Korea: the Russian presence helped keep Japan in check. After Russia's withdrawal, Japan proceeded to the full annexation of Korea which took place in 1910. The independent Korea state ceased to exist, not to be reborn until 1948 _ only to found itself once again in the middle of great powers competition.
So does it comes as no surprise that Koreans see the outside world as a dangerous place?
Andrei Lankov (anlankov@yahoo.com) was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul.
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.
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In a rare case, a woman contracted a potentially deadly bacterial infection while on a 12-hour flight from Japan to Germany, according to a new report.
Called meningococcal disease, this bacterial infection is generally transmitted only through close contact, for example, by kissing or living in close quarters with someone who is sick, according to the World Health Organization. The new report is only the third case ever reported of this disease being transmitted on an airplane, said Yushi Hachisu, of the Chiba Prefectural Institute of Public Health in Chiba, Japan, who helped investigate the case.
Hachisu presented the case on Oct. 5 at IDWeek, an infectious disease conference in San Diego.
Meningococcal disease is caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis. About 10 percent of the population carries this bacteria in their nose and throat without showing any symptoms of disease. But the bacteria can cause serious illness if it gets into the blood or the brain. In the brain, the bacteria can cause meningitis a swelling of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord; in the blood, it can cause and infection called septicemia.
The woman and her husband, both in their 50s, were traveling from Japan to Germany on Aug. 8, 2015, according to the report. They happened to be on the same flight as a team of Scottish and Swedish scouts who were returning from the World Scout Jamboree, an international gathering of scouts ages 14 to 17. Six of the scouts later developed meningococcal disease in an outbreak that was linked to attendance at the jamboree. [27 Devastating Infectious Diseases]
The married couple did not sit directly next to the scouts, but sat in a row behind and across the aisle from the Scottish scouts. They noticed that one of the scouts seated in front of them was coughing throughout the flight, the report said.
Once they arrived in Germany, the couple hopped on another flight to Spain, where they went sightseeing. But a few days later, on Aug. 11, the woman felt tired and developed pain in her throat and a cough. Her husband also developed pain in his throat and a mild fever.
They felt sick for the rest of their trip, but felt somewhat better upon their return to Japan on Aug. 16, the report said. However, on Sept. 19, the woman developed a sudden high fever and chills, as well as pain in her joints. She visited four health care facilities and underwent tests before she was finally hospitalized on Sept. 25.
The fluid in her joints tested positive for N. meningitidis bacteria, which means she had a blood infection with N. meningitidis that spread to her joints. Samples taken from the husband's nose and throat also tested positive for N. meningitidis, although he did not develop further symptoms. Both the woman and her husband were infected with the same strain of N. meningitidis that caused the outbreak in the scouts, the report said. The woman was treated with antibiotics and recovered.
Meningococcal disease is rare in Japan, with only about three cases per 10 million people, the researchers said.
The new report "strongly suggests that N. meningitidis was transmitted from the Scottish scouts to the Japanese couple during their international flight," the researchers wrote in their report.
Still, the overall risk of transmitting meningococcal disease on an airplane is low, Hachisu said. But it can happen in 2005, officials in Australia reported cases of two people who got sick with N. meningitidis after traveling on a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney. Officials determined it was likely that one of the infected passengers spread the bacteria to the other passenger, or both of the infected individuals got the bacteria from another person on the flight who wasn't showing symptoms.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that passengers who sit next to someone with N. meningitidis on a flight that is more than 8 hours long receive preventive antibiotics. A longer flight increases the chance of transmission, Hachisu said.
Original article on Live Science.
See more
A woman in Canada developed a life-threatening infection shortly after giving birth that resulted in amputations of all four of her limbs.
The 33-year-old woman, Lindsey Hubley, was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, also known as "flesh-eating bacteria," just days after she gave birth at a hospital in Nova Scotia, according to the Canadian Press. She has spent the last seven months in the hospital, and required multiple surgeries, including amputations of her arms and legs, and a hysterectomy.
Necrotizing fasciitis is a serious bacterial infection that destroys skin and muscle tissue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Several types of bacteria can cause necrotizing fasciitis, including group A Streptococcus (group A strep), Klebsiella, Clostridium, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Most commnly, people get necrotizing fasciitis when the bacteria enter the body through a break in the skin, the CDC said. The bacteria can spread quickly once they enter the body, and symptoms of necrotizing fasciitis can start within hours of an injury. The skin may become red or purplish from the infection, and some people get ulcers, blisters or black spots on their skin, the CDC said.
The condition is treated with antibiotics, but many people also need immediate surgery to remove dead tissue and help stop the infection, the CDC said.
Being pregnant is known to increase a woman's risk of developing certain infections, in part due to changes in hormone levels and immune system function. But developing necrotizing fasciitis during or after pregnancy is still relatively rare. A 2014 review of more than 4 million pregnancy-related hospitalizations in Texas estimated that there are about four cases of pregnancy-related necrotizing fasciitis per 100,000 pregnancies per year in the United States. More than 80 percent of these necrotizing fasciitis cases occurred after birth (in the postpartum period), and more than 60 percent required treatment in the intensive care unit, the review said.
Hubley is now suing her hospital and several doctors involved in her care for alleged negligence, the Canadian Press said. The lawsuit alleges that, a few days after giving birth, Hubley went back to the hospital because she was experiencing stomach pains, but doctors thought the pain was due to constipation, and they sent her home.
"Our allegations are that had she been properly assessed when she presented at the hospital ... a substantial part of the damage, if not all of it, could have been prevented," Wagner, Hubley's lawyer, told the Canadian Press.
It's not clear how Hubley contracted the bacterial infection, but according to the lawsuit, she had a tear on her vagina after childbirth that required sutures, which could have contributed to the infection, the Canadian Press reported.
Hubley's famliy has created a GoFundMe page to raise money to help pay her medical expenses.
Original article on Live Science.
Honesty lacking
I dislike it intensely when people present opinion as fact. Councillor Greg Sayers, in his column last week, firstly presented one persons opinion, in what was essentially a gossip column, as some sort of review of his performance as a councillor. He then followed this up with his so-called facts about how Rodneys rates are spent, and quoted the source as himself Independently commissioned by Cr Sayers. This makes it neither independent nor true. There may be some validity to his argument, but what Cr Sayers is actually doing is completely over-simplifying and misrepresenting how Council funds activities that benefit all of Auckland, in order to play the populist to those in the community who want to feel aggrieved by how rates are spent. I would say to Cr Sayers that he be more honest and far more robust in his methods if he wants to be taken seriously.
Luke Williamson, Snells Beach
Skewed report
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff was asked how he would respond to NZ Firsts undertaking to hold a binding referendum for the residents of North Rodney to determine whether or not they want to separate from Auckland City. As he has done in the past, Mr Goff quoted the recent highly flawed Morrison Low report that suggests a 48 per cent rate rise for North Rodney residents should they vote to separate. In his statement, Mr Goff inferred that Auckland Council had commissioned this report when in fact it was commissioned by the Local Government Commission. Nevertheless, when the report is read, it is clear that Auckland Council played a large part in skewing the facts and making sure that the Northern Action Groups proposal to set up a Council based on the highly successful Thames Coromandel model was completely ignored. The Northern Action Group (NAG) have now commissioned APR Consultants Ltd to produce a proper report, based on the actual NAG proposal. This report will be made public prior to the running of the binding referendum that NZ First will be pushing for in the coalition negotiations.
John and Barbara Maltby, Committee members NAG
Council, listen up
On Monday, I heard a gentleman on National Radio, from the New Zealand Notable Trees Trust talking about their official records of important trees. He stated that the Snells Beach Norfolk pine has been added to their list and is at number 7. This seems to prove that this tree is considered important by this organisation as well as we local people. Is it not about time that Council officials took some note of us local people?
Jennifer Ferguson, Warkworth.
Loos blues
I am really disappointed that Auckland Council thinks so little of Warkworth that after some considerable time and expense, they have done such a shoddy job on our town toilets. OK, the walls are now a pretty colour and the partitions dont have any screw holes, but the floor is a mess. The basin/ mirror fittings might look fine if they were kept polished, but the loo seats look as if they have come to us as surplus supply from the prison department of a primitive country. They may be easy to wash with a quick hose down, but are not comfortable. We have heaps of tourists coming north from Auckland wanting to stay a while and use our facilities. They will not be impressed.
Sue Stevenson, Warkworth
Rodney Local Board chair Beth Houlbrooke responds:
The choice of toilet pan was necessary to address repeated vandalism of the previous porcelain and plastic toilets, which on some occasions were completely smashed by vandals, closing the toilets or cubicles for weeks at a time. I have raised a complaint over the floor surface covering, which has not been sealed to a standard that successfully repels dirt. The current surface seems to attract and trap dirt. Hopefully, we will see this rectified shortly. We are also responding to complaints about the new hand driers being very noisy and this noise transferring through the wall into the i-Site. The driers are going to be relocated onto internal walls.
It was not long after Puhois centenary in 1963 that a real enthusiasm to preserve Puhois unique history started to grow among Puhoi villagers. In 1976 a public meeting nominated a committee to form a properly constituted historical society. Judith Williams became the first president with a committee comprised of descendants of the original Bohemian settlers and newer residents.
Negotiations with Rodney District Council ensured that the Council understood that the historic nature of Puhoi needed to be preserved, resulting in a Historic Village zoning. The Puhoi Historical Society set about collecting and preserving items of historic interest, identifying historic buildings and sites and promoting research into all things Puhoi. Judith collected the songs that had been sung in the Bohemian dialect.
Funds for a museum were raised from the beginning. Doug and Jessie Titford ran a monthly market and contributed several thousand dollars to the development fund. By 1986 plans had been drawn up and a site chosen. Following the election of an almost entirely new committee to the historical society, plans for the first site were abandoned in preference for the Puhoi Convent School. Puhois 125th anniversary was the catalyst for opening a display in one of its rooms. The committee was also responsible for erecting the Landing Stone on the site of the first settlers landfall. The Bohemian Dance Group was established, preserving the dances brought by the first settlers. Historic sites were marked with plaques.
By the 1990s, a considerable number of photos and documents had been collected.
Genealogical records of the 50 settler families of Puhoi had been compiled and recordings made of peoples memories. Meanwhile, interesting artefacts continued to be collected. It became obvious that records needed to be catalogued and carefully preserved. After obtaining a formal lease agreement for the school, a Records Room was sited nearby. The museum was restyled to concentrate on the unique Bohemian history.
Fundraising and investigating sites for a museum continues. We have come to realise that the Bohemian story is just one of the taproots that feed the Puhoi history tree. Our early history intertwines with Maoritanga, Dutch, British, Irish and French histories. Today the village is influenced by the cultures of people from around the world who call Puhoi home.
In 2017, to encourage inclusivity of the many leaves that form part of our tree, the Puhoi Historical Society decided to change its name to Puhoi Heritage Museum Incorporated with the tag line, Where Bohemia meets Aotearoa. Through its name change, the society better reflects its commitment to all aspects of our past.
Jenny Schollum, Puhoi Historical Society
www.puhoihistoricalsociety.org.nz
New Zealanders mostly work in businesses with less than 20 employees. Surprisingly, there are only 5100 or so companies with more than 50 employees. While there are many different forms of entities, including self-employed, companies, trusts and partnerships, the same business laws apply to all.
Many businesses would be aware of the Sale of Goods Act that has been with us since 1908, and many would be aware of other consumer-focused statutes that were enacted from the late 1960s to meet the changing face of business. These were designed to codify the common law in relation to the many common issues business and consumers faced in their dealings with each other.
These are:
Mercantile Law Act 1908
Sale of Goods Act 1908
Frustrated Contracts Act 1944
Minors Contracts Act 1969
Illegal Contracts Act 1970
Contractual Mistakes Act 1977
Contractual Remedies Act 1979
Carriage of Goods Act 1979
Contracts (Privity) Act 1982
Sale of Goods (United Nations Convention) Act 1994
Electronic Transactions Act 2002
The result of all these Acts is that while there is plenty of law dealing with commerce and consumers, there are many inconsistencies, anomalies and redundancies. Much of the language needed to be modernised so that it could be properly understood in the 21st Century.
The upshot is that a new statute, the Contract and Commercial Law Act, came into force in September. This modernises and consolidates all the above Acts into one. This will make the law more accessible to business owners. The minor changes that have been made are intended by Parliament to clarify the intention of the law and to reconcile inconsistencies between various existing laws.
We recommend that all businesses have their contracts and standard terms and conditions reviewed so that updated versions can be prepared in light of the new Act. It would also be a good opportunity to double check that in all standard contracts and agreements any cross references to applicable law are made current.
If you are unsure check with your lawyer.
It is comforting to see that this new Act has been designed to streamline and modernise the law for business owners and remove the anomalies in the myriad of old statutes the legal profession has been grappling with.
John Waugh, Devonport Law, Matakana
www.devonportlaw.nz
We farm with love, compassion and a deep sense of awareness and respect for the environment. This is the message I preach to every carbon monoxide producing, milk guzzling, vegetable munching, meat eating, farmer bashing hater, evidenced at this election campaign. Never before have farmers felt like all gun barrels were firmly pointed at us.
Now I completely respect that the environment sits at the forefront of most peoples minds. The likes of me are surrounded by it. We live it. We breath it. Thats why we get it. But the vile hatred spewed out to us over the last few months has left a gaping hole in my heart. Social media brought the very worst out of every perfect environmentalist human being.
Thousands upon thousands of comments on every political partys environmental policy blamed farmers for hurling chemical drums into waterways; fencing waterways to keep stock in them, not out of them; and planting trees only to cut them down. Meanwhile, farmers gleefully stuffed hundred dollar bills in their back pockets.
One punter that sticks in my mind referred to farmers as disgusting excuses for human beings, another the greediest people on the planet. No doubt these people were writing these comments sitting on cheap teak chairs milled from rainforests in Java, burning the midnight oil, while drinking unethically produced coffee from South America.
But wait, this hatred is not only confined to the hidden realms of social media anymore. On a night out at a bar in Ponsonby recently, two complete strangers asked my husband and I what we did for a living. When we replied that we were farmers, they retorted, Youre the people that are ruining the environment, and they grabbed their drinks and moved away. I presumed they thought we had an infectious disease.
I just dont know why we farmers are so greedy and stupid? Why on earth are we not planting those money trees? Then we could all sit back and gaze lovingly over the landscape sipping Moet Chandon. Oh hang on, that wouldnt work. Grapes come from horticulturists. They are intensive too, and they use free water for their own greedy purposes.
The fact is every single one of us has a hand to play in this world, and it doesnt release any of us from our contribution to environmental degradation by sticking the boot into one sector. I appreciate that these haters do not speak for all Kiwis, but the ones that do speak are loud and mean. So I say enough of you haters out there. If you are a consumer of anything in this world then I invite you to come talk to us. Take the journey toward a greater more sustainable planet; with us and not against us.
Julie Cotton
Community leaders meet with Dr Levy. From left, Chris Murphy (Director Rodney Surgical Centre), Mark Mitchell (MP for Rodney), Mike Francis (Fix Hill St Now) Allison Roe (Rodney Local Board), Dr Lester Levy, Dr Simon Barclay (Chair Matakana Community Group), Glyn Williams (Chair Warkworth Civil Defence Group), Marianne Davidson-Beker (Manager Rodney Surgical Centre) and Cr Greg Sayers.
Chair of both the Waitemata District Health Board (WDHB) and Auckland Transport (AT) Dr Lester Levy faced a battery of tough questions from Mahurangi community leaders this month as services struggle to cope with burgeoning demand.
Media was excluded from the meeting, which was held at Lawlink House in Warkworth, but a circulated discussion document indicated the concerns put to Dr Levy.
On health, these included: inadequate access to GPs and 24-hour care, lack of hospice beds, observation beds, mental health, drug and alcohol services, inadequate transport for sick patients, and poor use of the Rodney Surgical Centre (RSC).
It was put to Dr Levy that the RSC has the capacity to provide cheaper and more convenient services locally, but the District Health Board is unwilling to fund these services.
On transport, Dr Levy was told that in the light of rapid population growth, urgent action was required by AT to plan future road infrastructure and avoid haphazard road network development.
Regarding the notorious Hill Street intersection, meeting participants noted that because of exponential population growth, traffic movements per day through the intersection will exceed current levels even after the Puhoi to Warkworth State Highway extension and Matakana link roads are completed.
Speaking after the meeting, Dr Levy said there was an enormous amount of work to do, but he had resolved to act on the points raised.
This would include improving processes, speeding up processes or getting better integration around some issues such as ensuring better coordination between Auckland Council, AT and the New Zealand Transport Agency.
Ive heard the concerns; Ive seen the problems; and Im going to do what I can to try and help with those things, he said.
On the RSC, Dr Levy said the WDHB was contracting out health services to private providers but it was a competitive process to get the best deal for the taxpayer.
Other private hospitals have won those deals, maybe they [the Rodney Surgical Centre] have not been competitive enough, he said.
Nevertheless, he said population growth meant there would inevitably be a need to boost health services in Mahurangi.
The plan is not done and dusted but basically we are going to need two more hospitals in the northern region in time.
Dr Levy said one of these was quite likely to be in the Warkworth/Hibiscus Coast area. This would not be a hospital just for locals but would serve the entire northern region.
Dr Levy said he was especially moved by one meeting participant who related the experience of his late daughter who was in a wheelchair and desperately sick with cancer. She needed to travel to
Auckland Hospital up to three times a week for treatments. The best the WDHB could do to help with transport was ask her to board a health board bus at 6.30am in Warkworth to travel to Auckland for the treatments. The bus service would not get her home until 6pm, even though the treatment lasted only 40 minutes.
Dr Levy has asked the meeting participant to share his story with the entire Waitemata District Health Board.
He said the bus service had not been on his agenda before the meeting but it was now.
After the meeting, surgical centre director Chris Murphy said the centre could alleviate the burden of patient travel if only the District Health Board would fund treatments through the RSC.
He disagreed with Dr Levy that the centre was uncompetitive.
We believe we can be cost neutral for the WDHB in an operational sense and save them millions on capital expenditure. Yet we do not seem to be able to persuade the right people at the WDHB to engage, he said.
Meanwhile, Fix Hill Street Now founding member Mike Francis said he felt the meeting with Dr Levy had gone really well.
He said Dr Levy appeared to take on board community concerns and expressed a desire to consult more with the community.
I think Auckland Transport has got a really good opportunity to do some really positive work here and show what they can do with an engaged and active community, he said.
Organiser of The Big CleanUp on Orewa Beach, Brittany Owens, says she was really happy with the turnout of between 5565 people who combed the beach for rubbish on November 4. Together, they gathered around 200kg of material in just one hour.
She says people of all ages, including many families with young children, took part in the clean up. It was awesome seeing children learning about the huge impact we have on the environment and small actions and habits they can adopt to reduce their own waste, Brittany says.
She says while the Orewa Beach shoreline was in pretty good shape, a fair bit of rubbish was found in the retaining rocks between the grass area and beach.
The most common item found was cigarette butt filters. These are made of synthetic plastics, meaning that they are not biodegradeable, and extremely harmful to our marine and bird life, she says.
A sausage sizzle followed the clean up. We all got a chance to chit chat, catch up with familiar faces, and fill our bellies with sausages donated by Design Insurance in association with North Harbour Rotary Club. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and walked away feeling good about what they had done. The Big CleanUp wouldnt be big without its helpers.
Brittany says she would like to dedicate this cleanup to the generous donor, an Orewa local who wishes to remain anonymous, who gave her $500 towards her cleanup work after reading about her initiative in the last issue of Hibiscus Matters.
The next cleanup will be on December 2, at a location yet to be decided. Follow The Big CleanUp Facebook page for more information and details.
On the afternoon of 9 October a small celebration was held in the Hibiscus Coast Community RSA sponsored by the Silverdale Branch of the Kings Empire Veterans(KEV). The occasion was in recognition of the 100th birthday of long standing KEV member John Wills.
In welcoming John, and members of his family who were supporting him, Branch KEV President Frank Townley paid tribute to Johns World War 2 service as a gunner with the 7th New Zealand Anti-Tank Regiment. John saw service in Fiji, with the 8th Army in North Africa and in Italy. Frank also commented on the fact that the Silverdale branch of the KEV has now had 3 members with 100 year birthdays.
1 RAF, 1 Navy and now John who served in the Army. As is fitting on these occasions we recite the ODE a verse in memory of fallen comrades. President Frank said it was right and fitting on the week of the 100 year commemoration of Passchendaele that we remember those Kiwis that fell and never returned from Passchendaele where 846 men were killed in one day.
Thanks to the efforts of Chandra Newman the RSAs Support Officer(Welfare) we were able to present John with letters of congratulations from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Bill English, Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy and MPs Maggy Barry Minister of Senior Citizens and Peter Dunne Minister of Internal Affairs. The National President of the KEV Ross Wardlaw traveled up from Te Awamutu for this celebration and presented John with a life membership award and accompanying lapel badge.
John who is in good shape apart from my knees so he tells us, had the final say in thanking all who had a part in making the day so memorable for him. As always there has to be someone who organises these special days and our thanks go to Mark Harris our Secretary /Treasurer along with the Womens section of the RSA who supplied the beautiful afternoon tea. A birthday cake with the KEV emblem on rounded of the celebration.
Sex Offender Arrested for Failure to Report Change of Residence, SCPD Reports
Local News, Crime
By Long Island News & PR Published: October 16 2017
Adrian Thomas, 53, a level 2 sex offender, filed to report a change of address within 10 business days, officials say.
SCPD have arrested Adrian Thomas, 53, a sex offender for failing to report a change of residence as required by NYS.
Mastic, NY - October 16, 2017 - Suffolk County Police have arrested a sex offender for failing to report a change of residence as required by the New York State Sex Offender Registration Act.
As part of a routine investigation, detectives from the Special Victims Section discovered that Adrian Thomas, who had registered his address as homeless with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, was actually living in a home he owned, located in Mastic
Thomas, 53, a level 2 sex offender, was arrested and charged with Failure to Report Change of Residence, an E felony. Under New York State Corrections Law, a level 2 sex offender is required to report a change of address within 10 business days.
Thomas was arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on October 12.
Pets & Animal, Local News, Crime
By Long Island News & PR Published: October 16 2017
Barbara Sanelliof Middle Island, 60, is accused of failing to provide proper medical care to rescue dogs that were in her care.
Middle Island, NY - October 16, 2017 - Detectives have charged the President of Friends of Freddie Animal Rescue with Animal Cruelty on October 15, 2017. Suffolk County SPCA Detectives have charged the President of Friends of Freddie Animal Rescue with Animal Cruelty on October 15, 2017.
Barbara Sanelli, 60, of Middle Island, NY was charged with multiple counts of animal neglect for failing to provide proper medical care to rescue dogs that were in her care as President of Friends of Freddie Pet Rescue in Middle Island
Sanelli is due in First District Court on December 14th, 2017.
Chief Gross said that animal cruelty will not be tolerated in Suffolk County. If you witness any incident of animal cruelty or neglect in Suffolk County please contact the Suffolk County SPCA at (631) 382-7722. All calls will be kept confidential.
The Suffolk County SPCA, established in 1984, is a private, nonprofit, charitable organization and the voice for animals in Suffolk County. We are not affiliated with, a subdivision of, or funded by any other local, state or national humane organization We do not receive taxpayer or public funding. Please help us to provide a better life for pets and other animals in Suffolk County.
Alan Woods speaking tour of Latin America came to an end with a successful meeting in Rio de Janeiro on October 10. On a Monday evening more than 100 people gathered in the Hall of the Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), in the Centre of Rio de Janeiro, to celebrate the centenary of the Russian Revolution and to study and discuss its relevance with the launch of Leon Trotskys book "Stalin".
The meeting saw the participation of young activists and left militants of Rio de Janeiro from different political tendencies who were interested in the subject. Activists from the interior of the state of Rio de Janeiro travelled to the capital Rio to take part in the event. Young comrades of the Esquerda Marxista (the Marxist Left, the Brazilian section of the IMT) came from Sao Paulo to help in the logistics of the book sales. Present in the meeting were also the Coletivo Juntos [the youth of the MES, a tendency within the PSOL] and the Pre-vestibular Emancipa network of Peoples High Schools. The event was also broadcast live on Facebook.
Panel / www.marxist.com
After a brief introduction by Pedro Fuentes (MES leader), Comrade Danilo Serafim, a leader of SEPE (Rio State Teachers' Union) and member of the Marxist Collective Paulo Romao, spoke about Trotsky's entire life struggle as "the prophet who predicted and armed the October Revolution" at decisive moments in the 1920s. He commented on the importance of the book as absolutely necessary if one wants to know the real historical truth that the bourgeoisie insists so much on falsifying, as we saw in a recent article in O Globo yet again slandering Trotsky.
Luciana Genro (MES leader) presented the Russian Revolution as the event that opened a whole historical period of workers' revolutions and congratulated the International Marxist Tendency for this initiative and particularly comrade Alan Woods for launching this important book as an example of the kind of initiative that revolutionaries must take up worldwide.
Then Luiz Bicalho spoke on behalf of the Esquerda Marxista and Editora Marxista. Comrade Bicalho explained the importance of studying economics, politics, philosophy and science, as the great revolutionaries of the past did, such as Lenin who helped an entire generation to become communist and Marxist and build a party to take power. He emphasized the importance of working among the youth so that they could learn how to intervene, to lead but also to learn from the workers. This was a merit of the party of Lenin that carried out great work in the universities while at the same time connecting it to the work in the factories.
Bicalho questioned other events being held in this period to commemorate the Russian Revolution, but which reproduce many myths such as that the Stalinist bureaucratic degeneration of the USSR was the fruit of Stalin's personality rather than a historical process in which Stalinism represented the counterrevolution which destroyed the party and the Third International. He then presented Alan Woods, a leader of the International Marxist Tendency who, together with Rob Sewell, worked in retrieving the original manuscripts and preparing the book, correcting and adding to earlier versions distorted by the publisher Malamuth.
Alan Woods began by saying that it was a great pleasure to be at the launch of the Portuguese translation of this great work. He explained how the book was recovered from boxes that were buried in dusty archives at Harvard University. He summarized the book, explaining that Stalin was a perverse, vindictive individual, but that these personal characteristics cannot explain how he came to power, nor do they explain the causes of the bureaucratic degeneration of the Russian Revolution.
Meeting room / www.marxist.com
Alan explained that the triumph of the bureaucratic counterrevolution can only be understood if one takes into account the isolation of the Russian revolution in a very backward country. This degeneration would have taken place with or without Stalin. However, the particularly violent, sadistic and bloody character of the Stalinist regime does indeed reflect the particular characteristics of Stalin's personality.
Alan Woods presented the Russian Revolution as the most significant episode in the history of humanity, the most popular and democratic revolution ever to have taken place. That explains why it receives so many attacks from the bourgeoisie to this day.
"This book is the last word of the man who, together with Lenin, led the October Revolution and firmly defended the ideas of Marxism with all the consequences that this entailed, right up to August 1940 when Stalin succeeded in silencing him with a cowardly and brutal blow to his brain." The most moving and most applauded moment of Alan's speech was when he explained that Stalin never understood that although it is easy to kill human beings, "you cannot kill an idea whose time has come This book is a weapon in the hands of today's fighters. Seventy years after Stalin thought he had destroyed the opposition, here we are." (Much applause).
At the end of the meeting some questions were asked and, very much enthused by the discussion, the participants continued to debate among themselves while forming a queue to get Alan Woods to sign their copies of the book. Dozens of books were sold and many people paid in advance for the second volume that will be released later this year.
Esaote, the Italian ultrasound manufacturer, has just unveiled its brand new high-end MyLab9 ultrasound system. The device is designed for all sorts of diagnostic imaging procedures and clinical environments. The MyLab9 features non-composite single crystal probe technology and Ultra-engine platform that together generate high quality images in a variety of cases from OB/GYN to cardio to lesion detection.
The new system includes something called easyMode, a software feature that automatically optimizes scans with minimal input from the user via a small built-in touch screen. Esaotes i-motion technology helps to produce quality images at high frame rates when imaging moving objects. To best match the main monitors brightness to the illumination of the room in which an exam is taking place, a sensor is used to make automatic adjustments.
As far as the insides, the MyLab9 relies on a Windows 10 computer sporting an Intel Core i7 processor and a solid state hard drive.
Today economic constraints, and the increase in average life expectancy, are opposing forces, said Esaotes Massimo Rosa, Chief Global Marketing Officer. The MyLab9 eXP provides advanced diagnostic capabilities and clinical efficacy to respond effectively to the most demanding healthcare needs expanding the access to innovative technologies for more customers.
Heres an example image of a fetus taken with the MyLab9:
Product page: MyLab9P
More from Esaote
by Tanya Gazdik , October 16, 2017
Venmo is hoping its company name is becoming so well-known that it could be used as a verb.
That is the premise of a campaign created by Zambezi breaking today in regional markets including Nashville, Atlanta, Chicago and Miami.
The campaign reveres how Venmo fosters a sense of connectedness with fun creative, says Kasia Leyden, Venmo marketing director.
The campaign, dubbed _______ me, celebrates Venmos status as a lifestyle brand and its unique place in the cultural zeitgeist, Leyden says.
Inspired by our users and the crazy stories that play out in the Venmo feed, we want to reflect exactly how users engage with and speak about Venmo today in an unfiltered, irreverent way that reflects everyday Venmo moments big and small, Leyden says.
The brand hopes to remove the awkwardness of IOUs between friends by celebrating experiences and connections, she adds. Venmo makes it easy and convenient to send and receive money, she says.
advertisement advertisement
From splitting Sunday brunch to paying rent to sharing an epic night out, Venmo has found its way into the lives and conversations of millions largely through word of mouth, she says. This campaign embraces that grassroots movement with real world and digital activations that play up Venmos role in todays lexicon and bring people together around shared experiences.
The campaign will use digital properties and apps like Instagram, Spotify, Tinder and Facebook. Later this month, Venmo will head to Dallas, Chicago, Nashville, Miami and Atlanta, as well as college towns across the country, with experiential activations and tongue-in-cheek, out-of-home creative.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, October 16, 2017
Privacy advocates are calling for a recall of the Google Home Mini due to a design flaw that allows the gadget to secretly record and transmit conversations.
"There is no simple solution that will restore the correct functionality of the device," the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Public Citizen and other advocacy groups say in a letter to Ann Marie Buerkle, chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. "This is a classic manufacturing defect that places consumers at risk."
The letter comes several days after Android Police Editor Artem Russakovskii reported that the Google Home Mini was recording his conversations without his knowledge and transmitting them to Google. The glitch apparently was caused by a flaw in the touch-sensitive panel on top of the device -- originally aimed at allowing users to activate the gadget without first giving a voice command.
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Google responded by saying it will permanently disable the functionality of that touch panel. But the advocacy groups say that fix is not adequate. "It is important to underscore that the failure of the Google device stems from the design of the 'touchpad,'" they write. "There is no simple solution that will restore the correct functionality of the device."
The groups add that privacy risks stemming from connected devices are increasing. "Experts in cybersecurity have warned that the United States now confronts the 'Internet of Broken Things,'" they write. "Poor insulation on the power cord of a toaster may lead to a fire in a particular home. But the exploitation of a vulnerability in a network of thermostats or door locks could be staggering."
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, October 16, 2017
Consumers in Europe are more likely to block ads, but the United States isn't far behind. About 26% of U.S. consumers use some sort of ad-blocking software, according to data released Monday. And soon, Google will give consumers another way to block ads, through its Chrome browser scheduled to launch in 2018.
The OnAudience.com study reveals the use of ad blockers continues to rise in the U.S., with 26% of consumers now using them, up from 22% in 2016. OnAudience.com estimates a loss of more than $15.8 billion in publisher revenue, up from nearly $11 billion last year. The U.S. contributes just under $45 billion to the $100 billion global display market.
Internationally, the loss of publisher revenue from ad blocking rose to $42 billion -- up from $28 billion in 2016. At the time, the worldwide display market was valued at $84 billion.
eMarketer in March 2017 reported a slightly lower number -- with about 28% of U.S. consumer-blocking ads on desktop and laptop, and 11.8% do so on a smartphone.
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The results from the U.S. reflect a broad increase globally in ad blocking, although consumers in Europe are most likely to block ads, with 32% of internet users in the region using ad-blocker plugins.
Poland has the highest rates at 46%, followed by Greece at 44%, Norway at 42%, Germany at 41%, and Denmark at 40%. The UK, the Netherlands, and Ireland all rank at 39%.
Internet users in Japan are equally as likely as consumers in the U.S. to block ads, at 26%, but the lowest rates were found in Latin America. Paraguay recorded the least ad-blocked page views at 5%, while Peru and Venezuela scored the second- and third-lowest ad-blocking rates globally at 13% and 10%, respectively.
Maciej Sawa, chief commercial officer at OnAudience.com, does not believe enough is being done to resolve the issue for the industry.
The report also analyzes the impact of ad-blocking on the e-commerce industry, revealing that more than $600 billion -- in a market worth $2 billion -- is generated globally by users with ad blockers installed.
by Sara Guaglione , October 16, 2017
The Washington D.C. alt-weekly newspaper, Washington City Paper, is for sale.
Chris Ferrell, the CEO of parent company SouthComm Inc., told the Washingtonian, which first reported the news, that he is looking to find a buyer by the end of the year.
SouthComm Inc. wants to focus more on business-to-business outlets, which are frankly a better business, he added.
Weve been slowly selling a number of our alt weeklies, Ferrell told Washingtonian.
According to SouthComms website, it owns more than 30 business-to-business publications, as well as regional outlets like Nashville Scene, Kansas City's The Pitch and Cincinnati's CityBeat.
The Washington City Paper was founded over 35 years ago by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch, the same founders of the Baltimore City Paper. After owners like Creative Loafing and Atalaya, it was bought by Nashville-based SouthComm Inc in 2012.
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WCP boasts big names, such as Katherine Boo, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Amanda Hess, as contributors, and it has been edited by Michael Shaffer, Erik Wemple and the late David Carr.
Alt-weeklies have had a tough year in the face of declining print advertising revenue. The Village Voice, one of the most iconic alternative publications, ended its print product in September. Weeklies in other cities, such as Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, have shuttered.
announced this summer it would close if it did not find new owners. Ea rly this year, Voice Media Group put LA Weeklyup for sale.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, October 16, 2017
In a blow to smart TV manufacturer Vizio, a federal judge has refused to authorize an immediate appeal of a decision that allowed consumers to proceed with a video privacy lawsuit.
U.S. District Court Judge Josephine Staton in Santa Ana, California also rejected the Data and Marketing Association's request to weigh in on the matter. Staton's ruling, issued Friday, means that consumers can continue to gather evidence in the case, but does not indicate that they will ultimately prevail.
The battle between the consumers and Vizio centers on allegations that the company tracks TV viewers by default, and then shares data about their viewing histories with companies that send targeted ads to people's phones, tablets and other devices. The litigation began in late 2015, less than one week after ProPublica published a report about the company.
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The consumers allege in a class-action complaint that Vizio violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1988 law that prohibits video providers from disclosing "personally identifiable information" about people's video-viewing history without their consent.
Earlier this year, Staton rejected Vizio's argument that the video privacy law doesn't cover electronics manufacturers. The company said it's comparable to "a building that leases space to several video rental stores," but is not itself a video rental store.
Staton ruled Congress intended for the video privacy law to apply to companies that are "in the business of delivering video content."
Staton also rejected Vizio's argument that the case should be dismissed at an early stage because the information it allegedly disclosed -- including IP addresses, media access control (MAC) addresses, ZIP codes, computer names, and product serial numbers -- was't personally identifiable.
Her ruling specifically referenced Vizio's marketing materials, which allegedly boasted about its ability to offer specific viewing behavior data. "Plaintiffs have thus plausibly alleged that Vizios provision of -- to quote its own prospectus -- 'highly specific viewing behavior data on a massive scale with great accuracy' amounts to the disclosure of personally identifiable information," she wrote.
Vizio sought to immediately appeal Staton's refusal to dismiss the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The Data and Marketing Association attempted to file a friend-of-the-court brief siding with Vizio. That organization argued that the lawsuit's result "will have a direct impact on DMA and its members." Staton rejected the trade group's request for several reasons, including that it reiterates Vizio's views.
Staton also ruled that Vizio had not shown grounds for an immediate appeal. "The court appreciates that this motion is motived at least in part by an attempt to resolve questions reaching beyond the facts at issue in this multidistrict litigation for the benefit of the Smart TV industry," she wrote. But, she added, the law does not allow for immediate appeals of trial judge's orders "merely because they pose interesting questions."
She also noted that her earlier ruling merely paves the way for the consumers to gather more information. "In the March 2 Order, this Court did not hold that Vizios collection and disclosure practices violate the Video Privacy Protection Act or even that a reasonable jury could find as much; all the Court did was open the door to discovery on these highly fact-dependent issues involving intricate technologies," she wrote.
In recent years, numerous online video distributors -- including Gannett and ESPN -- have been sued for allegedly violating the video privacy law by sending data like device identifiers, to third parties.
Questions about whether these transmissions violate the video privacy law have not been definitively resolved. The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that Gannett potentially violated the law by allegedly transmitting users' device identifiers, GPS data and video viewing history to Adobe.
But other judges have dismissed lawsuits against video distributors that allegedly transmitted similar information to outside companies. Among others, a judge in Seattle dismissed a lawsuit by Roku user Chad Eichenberger, who accused ESPN of transmitting his Roku's serial number, combined with data about videos watched, to Adobe. Eichenberger appealed that matter to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which recently heard arguments in the case.
Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission brought a separate enforcement action against Vizio for allegedly engaging in an unfair practice by tracking consumers, and for deceiving consumers by failing to adequately explain its data practices. The company agreed to settle the charges by paying $2.2 million to the FTC and the state of New Jersey, which also filed a complaint against the company.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, October 16, 2017
The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal by two entrepreneurs who sought to invalidate Google's trademark on the grounds that people now use the company's name as a verb.
The court didn't give a reason for its decision, issued Monday. The move lets stand a ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld Google's trademark against a challenge.
The battle over the name dates to 2012, when David Elliott and and Chris Gillespie asked a federal judge to invalidate Google's trademark. In March of that year, they purchased 763 domain names that incorporated the word google in them, like googledisney.com and googlegeorgeclooney.com.
Gillespie and Elliott argued that the word "Google" had become a "generic name" for "the act of an online search. U.S. District Court Judge Stephen McNamee in Arizona ruled against them, stating that Google could serve as a trademark regardless of the public's use of the term.
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The 9th Circuit recently upheld that ruling. "Verb use does not automatically constitute generic use," the judges wrote. They added that some people who use the term as a verb may be referring to performing a search on Google's particular search engine.
Elliott and Gillespie then asked the Supreme Court to decide whether a term that's used as a verb could still serve. "Resolution of these unsettled questions is critically important not just to Petitioners and to Google Inc. but also to the owners of the Rollerblade, Xerox, Photoshop, TiVo, FedEx, and Facetime trademarks, among others which have been verbed," they wrote in a petition seeking review.
When Elliott and Gillespie first sued, they said they purchased the domain names in order to further an online business that would "promote commerce, community, relationships, personal health, charity and more.
They also said the business venture would initially target the gay and lesbian community, but would later be broadened.
Google said in court papers that the domains initially took users to TGN.xxx, which promoted sites called The Gay Network. The top level domain of .xxx indicates the sites would be pornographic. The domains later took users to landing pages populated with pay-per-click ads, according to Google.
Psychomotor agitation is a feeling of anxious restlessness that causes a person to make movements without meaning to. Psychomotor agitation often affects people with bipolar disorder, but it is also associated with other conditions that affect mental health or neurological function. It is a physical expression of anxiety and mental tension. This article explores the ways of feeling, moving, and behaving that could be symptoms of psychomotor agitation. It also looks at what mood disorders are associated with psychomotor agitation.
Symptoms Share on Pinterest Vradiy Art/Stocksy Psychomotor agitation can be distressing for people who experience it and may also cause concern to others around them. The condition can cause behavioral, physical, and mental symptoms, including: sudden, unexplainable movements
inability to sit still
muscle tension
hyperactivity to stimulus
physical tremors
inability to relieve tension
sudden weakness
anxiety
frustration
sweating
disorientation
tachycardia
dyspnea This anxious tension may lead a person to: pace around a room
wring their hands
tap their fingers
tap their feet
fidget
start and stop tasks abruptly
talk very quickly
move objects around for no reason People with psychomotor agitation and mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia may feel uneasy, nervous, or that there is no hope of controlling their agitations. Someone experiencing psychomotor agitation may display these behaviors in a way that seems uncontrolled or erratic. This can often place them and others around them at risk of physical harm . People with severe psychomotor agitation may: bite their lips until they bleed
pull skin off from around their lips
pull skin off from around their nails
chew the inside of their cheek
In bipolar disorder Psychomotor agitation is particularly prevalent among people with bipolar disorder. People diagnosed with bipolar disorder can experience three different episodes called manic, mixed, and depressive. Psychomotor agitation is a symptom of all three types of episode. However, the nature of psychomotor agitation can change, depending on which type is occurring: Manic episode: Alongside psychomotor agitation, a person may experience racing thoughts. Feeling overwhelmed by these can cause people to move without meaning to and to talk rapidly. Movements resulting from psychomotor agitation in a manic episode may appear chaotic.
Alongside psychomotor agitation, a person may experience racing thoughts. Feeling overwhelmed by these can cause people to move without meaning to and to talk rapidly. Movements resulting from psychomotor agitation in a manic episode may appear chaotic. Mixed affective episode: This is a particularly vulnerable state when a person experiences a mixture of depressive and manic symptoms. As well as feeling very low, they may feel agitated and irritable.
This is a particularly vulnerable state when a person experiences a mixture of depressive and manic symptoms. As well as feeling very low, they may feel agitated and irritable. Depressive episode: In a depressive episode, people may feel extremely low, hopeless, and tearful. They may make some movements that are signs of psychomotor agitation. Learn more about bipolar disorder here.
Management If a person is experiencing psychomotor agitation or knows someone who is, they should speak with a doctor. A doctor can determine the cause of psychomotor agitation and advise how to manage it. This may include changes to medication programs or psychotherapy and drug treatments to treat underlying mental health conditions. Management plans can include : treating the underlying cause of psychomotor agitation
learning de-escalation and coping strategies
minimizing stressful stimuli
managing drug and alcohol withdrawal, if relevant
medications such as antipsychotics, benzodiazepines Learn about the treatments for bipolar disorder here.
Extremely healthy seniors appear to have the same bacterial composition in their guts as healthy 30-year-olds, shows new research. Share on Pinterest Resetting our gut bacteria to those of a 30-year-old with food and lifestyle interventions may promote a longer healthspan. The new study was carried out by researchers at the Lawson Health Research Institute of Western University in Ontario, Canada, in collaboration with those at the Tianyi Health Science Institute in Zhenjiang, China. The scientists analyzed the gut microbiota of more than 1,000 very healthy individuals aged between 3 and 100 years, and the findings were published in the journal mSphere. Greg Gloor, a professor at Western Universitys Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, is the senior investigator of the study. The first author of the paper is Gaorui Bian, of the Tianyi Health Science Institute.
Gut bacteria in the young and the elderly Bian and colleagues used 16S Ribosomal RNA sequencing to analyze the microbial composition of the participants guts. The participants were selected based on criteria of extreme health. These included no reported disease, either in themselves or in their family. Participants did not smoke, did not consume any alcohol, had no reported moodiness, and had not been prescribed any drugs or antibiotics in the 3 months leading up to the study. They also had no family history of major cardiometabolic, gastrointestinal, or neurological diseases. The study yielded several main findings. Firstly, the microbial composition of the extremely healthy seniors resembled that of those who were also healthy but decades younger. Secondly, the researchers found major differences in the gut microbiota composition only before the age of 20. Between the ages of 30 and 100, the microbiota was largely the same. Finally, mens composition of the gut microbiota seemed to be more variable than womens. Taken together, the authors write, the present findings suggest that the microbiota of the healthy aged in this cross-sectional study differ little from that of the healthy young in the same population.
A new study found that, on average, atrial fibrillation develops in men around 10 years earlier than it does in women. It was also found that while carrying excess weight raises the risk of this type of irregular heartbeat for both men and women, it has a stronger effect in men. Share on Pinterest New research has identified some of the differences between men and women when it comes to their risk of developing A-fib. The results of the Biomarker for Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Europe (BiomarCaRE) Consortium study have been published in the journal Circulation. Atrial fibrillation (A-fib) is a type of irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia. It is a condition in which the atria or the upper chambers of the heart quiver or flutter as they pump blood into the lower chambers, or the ventricles. The irregular action of A-fib, which can be temporary or permanent, disrupts the smooth flow of blood in the heart, raising the risk of blood clots, stroke, heart failure, and other heart conditions. Untreated A-fib is linked to a five times higher risk of stroke, and it is also known to raise the risk of dying from a heart-related condition. In the new study, the researchers found that it tripled the risk of death. A-fib is thought to affect up to 6.1 million people in the United States. This number is expected to rise as the population ages: it affects around 9 percent of people aged 65 and over and around 2 percent of people under that age.
Need for better prevention Its crucial to better understand modifiable risk factors of atrial fibrillation, explains lead author Dr. Christina Magnussen, a specialist in medicine at the University Heart Center in Hamburg, Germany. If prevention strategies succeed in targeting these risk factors, we expect a noticeable decline in new-onset atrial fibrillation. Fewer people would get sick and die prematurely, and there would be significant cost savings, she adds. Every year in the U.S., around 750,000 people are admitted to hospital because of A-fib, while 130,000 die of a condition related to it. The annual costs amount to around $6 billion. For their study, the team analyzed records of 79,793 people aged between 24 and 97 participating in four European community studies in the BiomarCaRE consortium. The participants, 51.7 percent of whom were women, did not have A-fib when they enrolled. Although some participants were followed for as long as 28.2 years, the median follow-up period was 12.6 years. During this time, 4.4 percent of the female participants and 6.4 percent of the male participants were diagnosed with A-fib.
Sex differences in A-fib risk When they analyzed the results, the team found that by the age of 90, around 24 percent of the participants had developed A-fib. However, there were some marked differences between men and women. For instance, rates of A-fib diagnosis rose steeply from age 50 in men and age 60 in women. Also, the risk of developing A-fib was higher in men who had higher blood levels of the inflammation marker C-reactive protein. In addition, while an increase in body mass index (BMI) was tied to raised risk of A-fib in both men and women, in men it raised the risk by 31 percent compared with 18 percent in women. Dr. Magnussen and colleagues note that [a]mong the classic risk factors, body mass index explained the largest proportion of AF [A-fib] risk. They were surprised to find that especially for women having a higher total cholesterol level appeared to lower their risk of A-fib. Higher total cholesterol is a known risk factor for heart disease, and the researchers say that it is not clear why the study showed this result.
UK police are investigating a number of sexual assault allegations involving Harvey Weinstein, the BBC understands.
The Metropolitan Police says he is accused of assaulting three women in separate incidents in London in the late 1980s, 1992, 2010, 2011 and 2015.
Officers are looking into claims they were attacked in Westminster, Camden and west London.
The Hollywood film producer has unequivocally denied any allegations of non-consensual sex.
No arrests have been made over any of the allegations, police say.
New York police are also investigating claims against Weinstein, including rape and sexual assault.
More than two dozen women among them actresses Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rose McGowan have made a number of accusations against him.
Weinstein, 65, is a huge figure in the film world, where his productions have received more than 300 Oscar nominations and won 81.
On Saturday, the organisation behind the Oscars (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) voted to expel Weinstein.
Hollywood figures including Tom Hanks and Whoopi Goldberg sit on its board.
Announcing its decision, the Academy said the era of wilful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behaviour and workplace harassment in our industry is over.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said he has taken steps to revoke Weinsteins Legion dHonneur the countrys top honour which he was awarded in 2012.
British actress Lysette Anthony is the latest named star to accuse Weinstein after she told the Sunday Times he attacked her at her London home in the late 1980s.
Anthony says she reported the attack to the Met adding she met the producer in 1982 when she was in sci-fi film Krull and the alleged assault happened a few years later.
It was a pathetic, revolting attack, the actress said, that had left her disgusted and embarrassed.
The Metropolitan Police said it was passed an allegation of sexual assault, without giving details.
Exploring the casting couch culture of LA
BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford says detectives have two problems going forward one will be gathering evidence from the time of these allegations, including an incident from 35 years ago.
He adds the other is that because Weinstein faces allegations in the United States, police will want to deal with that first before agreeing to extradite him to the UK to face any charges against him there.
Meanwhile, Woody Allen has said he had heard rumours about Weinstein but not these horror stories, adding he was sad to hear about the numerous allegations.
The film-maker later clarified his comments.
When I said I felt sad for Harvey Weinstein I thought it was clear the meaning was because he is a sad, sick man, he told Variety.
Harvey Weinsteins brother has refused to comment on whether the board of Weinstein Company had been aware of settlements with women during recent contract negotiations.
But Bob Weinstein told the Hollywood Reporter he had no idea of the type of predator his brother was.
Kate Winslet has revealed she deliberately did not thank Harvey Weinstein when she won her Oscar for The Reader in 2009. I remember being told, Make sure you thank Harvey if you win,' the actress told the Los Angeles Times. And I remember turning around and saying, No I wont.'
The British director of Oscar-tipped film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri said he was pleased Weinstein had got his comeuppance.
Speaking on the closing night of this years London Film Festival, Martin McDonagh said: Hopefully its the start of something better.
James Corden has apologised for making jokes about the Weinstein affair at a charity gala in Los Angeles.
I am truly sorry for anyone offended, that was never my intention, the British talk show host wrote on Twitter.
The Producers Guild of America is to hold a special meeting on Monday to discuss expelling Harvey Weinstein from its ranks.
The mastermind behind one of the world's most nominated and awarding winning short film 'Arc', Amartei Armar, otherwise called Tei, is back home to contribute to reviving Ghana's struggling movie industry.
Product of a Ghanaian father and an African-American mother, he lived between Ghanaian cultures and that of America. He spent most of his childhood days creating stories that combined Ghanaian and American forms of storytelling with his older brother, Amartey Armar.
Years later, the early experiences of Amartei fuelled his dreams in becoming a filmmaker, with a particular interest in creating stories that revolved around cultural identity and belonging. With his mind set on being a writer for film, Amartei enrolled in the UBC B.F.A Film Production Programme, where he learned the ins and outs of filmmaking.
His final thesis and debut short film, 'Arc', won him several accolades at UBC and went on to win more awards at various international festivals around the world. Among the awards are Best Student Short Award Vancouver Short Film Festival 2016 'Arc', Creators Vancouver Interview 2015, Official Selection Portsmouth International Film Festival 2015 'Arc', Official Selection New Hampshire Film Festival 2015 'Arc', Best Student Production (Nominee) Leo Awards 2015 'Arc', Official Selection Greater Cleveland Urban Film Foundation 2015 'Arc', Official Selection Capital City Black Film Festival 2015 'Arc', Official Selection Jozi Film Festival 2015 'Arc', Official Selection Action on Film Festival 2014 'Arc', Outstanding Achievement in Directing U.B.C. POV Film Festival 2014 'Arc', Outstanding Achievement in Screenwriting U.B.C. and POV Film Festival 2014 'Arc'.
I've come home to stay! I read about the dying industry of Ghana on the internet and I would love to be a part of it resurrection, he said when he arrived in Ghana.
Tei's 'ARC' is a 13 minutes award-winning short film about a Kenyan elderly man who tries to cope with his wifes terminal illness. A recently divorced Canadian mother wants to prove she can take care of her daughter. A Chinese immigrant treads the line between honest work and crime to make ends meet.
Popular Ghanaian actor and producer, Justice Hymes Mmebusem has become an ambassador for the less privileged and physically challenged.
The father of twins in a video spotted on Youtube is championing the course of the physically challenged persons in the Ashanti region of Ghana.
Mmebusem in collaboration with Rising Hope Foundation paid a visit to one physically challenged lady called Rhoda Nkrumah at Addaisena, off the Antoa road, Ashanti region.
The actor and his team showed love to this young lady.
Watch the video below
Photo credit - Medicaldaily.com
16.10.2017 LISTEN
Microwaves Zap Food Nutrition
Heating your food in the microwave can strip away its original nutrients. What may have started as a nutritious plate of food has now evolved into dead food due to the dielectric heating of microwaves.
They bounce around the inside of your [microwave] oven and are absorbed by the food you put in it, writes Dr. Joseph M. Mercola , licensed physician and surgeon. The water molecules rotate rapidly in the microwave and in the food in high frequencies which creates molecular friction and heats up your food. This causes the molecular structure in your food to change, and as a result diminishes the nutrient content in the food.
Microwaves Destroy Breast Milk And Vitamin B-12
The health benefits of vitamin B-12 are instantly negated once heated in a microwave. In a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers decided to examine the effects of microwave heating on the loss of vitamin B-12 in foods like raw beef, pork, and milk. The results of the study show there was a 30 to 40 percent loss of the vitamin when the foods received microwave exposure. The shift of vitamin B-12 to an inactive form of the vitamin was found in foods during the microwave heating process.
The powerful bacteria-fighting agents in breast milk are also destroyed by microwave heating. Findings published in the journal Pediatrics examined the common practice of using a microwave to heat frozen human milk for convenience in intensive care nurseries. Researchers tested 22 freshly frozen human milk samples to test them for lysozyme activity and antibodies by heating the samples for 30 seconds on either a low or high power setting. Breast milk microwaved at high temperatures was found to have greater E coli growth 18 more times than the control (unmicrowaved) breast milk. Microwaving at low temperatures also dramatically decreased lysozyme activity and also promoted the growth of harmful bacteria for babies.
Microwaves Create Carcinogens In Food
When you head foods that are wrapped in plastic in the microwave, you can create carcinogens in the food. Based on Russian research and German studies, the Russian government issued a warning about the health hazards microwave ovens can have on the human body and the environment. The assembling of microwavable foods are found to contain toxic chemicals such as BPA, polyethylene terpthalate (PET), benzene, toluene, and xylene says Foodbabe.com . The plastic containers used to heat these microwave meals have been found to release the carcinogens along with other harmful toxins into your food which is then absorbed by your body.
Microwaves Can Change the Makeup of Your Blood
In a Swiss clinical study , researchers found that blood changes in individuals who consumed microwaved milk and vegetables. The eight participants in the study ate a series of food prepared in different ways, including food heated in the microwave. The results of the study showed red blood cells decreased while white cell levels increased, along with cholesterol levels. The non-ionizing radiation of the microwave can affect changes in your blood and your heart rate.
Microwaves Can Change Your Heart Rate
Microwaves can produce effects on your body instantly due to the 2.4 GHz radiation the frequency of radiation emitted by microwave ovens. A study conducted by Dr. Magda Havas of Trent University found the levels of radiation emitted by a microwave affect both heart rate and heart rate variability. These levels are within federal safety guidelines but tend to cause immediate and dramatic changes in heart rate. If you experience irregular heart beat or any chest pain and regularly eat microwaved food, it might be best to discontinue us.
16.10.2017 LISTEN
GNA - Mr John Asibi Ali, National Director for Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) Ghana has commented government for taking the bold step to implement the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy to alleviate the plight of parents.
He said Camfed would complement government's efforts in intensifying its campaign to ensure that children were adequately resourced to enhance education in the country and lessen the challenges parents faced.
Mr Ali gave the commendation during its 2017 National Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Tamale, on the theme: 'Leveraging resources for girls' education and transition to secure livelihood: Every stakeholder counts'.
He said access to free and quality education should be indispensable for national development, saying 'Camfed would continue to provide educational opportunity to girls to empower them to become leaders of change'.
Mrs Matilda Bannerman Mensah, Board Chairperson of Camfed Ghana indicated that, the five year strategy plan of camfed was focused on three thematic areas aimed at impacting on the life of the girl child and young women to secure better livelihood.
She said the three areas were to unlock new resources for girls' education; unleashing new potential for young woman's leadership; and igniting new action to accelerate change, to transition the girl child to be a better woman.
Alhaji Mohammed Haroon Cambodia, the Northern Regional Director of Education said the advocacy for girl child education in the region is yielding positive results, especially with the implementation of the free SHS policy.
He said the ration of boys to girls at the low primary and Junior High School (JHS) was one to one and expressed optimism that with camfed in the picture, more girls in the region would gain access to secondary school education.
Alhaji Cambodia lauded Camfed Ghana for the enormous strides made towards improving the girl child education to transition them towards becoming prominent future leaders.
The national AGM provides a unique opportunity for Camfed Ghana to report on major team and programmatic activities that have been undertaken in the year and to receive input from stakeholders that would inform strategies and approaches for the coming years.
GNA - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned against the increasing misuse of antimicrobials, something it says, could threaten public safety.
Dr. Abebe Hale-Gabriel, its Representative in Ghana, said inappropriate use of drugs when it came to dealing with disease-causing organisms, especially in plants and animals, posed danger to the health of the people and the environment.
It was against this background that the United Nation's (UN) body was determined to deepen the engagement with key stakeholders to make sure that the right things were done.
He said this in a speech read for him at a day's sensitization workshop held in Kumasi.
The programme was organized by the FAO and brought together veterinary officers, livestock and fish farmers, agro-chemical dealers, environmentalists, crop scientists, officials from Fisheries and the Food and Agriculture Ministries and crop scientists.
They were drawn from the Ashanti, Eastern and Brong-Ahafo Regions and the third in a series designed to help all major stakeholders to have better understanding of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Dr. Haile-Gabriel said 'the consequence of the inappropriate use of antimicrobials is that when drugs are used for treatment, they are not able to kill the pathogens or stop their growth'.
That, he indicated, would result in 'high cost of treatment, increased mortality, decreased agricultural production and productivity, food insecurity and a drain on the national economy'.
He added that AMR was projected to kill 10 million people annually, by year 2050, and that health systems could hardly find treatment options for common infections.
According to a 2017 World Bank report, AMR could lead to a decline in the global annual gross domestic product (GDP) of between one per cent and four per cent, and could diminish global livestock production by between three per cent and eight per cent.
Dr. Haile-Gabriel said the FAO, acting in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international bodies, had scaled up support to member-countries in the implementation of their national action plans to deal with the threat.
He noted that AMR issues were multi-dimensional, requiring multi-disciplinary synergies for effective control.
The FAO was therefore introducing interventions, which would ensure food security, good health and livelihood.
The topics discussed included 'an overview of AMR', 'antimicrobial use in human health, animal and food crop production, fisheries and environment', and 'the one-health approach in control of AMR and antimicrobial use'.
GNA
By Stephen Asante, GNA
GNA - A team of Health Professionals from the Palm Beach County (PBC) Chapter of the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA), Florida, USA, have arrived in Ghana.
The maiden team who are to complement government's efforts in the provision and delivery of healthcare services to the people in the Tamale Metropolis of the Northern Region are expected to spend about two weeks in the country.
The project is the initiative of the African Diaspora Network (AND) LLC, a Ghanaian Business Networking and Consultancy Firm in Florida, USA in collaboration with Palm Beach County Black Nurses and the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly (TMA).
The initiative which would be an annual or bi-annual volunteering medical mission to the Metropolis was born out of the investment trip made by the Metropolitan Chief Executive of Tamale, Mr Iddrisu Musah Superior and is to demystify the perception and mentality that only white medical and health professionals embarked on medical missions to the African continent.
At a media briefing in Accra, Mr Abdul Samad Mukhtari, Co-Founder of the ADN LLC said the objective of the team was to provide healthcare delivery to the three hospitals in the Tamale Metropolis and share knowledge and experiences with their Ghanaian counterparts.
He said the team would also meet the President of the Traditional Healers Association, Traditional Birth Attendants in the North as well as provide medical care to the inmates of the Tamale Orphanage Home.
Mr Mukhtari said the ADN LLC main objectives is to provide and promote business network opportunities for Ghanaian businesses both in Ghana and in the diaspora.
He said his outfit also promote Ghana's cultural Heritage through a travel and tours operations by bringing to Ghana African in the diaspora, photo and video production and general business contracting.
Harysha Thompson Co-Founder of the AND LLC said the doors of the ADN LLC was opened to every business entity both in Ghana and abroad who would want to collaborate with the network in the provision of tourism, marketing and other businesses
Mrs Avis Spradley Brown, a Board Certified Adult Gententological Primary Care Nurse and President of PBCBNA said the association's desire to embark on a global healthcare mission was sparked up two years ago.
According to Mrs Brown, the PBCBNA had collaborated with the ADN LLC on other ventures and felt they were the perfect organisation to assist in taking their culture of learning to Ghana.
She said Illness and diseases were universal, and that healthcare could be generalised across any nation.
'We are not in Ghana to teach but to empower, and to form a symbiotic relationship that is mutually beneficial to us and to the Ghanaian people.'
The Association President said the founding members of the NBNA recognised that in order to make a difference in the quality of life in communities, black nurses across the nation had to take the lead.
She said the NBNA programme help its members to grow stronger as they seek to provide culturally competent health care services in communities
Other members of the team include Rochun McCray, the Association Vice President, Chiquita Rockiemore, registered nurses, Moses Brown and Sonja Jones.
The Palm Beach County Black Nurses Association has been serving communities since 2004 and partnering with other interest groups in order to promote and achieve optimal health within the black community in the Palm Beaches.
Its mission is to bring nurses together, with the aim of advocating and empowering persons of colour to make significant improvements in their health status whilst its vision is to be a voice on healthcare issues for persons of colour.
The NBNA was established in 1971 under the leadership of Dr Lauranne Sams, former Dean and Professor of Nursing at the School of Nursing, Tuskegee University, Alabama, USA and was incorporated on September 2, 1972 in the state of Ohio, USA.
It is a non-profit organisation with its membership made up of African American Nurses with expertise and specialised backgrounds in various professional health fields.
Its mission is 'to represent and provide a forum for Black nurses to advocate and implement strategies to ensure access to the highest quality of healthcare for persons of colour.'
It has a representation of about 150,000 African American registered nurses, licensed vocational/practical nurses, nursing students and retired nurses from the USA, Eastern Caribbean and Africa, with 92 chartered chapters, in 35 states.
Paris (AFP) - World leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada and France on Sunday strongly condemned the weekend suicide bombing in Somalia, the worst attack in the country to date with at least 137 deaths.
Saturday's blast occurred at a junction in Hodan, a bustling commercial district of the capital Mogadishu which has many shops, hotels and businesses. Hundreds of people had been in the area at the time of the blast.
The United States condemned the bombing "in the strongest terms" in a statement released by the State Department.
Washington "will continue to stand with the Somali government, its people, and our international allies to combat terrorism and support their efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity," the statement added.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said his country "condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly attacks in Mogadishu, which have claimed so many innocent lives".
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: "Solidarity with Somalia. Support to the African Union against Islamist terrorist groups. France stands by your side".
"The attacks in Somalia are horrifying & Canada condemns them strongly. We mourn with the Canadian Somali community today," Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission asked the government "to show renewed unity at this critical time and overcome divisions, to rebuild cohesion at all levels of the federal institutions."
It said the pan-African body, which has deployed a peacekeeping mission in the east African country, would "continue its support to the Somali government and people in their efforts to achieve sustainable peace and security."
Police official Ibrahim Mohamed told AFP that the death toll could rise further "because there are more than 300 wounded, some of them seriously".
He described the bombing as "the deadliest attack ever."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara was sending planes "with medical supplies", adding that the wounded would be flown to Turkey and treated there.
He did not specify numbers.
Turkey is a leading donor and investor in Somalia. In September, it inaugurated the largest foreign-run military training centre in Somalia, where local troops are due to take over the protection of a nation threatened by Shabaab jihadists.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Shabaab, a militant group aligned with Al-Qaeda, has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in its bid to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government.
The fragile government and institutions, including its national army, are backed by the African Union's 22,000-strong AMISOM force and powers like the United States.
But the gradual withdrawal of the AMISOM troops is due to start in October 2018 and doubts persist over the readiness of Somali forces to confront the Qaeda-aligned Shabaab.
burs-ach/su/pvh/ceb
The Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of petroleum, Hon. Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has affirmed Governments commitment to support institutions that trains Ghanaian workforce to operate in the Oil and Gas industry.
Dr. Amin Adam, made this known when he paid a working visit to the Regional Maritime University (RMU) in Accra to, amongst other things, get himself acquainted with the activities of the university, interact with university authorities and inspect engineering equipment procured and installed by the Oil and Gas Capacity Building Project (OGCBP) for RMU. According to the Deputy Minister, it is important that Ghanaians acquire requisite skills needed to be at the forefront of Ghanas petroleum industry.
He further indicated that Government will soon rollout a new programme dubbed the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity Building Programme, to build capacity of state institutions and improve local content in the petroleum sector. We are through with the concept and we will soon submit it to Cabinet for approval he said.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Elvis K. Nyarko thanked the Deputy Minister for visiting RMU. He then indicated that the OGCBP has provided them with state of the art equipment to build capacity to support the local content policy and also train Ghanaians to operate in the sector. This will enable us to train more people and bring them up to a level where they can be properly certified he said. He further iterated that, RMU is now well equipped to provide training in both the petroleum upstream and downstream sectors. Prof. Nyarko also expounded the significant contributions that RMU is making in Ghanas petroleum industry. RMU is contributing to producing critical human resources needed for Ghanas oil and gas industry. We collaborate with industry to ensure that those who get trained with us get work easily he added.
Project Coordinator of the OGCBP, Mr. Alex Kyei, indicated that the Ministry is collaborating with RMU to train 500 welders in order for them to be certified.
The Deputy Minister and his entourage including the Chief Director of the Ministry, Mr. Lawrence Apaalse, toured the Well Control Simulator Lab, Process Operator Simulator Lab, Drilling Fluids Lab and Electrical Lab of the university.
Three decades ago, Somalilanders suffered genocide of military junta and decided to erect the first ever public monument against military folks: A real MIG war jet downed by SNM revolutionaries in the early 90s. The statue in downtown Hargaysa is painted with war victims by military junta of SiyadBarre. Some are very graphic portraying children and women with amputations during the war in Somaliland.
It meant to be a reminder of sad days as well as the atrocities of the military leaders in Africa and around the world who built an army against phantom enemy and finally turned their guns against their people like the military man an ex-president of Somalia never ever help military leader grab power either by election or otherwise implicitly says the statue that freaks out remnants of the former military regime.
Yet Professor Ahmed Samatar, against his type of American values supported Muse Bihi, an ex-warlord Mujahid with PTS disorder in this election and even went out to preach how Muse nicely fits for presidency showcasing leaflet of 1994 catastrophic mistake in Burco to famine victims who neither care about books nor usher military commanders.
I have a little interest in verbal attacking on professor Samatar who championed civilian rule in Somalia in most of his life who once surprisingly said that American hellfire missile that killed Ayro of Al-Shabab at the cost of 500 million was wrong! His about-face manifests the wider problem in Somaliland people who often condemn SiyadBarre military brutalism but praise Muses Mujahidism,chauvinism.
Somaliland War Memorial
Having a military background alone cant be and never be a disqualification for presidency, but Somaliland voters are not just aware of the military men catastrophe but see the bones murdered by a military leader in their everyday life. The new love of Muse Bihi by some clannish voters not only discredits stories of mass murder by a military junta but also shows double standard: SiyadBarre is a brute but Muse is a benevolent warlord who killed Faqash and some Gargaxis and nothing ugly in all these and the statue has be removed!
Somaliland National Election Commission NEC invites religious leaders, tycoons, previously assumped have no role in the election to stay out of the next presidential elections . above all, ethiopia invited all three party leaders including the military leader worrying not to accept the result which against him.
[email protected]
CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE TO ALHAJI RAMADAN ON HIS APPOINTMENT AS GHANAS AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The PNC feels elated with the appointment of its immediate past National Chairman, Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan as Ghanas Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates by the President of the Republic, His Excellency Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo. This appointment in our estimation is an acknowledgement of the sound leadership qualities of Alhaji Ramadan who has contributed tremendously in shaping Ghanas political landscape for a considerable period of time now.
By this appointment, it is manifest that the PNC is imbued with diverse human resource potential who have the competence and capacity to contribute to the socio-economic transformation being embarked upon by Nana Addo and his NPP Government. We are encouraged and filled with so much excitement as we trust in the capacity of Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan to work assiduously in his role as Ghanas first ever ambassador to the UAE to market and draw investment into our dear nation to accelerate our socio-economic development.
The PNC deems it imperative to congratulate the President for doing the party this significant honour once more following the earlier appointment of Dr Edward Mahama as Ambassador-at-Large. These appointments are in recognition of the important role the Party plays in our democratic dispensation. Nation-building is a shared and collective responsibility and as such members of the PNC are always willing to avail themselves whenever necessary to contribute their quota to thus shared responsibility of nation-building.
We wish Alhaji Ramadan well in his new role as we look up to him to use his new position to help the course of the PNC as a party as well as the overall interest of Ghana.
....signed.
Henry Haruna Asante
(National Vice Chairman)
Maun, Botswana (October 14, 2017) Ministers from 12 African countries announced today a new commitment to sustainability during a meeting marking the fifth anniversary of the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa (GDSA). The meeting also served to formally welcome Madagascar as a new signatory to the GDSA.
The GDSA is an African-led initiative that puts sustainability at the forefront of investment and economic development. Building on its progress over the last five years , a new Ministers' Statement announced yesterday calls for a renewed commitment to incorporating the value of nature in economic and social development decisions. Highlights include:
Madagascar officially joined the GDSA, bringing the total to 11 countries
New governance framework, including a new Forum of Ministers that will further the work of the GDSA by ensuring close links among the GDSA countries in their move towards sustainability. Also, agreed to were joining guidelines, which now allow for a mechanism by which new countries can join the GDSA.
Re-affirmation of the 11-country strong GDSA to the vision of an Africa where nature is managed sustainably to ensure human well-being, in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement
"As the five-year progress reports show, we are collectively on the right track, but we need to scale up our efforts," said Lt-Gen Dr. Seretse Khama Ian Khama President of the Republic of Botswana and and Chairman of the GDSA, at the opening of the two-day ministerial meeting. Urging the attendees to be ambassadors of the GDSA, the President described his hope that the GDSA would expand to more nations and non-State partners in the next five years. "The vision of the GDSA is to ensure that the nature on which we depend for our wellbeing is valued, respected, and managed, not just for our generation but for future generations as well."
"In supporting the continued success of the GDSA, the Government of Botswana will review its conservation funding componenets towards availing further funding for GDSA activities," said Hon. Tshekedi Khama, Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Government of Botswana at the opening plenary. He further noted that, in the future, the GDSA, "will tighten the bonds between member countries as we work together, for our common purpose and vision."
The opening plenary was addressed by Mr. Erik Solheim, Executive Director of UN Environment. Mr. Solheim discussed future areas of cooperation between UN Environment, Government of Botswana, and the GDSA and encouraged Africa to look at ways in which tourism and renewable energy could be used in the continent's development.
Michael O'Brien-Onyeka, Senior Vice President, Africa Field Division at Conservation International said,"Conservation International is grateful for the opportunity to work with the Government of Botswana and the GDSA member countries in organizing the Secretariat and in helping the countries progress towards the visionary goals of the GDSA."
Ruud Jansen, Executive Secretary of the GDSA said,"The GDSA is as valid today as it was in 2012. The Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement have given the Declaration added value and urgency. We look forward to welcoming the member countries to Botswana to deliberate on how to take this action platform into the future."
About the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa (GDSA)
Initiated as a regional action platform in May 2012 by 10 African countries (Botswana, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Namibia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, and South Africa), the GDSA approaches sustainability through incorporating the value of natural capital in public and private policy decision-making, generating data, sharing best practices, and building capacity to support policy networks as well as pursuing inclusive sustainable production in such areas as agriculture, fisheries, and extractive industries. Botswana is the designated Secretariat for the GDSA, with the President of Botswana - Lieutenant General Dr. Seretse Khama Ian Khama as Chair. In December 2014, the Government of Botswana delegated the functions of the Secretariat to Conservation International (CI) until December 2018. A number of regional and global platforms have endorsed the GDSA. These includes the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), the United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA), and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
About Conservation International
Conservation International (CI) uses science, policy and partnerships to protect the nature people rely on for food, fresh water and livelihoods. Founded in 1987, CI works in more than 30 countries on six continents to ensure a healthy, prosperous planet that supports us all. Learn more about CI and its groundbreaking "Nature Is Speaking" campaign , and follow CI's work on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and YouTube .
16.10.2017 LISTEN
HOPE Army- Kasoa Chapter is organizing a free health screening and health advice for the people of Kasoa and its environs. The exercise which is scheduled to take place on the 20th of October, 2017 in front of the Obom Junction bridge, Kasoa, is expected to offer free health screening and advice to the people that will include eye and ear screening, Body Mass Index (BMI), full glucose test, blood pressure, malaria, dental care, and general ailments.
It is the first time we as an organization, we are doing a programme like this to help the people of the community, and we are very happy about it, says Kobby Kings, an executive member of the group.
The exercise is in collaboration with Pink FM and Awo Komi, a deliciously and nicely packaged kenkey for sale, and with support from the Municipal Directorate of Awutu Senya East Municipal Assembly.
The supporting partners are Watborg Eye care, Justab Hospital, La Fe Eye Care, Springfield Dental Clinic, Aboagyewaa Hebal Clinic and Lab Medics.
Asked about the motivation behind the exercise, the chapter lieutenant of the Kasoa chapter, Nana Kofi Ntiamoah said that he was motivated to see people strong, healthy and alive. To him, life is sweet, and one must be able to live long enough to enjoy it, and this he explained could only be achieved when people constantly checked up and knew their health statuses.
He used the opportunity to thank all his chapter executives and members for helping come up with this initiative and also contribute selflessly towards the success of the exercise.
He called on the people of Kasoa, those in Awutu Senya East Municipality and all Ghanaians to take advantage of such opportunities to have their health screened and advised for free. He also admonished Ghanaians to embrace the attitude of constantly checking their health statuses and seeking immediate attention to their health needs.
In what is billed to be the biggest health festival of its kind in Kasoa and its environs, the event is expected to attract the presence of big men and women in society including the Member of Parliament of Awutu Senya East constituency and Minister for Special Development Initiative, Hon. Mrs Mavis Hawa Koomson, the Municipal Chief Executive of the area, Hon. Michael Yaw Essuman Mensah and a host of other dignitaries.
HOPE is a nationwide progovernment organization premised on Honesty, Opportunity, Prosperity and Education. The
organization has local branches (called Chapters) across Ghana and is open to the general public, young and old, professionals and non-professionals and anyone who wants to be an agent of HOPE in their locality.
The organization uses military terms such as Champs, Commanders, and Lieutenants to address their patrons, national and local executives respectively, whiles members are addressed as soldiers; and they go by the hash tag #PeopleFirst
Departing US Ambassador to Turkey John Bass issued a statement on Monday regarding the US decision to suspend non-immigrant visa services at its missions in Turkey, saying that resolution of the situation depends on the Turkish governments commitment to protecting US facilities and personnel in the country.
In his statement, released on the US Embassy & Consulates in Turkey website, the departing ambassador said: Last week, for the second time this year, a Turkish staff member of our diplomatic mission was arrested by Turkish authorities. Despite our best efforts to learn the reasons for this arrest, we have been unable to determine why it occurred or what, if any, evidence exists against the employee. The employee works in an office devoted to strengthening law enforcement cooperation with Turkish authorities and ensuring the security of Americans and Turkish citizens. Furthermore, our colleague has not been allowed sufficient access to his attorney.
Regarding the accusations of espionage leveled against the employee, Bass said: Let me be clear: Strengthening law enforcement cooperation between the United States and Turkey was the employees job. Speaking to and traveling with Turkish police was a part of his regular duties, and the Turkish government has not shared any information to indicate the employee was involved in any illegal activity.
Our local staff members are Turkish citizens and we, of course, expect them to observe Turkish law like any other citizen of the Republic. They have a right to expect Turkish authorities will provide appropriate legal protections and due process, including the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise, in accordance with the Turkish constitution, and the principles of rule of law that all modern democracies follow.
In his statement, the ambassador also stated that this decision is not a visa ban on Turkish citizens but a suspension of new visa applications made in Turkey. Bass underlined that if you [Turkish citizens] have a valid visa, you can still travel to the United States. If you want to apply for a visa at another US embassy or consulate outside of Turkey, you are free to do so.
Bass also indicated that their decision is open-ended until a solution is found to the crisis. He said: We hope it will not last long, but at this time we cant predict how long it will take to resolve this matter. The duration will be a function of ongoing discussions between our two governments about the reasons for the detention of our local staff members and the Turkish governments commitment to protecting our facilities and our personnel here in Turkey.
Speaking to a group of journalists in Istanbul on Friday, John Bass, the departing US ambassador to Turkey, said some in the Turkish government are motivated by vengeance rather than justice, voicing concern at coverage in pro-government media outlets of the arrest of Topuz.
I read from elsewhere, the concerns of the revered Reverend Martey in respect of corruption perceptions attributing to the embryonic NPP government.
In fact, I perused through the said news item with an unbelievable gleam of incredulity amid puzzled countenance.
Indeed, it would be unthinkable for anybody to suggest that corruption can be circumscribed completely from the surface of this planet, let alone in Ghana.
Corruption is, as a matter of fact, a human foible, and therefore you are likely to find some people blissfully indulging in it.
And, since it is not so easy for the Reverend Ministers to stop their followers from committing sin, it is also difficult for any leader to stop ravenous individuals from indulging in corrupt practices.
However, what any serious, committed and forward thinking leader could do is to seek to apply the existing laws as strictly as possible.
It is, however, worthy of note that exposure, prevention and deterrence are the useful tools for combating the canker of corruption.
You may believe it or not, the fact however remains that Ghanaians are not distant apart in attitudes and behaviours from other human beings elsewhere, because we are all susceptible to human foibles.
But what makes the people elsewhere much more responsible than a Ghanaian is the rigidity of their state institutions and the effective laws and regulations.
Take, for example, elsewhere, the laws and regulations are strictly enforced, and as such the vast majority of the citizens and denizens prefer the observance to the stringent fines and the harsh punishments.
Disappointingly, however, during the erstwhile NDC administration, officials and their minions dipped their hands into the national coffers as if there was no tomorrow and went scot free.
In fact, the unbridled corruption in the erstwhile NDC administration which resulted in economic collapse is still fresh in the memories of discerning Ghanaians, and no real patriot will shrill and thrill over similar incident in the NPP government.
Apparently, the harsh economic conditions which the NDC government wilfully imposed on Ghanaians will indeed take a long time to obliterate from memories.
In fact, if we ruminate over the greedy politicians and other public servants corrupt practices, we can only conclude that the vast majority of the modern day politicians apparent preoccupation is to manipulate their way into power and then pursue their vested interests.
As a matter of fact and principle, some of us cannot end our arousing disgust anyhow and anytime soon, given the erstwhile NDC governments risible proclivity, irrevocable incompetence and corrupt practices, which nonetheless destabilised Ghanas macroeconomic indicators.
It must, however, be emphasised that discerning Ghanaians cannot remit their fury in condemnation over the disputatious NDC apparatchiks ridiculous claim that the NPP government is messing up the country in barely six months, and for that matter, they are on course to recapture power in 2020.
And given the wanton sleazes and corruption which took place in the previous NDC administration, we can reasonably infer that misunderstanding of true patriotism exists in the minds of the vast majority of the modern day politicians, who would more often than not, choose party and personal interests over the national interests.
Paradoxically, however, in Ghana, greedy and corrupt officials are held in high esteem by the ever so nodding party loyalists for stealing from the national purse at the expense of the suffering masses.
It would, however, appear that we, Ghanaians, and Africans as a whole, are possessed with bootlicking characteristic of a morally degraded mind which dislikes anything that comes with honesty and integrity.
Thus, our leaders, having first-hand knowledge of our obsequious compliance and hero-worshipping nonsense, tend to take us for granted and continue to dip their hands into the national coffers as if there is no tomorrow.
Let us be honest, and rightly so, we definitely need attitudinal and behavioural change, for we must not and cannot keep on electing and hero worshipping individuals who are so corrupt and cannot see their backsides from their elbows.
K. Badu, UK.
[email protected] ; please visit me at: alljoycom.wordpress.com
Students in Ghana are beside themselves with much joy and also bubbling over happiness of Nana Addos free SHS, because innumerable students had completed JHS with good grades which offer them the opportunity to proceed at the FREE SHS level.
Now, this opposition party NDC were not in unanimous agreement with Nana Addos decision of making free SHS feasible of how furthering free SHS is cardinal for humanitarian reason.Now, eligible students admitted into free SHS are going to be equipped with modern skills which will enable them work in this competitive global economy. After free SHS completion they would become independent and all rounds in any field of endeavor.
In this competitive global economy, it is only those who are having the right qualifications who are employed to work in companies with attractive salaries. I do believe that when free SHS goes on transparently and students are not demanded anything concerning the free SHS, bookworms will erudite solemnly to become part of the excellent skilled people in the near future. it is every students dream to be cardinal person in future such as president,doctor,lawyer,banker and many more.
Glory be to God for not allowing NDCs negative thought to prempt Nana Addos decision of making free SHS feasible to all Ghanaians.
High-level corruption is the single biggest impediment to the transformation of our homeland Ghana into an African equivalent of the prosperous and egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.
It will take extraordinary courage and leadership - of the kind that puts political leaders into the Pantheon of humankind's all-time greatest leaders - on the part of President Akufo-Addo, and creative-thinking by the more responsible sections of the Ghanaian media, to finally root out the high-level corruption that is slowly bleeding Mother Ghana to death.
Annually, vast sums - trillions of Ghana cedis literally - are siphoned off into private pockets by crooks in the system.
Thus, successfully plugging all the loopholes through which hapless taxpayers' disappears in Ghana, for example, will enable all Ghanaian families that are unable to build or buy their own homes to have access to well-designed and well-built affordable housing in new planned green cities across Ghana, through public private partnerships (PPP).
It will also enable ordinary people in Ghana to have access to free, world-class education from kindergarten to tertiary level. Ditto enable ordinary people to have access to quality healthcare whenever they need it.
The question is: How can the media in Ghana help end high-level corruption in our nation?
To begin with, the media must encourage and persuade President Akufo-Addo to ignore all those in his inner circle who advise against it, and go ahead to publicly publish his assets, as well as that of his wife Rebecca and all his offspring. Ditto the vice-president and his nuclear family.
Secondly, the media must persuade Parliament to pass new laws providing immunity from prosecution for all all those who expose corruption that leads to the conviction of the white-collar criminals who rip Ghana off in public procurement contracts - and also gives them 10 percent of the recovered sums saved as a result of their whistleblowing.
Finally, if the only way to ensure the availability of the wherewhithal to transform Ghana into a prosperous society is to root out high-level corruption from our byzantine system, then with respect, in the national interest and for the common weal, the time has now come for the Ghanaian media to make it plain to President Akufo-Addo that he must do the decent thing - and publicly publish his assets and those of his wife and children as soon as practicable: to set the moral tone for his presidency. Haaba.
The proprietress of Ave Maria Resort in Tema, Theresa Ntim, has expressed her frustration over the bulldozing of the frontage of the facility by some unknown security officials from the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) on Saturday.
She said her investment, worth $10 million, is being destroyed without human face and recourse to the law.
Beyond that, Mrs. Ntim lamented that, the long-standing conflict between the Resort and the GPHA, which may be linked to the ongoing Tema Port Expansion Project, was indicative of a country that doesnt value heritage.
Anywhere else, the place [Ave Maria Resort] will be held as a heritage place and it will be kept as such, but here, we don't care. They have even destroyed the Meridian Rock In Ghana we dont want history, she said.
There were reportedly two GPHA pickups, two private vehicles, and a bulldozer brought by some GPHA security personnel for the operation.
This Resort is said to have been recommended to be preserved by the Center of the World Committee, as it is viewed as having great value for Ghana's tourism sector.
It has a long heritage for hosting the likes of Ghana's First President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as a regular patron, and Queen Elizabeth when she visited Ghana.
Rooms at the resort that were used by Kwame Nkrumah and the Queen of England
But on Sunday, the normally vibrant Resort had to turn back most of their customers after a huge trench was dug in front of the Resort by the bulldozer.
The incident on Saturday has left the place very quiet without the usual flow of business. As of the time Citi News visited, just a handful of customers were seen around.
Water supply and electricity supply were affected when the bulldozer came through and a landmark fountain was destroyed.
Sunday is usually the busiest day of our business. We also have a wedding lunch and they booked long ago, but when this thing happened, I had to look for a low loader to make sure that at least there was access because we were cut off completely. You couldn't come in with any vehicle, Mrs. Ntim told Citi News.
She said they eventually managed to fill the trench created by the bulldozer, but before that, all the usual guests who come in on Sunday to swim, have a massage and eat; they all had to turn away because they could not have access into the hotel.
Police have since been to the scene to take some pictures to assess the situation, although they did not respond when they were called at the time of the incident.
Apology from GPHA Boss
Mrs. Ntim revealed that, the Director General of GPHA, Paul Ansah, came to the Resort to apologize sort of and to say that he didn't know anything about the operation.
The GPHA is actually a regular customer of the Resort, as it was training the security staff of GPHA to swim, she also noted.
The tensions between the GPHA and the Resort date back to 2015, when Mrs. Ntim recounted that armed guards from the GPHA had been sent to the front of the Resort blocking them out.
A Facebook post from 2015 complaining about GPHAs activities
Credit: Ave Maria Resort Facebook page
There has subsequently been some legal tussle with the GPHA, to protect the investments made into the Resort.
We've been in court with them since 2015. They want the place and our lawyers are saying that there is nothing in the lease to indicate that they could come in one day [and take the place]. After our investment, we knew we had [a lease for] 25 years, to be renewed for another 25 years, she said.
Officials of the GPHA and the police in Tema, are yet to comment on the matter to Citi News.
By: Elvis Washington & Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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The Chairman of the 7-member Board of the National Lottery Authority (NLA), Torgbui Nyonyo, has told staff of the National Lottery Authority that the Board is committed to ensuring the achievement of sustainable growth in the lotto business through the practice of good corporate governance.
He emphasized that, attaining departmental and individual set targets, prudent management of resources, and most importantly, staff motivation, are contributory factors to achieving these.
The Chairman, who is also a member of the Council of State, said this when he addressed a staff durbar on Thursday 12th October, 2017 at the Breman Hall of the Authority, after members of the 4th Board of Directors were formally introduced to staff by the Director-General of NLA Kofi Osei-Ameyaw.
The other members are: Mr. Philip Aning, Mrs. Adelaide Anno-Kumi, Mr. Henry Yentumi, Mrs. Helen Awo Ziwu, Kofi Osei-Ameyaw and Ms. Joana Frances Adda.
The Chairman announced that, the Director-General had forwarded outstanding operational, administrative and welfare-related issues that needed urgent attention to the Board.
However, in order to make upright judgements and appropriate decisions, there was need for the 3-month old Board to have some orientation on the institutional background, hence; it has been going through files to be abreast with issues.
Torgbui Nyonyo added that, from the records, staff did not meet their 2016 set targets, a critical determinant for either paying or not paying bonus.
Administratively, staff do not qualify to earn bonus, however, considering the fact that there was a success in operational excellence, notably an increase in revenue despite the challenging economic environment and unstable electricity supplies amongst others that affected businesses, the Board will approve and payment of 2016 bonus to staff by end of October.
He was however quick to caution that the 2017 bonus will be paid only upon achievement of set targets.
A good working relationship and commitment to work is a powerful ingredient to corporate successes; the Chairman therefore encouraged management to get closer to staff through informal social activities.
He assured staff that the Board will interact with their counterparts in the other regions.
Reforms
The Chairman hinted that, the Board will introduce reforms in the operations of the lotto business with a view to protecting the public purse, expanding the markets, and also pursue the President's vision of creating employment and mobilization of lottery funds for national development.
He however noted that they are mindful of the law on causing financial loss to the state, and so all hands must be on deck.
According to some elated staff, this is the second time a Board has been introduced to them.
The first was in 2006 during the Kufuor government, and they see this act as a sign of respect for staff.
By: citifmonline.com/Ghana
Jack Dorsey got the message. Probably.
All day Friday, many women refused to tweet in protest of Twitters decision to suspend actress Rose McGowans account as she spoke out against Harvey Weinstein and sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood.
Late Friday night, Dorsey Twitters co-founder and CEO responded to the #WomenBoycottTwitter movement. Protesters compared the companys enforcement of a 12-hour suspension after McGowan tweeted a private phone number to Twitters ongoing failure to police racist, anti-Semitic, and sexist harassment.
In an eight-tweet thread, Dorsey promised some critical changes to Twitters anti-harassment tools and policies, to be announced next week.
We see voices being silenced on Twitter every day. We've been working to counteract this for the past 2 years, Dorsey tweeted in a thread. We prioritized this in 2016. We updated our policies and increased the size of our teams. It wasn't enough. In 2017 we made it our top priority and made a lot of progress.
Today we saw voices silencing themselves and voices speaking out because we're *still* not doing enough, he continued. We've been working intensely over the past few months and focused today on making some critical decisions. We decided to take a more aggressive stance in our rules and how we enforce them. New rules around: unwanted sexual advances, non-consensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence. These changes will start rolling out in the next few weeks. More to share next week.
1/ We see voices being silenced on Twitter every day. We've been working to counteract this for the past 2 years.
jack (@jack) October 14, 2017
3/ In 2017 we made it our top priority and made a lot of progress.
jack (@jack) October 14, 2017
5/ We've been working intensely over the past few months and focused today on making some critical decisions.
jack (@jack) October 14, 2017
7/ New rules around: unwanted sexual advances, non-consensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence.
jack (@jack) October 14, 2017
8/ These changes will start rolling out in the next few weeks. More to share next week.
jack (@jack) October 14, 2017
Dorsey didnt get into any specifics beyond the areas he promised to address unwanted sexual advances, non-consensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence - and the promise to share more in the coming week.
Twitter has pledged to make improvements when it comes to stopping harassment on its platform before with, as Dorsey hinted, little result. As many people noted, the women and people of color protesting harassment on Twitter before now werent celebrities.
McGowan had a helpful suggestion for the Twitter CEO on Saturday morning.
@jack start by immediately removing RICHARD SPENCER'S VERIFICATION. I heard you have some power in these matters. #WOC #POC #NONAZIS
rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) October 14, 2017
The #WomenBoycottTwitter movement received criticism from many for its tacticsis silence the best form of protest?and its focus. McGowan, a white woman, prompted a boycott while women of color who have been subject to unfair enforcement from Twitter or harassment on the platform havent received similar outpourings of support.
Calling white women allies to recognize conflict of #WomenBoycottTwitter for women of color who havent received support on similar issues.
Ava DuVernay (@ava) October 13, 2017
Dorsey responded to both groups in his reference to voices silencing themselves and voices speaking out.
As Dorsey promised, more to share next week.
As part of its 45th anniversary celebrations, UMB Bank paid a courtesy visit to the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu on Friday, September 29, 2017 and held a Thanksgiving Service on Sunday October 8, 2017.
The UMB delegation that greeted the National Chief Imam was led by Mr. John Awuah, the Chief Executive Officer of UMB. He was accompanied by UMB Executives, Mr. Benjamin Amenumey, Chief Operating Officer; Mr. Felix Date, Director of Enterprise Risk; Ms. Yvonne Botchey, Director Marketing & Communications; and prominent Muslim members of staff to offer special prayers and gratitude to the almighty Allah for seeing UMB through 45 years of banking excellence in Ghana.
Mr. Awuah, commented that on the occasion of UMBs 45th anniversary, the visit was to strengthen the bond between UMB and the Muslim community as well as to show appreciation and gratitude for their tremendous support over the years.
The UMB 45thAnniversary Thanksgiving Service, which was presided by Most. Rev. Professor Emmanuel Asante, the immediate past Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, was attended by such notable dignitaries as the Deputy Finance Minister, Hon. Abena Osei Asare; the First Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Ghana, Hiroki Yamashita; Nii Kpobi Tettey Tsuru III, La Mantse; Nanahemaa Adjoa Awindor, Development Queenmother of Afigya-Kwabre District in Ashanti Kingdom; and Nana Agyapomaa II, Kontihemaa of Assin Ngresi. Other guests included customers of UMB, shareholders, UMB Board Members, UMB Foundation members and UMB staff.
The event was a moving and emotional one as all in attendance gave thanks and praise to the Lord almighty for making UMB one of the leading banks in Ghana.
Mrs. Elizabeth Zormelo, the Board Chairperson of UMB, opened the Thanksgiving Service by welcoming the guests. She set the tone for the event by emphasizing the Banks gratitude for its many blessings, most notably its loyal customers that have helped the bank to reach the milestone of 45 years of banking excellence.
At the Thanksgiving service, Mr. Awuah noted that recent developments in the banking sector rightly demonstrate the daunting challenges that banks in Ghana face daily and stated that: "on this day, we cannot help but express our profound gratitude to God. We give thanks and praises to the Lord for giving us the capacity and the wherewithal to thrive in this competitive industry. Indeed, we continue to succeed due to Gods many blessings and thanks to the Lord almighty we are a strong bank, both spiritually and financially.
UMBs visit to the National Chief Imam and its 45th Anniversary Thanksgiving Service are part of a yearlong celebration to highlight and celebrate UMBs evolution as one of the premier financial institutions in Ghana.
UMB Bank (UMB) is a full-service financial institution specializing in customized banking products and services. UMB opened on March 15, 1972 and is a leading Ghanaian indigenous bank with considerable financial expertise.
UMB is recognized for its entrepreneurial approach, innovative use of technology, and distinctive banking solutions. UMB currently has 32 branches, 3 UMB Centres for Businesses, 1 UMB PPP Incubator Centre and a vast network of ATMs.
Fishermen at the James Town beach in Accra are lamenting over the declining fish stock in Ghana's territorial waters due to illegal fishing methods as well as the changing weather pattern.
The assertion follows a recent report of a sharp drop in the fish stock along Ghana's coast line, threatening the growth of the fisheries sub-sector.
A fisherman at the James Town beach who gave his name as Adjei complained about illegal fishing methods used by people he alleges are Chinese nationals in Ghana's territorial waters.
Illegal fishing methods
Adjei and his brother tell Citi Business News the Chinese nationals use huge fishing vessels and light to fish, killing even the fingerlings due to the heat the light produces.
They use big vessels and illegal fishing methods. The light they use is so bright that you could see it miles away in the sea. It's a bad fishing method. It attracts the fish but it also kills every living organism in that area due to the heat it generates he said.
According to him, the heat produced from the light is so intense such that the area is always warm even hours after the vessels have left.
Nii Kwaku Tawiah, a chief fisherman at James town, who spoke to Citi Business News also lamented about the declining fish stock due to the illegal fishing methods.
He pointed out that some of the fishermen use illegal fishing nets which posses danger to fish and other living organism.
Most of our colleagues also use illegal fishing nets. The Chinese vessels and the light fishing are the biggest problem but we know some people use illegal nets. We monitor them and if they are caught we hand them over to the appropriate authorities
He added that the changes in the weather may have also contributed to the decline in the fish stock. According to him, months like August, September October and December use to produce good fish but the situation has been different in recent times.
In the past, we don't have to go far into the deep, particularly during and after the Homowo festival but the situation is different now. We are in October and the catch is not encouraged. Can you imagine since dawn, this few fish is my catch?, he said lifting a basket containing some fish.
Research on declining fish stock
A research released last month, conducted by Professor Aggrey Fynn of the University of Cape Coast's Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences warned that Ghana should brace itself for a further decline in the fish stock as the water temperature rises.
Fishes are also living organisms just like us so as the temperature rises they will begin to feel uncomfortable in their environment, so if they have the opportunity to move they will move to where temperature is okay for them otherwise they will do. Climate change is going to cause a lot of fish species to move out of their natural habitat.
He disclosed that the study showed that the changing weather pattern which is caused by climate change is gradually changing the temperature of some parts of the sea hence migration of the fish.
New law for fishing industry
Meanwhile, the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye has said that Ghana's fishing law is currently under review and is expected to be operational within the first quarter of 2018.
In an interview with Citi Business News at the sidelines of this year's World Ocean Day celebration, Madam Quaye said the amended law will help sanitize the fishing industry once approved by Parliament.
The fisher law is in bits and pieces, with the amendments, LIs and the rest so we have found it necessary to put together all the laws into one, we are also seeing a lot of other amendments that we need to do so we are capturing all this into one and we are almost done, she said.
So by December this year the draft will be out and then we will be taken through stakeholder consultations by early 2018 the draft bill will go to parliament and then it will be passed, she assured.
By: Lawrence Segbefia/Jessica Ayorkor Aryee/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
16.10.2017 LISTEN
Politicians and other mourners besieged the Ashanti Region town of Konongo at the week-end to bid farewell to a former Regional Minister, Kofi Opoku-Manu.
The long-serving Chief Director at the Ministry of Finance passed on in Accra at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital on August 1, 2017, after a short illness.
The National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party were heavily represented, as the late civil servant and a politician was laid to rest.
The NDC team was led by National Chairman Kofi Portuphy, Vice Chairperson Betty Mould-Iddrissu, Deputy General Secretary Koku Anyidoho, former Finance Minister Kwame Peprah, two former Regional Ministers, Samuel Sarpong and Alexander John Ackon.
Others include National Communication Officer, Solomon Nkansah and his deputy, Kwaku Boahen; Vice Chair, Anitha De Souza; former Deputy Regional Minister, Joana Appiah Dwomoh, among others.
The New Patriotic Party was led by the former Ashanti and Chieftaincy and Culture Minister, Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Kofi Adda-Minister for Water Resources and Sanitation as well as Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Chief Executive of the State Enterprises Commission (SEC).
Mr. Opoku-Manu served as District Chief Executive for Damongo, Bekwai, Obuasi, among others, under the Rawlings Regime.
He resigned from the Civil Service in 2000 to engage in active politics, having worked as Administrative Officer for Northern and Ashanti Regions.
Mr. Opoku-Manu is believed to have brought financial reforms at the Ministry of Finance during his tenure as Chief Director.
He is remembered for describing Asantehene a Super Chief at his vetting for the Ashanti Regional Minister position by Parliaments Appointment Committee in 2009.
In a tribute read by National Vice-Chairperson, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, the NDC described the late Opoku-Manu as a true party man who worked for all.
His widow, Juliet Opoku-Manu eulogised her late husband for his love, kindness and exemplary life.
"For the 21-years I have been Kofi Opoku-Manu's wife, I have enjoyed sweet marriage life, exciting friendship and counseling from a wise man. I am grateful for every minute we had together Kofi," she said.
New York, 13 October, 2017 United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres today announced the appointment of Major General Francis Vib-Sanziri of Ghana as the Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
Major General Vib-Sanziri succeeds Major General Jai Shanker Menon of India, who completed his assignment on 30 September 2017. The Secretary-General is grateful to Major General Menon for his dedicated leadership of UNDOF.
Since joining the Ghana Army of the Ghanaian Armed Forces in 1985, Major General Vib-Sanziri has had a distinguished military career at both national and international levels. He has been serving as Director-General of the International Peace Support Operations at the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces since April 2017. Earlier in his career, he served as Assistant Director, Ghana Army Operations (1996-1998), Deputy Head of the Ghana Military Academy (2002-2004), Commanding Officer of an Infantry Battalion (2004-2009), Director for International Peacekeeping Support Operations in 2009 and Army Secretary at the Army Headquarters (2010-2011). In 2014, he was appointed Director-General for Joint Operations, General Headquarters. He served as Director-General of the National Disaster Management Organization from 2015 to 2017.
Major General Vib-Sanziri also possesses extensive peacekeeping experience, including deployments to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (1988 and 1991), the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (1993-1994), and the United Nations Mission in Liberia in 2007. He also served with the Economic Community of West Africa States Monitoring Group in Liberia (1990), in Sierra Leone (1999-2000) and, subsequently, with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone. From 2011 to 2014, he served as a strategic military planner in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the United Nations.
Major General Vib-Sanziri holds a Masters degree in Military Art and Science from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (USA), a Post Graduate Certificate in Public Administration from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree (BA Hons) in Geography and Rural Resource Development from the University of Ghana. He is a graduate of the Nigerian Armed Forces Command and General Staff College, Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College and the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Born in 1957, he is married and has two daughters.
Deputy Director of Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Maame Afia Akoto has accused the previous of using sole sourcing to loot government monies.
According to her, it was surprising to see that members of the Opposition National Democratic Congress were now claiming to be saints after they engaged in numerous forms of corrupt activities.
Look at the kind of soul sourcing contracts that the NDC used to steal government monies and they are now claiming to be saints.
Speaking on Agoo TVs Yensempa show hosted by Bonohene Baffour Awuah, Maame said the Nana Addo led government is one that believes in the rule of law hence the delay in starting prosecution of persons believed to have been engaged in corrupt acts.
She explained that the President with his law background understands that in order to prosecute someone, you will need to do due diligence and get the needed evidence before you could send the person to court.
We will not be rushing out there to put people before court without gathering enough evidence. The president is a lawyer and he knows this. She said.
According to her, the NDC made a similar mistake when they failed to gather evidence to prosecute some members of the New Patriotic Party whom they accused of being corrupt.
She has however cautioned members of the NDC to desist from throwing dust into the publics eyes through their numerous propaganda allegations of corruption against the ten months old Nana Addo led government.
According to her, the NDCs allegations of corruption against the ten months young Nana Addo led government should be supported with evidence because the president had shown commitment to investigating all corruption allegations levelled against his appointees.
Lagos (AFP) - The leader of a pro-Biafran separatist group in Nigeria has apparently gone missing, prompting speculation as to his whereabouts on the eve of his trial on treason charges.
Nnamdi Kanu, who heads the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, has not been seen in public since troops were deployed to the southeastern city of Umuahia last month.
Kanu, who wants a separate state for the Igbo people who dominated the country's southeast, has been on bail since April.
He is scheduled to appear in court in Abuja on Tuesday.
His lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, told AFP: "Only the army can tell us where he is. Either they arrested him or they killed him.
"If he is alive, they should bring him to the court on Tuesday."
Justice ministry spokesman Salihu Othman Isah said whether the trial goes ahead depends on Kanu's appearance and the judge.
"I can't tell you specifically what will happen," he added.
Bullet holes
Kanu's disappearance has prompted renewed fears of violence in the restive southeast, which remains tense 50 years after a declaration of independence sparked a brutal civil war.
He was first arrested in October 2015 and held in custody until April this year, despite repeated court rulings that he should be released.
In Umuahia, which was once the capital of the self-styled republic of Biafra and where Kanu spent his childhood, the windows of the family home have been blown out.
The ochre walls and the cars parked in front of the building are pitted with bullet holes, according to an AFP correspondent in the city.
Kanu's younger brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, maintains he was at the compound when soldiers attacked it on September 14.
He said 28 people were killed but the army has denied the claim. Neither claim has been verified independently.
"They were so numerous. They started to shoot from 200 metres (650 feet) away," Prince Emmanuel told AFP by telephone. "People were running for their lives. We had no guns with us."
Prince Emmanuel said the military was holding his brother in secret. The government has dismissed the claim and said he was "hiding" somewhere.
Long-standing resentment
Nigeria officially declared IPOB a "terrorist organisation" in mid-September after violent clashes between the security forces and IPOB supporters.
Members of the group were accused of attacking military checkpoints in Umuahia, which is the capital of Abia state, and the state's commercial hub, Aba.
There was also violence in Port Harcourt, which is the capital of the neighbouring state of Rivers and Nigeria's main oil hub.
Officially, the military said the troop deployment was part of its Operation Python Dance against crime in the region. IPOB said it was designed to curb its activities.
Human rights organisations and analysts believe the authorities' response has exacerbated tensions in a region where separatist sentiment has never really disappeared.
Many in the southeast say the region's lack of basic infrastructure and extreme poverty is a "punishment" for what happened in 1967.
The charismatic Kanu, who is in his 50s, knew how to exploit those frustrations. He revived Radio Biafra and used to broadcast calls for independence from his home in London.
Those calls increased after his arrest and sparked repeated demonstrations. Even after his release on bail, he rarely passed up a chance to whip up his crowds of supporters.
Kanu wants a referendum on self-determination and has called for a boycott all forthcoming elections.
High-risk strategy
Security consultant Don Okereke believes the army overstepped the mark by conducting law enforcement operations in the southeast that were normally the remit of the police.
"(The) Python Dance exercise is an aberration. There's a high sentiment of distrust," he said.
The federal government in Abuja has meanwhile opened itself up to the charge of "double standards" with the Biafra question, he added.
On the one hand it is prepared to negotiate with Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast and militants in the Niger delta in the south but not IPOB, Okereke added.
That was a high-risk strategy, he said, adding: "If anything happens to him (Kanu), the reactions are likely to be very violent in the southeast."
In 2009, a military crackdown on Boko Haram led to the death in custody of its leader, Muhammad Yusuf.
For now, rumours abound about Kanu's whereabouts. The British mission in Abuja has denied one claim from a former Abia state governor that Kanu was back in London.
Rome (AFP) - Pope Francis marked UN World Food Day on Monday with a call for world governments to act together to fight the hunger, conflicts and climate change driving mass migration from the developing to the industrialised world.
In a speech to the global body's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome, Francis said love rather than pity should be placed at the heart of international development efforts, and threw his weight behind efforts in the UN to negotiate a global accord on managed, safe migration.
"Is it too much to ask to think of inserting the concept of love into the language of international cooperation," Francis said in a speech that was greeted with a standing ovation.
"We cannot limit ourselves to pity, because pity stops with emergency aid while love inspires justice and is essential to create a just social order," Francis said.
Francis cited the Paris climate change accord as an example of what could be achieved if governments worked together, while bemoaning that some were now "distancing themselves from it" - an apparent swipe at US President Donald Trump.
Before his speech, Francis unveiled a new statue of Alan Kurdi, the Syrian boy who became a symbol of the refugee crisis created by his country's civil war after his corpse washed up a Turkish beach in 2015.
The statue, by Italian sculptor Luigi Prevedel, was a gift from the Argentinian pontiff to FAO.
In his speech, Francis said governments had to address the roots of migratory pressures and accept they were irresistible.
"How do you stop people who are ready to risk everything, entire generations that can disappear for lack of their daily bread, or because they are the victims of violence or climate change?
"They go where they see light, or sense a hope of life. They cannot be stopped by physical, economic, legal or ideological barriers: only a coherent application of the principle of humanity can do that.
"The organisation of human mobility demands coordinated and systematic intergovernmental action, based on existing international norms and permeated with love and intelligence."
Richmond Asante, Head of Mortgage Origination at Ghana Home Loans, says his outfit is ready to partner real estate developers to help address the housing deficit and also support more people to obtain their dream homes.
Speaking at the second Developers and Estate Agents Seminar for 2017 recently in Accra, Mr Asante said the housing delivery system in Ghana was growing at a pace slower than the population growth rate.
We urge all real estate developers to stretch their ambition to deliver more housing units. Ghana Home Loans is committed to helping finance such projects. Home ownership continues to be a key part of our mortgage portfolio, he stated.
The biannual seminar seeks to assess mid-year performance review and further deepen relationships with industry players.
The event was used to discuss industry developments for the first half of 2017, challenges being faced by developers and the implications for developers, as Ghana Home Loans transitions from a non-bank financial institution into a universal bank.
Edward Nyarko, Special Project Manager of Ghana Home Loans, made a presentation on the new construction loan products that are likely to be rolled out to the benefit of the developers.
He said the purpose of the loan was for the construction and completion of houses and infrastructure development and not for acquisition of land.
Tony Asare, a renowned architect, spoke on the zoning and planning guidelines of the usage of land.
The guidelines and zoning are intended to help local planning authorities in approving any development within their area to assist developers and players in the real estate industry.
Executive Secretary for GREDA, Sammy Amegayibor, reiterated the support of the association to developers in addressing day-to-day challenges in the industry.
Head of Corporate Communications and Brand Management, Ghana Home Loans, Maria Oquaye, highlighted the transformation from Ghana Home Loans to GHL Bank by urging developers to maintain the strong relationship while they come on board to help attain GHL bank's vision of becoming the foremost institution for wealth creation.
'We remain committed and will continue to provide innovative products and services as we transition from a non-bank financial institution to GHL Bank, she said.
Present at the event were representatives of over 100 attendees from estate development companies, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Ghana Real Estate Association (GREDA).
A business desk report
Paramount chief of Wassa Akropong in the Western Region, Omanhene Tetre Akuamoah Sekyim, who has been criticized for forcing a journalist with Rivers FM to kneel in the sun for over three hours, says he has not committed any crime.
According to him, he only punished the journalist who disrespected the traditional authority, to serve as a deterrent to others.
The woes of the Rivers FM journalist began after a Chinese Jiang Gen Hai allegedly shot and killed one Nana Buah, a native, recently.
This generated pandemonium in the town when the youth demanded that the Chinese miner be handed to them to avenge the death of their friend.
During the tussle, Larry Saint (the journalist) posted a voice note on a WhatsApp platform for journalists, accusing the chiefs of rather protecting the Chinese against the indigenes.
The audio reached the chiefs who immediately summoned Larry to the palace where he was made to kneel down for over three hours.
The action has incurred the wrath of many Ghanaians, especially journalists who believe the punishment is an infringement on the right of Larry Saint.
But in a quick reaction on Adom FM's 'Midday News' on Friday, the Omanhene said he had not regretted ordering the newsman to kneel down.
I believe in free speech but it has a limit and I think the journalist was not fair to make such remarks which undermined my authority, he stated.
However, the Wassa Akropong chief said he never ordered the journalist to kneel in the sun as he wants the world to believe.
Omanhene Sekyim also described as false claims that he intends to banish the Rivers FM journalist.
I didn't threaten the journalist like he is saying and so he should stop saying those things. I urge Ghanaians to go and listen to the tape and realize how bad the journalist sounded. I don't want to make any further comments since the police are investigating the issue, he added.
The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has dismissed a report in the pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) Daily Post newspaper that solders are angry with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for not paying their peacekeeping allowance.
The newspaper reported that it had picked intelligence that reveals that not only soldiers returning home after their one-year peacekeeping duty in Lebanon who are angry with President Akufo-Addo for paying them a paltry $1,000 before they go on their compulsory leave, but also soldiers in general throughout the country are angry with him for failing to pay them the salary increment he promised.
But a statement dismissing the publication, signed by Colonel E. Aggrey-Quashie, Director, Public Relations, the GAF, indicates, The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has noted with concern a false publication in the Daily Post newspaper on 12 October, 2017, claiming that troops on UN peacekeeping operations are being paid $31 instead of the $35 promised by Government. GAF wishes to state categorically that this information is totally false and without any iota of truth. It is hereby reiterated that the approved rate of payment remains $35 per soldier per day without any intention of reducing it.
The negative comments being circulated with the intention of downplaying the efforts of Government in promoting troops' welfare are considered to be in bad taste and the general public is hereby advised to disregard it.
In March this year, President Akufo-Addo announced the increase in peacekeeping allowance from $31 to $35, taking retrospective effect from January.
Addressing the end-of-year get-together of the Ghana Armed Forces popularly called WASSA, President Akufo-Addo indicated that a number of pledges he made to the Ghana Armed Forces had already been fulfilled or were already in motion.
In furtherance of our commitment to improving your welfare, my administration, in fulfillment of a manifesto pledge, has increased the peacekeeping allowance, effective January 2017, from $31 to $35, he said.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africas leading philanthropy dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship, concluded its 3rd annual TEF Entrepreneurship Forum on 14th of October 2017 in Lagos.
The Forum hosted more than 1,300 participants from 54 African countries. The most diverse and inclusive gathering of African entrepreneurs on the continent, the Forum continued its strong tradition of showcasing innovation across sectors, including Agriculture, Technology, Healthcare, Fashion and Energy/Power Generation.
Launched in 2015, the Forum was born out of the Foundations $100 million commitment to identify, train, mentor and fund 10,000 African entrepreneurs, over a decade, through the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme.
During a powerful keynote address, Tony O. Elumelu, CON, the philanthropist and Founder who is also the Chairman of the United Bank for Africa, spoke of his belief, that a vibrant African-led private sector is the key to unlocking Africas economic and social potential.
Africas development, which must be private-sector led and entrepreneurially driven, will have at its heart, young African innovators and their transformative ideas. Only they will create the millions of jobs Africa needs. The Forum has brought together Africas most important developmental force, her young entrepreneurs who will become catalysts for Africas economic liberation.
We have united the African entrepreneurship ecosystem, putting the entrepreneurs at centre stage. I want to thank those heads of government and other key policymakers, who have supported our firm belief that the private sector is the engine for growth and the private sector players, who are models of our philosophy of Africapitalism the idea that business will drive change and that change must deliver economic and social wealth he explained.
The two-day event, which involved plenary panels and masterclasses, provided the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs with a platform to network and connect with business leaders, policymakers and investors.
Focusing on the Forums theme of training and mentoring, speakers discussed topics that educated, empowered and inspired the entrepreneurs, addressing the key stages needed to successfully launch a business.
The speaking programme emphasised the Foundations role of uniting entrepreneurs and policymakers, as a means of ensuring that private and public sectors work together to create the best possible operating environment for entrepreneurship to thrive. Political and private sector leaders from across Africa, including HE Aminu Bello Masari, Governor, Katsina state; HE Abdulaziz Abubakar Yari, Governor, Zamfara state; Mr. Lionel Zinsou, Former Prime Minister, Republic of Benin; Oba Otudeko, Chairman, Honeywell Group; Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman, Dangote group, directly addressed the conditions needed for stimulating entrepreneurial growth, whilst senior members of global development institutions, including Wale Ayeni, Senior Investment Office, International Finance Corporation; Stephen Tio Kauma, Director Human Resources, Afrexim Bank and Andre Hue, Deputy Country Director, Agence Francaise de Developpement, spoke of a new paradigm, driven by the need for a private sector-led change.
The private sector working with the public sector can achieve so much by way of development. African governments should move beyond rhetorics and implement their ideas, Oba Otudeko enthused.
Addressing the 3rd cohort of TEF entrepreneurs the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo said: This generation of young people will do the exceptional. You are the reason Africa will work. The length and breadth of display of talent have shown that there is indeed hope.
The Forum also witnessed multiple partnerships between United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Foundation, and between French bilateral development bank, Agence Francaise De Developpement (AFD) and TEF. Commending both agencies for their commitment to promoting youth entrepreneurship in Africa, Elumelu called on other individuals and developmental institutions to partner with the Foundation and expand the scale of its impact. We call on friends of Africa to partner with the Foundation, to scale our impact beyond the 1,000 entrepreneurs a year. Real opportunity exists to tap into Africas potential and our entrepreneurs offer a gateway to participating in both economic success and creating social wealth.
TEF partners including Microsoft, Sage One and Greentec also held training workshops and side events aimed at approaches to strategically scale up business. The United Bank for Africa (UBA) has proudly supported the forum.
Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com
Kisumu (Kenya) (AFP) - A young protester was shot dead in western Kenya on Monday as hundreds of opposition supporters again took to the streets demanding reforms ahead of a presidential election, witnesses told AFP.
Police teargassed a large crowd of protesters in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu, who set tyres alight, blocked roads and pelted policemen with rocks as they kicked off daily protests just 10 days ahead of the election.
One protester, Michael Odiambo, 21, said he had seen police gun down a young man, whose body was also seen by an AFP photographer.
"He was running to hide himself from police. A police man just pointed a gun at him and shot him from a distance. He was shot in the neck," he said.
On Friday two protesters were shot dead by police in the town of Bondo, the rural home of opposition leader Raila Odinga some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Kisumu.
"For how long will these senseless killings by police (go on)? Police cannot be shooting at protesters every other time. Is it a crime to protest?," asked Margaret Akinyi, a vegetable vendor in Kisumu.
She said the young protester killed Monday was "felled by a bullet just next to me and we had to run, all of us. He is dead."
In Nairobi a small crowd of protesters was swiftly dispersed.
A local human rights group said 37 people died in the immediate aftermath of the August 8 election that was later annulled by the Supreme Court which ordered a re-run.
A joint report by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released Monday said it had confirmed 33 deaths at the hands of police.
Kenya's police chief Joseph Boinnet said this report was "totally misleading and based on falsehoods", adding police were only aware of 12 deaths which they were investigating.
The latest protests come as Kenya is mired in confusion over a presidential election that is due to take place on October 26.
Odinga last week announced his withdrawal from the race, arguing that this legally forces the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to begin the whole election from scratch.
He is hoping to win more time for reforms, after the Supreme Court annulled the first election for irregularities in the counting process and mismanagement by the IEBC.
But the IEBC appears to be pushing forward with plans for the vote, saying only that Odinga had yet to submit the required form to officially pull out of the race.
Odinga is hoping to maintain pressure from the street, increasing protests from three times a week to every day.
The Centre for Migration Studies (CMS) has begun the commemoration of its decade of existence at the University of Ghana with the launch of month-long activities.
Prof Samuel Agyei-Mensah stated that the event is aimed at highlighting the contributions of the centre to academic research on migration in the university and migration policies in the country as a whole.
The centre, established due to the lack of data on migration issues in the country, has become a place of centralised migration data, coordination of migration information and the dynamics of migration trends in the country.
Since its establishment 10 years ago, the centre has led the training and research uptake of migration-related issues both locally and internationally formulating various migration policy briefs generated from the researches it undertakes.
Sharing the history with participants at the launch, Prof Mariama Awumbila, Founding Director & Head of the Migration Out of Poverty research consortium of the centre, explained that the university set up the centre to look at emerging migration trends and the role they play in development realising the importance of migration issues and the opportunities it offers for development of a country.
She said the centre started from her little office at the Department of Geography with support from two other staff members, Stephen Adaawen and later Edward Aubonteng-Manu.
We were allocated two offices in the old IAS building where we stayed from 2007 to 2010. We were finally allocated the top floor of the International Programmes in 2010 and moved in early 2011, she added.
She stated that the centre is also mandated to fashion out policies on migration that sometimes has a lot of challenges but also has a lot of benefits and opportunities for development which can be harnessed while reducing the risks.
Achievements
Touching on the accomplishments of the centre, Prof Awumbila mentioned that the CMS is the only centre in West Africa undertaking a migration studies programme with students ranging from English speaking African countries and Europe.
She said the centre has lived up to its expectation in building the capacity of people through its teaching programmes, including MA in Migration Studies, M. Phil in Migration Studies, P.H.D in Migration Studies and short courses on specific areas of Migration Studies.
Prof Awumbila further pointed out that CMS has also contributed a lot in terms of research on migration surveys, including why people migrate, the destination of migrants, the kinds of jobs they do as migrants and the effect it has on their families back home as well as the gender dynamics of migration in Ghana.
We have looked at the links between migration and the various aspects of society so we currently have a project, 'Migration out of Poverty' and we look at the poverty issue, migration and economic development, remittances and how it is bringing about poverty reduction.
We have also facilitated the development of the national migration policy and we have developed the Diaspora policy currently waiting for cabinet approval and other migration policies internationally like that of Sierra Leone and ECOWAS migration policy, she said.
Activities
Dr Margaret Delali Badasu, former Head of CMS, disclosed that there will be a series of radio and TV talk shows from October 4 to 25, 2017 and public lecture on the theme 'Passport Acquisition Processes' on Wednesday, October18 at the International House seminar room.
We will also have our alumni and anniversary dinner on October 25, 2017 and we will crown the celebration with a two-day international conference on the theme 'Migration, Security & Development' on Thursday 26th 27 October at the ISSER Conference room, she said.
The mortal remains of the late Emmanuel Nana Budu Asiam was last Saturday laid to rest at the Madina public cemetery.
The deceased, who was a brother to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company Limited (GCMCL), Frances Awurabena Asiam, died on September 12, 2017 after a short illness.
According to a family source, he is survived by three children Nana Budu Asiam jnr, Alwyn Nyamekye Budu Asiam and Minerva Sakyibea Budu Asiam.
The late Emmanuel Nana Budu, who was a product of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has been described as an astute IT giant who served in a number of state institutions, including the Serious Fraud Office (now Economic and Organised Crime Office-EOCO).
Bishop Eddy Aryee, Chaplain at Flagstaff House Medical Centre, Office of the President, in his words of exhortation urged the mourners to build their trust in Jesus Christ.
The chaplain, who is also the founder of Blessed House Chapel, regretted the conduct of many people, especially the youth, who turn deaf ears to the true message of salvation.
By Solomon Ofori
His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo has challenged farmers in the Northern Region to increase their productivity to bring wealth and opportunities into the region.
According to the president, the Avnash Rice Mill in the Northern Region has been underutilized because due to the low inputs coming into the mill.
He said the stable peace and stability in the region is what encouraged investors like Avnash to invest in the region. He thus pleaded with the good people to continue to maintain the peace and stability in the region to attract more investors into the region.
The Avnash Rice Mill which has the capacity to thresh about 500 metric tons of rice per day and situated in the heart of Tamale, in the Northern Region, is the largest in Africa.
The Chief Executive Officer of Avnash Industries Ghana Limited, Jai Mirchandani said the company has adopted a policy which apart from training about 32,000 farmers will also create a million jobs in the region over a 5-year period.
Avnash is known for its use of local labour and local raw materials.
The Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto said, the facility is being underutilized mainly because of the insufficient resources available to farmers, especially rice farmers in the region.
He revealed that, as part of the planting for food and jobs policy of the Akufo-Addo government, the plant was going to be made one of the pillars for the success of the policy.
This year, some 1100 metric tons of improved rice variety have been supplied to farmers for cultivation.
According to the sector minister, the supply will hit 8,000 metric tons next year which will see a rise in the cultivation of rice in the country.
In 2015, statistics from the ministry of agriculture reveals that, the nation spent $1.5 billion on rice imports alone, an amount, according to the agriculture minister, that can be saved and invested into the development of other facilities and projects.
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale
Mr Ishmael Ashietey, the Greater Accra Regional Minister has urged the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) not to hesitate to eject traders from the streets of Accra.
He expressed dismay at the continuous stay of traders on the streets and said: This is causing a lot of inconveniences to both human and vehicular traffic and has created problems for business transactions in the city.
Mr Ashietey gave the advice when he inaugurated 176 Councilors for the 10 sub-metros of the AMA.
Mr Ashietey said the traders who had abandoned their sheds in the markets to occupy the streets have caused the littering and filth on the streets and therefore, the AMA should ensure that they went back into the markets for free movement of persons and vehicular traffic.
He told the councilors that: Your work is very important because you offer critical services to the people in the communities.
Mr Ashietey said the Legislative Instrument (LI) 2223 empowered the Sub-metropolitan District Councils to keep records of ratable property, fix and collect rates and fees, promote and safeguard public health, responsible for the management of waste, and the prevention of the erection of stalls at undesignated areas.
It is significant to note that as cities grow and the population increases, its management also calls for the establishment of strong and resilient sub-structures that would help ensure effective implementation of the decentralisation process, he said.
The Regional Minister said the councils should live up to expectation by ensuring that unauthorised structures and buildings were not allowed on water ways to make the environment conducive for human habitation.
Mr Ashietey said the development challenges of Accra required that the AMA mobilised adequate revenue from local sources to complement the efforts of the central government in funding projects.
It is sad that majority of the Assemblies still rely mostly on the District Assembly Common Fund and donors for the greater part of their budgetary requirement to finance development programmes, adding that; as Councillors, you have to think outside the box and come up with innovative ways of generating revenue for the assembly, he advised.
Mr Aboagye Tandoh, a Circuit Court Judge administered the oath of office on the Councillors.
GNA
The management of International Students Centre (ISGC) has donated a number of items to inmates of Forster Home located at Frafraha near Adentan in the Greater Accra region.
The ISGC also hosted about forty (40) of the inmates to a party at its cafeteria located at Teiman in the La Nkwantang Madina Municipal Assembly in the Greater Accra region.
The items which comprised large quantities of toilet rolls, three bags of rice and washing bleaches including a set of lunch packs and drinks for each of the inmates were presented by the Equatorial Guinea (EG) Ambassador in Ghana, Jesus Mba Abaha.
According to him, the donation was to commemorate the 49th independence anniversary of Equatorial Guinea (EG) which was celebrated on Thursday October 12, 2017.
He stated that Equatorial Guinea and Ghana have long standing diplomatic relationship which has resulted in the two countries entering into a number of agreements including a visa free entry for their respective nationals.
Mr. Abaha further stated that the construction of ISGC in Ghana by his President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo depicted a very high level of trust Equatorial Guinea has evolved for Ghana.
He urged the various nationals resident in the Guest Centre (ISGC) to exhibit a high level of responsibility reminding them that they are equally representatives of their respective countries.
Mr. Paul Sassou, General Manager of ISGC told the DAILY GUIDE that ISGC is an innovative learning and hospitality centre.
According to him the facility which has 126 rooms, an 80 seater cafeteria and conference rooms among a number of state of the art facilities, is to provide safe accommodation for Equatorial Guinea students and other nationals in Ghana.
At present we have nationals from our home country and a couple of others from Nigeria and Ghana in the residence but we believe that other nationals will hear of our services and apply to lodge with us, he stated.
He explained that the ISGC was established to eulogize the memories of an Equatorial Guinean student Jose Maria Nsue Ndje who died while on a study tour in Ghana.
The Chief of Teiman, Nii Manle Dzahaa I lauded the government of Equatorial Guinea for the donation.
He assured that they, as landlords, will continue to cooperate with the management of the ISGC.
A senior member of staff of the Forster Home Orphanage Ellen Ohene-Bekoe who received the items on behalf of the Forster Home expressed appreciation for the donation saying that the home largely depends on such donations.
She appealed to individuals and other benevolent institutions for assistance.
By Solomon Ofori
The President of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara has arrived in Ghana to begin a two-day official visit.
The purpose of the visit is to deepen further the already strong relations that exist between the two countries, as well as explore other areas of co-operation to their mutual benefit.
This visit is a reciprocal one to the visit made to Cote d'Ivoire by the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in May this year, at the start of his tour of the countries of West Africa.
The two Presidents and their respective teams are expected to hold bilateral discussions at the Flagstaff House on Monday, October 16, 2017, after which the two leaders will address a joint press conference. President Akufo-Addo will, later that evening, host his Ivorian counterpart to an official dinner.
Prior to President Ouattara's departure, on Tuesday, October 17, 2017, the two countries will sign a bilateral agreement, and inaugurate a joint commission for the implementation of the recent judgement passed by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on the delimitation of the maritime boundaries of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.
-Myjoyonline
A recent ruling by the EU Court of Justice describing as wrong Italys decision to ban approved genetically modified maize vindicates Ghanas policy position on the technology.
That is the opinion of the former Director General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Prof. Walter Alhassan.
It puts to rest some of the misunderstandings about GM technologies. For me, it takes away some of the political reasons for not growing GMO, he said.
Despite the EUs approval for the use of the GMO maize in 1998, the Italian government requested that it be banned in 2013 claiming two national scientific studies questioned its safety.
The EU rejected the request on the basis that Italy had failed to show its cultivation posed a serious risk to public health or the environment.
But the Italian government went ahead to ban their cultivation in 2014 and prosecuted a number of farmers who continued to grow it.
The prosecution was challenged in court and the European Union Court of Justice ruled in September that unless there is significant evidence that GMOs pose a serious risk to humans, animals and the environment, member states cannot adopt emergency measures to prohibit their use.
It means there is no country in Europe which can now stop the growing of GM crops based on the precautionary principle which says even if you dont have enough scientific evidence to say the thing it unsafe, its enough reason to put it away.
"Now you have to produce enough scientific evidence that the thing is unsafe before banning not based on emotion, Prof. Alhassan said.
According to him, this also dispels claims that the use of GMO crops is prohibited in Europe. So that supposed ban that EU countries cannot grow GM crops is virtually lifted by this ruling, he added.
Ghana is currently undertaking trials that will allow for the commercialization of GMO cowpea in the country. Despite opposition by civil society groups, the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, as well as the CSIR have insisted there is nothing harmful about GMOs.
For Prof. Alhassan, the ruling is evidence that the low popularity of GMOs in Europe compared to America where the majority of foods are GMOs, have nothing to do with the safety of the technology.
All along, we have always said the conditions in Europe are not the same as in Africa. If they feel they have enough money to import food, that is up to them. But we are faced with challenges. And so we cannot put it aside, he noted.
The European Commission in a statement following the ruling cautioned member countries against banning the technology based on fear of the unknown.
Below is the full statement from the commission
Member States may not adopt emergency measures regarding genetically modified food and feed unless it is evident that there is a serious risk to health or the environment
In 1998, the European Commission authorised the placing on the market of genetically modified maize MON 810. In its decision, the Commission referred to the opinion of the Scientific Committee which stated that there was no reason to believe that that product would have any adverse effects on human health or the environment.
In 2013, the Italian Government asked the Commission to adopt emergency measures to prohibit the cultivation of maize MON 810 in the light of some new scientific studies carried out by two Italian research institutes. On the basis of a scientific opinion issued by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the Commission concluded that there was no new science-based evidence to support the requested emergency measures and to invalidate its previous conclusions about the safety of maize MON 810.
Despite this, in 2013 the Italian Government adopted a ministerial decree prohibiting the cultivation of MON 810 in Italian territory. In 2014, a farmer, Mr. Giorgio Fidenato and others cultivated maize MON 810 in breach of the ministerial decree, for which they were prosecuted.
In the context of criminal proceedings brought against those persons, the Tribunale di Udine (District Court, Udine, Italy) asked the Court of Justice, in particular, whether emergency measures may, in relation to food, be taken on the basis of the precautionary principle. In accordance with the precautionary principle, Member States may adopt emergency measures in order to avert risks to human health that have not yet been fully identified or understood because of scientific uncertainty.
By its judgment delivered today, the Court points out, first of all, that both EU food law 2 and EU legislation on genetically modified food and feed 3 seek to ensure a high level of protection of human health and consumers interest, whilst ensuring the effective functioning of the internal market, of which the free movement of safe and wholesome food and feed is an essential aspect.
In that context, the Court finds that, where it is not evident that genetically modified products are likely to constitute a serious risk to human health, animal health or the environment, neither the Commission nor the Member States have the option of adopting emergency measures such as the prohibition on the cultivation of maize MON 810.
The Court emphasises that the precautionary principle, which presupposes scientific uncertainty as regards the existence of a particular risk, is not sufficient for the adoption of such measures. Although that principle may justify the adoption of provisional risk management measures in the area of food in general, it does not allow for the provisions laid down in relation to genetically modified foods to be disregarded or modified, in particular by relaxing them, since those foods have already gone through a full scientific assessment before being placed on the market.
Moreover, the Court finds that a Member State may, where it has officially informed the Commission of the need to resort to emergency measures and where the Commission has not acted, adopt such measures at the national level. Furthermore, it may maintain or renew those measures, so long as the Commission has not adopted a decision requiring their extension, amendment or abrogation. In those circumstances, the national courts have jurisdiction to assess the lawfulness of the measures concerned.
Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline.com | Joseph Opoku Gakpo| Joy News
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz delivering the Inaugural Babacar Ndiaye Lecture in Washington D.C. today.
16.10.2017 LISTEN
Washington D.C., 15 October 2017: The Babacar Ndiaye Lecture Series, an international series introduced by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), debuted in Washington D.C. today with Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz saying that African countries should adopt a coordinated strategy that encompassed the agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and service sectors in order to attain the same success delivered by the old manufacturing export-led strategy.
Afreximbank launched the Babacar Ndiaye Lecture series to honour the late Dr. Babacar Ndiaye, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) from 1985 to 1995, for his many important contributions to Africas economic development, in particular, his critical role in the creation of Afreximbank. In addition to helping the AfDB to earn triple A status, Dr. Ndiaye, who died in July 2017, was also behind the creation of several other continental institutions, including Shelter Afrique and the African Business Roundtable, and is credited with fostering the emergence of many young entrepreneurs who are helping to build Africa today.
In a wide-ranging presentation titled From Manufacturing Led Export Growth to a 21st Century Inclusive Growth Strategy for Africa at the Inaugural Babacar Ndiaye Lecture, Prof. Stiglitz, an economist and professor at Columbia University, New York, argued that while export-led growth was the basis of success of growth over the past half century, the factors that enabled manufacturing to provide that growth spurt would not be able to do so to the same extent in the future.
Another strategy that performed some of the essential roles that manufacturing export-led development did was, therefore, necessary, he said.
Successful development policy will need to be explicitly more multi-pronged, addressing the separate challenges that the manufacturing sector addressed simultaneously, said Prof. Stiglitz.
According to him, governments will need to play an important role in the new structural transformation towards a modern economy. That economy would not, in general, be a manufacturing economy but a modern services economy, he noted, saying that in the next phase of Africas development, modern agriculture would be vital.
Prof. Stiglitz highlighted the need for robust agricultural sector to provide full employment, including by stimulating manufacturing and services, and said that countries should seek to add learning dimension to agriculture and other sectors.
Modern agriculture can be very advanced, he noted, saying that there should be focus on non-labor saving innovations, including better crop mix and better fertilizers.
The focus on learning should emphasise developing skills that are useful in modern economy and there should be transformation of farming from traditional practices to modern farming.
Earlier, Dr. Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, said that the Lecture Series was being launched to recognize and immortalize the exceptional contributions of Dr Babacar Ndiaye to Africa and, indeed, mankind.
Dr Babacar Ndiaye was a visionary, consummate leader and a great institution builder who served the continent of Africa in an exemplary way throughout his well-documented and celebrated career, said Dr. Oramah, who noted that he engineered a massive transformation of the AfDB and the financial landscape of the continent. He strategically used the AfDBs platform and convening power to address some of the key constraints to economic development facing the African continent, emerging as a prodigious builder of development finance institutions across the continent.
Dr. Oramah extolled Dr. Ndiayes vision in championing the creation of Afreximbank and wondered what would have been the course of Africa today if the Bank had not been created.
Which international bank would have been there to support the continent in the past two years of severe commodity crisis if Afreximbank was not there to disburse over $9 billion to certain banks and central banks?; which international bank would have ignored high compliance cost to be there for African economies that have lost correspondent banking relationships?; how would Africa today be dreaming of expanding intra-African trade and export manufacturing without an Afreximbank?, he asked.
Dr. Oramah noted that since inception, Afreximbank had disbursed about $50 billion in support of African trade; attracted about $60 billion into strategic sectors of the African economy; expanded the continents industrial capacities through the financing of value addition across several industries, including cocoa, coffee, cotton and tea as well as a number of metals and minerals; and facilitated the development of critical trade and industrial infrastructure, among others.
In a goodwill message, Charles Boamah, Senior Vice President at the AfDB, commended Afreximbank for the initiative to honour Dr. Ndiaye said that the former AfDB President charted a clear path to Africas economic development.
The AfDB had also honoured Dr. Ndiaye by holding a special memorial event in his honour and by naming a major auditorium after him, added Mr. Boanah.
Also speaking, Dr. Donald Kaberuka, a former President of the AfDB, said that Dr. Ndiayes defining characteristics included his deep belief in Africa and a conviction that Africa could achieve development through trade and investment rather than through aid.
He rejected artificial divisions imposed on Africa, instead preferring to see the continent as one unit and believing that the Africa would develop best through continental integration, said Dr. Kaberuka.
The event attracted leaders of African and global banks, development finance institutions, the business community and political leaders attending the World BankIMF Annual Meetings, members of the diplomatic community, policy makers, academicians, African and non-African ministers of finance, economy and development, central bank governors, and CEOs of global and African corporates.
Mogadishu (AFP) - Tears streamed down Abduweli Osman's cheeks as he stood in the sticky heat outside a Mogadishu hospital, his last stop in the search for his brother who he now believed was dead.
The last he and his family heard, Abdukadir Ahmed had decided to pass by a popular commercial district in the Somali capital on Saturday known as KM5, before heading home.
But he never arrived.
Instead, there came news that the area had been flattened by a truck bomb.
In addition to inflicting a toll that would rise to 276 dead and 300 injured, the blast destroyed some 20 buildings, including a hotel, restaurant and pharmacy, and incinerated the stores of street vendors selling fruit and jerricans of fuel that only intensified the blaze.
Like dozens of devastated residents of the capital, Osman went from hospital to hospital to search for his relative, before finally giving up hope.
"For the last 24 hours we have been looking for my brother ... and finally we are convinced he is dead because we found his student ID card," he said.
"It is painful when you simply lose someone you love in a tragedy and you don't even get his dead body to provide proper burial," sobbed the grocer, who is in his thirties.
Inside the hospital is overcrowded, with visitors using handheld fans to cool themselves as they rush between wards, or huddle around injured loved ones suffering burns, shrapnel wounds and broken bones.
Abdinasir Moalim is bringing sheets, pillows, blankets and a mosquito net for his uncle -- essential in the under-equipped hospital.
He received a call from his uncle, who was inside the Safari Hotel when the blast occurred, and who managed to call him before his phone died.
"When I went in there I did not know where to start because of the devastation and horrible scene of dead bodies all over the place," he told AFP.
"My uncle's phone went dead but fortunately he was picked up by the rescue workers and he is now at the hospital with the injury, he is fine."
Turkish mercy flight
For many in Mogadishu, the news of yet another attack was a humdrum affair, with deadly bombings a common occurrence since Al-Shabaab Islamists were pushed out of the capital in 2011 by African Union and Somali troops.
However the scale of the attack has stunned the hardy residents of the seaside city, who began a three-day period of mourning Monday.
"I have never witnessed such a deadly blast, it was like it killed everybody around the area and set all vehicles ablaze," said Moalim.
Some of the injured were evacuated by plane on Monday for treatment in Turkey
On Monday, a Turkish military plane flew in medical supplies for the overstretched hospitals, while evacuating some of the injured to Turkey for treatment.
Victims 'unrecognisable'
Already more than 100 unidentified people have been buried who were burned beyond recognition.
While the rapid burial is partly due to Islamic culture, the Somali government also has no proper morgue nor the capability to carry out forensic tests to identify the victims.
"The government exhausted every effort to recognise these dead bodies ... but it became so difficult that it decided to bury them all together," said local government official Muhidin Ali.
Grief at the attack has mingled with anger. Analysts suspect the perpetrators are the Shabaab Islamist group
"The gruesome dead bodies were displayed at the hospitals for relatives but a few were recognised and most of them not at all, the devastation is something beyond the imagination of humankind," he added.
Despite this, many still held out hope that their loved ones could be found among the living, sitting in wait at hospitals.
Idil Ado, a mother of three, is waiting underneath a thorny tree outside the Medina Hospital along with several other relatives. Her niece has been missing since the blast and they are desperate for any information.
"We have looked for (the girl) in every hospital and we have been here at the Medina Hospital since yesterday. We are still here hoping to get some information, even if she is dead," she said.
Ahmed Farah, a rescue worker at the scene of the blast says hope of finding more survivors are slim to none.
"I don't think there are survivors anymore, about 400 soldiers worked together with the emergency teams in search of survivors and ... I don't see any remaining rubble under which people can live," he said.
nur-fb/ri
Accra, Oct. 16, CDA Consult The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) on Monday called on the African Union (AU) to steer Kenya out of the political turmoil which has engulfed the nation since the highest court of the land annulled the last Presidential Elections.
The Kenyan Supreme Court nullified President Uhuru Kenyattas victory in the original election on Aug. 8, citing procedural irregularities and fixed October 26 for a re-run.
Professor Edmund Nminyem Delle, CPP Chairman and leader told the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in an interview that Kenya needs help; the AU must intensify mediation efforts as the ground is daily becoming fertile for violence to once again erupt in that country.
Commenting on media a report which indicates that the Government of Kenya has imposed a ban on protests in key cities - Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu - until further notice whilst Police are allegedly assaulting demonstrators, Prof. Delle noted that these are signs of a breakdown of State authority and the country is at the brink of civil war.
It is exactly when partisan pressures are high that electoral stakeholders must create enabling political environment for people to express their views devoid of personality attacks, arrest and security brutalities. The Kenyan Government must protect the rights of all citizens.
Kenyans must be allowed to engage in peaceful, lawful protests, citizens must not be hindered from exercising and defending their legitimate right to express their views especially dissent position, Prof Delle noted.
Prof. Delle also appealed to democratic forces in Kenya to work together to build solid democratic State, we must strengthen State institutions to perform their duties without interference and political manipulation.
The CPP Chairman said the pattern of alleged police brutality and excessive use of force against demonstrators, and the unswerving harassment of judges and threats to civil society as well as the arbitrary use of force by law enforcement officials is incompatible with the absolute prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
He also urged opposition political leaders to work in the interest of Kenyans, engage relevant stakeholders and resort to legal means for redress instead of civil unrest, even though it is their right but we must be circumspect.
Kenya is facing a choice. We urge it to choose to uphold its constitution and pursue strengthening of its democracy, to avoid deepening political divisions and exacerbating tensions. Once that choice is made, it can say no to violence, repression, and impunity and a resounding yes to building trust in institutions and processes and between citizens, he said.
Meanwhile Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who withdrew from a Presidential Election re-run set for Oct. 26 explained that it should only take place once wide-ranging reforms are undertaken, urged his supporters on Sunday to hold protests.
Authorities have banned protests in central Nairobi and other hotspots in a bid to keep a lid on mounting political turmoil in the build-up to the repeat vote, in which Odinga had been set to challenge President Kenyatta once again.
On October 13, Mr Odinga said his withdrawal meant the poll had been canceled and that there should be fresh nominations for a new vote.
The election board has said the vote will go ahead, with Kenyatta facing six other candidates, none of whom polled more than one per cent in August.
Mr Odinga has indicated intention to return to the Supreme Court for clarification on whether the Oct. 26 poll was legal.
Accra, Oct. 16, CDA Consult The African Court of Human and Peoples Rights has unanimously, thrown out the Advisory Opinion request by LAssociation Africaine de Defense des Droits de LHomme (ASADHO) a non-profit Non-Governmental Organization based in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The prayer of the Applicant is for the African Court to rule that the Draft Model Law on Mining on Community Land in Africa (Draft Model Mining Law for Africa) is consistent with the provisions of the African Charter.
In a September 28 ruling by the African Continental Court made available to the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult based in Accra) explained that
The African Court further established that recognition of NGOs by the African Union is through the granting of Observer Status or the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between the African Union and the NGOs concerned.
It noted that in the instant case, the Applicant has not claimed and has not provided proof as to their Observer Status before the African Union or that it has signed any Memorandum of Understanding with the Union.
The African Continental Court states that from the foregoing, it finds that although the Applicant is an African organization within the meaning of Article 4 (1) of the Protocol.
It lacks the second essential condition required under this provision as a basis for the Courts jurisdiction, namely to be recognized by the African Union.
The CDA Consult hereby presents the full text of the ruling below:
REQUEST FOR ADVISORY OPINION BY LASSOCIATION AFRICAINE DE DEFENSE DES DROITS DE LHOMME NO. 002/2016 ADVISORY OPINION; 28 SEPTEMBER 2017.
The 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 - Judges; and Robert ENO, Registrar,
IN THE REQUEST FOR ADVISORY OPINION SUBMITTED BY LASSOCIATION AFRICAINE DE DEFENSE DES DROITS DE LHOMME
After deliberation, renders the following Advisory Opinion:
I. THE APPLICANT
1. The Request for Advisory Opinion dated 10 May, 2016, received at the Registry on 8 July, 2016, was submitted by lAssociation Africaine de Defense des Droits de lHomme (ASADHO) (hereinafter referred to as the Applicant"), a non-profit Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) registered as per Ministerial Edict No. 370/CAB/MIN/JDH/2010 of 7 August, 2010, and based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Applicants main objective is the defense and promotion of human rights.
II. CIRCUMSTANCES AND SUBJECT OF THE REQUEST
2. The Applicant states that, in discharging its mission, it participated under the platform of African Non-Governmental Organisations operating in the natural resources sector known as the International Alliance on Natural Resources in Africa (IANRA) in case studies on the impact of extractive industries on members of local communities in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
3. The Applicant avers that the said case studies highlighted several negative impacts of the mining activities which are tantamount to breaches of the fundamental rights of members of the communities affected by mineral extraction, which rights are guaranteed by the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Charter).
4. The Applicant adds that it is in this context that a model mining law for Africa was drafted, titled "Model Law on Mining on Community Land in Africa", which African NGOs intend to present to Member States of the African Union for the purposes of harmonising their mining laws and enhancing the protection of the fundamental rights of the communities affected by extractive industries.
5. The prayer of the Applicant is for the Court to rule that the Draft Model Law on Mining on Community Land in Africa (Draft Model Mining Law for Africa) is consistent with the provisions of the Charter.
III. PROCEDURE BEFORE THE COURT
6. The Request dated 10 May, 2016, was received at the Registry of the Court on 8 July, 2016.
7. By a letter dated 12 August, 2016, the Registrar requested the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Commission) to indicate whether the Applicant has Observer Status before the Commission and whether the subject matter of the Request concerned any matter pending before it.
8. By an email dated 16 September, 2016, the Commission advised that the Applicant does not have Observer Status before the Commission but did not respond to the issue whether the subject matter of the Request concerned a matter pending before it.
9. By a letter dated 8 December, 2016, during the 43rd Ordinary Session of the Court held from 31 October to 18 November 2016, the Registry, on the Courts instructions, requested the Applicant to produce a number of documents for purposes of clarification of their request.
10. By an email dated 7 March, 2017, the Applicant submitted a series of documents attesting to its participation in the study process leading to the development of the Draft Model Mining Law for Africa.
JURISDICTION OF THE COURT
11. In accordance with Rule 72 of the Rules, the Court shall apply, mutatis mutandis the provisions of Part IV of these Rules to the extent that it deems them to be appropriate and acceptable.
12. In terms of Rule 39 (1) of the Rules, the Court shall conduct preliminary examination of its jurisdiction
13. From the provisions of the Rules, the Court must determine whether it has jurisdiction to examine the Request before it.
14. In determining whether it has personal jurisdiction in the instant matter, the Court must satisfy itself that the Applicants are amongst the entities entitled to institute a request for advisory opinion under Article 4(1) of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples Rights (hereinafter referred to as the Protocol).
a. Applicants Arguments
15. The Applicant bases its request on Article 4 of the Protocol.
16. The Applicant submits that it is registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has legal personality in terms of Ministerial Edict No. 370/CAB/MIN/JDH/2010 of 7 August 2010. The Applicant states that, being based in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and having Observer Status before the Commission confers on it the status of an African organization
17. On the merits, the Applicant makes reference to a number of international legal instruments in its document on implementation of the Draft Model Mining Law for Africa. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
18. The Applicant also draws from the Draft Model Mining Law for Africa prepared by the International Alliance on Natural Resources in Africa (IARNA). The Applicants state that the aforesaid draft model law is not just about the Democratic Republic of Congo; it also concerns African communities in other countries such as Angola, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe, which countries also participated in the studies leading to the development of the draft model law, whose consistency with the Charter, the Court is being requested to advise on.
19. In the Draft Model Mining Law for Africa implementation document, the Applicant highlights the impact associated with Ruashi Minings activities in the synopsis of the information gathered during the raids carried out and affirmed that: Ruashi Mining PLC did not provide employment for the population (inhabitants) of the Ruashi Commune, culminating among other things, in urban banditry, increased poverty of the population of the Commune, insecurity, upsurge in robberies, prostitution and children dropping out by abandoning school consequent upon the very high cost of studies for the greatest number of the population".
20. The Applicant also submits that relocation of the population was effected "without the company Ruashi Mining consulting, the specialised services of the municipal administration, so as to be compliant with the requisite procedures".
21. It further submits that the investigation into the Ruashi Mining Company highlighted the existence of negative impacts of the mining activities, which is tantamount to breaches of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter, such as the right to life, health, safety, a healthy environment, physical integrity, the right to justice, the right to work and that, consequently, there is a nexus between the negative impacts of mining activity and the human rights protected by the Charter.
22. The Applicant contends that its Observer Status before the Commission confers on it the status of an African organisation entitled to seek an Advisory Opinion on any matter within the field of application of the Charter.
ii. Position of the Court
23. In terms of Article 4 (1) of the Protocol, "At the request of a Member State of the African Union (AU), any of its organs, or any African organization recognized by the AU, the Court may provide an opinion on any legal matter relating to the Charter or any other relevant human rights instruments ... ".
24. The fact that the Applicant does not belong to the first three categories within the meaning of Article 4 (1) of the Protocol is not in contention.
25. The first question which arises is whether the Applicant falls under the fourth category, that is, whether it is an African organization within the meaning of Article 4 (1) of the Protocol.
26. On this issue, the Court has in its Advisory Opinion in Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), established that the term "organisation" used in Article 4(1) of the Protocol covers both non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations.
27. As regards the appellation "African", the Court has established that an organisation may be considered as "African" if it is registered in an African country and has branches at the sub-regional, regional or continental levels, and if it carries out activities beyond the country where it is registered.
28. The Court notes that the Applicant is registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo where it undertakes its activities at the sub-regional and continental levels. Articles 28, 30, 31, 39 of the Statutes which establish ASADHO define the organisation's objectives as: Article 28 "voluntarily assist and represent victims of violations, prisoners of conscience and conscientious objectors ..., Article 30 "work through the press to promote and disseminate human rights and denounce violations thereof and Article 31 "representative offices are branches of the Association based outside the country ...
29 From the foregoing, it is apparent that the Applicant operates not only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also in the Central Africa region and in a significant part of the African continent. Proof thereof is that the studies leading to the adoption of the draft mining law are the inputs of several African States, which in any case are also members of the AU. Proof thereof is that the studies leading to the adoption of the draft mining law are the inputs of several African States, which in any case are also members of the AU.
29. The Court therefore concludes that the Applicant is an African organisation within the meaning of Article 4 of the Protocol.
30. The second question which follows is whether the Applicant is recognised by the African Union.
31. The Court notes that the Applicant relies on its Observer Status before the Commission to contend that it is recognised by the African Union.
32. In this respect, the Court has, in the afore-mentioned SERAP Advisory Opinion indicated that Observer Status before any African Union Organ does not amount to recognition by the Union. It has thus established that only African NGOs recognised by the African Union itself are covered by Article 4(1) of the Protocol.
33. The Court has further established that recognition of NGOs by the African Union is through the granting of Observer Status or the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation between the African Union and the NGOs concerned.
34. In the instant case, the Applicant has not claimed and has not provided proof as to their Observer Status before the African Union or that it has signed any Memorandum of Understanding with the Union.
35. From the foregoing, the Court finds that although the Applicant is an African organization within the meaning of Article 4 (1) of the Protocol, it lacks the second essential condition required under this provision as a basis for the Courts jurisdiction, namely to be recognised by the African Union.
36. For the above reasons, The Court, Unanimously, Finds that it is not able to give the Advisory Opinion which was requested of it.
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 O. MENGUE, Judge; Marie-Therese MUKAMULISA, Judge; Tujilane R. CHIZUMILA, Judge; Chafika BENSAOULA, Judge; Dr Robert ENO, the Registrar.
After a successful launch of the USAID funded People for Health (P4H) project online platform ( www.people4health.org ), Penplusbytes is set to deploy the platform to the project districts starting from the Northern Region from the 16th to the 20th of October 2017.
The project online platform developed on Penplusbytes Kakum citizen engagement resource tool is intended to facilitate citizens access to health information especially the Patients' Charter and provide an avenue for citizens to report their experiences in accessing healthcare.
Penplusbytes, the lead ICT organization in the P4H project consortium, is embarking on the dashboard deployment which will involve an orientation session for technology champions within the districts on how to access the digital component of the project online tools dashboard. Two persons including one focal person and District Health Monitoring Team representative in each district will be given authorization to have direct access to citizens reports and will be taken through how to respond to comments, complaints and observations from patients emanating from their respective districts. They will also be guided through aggregating and drawing insights from citizens reports and escalating the reports to duty bearers using technological innovations.
Activities for the week will start off with a kick off meeting with stakeholders of the 15 District Citizens Monitoring Committees (DCMCs) in each district (Gushegu, Yendi, East Mamprusi, Central Gonja and Tamale), health service providers, District Health Monitoring Teams and Northern Regional Coordinating Council. This meeting is intended to sensitize the stakeholders on the P4H dashboard.
As part of the deployment exercise, there will be one-on-one visits to some of health facilities in each district on the P4H project where health workers in each of the facilities visited would be educated on how the dashboard works. Flyers and posters will then be shared and displayed on the notice boards of the health facilities which will serve as a guide on how ordinary citizens can access the digital platform.
The interactive platform purposely built for the P4H project is mainly to provide and share information on maternal and child health/family planning, malaria, water, sanitation and hygiene, nutrition and HIV/AIDS health service delivery at the district, regional and national levels. It is also to provide a non-human interface means of reporting cases of stigmatization and discrimination in receiving proper health care especially among key populations and people living with HIV/AIDS.
According to the Executive Director of Penplusbytes, Kwami Ahiabenu II, Penplusbytes under this project has built an innovative tool that is meant to bridge the communication gap between health care providers and patients. It must however be very useful to the end-user which is why this deployment is essential.
The deployment exercise is expected to be carried out in project districts in the Eastern, Greater Accra and Volta regions before close of year.
The 5-year USAID People for Health (P4H) Project is being implemented by the SEND-Ghana, Penplusbytes and Ghana News Agency consortium in 20 districts in four regions of Ghana. The project seeks to strengthen organisational and institutional capacities of government and civil society organisations (CSOs) for mutual accountability in health, HIV, water, sanitation and hygiene, family planning and nutrition policy formulation and implementation.
Its ultimate goal is to deliver tangible results in the improvement of health indicators and more importantly ensure that key populations have bias free and equal access to quality health services across the country.
Rabat (AFP) - The new UN envoy for disputed Western Sahara, Horst Koehler, was visiting Morocco on Monday as part of a regional tour aimed at restarting stalled peace talks between Rabat and the pro-independence Polisario Front.
Morocco and the Polisario fought for control of Western Sahara from 1974 to 1991, when Rabat took over the desert territory before the signing of a UN-brokered ceasefire.
Morocco says Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom, but in 2007 proposed autonomy for the former Spanish colony, which is home to large phosphate reserves.
The Algeria-backed Polisario Front campaigns for independence and demands a referendum on self-determination for the desert territory of half a million residents.
Koehler, a former German president tasked in August by the United Nations to mediate between Morocco and the Polisario, was also set to visit Algeria and Mauritania.
But first he was to hold talks in Rabat with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, a source at the ministry said.
According to the Polisario, the UN envoy will visit Tindouf, an area in southwest Algeria that is home to refugee camps where between 100,000 and 200,000 people live, on Wednesday and Thursday.
Koehler is expected to meet some refugees in Tindouf and hold a closed-door meeting with Polisario officials, Sahrawi sources in Algiers said.
The envoy will report back to the UN Security Council on October 24 on prospects to re-starting talks between Rabat and the Polisario to resolve the decades-old conflict over Western Sahara.
The United Nations opened negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario in 2007 and there have been several rounds since, with the latest held outside of New York in 2012.
But there has been little progress since, with attempts to re-start talks on the future of the disputed territory exacerbated by tensions on the ground.
Tensions and hurdles
In April, the United Nations said it was keen on resuming negotiations between both sides after the Polisario pulled back fighters from Guerguerat, a zone of tensions on the border with Mauritania.
The Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a new UN push for talks and extended by a year the mandate of its MINURSO peacekeeping mission.
The 450-strong MINURSO is comprised mostly of military observers monitoring a 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario.
The peacekeeping force -- whose ties with Rabat are strained -- is based in Laayoune, the main city of Western Sahara, but Koehler is not expected to visit the troops.
Koehler, 74, is a former International Monetary Fund chief and served as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
One of the hurdles to restarting peace talks was cleared when UN envoy Christopher Ross, a veteran American diplomat accused by Rabat of bias in favour of the Polisario, resigned in March after an eight-year stint.
The Western Sahara covers 266,000 square kilometres (103,000 square miles) along the Atlantic coast.
Morocco has built six mostly sand barriers along roughly 2,700 kilometres to cordon off the part of the territory it controls.
Western Sahara is the only territory on the African continent whose post-colonial status has still not been resolved.
The dispute continues to poison relations between Morocco and Algeria, whose borders have been closed since 1994.
Citi FM's Nana Ama Agyemang Asante has left Ghana for the United States of America, as a participant in the 2017/2018 Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship program.
Nana Ama Agyemang Asante, a journalist at Citi FM, and a co-host of the award-winning Citi Breakfast Show, left Ghana in September, and will be away for six months.
The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program hosts democracy activists, scholars, and journalists for five-month fellowships, bringing fresh insights and perspectives to Washington, DC.
The fellowship offers an important opportunity to explore new ideas in a comparative context, undertake individual research, and share best practices with one another.
Nana Ama Agyemang Asante
Nana Ama is there together eight others from different parts of the world.
Whiles there, she will work on a report on how media women represent women's issues for both women in politics and public space in general.
She will also be studying how the US media practices gender and minority inclusion to enhance democracy.
Nana Ama Agyemang Asante is one of the known female voices in the Ghanaian media, whose divergent views on one of Ghana's most listened to radio shows, the Citi Breakfast Show, is appreciated by many, and also disliked by others, who are mostly against her strong stance on women issues.
With a solid background in human right activism and broadcast journalism, Nana Ama continuously remains a strong female voice, relentlessly advocating for the cause of women, children and the underprivileged.
More about the program
As part of the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship program, fellows join an accomplished group of alumni. Inspired by their NED experience, fellows produce an impressive range of presentations and products. Some fellows go on to launch new initiatives and institutions based upon their fellowship work.
During their time in residence, fellows are asked to share their insights in various waysvia roundtable discussions, working groups, and public presentations. Each fellow gives a presentation at NED during their fellowship and has the opportunity to share insights with the Washington, D.C. audience.
Fellows often use this period of reflection and exploration to undertake a larger goal. Some have gone on to publish books, articles, and more addressing the state of democracy in their region.
While each fellow is expected to produce a product during the fellowship, the format may vary. Activists may produce a practical handbook or write memoirs, journalists may publish a series of articles and op-eds, and scholars may focus on writing an academic articles, monographs, or book chapters.
Fellows have chosen to devote their time in residence to exploring new frontiers in their democracy work.
Many alumni have returned home inspired to launch new initiatives and expand existing efforts, such as founding new organizations, developing civic education curricula and trainings, and even establishing new fellowship exchange programs.
National Endowment for Democracy
The program is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world.
Each year, NED makes more than 1,200 grants to support the projects of non-governmental groups abroad who are working for democratic goals in more than 90 countries.
By: citifmonline.com/Ghana
Kisumu (Kenya) (AFP) - A young man was shot dead in western Kenya on Monday as hundreds of opposition supporters again took to the streets demanding reforms ahead of a presidential election, witnesses told AFP.
Police teargassed a large crowd of protesters in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu, who set tyres alight, blocked roads and pelted policemen with rocks as they kicked off daily protests just 10 days ahead of the election.
One protester, Michael Odiambo, 21, said he had seen police gun down a young man, whose body was also seen by an AFP photographer.
"He was running to hide himself from police. A policeman just pointed a gun at him and shot him from a distance. He was shot in the neck," he said.
The boy's mother Caroline Okello said her son, Michael, was only 18 and was not involved in the protest.
"He had gone to buy ice cream when he was hit by a bullet," she said. Some witnesses said they believed he was selling ice cream, rather than buying it.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said police had allowed protesters to rally in the centre of Kisumu, despite this being banned last week.
"And when they realized police are not intervening, they started throwing stones at the police. What do you expect of that. Aren't police allowed to also protect themselves?"
On Friday two protesters were shot dead by police in the town of Bondo, the rural home of opposition leader Raila Odinga some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Kisumu. In Nairobi, a small crowd of protesters was swiftly dispersed.
A local human rights group said 37 people died in the immediate aftermath of the August 8 election that was later annulled by the Supreme Court which ordered a re-run.
A joint report by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released Monday said it had confirmed 33 deaths at the hands of police.
Kenya's police chief Joseph Boinnet said this report was "totally misleading and based on falsehoods", adding police were only aware of 12 deaths which they were investigating.
The latest protests come as Kenya is mired in confusion over a presidential election that is due to take place on October 26.
Odinga last week announced his withdrawal from the race, arguing that this legally forces the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to begin the whole election from scratch.
He is hoping to win more time for reforms, after the Supreme Court annulled the first election for irregularities in the counting process and mismanagement by the IEBC.
But the IEBC appears to be pushing forward with plans for the vote, saying only that Odinga had yet to submit the required form to officially pull out of the race.
Odinga is hoping to maintain pressure from the street, increasing protests from three times a week to every day.
Rabat (AFP) - Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony mainly controlled by Morocco, but whose territory is claimed by the pro-independence Polisario Front.
Morocco says the territory -- which is home to large reserves of phosphate and rich fish stocks off its coast -- is an integral part of the kingdom.
But the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which campaigns for independence, demands a referendum on self-determination for the desert territory of half a million residents.
Morocco and the Polisario fought for control of Western Sahara from 1974 to 1991, when Rabat took over the territory before the signing of a UN-brokered ceasefire.
The Polisario controls around a third of the territory, along the Algerian and Mauritanian borders.
Morocco-Algeria tensions
Western Sahara is the only territory on the African continent whose post-colonial status has still not been resolved.
The conflict continues to poison relations between Morocco and Algeria, whose borders have been closed since 1994.
Located on the Atlantic coast, the Western Sahara covers 266,000 square kilometres (103,000 square miles).
Barriers
In 1975, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled in favour of an independence referendum.
The late Moroccan king Hassan II encouraged some 350,000 Moroccans armed with the Koran and the national flag to march to the border with Western Sahara in a show of support for Morocco's annexation of the territory.
On February 27, 1976, the Polisario, founded in 1973, proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
Brahim Ghali has led the movement since July 2016, after he took over from historical leader Mohamed Abdelaziz.
In 1979, Morocco took control of most of the Western Sahara after Mauritania gave up its part of the territory.
Morocco has built six mostly sand barriers along roughly 2,700 kilometres (1,675 miles) to cordon off areas of the territory it controls.
Limbo
An independence referendum has been regularly put off since 1992 due to persistent disagreements over the electoral roll.
A UN mission, MINURSO, has been in place since 1991 to oversee the ceasefire in Western Sahara.
Its headquarters are in the main city of Laayoune, and its relations have been strained with the Moroccan authorities.
Morocco quit the then Organisation of African Unity in 1984 after the bloc admitted the SADR as a separate member, but was readmitted by the African Union in January.
New UN envoy
On April 28, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution backing a resumption of peace talks and extended the mandate of MINURSO by a year.
The withdrawal of Morocco and the Polisario from the buffer zone of Guerguerat, a no man's land on the border with Mauritania, boosted hopes of a negotiated end to the conflict.
On August 16, former German president Horst Koehler was named new UN envoy to Western Sahara. He was in Morocco on Monday as part of a regional tour aimed at resuming peace talks.
President Akufo-Addo has said the recent judgment of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), over Ghana and Ivory Coast's maritime border dispute, has strengthened the relationship between the two countries.
This according to him, is contrary to suggestions that the ruling would mar diplomatic ties between Ghana and her western neighbor.
Akufo-Addo was speaking at the Flagstaff House on Monday, when he hosted the Ivorian President, Alassane Ouattara.
We realized those delicate moments when it came to this dispute over our maritime border, but your statesmanship and your friendship and regard for the interest of our two countries made it possible for us to overcome that delicate moment and use it as a basis for forging even stronger relations between us, Nana Addo said.
A lot of work has been done here of technical nature which is important, but at the end of the day, the will and desire to translate the technical and paper works into the concrete decision and affect the lives of our people, for me, that is what is most important, he added.
President Ouattara, who is on a two-day stay in Ghana at the invitation of President Akufo-Addo, thanked him for the invite and the warm reception.
He said the reception was an indication of the cordial relationship that existed between his country and Ghana.
He called for collaboration between the two countries, noting that both could collaborate in various sectors including agriculture and transport.
The judgement
The Chamber in a unanimous decision on Saturday September 23, 2017, ruled that there has not been any violation on the part of Ghana on Cote d'Ivoire's maritime boundary.
The Chamber rejected Cote d'Ivoire's argument that Ghana's coastal lines were unstable. It also noted that Ghana has not violated Cote d'Ivoire's sovereign rights with its oil exploration in the disputed basin.
Justice Boualem Bouguetaia, President of the Special Chamber in reading the judgment, accepted Ghana's argument of adoption of the equidistance method of delineation of the maritime boundary.
In consideration of the new boundary, the Chamber determined that it starts from boundary 55 -200 nautical miles away, a position much closer to what Ghana was arguing for.
Background
In 2014, Ghana took the case to ITLOS to dispel claims it has encroached Cote d'Ivoire's marine borders as part of oil exploration activities at Cape Three Points, off the shores of the Western Region.
Ghana's defense held that Cote d'Ivoire was barred from demanding ownership to the disputed area it had acknowledged that Ghana owned the space without any qualms in the decades leading up to the oil discovery.
The oral hearings for the dispute were concluded in February 2017.
Ghana's oil discovery
In 2007, Ghana discovered oil and gas in commercial quantities, and this was followed by Cote d'Ivoire staking its claim to portions of the West Cape Three Points.
These claims were renewed in 2010 after Vanco, an oil exploration and production company announced the discovery of oil in the Dzata-1 deepwater-well.
Cote d'Ivoire petitioned the United Nations asking for a completion of the demarcation of its maritime boundary with Ghana, and Ghana responded by setting up of the Ghana Boundary Commission.
This commission was tasked with the responsibility of negotiating with Cote d'Ivoire towards finding a lasting solution to the problem.
But this commission bore no fruit, and in September 2014, Ghana dragged Cote d'Ivoire to ITLOS after 10 failed negotiations.
ITLOS's first ruling in 2015 placed a moratorium on new projects, with old projects continuing after Cote d'Ivoire filed for preliminary measures and urged the tribunal to suspend all activities on the disputed area until the definitive determination of the case.
The moratorium prevented Tullow Oil from drilling additional 13 wells. Tullow thus drilled eleven [11] wells in Ghana's first oil field.
By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Consumers are expected to pay less at the pumps in the second pricing window of October.
This is according to the Institute of Energy Security (IES) who have predicted a reduction in fuel prices of up to three percent.
Fuel prices since the beginning of this year (2017), have seen marginal increase due to the constant depreciation of the cedi among other major factors.
However Principal Research Analyst at the IES, Richmond Rockson who spoke to Citi Business News predicted a drop in prices and attributed the development to the marginal appreciation of the cedi as well as the drop in prices of gasoline and gas oil on the international market.
In this pricing window, the cedi has appreciated as compared to the last pricing window. Also, crude oil prices on the international market have stabilized and when you consider the international prices on gasoline and gas oil prices, they have also come down marginally and this is why we are expecting prices to drop in the second window.
Mr. Rockson further expressed optimism that the drop would bring some relief to consumers. As we are expecting fuel prices to drop at the pumps, we believe this will bring some respite to consumers because we all know that over the period, prices have gone up and everybody has complained. In the last pricing window just as we predicted fuel prices came down marginally between 0.5 and 1 percent.
By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
The National Security Minister Albert Kan Dapaah has assured Parliament that government has the Libya Islamic State terrorism report' concerns under control.
At a meeting between leadership of Parliament led by Speaker Prof. Mike Ocquaye and Mr Dapaah promised the House that the National Security Secretariat has eyes on the situation in Libya and is closely monitoring incidents there.
The Minority in Parliament at a media briefing last week called on government to treat as urgent a Libyan government report released earlier this month which claimed some Ghanaians were members of the terrorist group, Islamic State.
Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa demanded that "government publicly reacts to this inquiry by the Libyan Attorney Generals Office due to its grave ramifications to Ghanas image.
Related: Minority demands gov't to react publicly to Libyan-IS claims
In response, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Frank Annoh Dompreh, accused the minority of acting irresponsibly by going public with an unproven claim.
He said the Minority MPs should have acted more responsibly considering the sensitive nature of the matter, warning it could cause fear and panic.
But both sides of the house are now coming to a common ground on the issue after leadership grilled the minister on the issues raised in the report at a meeting last Friday.
Read: Unproven ISIS revelation by Minority MPs condemned
They demanded firm assurances from the minister that government will take the report seriously and get to work on it to ensure the relationship between Ghana and its international partners including Libya is not harmed.
Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, Deputy Majority Leader Adjoa Sarfo and Ranking Member on Parliaments Foreign Affairs Committee Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa are some leaders of who participated in the meeting.
Mr. Kan Dapaah assured that efforts are ongoing to deal with details of the report, and added they are leaving no stone unturned in dealing with the concerns.
MPs on both the Majority and Minority sides agreed they will work at ensuring a bipartisan approach to the concerns so as not to avoid tension or embarrassment to Ghana.
Mr. Kan Dapaah assured the ministry will constantly update both majority and minority leadership on the issue as work progresses and will constantly consult them on every major step in dealing with it.
The minister encouraged MPs to desist from approaching the issue in ways that cause panic among the public.
He assured that close collaborations are ongoing with Libyan authorities over the concerns and government is also stepping up monitoring of internal security.
Both majority and minority leadership promised cooperation with the National Security apparatus on the issue.
Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline.com| Joseph Opoku Gakpo| Joy News
The ceremony which took place at the Central Classroom Block Auditorium (CCB) KNUST on Thursday, 12th of October 2017 under the theme; IMPACT OF THE PHARM D PHARMACIST ON PHARMACEUTICAL CARE, saw the ushering of the second batch of students into their clinical year since the inception of the six year Doctor of Pharmacy Program in the 2012/2013 Academic year to replace the traditional Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm)Program previously offered by the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST).
In a welcome address delivered at the occasion, The Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Professor (Mrs) Rita Akosua Dickson thanked Guardians of the Pharm D class present for the ceremony for the confidence entrusted in the Faculty Staff of the University towards the training of their wards to offer quality patient oriented care to cement the status of Pharmacists as friends of the human race. She cautioned the students on the great responsibilities that lies ahead as healthcare Professionals in training. The students were advised to put on the right attitude, and stay committed to the virtues of the pharmacy profession. She also commended the efforts of the White Coat Ceremony Planning Committee, in ensuring the ceremony became a reality.
The Gowning process which involved the dressing of students with Pharm D branded white Coats to usher the students into their clinical rotation year was moderated by the head of the White Coat planning committee, Professor Frances Owusu-Daaku, of the Department of Pharmacy Practice. This saw the Gowning of the Pharm D class of 2013 by members of the Planning Committee, invited guests, and Parents present who are Pharmacists themselves, in successive batches with cheers from Faculty staff, family, friends and loved ones present. The administration of the pledge was held afterwards.
Delivering a Keynote Address in relation to the theme for the occasion, The President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) and Acting Rector of the Ghana College of Pharmacist, Pharm Benjamin Kwame Botwe emphasized the Pharmacy profession began with compounders of medicines called Apothecaries and later became associated with the business of drug distribution with the advent of machines in the industrial revolution.
According to him, a conscious effort was made by Pharmacy leaders globally over the years to review the professional role of Pharmacists with more emphasis on patient-oriented roles as a replacement for product-centered practice. He noted that educational qualification for Pharmacists has since undergone progressive review to meet the requirements of modern healthcare delivery; from Pharmacy Board Certificate of Competence, Diploma in Pharmacy, 3-year Bachelor of Pharmacy, 4-year Bachelor of Pharmacy to the 6-year Doctor of Pharmacy program presently offered by the KNUST which involves a combination of classroom tuition, practical training, and clinical internship/rotation.
Speaking on the expected Impact of the Pharm D Pharmacist in his address, Pharm Benjamin Kwame Botwe encouraged the students present to help achieve the goal of Pharmaceutical care with respect to optimization of patients health, prevention of drug-related mortality, reduction of adverse drug reactions, and the achievement of positive clinical outcomes within realistic economic expenditures.
He advised Pharm D Pharmacists to undertake Continous Professional Development (CPD) programs at the Ghana College of Pharmacist after induction into practice, and publish research findings in local and international journals in contribution to the world body of knowledge on Pharmacy and Health.
Pharm., Benjamin Kwame Botwe PSGH President.
On the journey so far with the introduction of the Pharm D program, the PRO Vice Chancellor, and the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences KNUST, Rev., Prof., Charles Ansah, was appreciative of the inputs from stakeholders in putting together the program.
According to Him, components like seminars and presentations have been included in the curricular to help build confidence and improve communication skills with other members of the healthcare team. Classroom teaching was combined with community pharmacy training and clinical internship to strengthen the approach to teaching and learning and encourage further studies in academia, among others.
He stressed that the first batch of the program are currently undergoing clinical rotations at various hospitals across the country and also a top-up program for B.Pharm Pharmacists with at least three years working experience has commenced in the 2017/2018 academic year with the first batch inching towards the end of their first semester.
On the way forward, he said the Faculty is looking at increasing the number of adjunct lecturers to assist in practical training of students and also expand academic facilities in readiness for absorption of the pioneers of the government flagship free SHS program in some years to come.
In attendance at the ceremony were stakeholders including representatives from the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Pharmacy Council, Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH), Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), The Chief Pharmacist of the Ministry of Health, Director of Pharmaceutical Services, Provost of College of Health Sciences KNUST, Pharmacy Faculty Staffs, friends and Parents.
As a great lover of music generally and highlife in particular news of the death of highlife musician, Paapa Kofi Yankson, in July this year came to me as shock. For one thing, as an out-going young man working in Accra in the 1970s I had the opportunity of not only enjoying Paapas music as and when they were released on gramophone records and cassettes in those days but also dancing to his live performances on a number of occasions. Of course, among his contemporary greats were the likes of C.K. Mann, Pat Thomas, Jewel Ackah, Nana Kwame Ampadu, the late Alex Konadu, the One Man Thousand, and others, some dead and some still around.
So indeed, is life. As we move along, some will leave the stage as some jump onto it. Thats the reason why the current generation of Ghanaian music lovers who jump over their heads when they hear the music of Daddy Lumba, Shatta Walle, Sarkodie, Kojo Antwi and the rest may not even know whether the likes of E.K. Nyame, Kakaiku, Kwabena Onyina and their contemporaries were fishermen, carpenters or athletes. So, may the soul of Paapa Yankson rest in perfect peace just like his other great musicians before him.
And There Was a Call for State Burial
That said though, I must confess that I was a little bit confused when I heard the call by the late musicians eldest son, Silas, on the government to give his father a state burial for the reason that according to him, he was a Legend who did so much for Ghana. Well well well (apologies to Kweku Baako Jnr.). Of course, my confusion was not because I dont recognise Paapa as one of the great highlife musicians of his time but rather because I thought the call was a little bit too out of place (for want of a better expression). So when eventually the announcement came that he is indeed going to be given a state funeral next week, honestly, I felt disappointed, with all due respect to his family and admirers including my own self.
So Who Qualifies for State Burial ?
Is it perhaps my own understanding or misunderstanding of what a state funeral is that makes me wonder who should actually be accorded that special honour? On the other hand, if it is just by virtue of the fact that someone is described as a Legend that entitles the person to a state funeral then I would like to be schooled as to who or which institution confers that title on people. And for sure I wouldnt be talking about a state burial/funeral for anyone if the whole thing didnt involve state funds and resources.
I wonder if anyone is suggesting that all the legendary Ghanaian musicians out there, either dead or alive, deserve more recognition from the state than the average Public Servant, Sportsman/woman, Farmer, Trader, Teacher etc. etc. whether dead or alive? How many of these other professionals who also excel in their chosen fields till their retirement ever get a state funeral, in other words, state recognition, when they die? Or is it the limelight that follows some particular professionals by virtue of the work they do that necessarily makes them deserving of state attention than all others?
So Are There Any Legendary Farmers Out There?
Its a known fact that Ghanas economy is till today driven by the agricultural sector. Not only does the sector offers more employ the largest percentage of the population, it is also the countrys highest foreign exchange earner. In fact in many areas of the country it is the toil and sweat of cocoa farmers that have built the towns including the city of Kumasi.
But where are the legends (dead or alive) among cocoa farmers who may have ever been honoured with a state funeral? Or was it perhaps I didnt appeal to the government for a state funeral for my late father, the Unknown Farmer, when he died, that deprived him of that honour? For in all humility, and with the greatest respect to the late Paapa Yankson, Im not convinced that his contribution to the development of Ghana is more than that of my father, the Unknown Farmer, and even greater farmers before and after him.
And Where Are Our Institutions?
No doubt the most quoted comment out of that fine speech delivered by former U.S. President Barrack Obama when he addressed Ghanas Parliament on his first visit to Africa after his inauguration is that Africa doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions. Though the meaning of this statement seems to have been well understood and appreciated by Ghanaians I have my doubt if weve attached any seriousness to it.
Perhaps we may have taken steps to ensure that we dont ever end up with any Strongman on our hands but Im not quite sure were taking any steps towards either building strong institutions or ensuring that our existing institutions get strengthened. The result of this is that depending on who is in charge of particular state institutions or who cries out louder for favours everything is possible. And when that happens and we find ourselves in a situation where theres no formula for deciding whos qualified for a particular honour and whos not then we find ourselves in a situation where only celebrities get recognised by the state. And I think steps must be taken now to ensure we dont get there.
Kwame Twumasi-Fofie
Sunyani
16.10.2017 LISTEN
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ is dismayed by the suicide attack targeted to heavily populated KM5 junction in Mogadishu which caused the death and injuries of of many innocent people on Saturday afternoon.
A freelance Cameraman Ali Nur Siyaad is confirmed dead and this morning was buried in Mogadishu. The 26 years old cameraman was working with various media outlets as freelance including international agencies and Somali Red Crescent. Four other journalists were among the injuries and NUSOJ condemns that incident in strongest possible terms
Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle known as Abdulkadir Ok who works for VOA Somali Service is in intensive care unit in Ummah hospital in South of the capital Mogadishu where he was admitted.The doctors found injuries on his head which also burnt and injuries of the right arm in the preliminary check-up. He was referred to the intensive care unit and is being treated by doctors. .Abdukadir Ok who is unable to speak well whispered to NUSOJ that he thanks to Allah that he luckily survived despite sustaining bad injuries. . See attached pictures of Mr Abdulkadir in hospital.
Abdikani Ali Aden who was working with Goobjoog Bussines was rushed and admitted to Ergogan Hospital formerly known as Digfeer and broke his right femur where he is now recieving medical assistance.
A prominent journalists in Somalia Mohamed Omar Baakaay and Ahmed Haadi have also received minor injuries and they both told NUSOJ that their condition is now good.
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) condemned the attack in the strongest terms possible and called the attack as barbaric.
We condemn the attack, which wounded our colleague in the line of duty, in the strongest terms possible. Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, NUSOJ Secretary General said, The union sends its sympathies to the whole Somali people who suffered losses during the attack and hopes Somali journalists speedy recovery.
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) will closely monitor the conditions of wounded journalists and will definately update you in case of developments .
His Excellency the Ambassador of Ghana to the United States, Dr. Barfour Adjei-Barwuah held a Town Hall meeting with Ghanaians in Georgia on Saturday October 14, 2017 at the Ghana Methodist Church, Norcross, Georgia. The event was organized by the Ghana Council of Georgia, the umbrella organization comprising all the affiliate Ghanaian Associations in Georgia.
The Town Hall meeting with the Ambassador was well attended by a cross section of Ghanaians all around the State including Nananom, and prominent Ghanaian pastors resident in Georgia. In his welcoming message, the President of the Ghana Council of Georgia, Mr. Reuben Darku thanked the Ambassador for coming to meet Ghanaians in Georgia and address their questions and concerns.
His Excellency graciously fielded questions ranging from when new Identification Cards will be issued to Ghanaians in the diaspora to ways to curb Galamsey activities in Ghana.
His Excellency stressed in his responses that the burden of solving Ghanas problems does not lie only on the government of Ghana but on all Ghanaian citizens; home and abroad. The people of Ghana need your expertise, and knowledge to help in nation building, the Ambassador said.
The Ambassador, in answering the questions posed by attendees, shed insights into the strategic initiatives of the new government of His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, president of the Republic of Ghana and promised that all legitimate concerns raised will be addressed at the highest level possible. His Excellency committed to establishing a Ghana Consulate in the Georgia Capital, Atlanta in the near future. His Excellency was invited in advance to join Ghanaians in Georgia for Ghana at 61 independence celebration scheduled for March 10, 2018. The Ghana Council, on behalf of all Ghanaians in Georgia, presented a gift to the Ambassador for his graciousness.
Based in Atlanta, the Ghana Council of Georgia was established in 2009 to serve as the gateway through which citizens and interested parties can be directed to establish links within the affiliate associations in the Ghanaian community in Georgia. The Council comprises of any registered Ghanaian based association or society in the state of Georgia, USA.
The Center for Progressive Governance (CenProG) has noted with shock the lackadaisical approach government has adopted in the handling of the Zongo Development Fund Bill and we express our unequivocal dissatisfaction with government's approach to this very important policy initiative.
CenProG takes serious exception to government's seeming lack of urgency in the handling of a bill that has dire economic repercussions for the zongo communities. A critical section of the country's population which signed a social contract with this current government and held their end of the bargain by voting massively for the NPP.
The NPP recorded its highest votes in the zongo communities during the 2016 elections largely due to the promise of establishing a Zongo Development Fund. The government is yet to fulfill its end of the bargain after announcing a seed money for the fund during the Annual budget reading.
The Government has since withdrawn the Bill from Parliament twice and this gives credence to the claims that the government might not be interested in the bill and is only using the serial withdrawals to divert public attention and interest in the Bill.
CenProG will like to place on record that we will not sit aloof for this bill to end up like the Right to Information Bill which has been laid and re-laid but never passed. We therefore entreat Government to lay the Bill under a certificate of urgency to show that government is indeed committed to ensuring its passage.
CenProG will also like to serve notice to the Government and Minister in Charge of the Inner Cities and Zongo Development that if rumours of government wanting to cut down on expenditure are true then government should look elsewhere but not the Zongo Development Fund.
God Bless our homeland Ghana and make it GREAT and STRONG.
Signed
Sawadogo Mahmoud
Executive Secretary, CenProG
0504607005/0244997751
Mallam Yahya Mohammed
Executive Director, CenProG
0243728659
Cc:
The Office of the President
Parliament of Ghana
Minister for Inner City and Zongo Development
The God who made impossibilities possible for NPP in the 2016 general elections had neither sleep nor slumber and no amount of diabolic hindrances put before their way by their predecessors will stop them from fulfilling their core mandate to diligently serve the needs of all and sundry. I strongly believe the good intentions by the current government to salvage the nation from abyss has started showing glimpses of good things to happen under the return of a responsible and proactive NPPs government.
Undoubtedly, NPP government in their few months in office had done what Napolean could not do and the destroyers ( NDC) instead of applauding the positive thinkers who are gradually repairing the mess they had caused this nation are rather making unnecessary noise which has no head or tail. NDCs eight year rule was covered with negativism agony, suicidal, corruption, underserved judgments debts, unwarranted arrest and unnecessary imprisonment of innocent citizens that led to miscarriage of justice. In a nutshell the NDC government had broad untold hardship to the ordinary Ghanaian. Most especially, the youth was left at the mercy of prostitution, internet scamming, 419, Sakawa or blood money just because they looked indifferent about their welfare.
Mother Ghana was on a sick bed and without hope of surviving under the clueless NDC government and thanks to Dr. Akufo Addo together with his able surgeons in the shortest possible time has healed the nation which has now risen from her sick bed. No wonder the power crisis or dumsor which showed its ugly face and haunted us for many years under the uncared-for NDC government has been solved and Ghanaians are getting value for their money paid on their electricity bills.
The current government believes in the fact that governance is for competent and serious minded people and not for empty-headed men who only take delight in impoverishing the nation. The good and flexible measures that the current government has put in place to revive all collapsed companies and also creating the enabling environment for private sector development is a clear indication it believes in the fact that the private sector is the backbone of the country when it comes to job creation.
NDCs campaign promises presented to Ghanaian electorates in 2008 looked like icing on the cake and that gave them the opportunity to come and showcase their so called better Ghana agenda which in the end turned to be bitter Ghana pill too hard for them to chew or swallow. Notable among them was the one time premium which proved fiasco and could not even experience a piloting program. Fuel prices would be reduced drastically but in their eight year reign we experienced erratic increases in fuel prices as at the time fuel prices in the World market had gone down drastically.
The hope and aspiration of the good people of western region was raised high by these same schemers ( NDC) who promised to give them 10% of the oil proceeds to help develop the region and it became a mere rhetoric. They also promised to expand the school feeding program across the length and breadth of the country and the best they could do so far in eight years was cut and paste or elimination by substitution. Looking at their deceptive tactics I think it will be better if they change their partys name to National Deceptive Committee.
If God had not spoken to Ghanaians to take the right decision to boot out the NDC government that was recklessly mismanaging our economy our dear nation would have been tagged for sale by now. Thank God the change we effected on the 7th December, 2016 general election is gradually yielding good results and very soon Ghanaian electorates will have value for their votes. The NDC have always bragged of being Social Democrats who have the interest of the ordinary man at heart and yet have woefully failed to bring at least one social intervention policy to benefit Ghanaians.
Huge sums of money went down the drain under their watch as they are the only Political Party in the World who reared Guinea fowls here in Ghana and not even one was found here. They intentionally planted trees during harmattan season. It was least expected a party whose ideology is based on probity and accountability would rebrand itself as New NDC and will come and swim soundly in the pool of corruption like they had not been in government before. No wonder it was in their time in office we heard the term gargantuan corruption.
NPP who have been tagged by some Politicians as Capitalist have shown they had the interest of the ordinary man at heart when it comes to implementation of social interventions or pro-poor policies that will benefit all Ghanaians such as Free Maternal Care, NHIS, Metro Mass Transport, School feeding program, Cocoa Mass Spraying. Introduction of Distance Education for professional and non-professional teachers, Teachers, Doctors and Nurses had the chance to import Cars at a low cost duty at the Tema Port. All social intervention policies that the NPP brought to Ghanaians were policies which can be seen, felt, smelled and touched. This is a hallmark of a caring and responsible government.
NPP government believes the future of this country is inextricably connected with how the younger generation are prepared to meet the challenges ahead of them that is why they have started the Free SHS policy which is the most expensive of all its policies. The Doubting Thomas who occupied top positions in the previous NDC government before the 2012 general elections threw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians by coming out strongly to discredit the Free SHS policy which they claimed was brought up by PNDC/NDC government in the 1992 constitution. It may interest Ghanaians to note that they were blind to see it was due for implementation. The way and manner they spoke against this good policy that was meant to make the poor and the rich break even was appalling.
They made it looked as if it was a taboo or Haram to implement such a good policy. They went to the extent of tagging the Free SHS as 419 and surprisingly they made a sharp U- turn to add progressively free to it to make it look acceptable and sweet and it became a mirage which in a typical Akan language would be Adanko daadaa Adwee meaning a Rabit deceiving a Monkey. It is known that someone whose house is on fire does not have time to fight and yet these people (NDC) whose house is on fire according to Pro. Kwasi Botweys report is fighting with NPP and before they realize they are making a mistake all their properties will be burnt into ashes. No serious opposition party will do what the NDC is doing at this point in time when NPP government led by President Akufo Addo is gradually delivering its good promises one by one to disprove to the good people of Ghana not all Politicians are propagandist or hypocritical liars.
Free Senior High School has finally come into existence and parents are not paying a pesewa as compared to NDCs by force progressively free SHS which became a burden on heads of Senior High Schools in the country. This good policy by the current government is a timely intervention by all standards because it has come to reduce the burden of parents. I wonder why we had ten regions in Ghana and for more than five years NDC government deliberately hanged the killer NHIS Capitation on the neck of the good people of Ashanti region for no apparent reason. Allowances of Teacher trainees and Trainee nurses have been restored and the youth of this nation have not regretted voting for NPP who promises and delivers. This NPP government led by President Akufo Addo is a blessing unto Ghanaians and needs our prayers and support to make Mother Ghana flourish. Insha Allah Ghana will take up its good garment.
Michael Kessey - ( Akissiway)
0244548693/0266263399
Nollywood producer, Moses Inwang and pretty wife have just welcomed their second child in a US hospital as mother and child are said to be doing fine.
Moses is already blessed with a son and now he has another son to his effort at night which he has already named Jordan.
Sharing the good news with his fans, he wrote, 9 months have whizzed by like 9 minutes and today we welcome our 2nd Prince into our life and home! My joy knows no bounds right now! Welcome to the world Jordan! Daddy loves you!!!
Nothing can stop bitcoin. Not Chinese bans, and not even banker discontentment. Across the world, bitcoin and digital currencies are stronger than ever.
In October 2017, bitcoin climbed 29%, to US$5,601.89. Year-to-date, the token is up more than 461%, making it one of the best performing assets this year.
Source: CoinDesk
Bitcoin now has a market cap of more than US$90 billion. 11 other cryptocurrencies also have market caps exceeding US$1 billion. But bitcoin remains the most traded crypto. A number of people that want exposure to cryptos settle on bitcoin.
Take a look at the graph below.
Source: Bloomberg
The first chart shows the level of trading by currency, with bitcoin exceeding all others by some distance. The second graph is what exchange rate trades are looking at for bitcoin. For example, USD to bitcoin or AUD to bitcoin.
In this respect, the Chinese yuan was dominant up until February 2017. Of course, bans and the shutdown of various exchanges have limited Chinese traders somewhat. But the Japanese yen has picked up where the yuan left off.
In the case of ethereum, the Korean won is one of the most prevalent at exchange rates. Why? Bloomberg explains:
In the case of Ethereum, the Korean won has become prevalent as rules that limit access to more traditional assets are driving Korean investors to mine and trade the second-biggest cryptocurrency.
Japans Interest in Bitcoin
Whats interesting is Japans interest in bitcoin. This is a nation that loves paper and coins. However, the Japanese government is now slowly trying to wean its population off physical cash. As reported by Business Insider:
With the rise of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, Szetho said plenty of exploration is happening around this topic around the world.
Last month, a consortium of Japanese banks with the backing of that countrys central bank and regulators was reported to be working on a digital currency to launch in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The new J-Coin would be exchanged at a one-to-one rate to the Japanese yen, and is being created to push a population still very much in love with coins and notes towards a cashless society.
Australian National Crypto?
But this isnt just happening in Japan. Australia might also get its own national cryptocurrency. Business Insider continues:
A group of fintech start-ups have submitted cases to the Reserve Bank of Australia and the federal Treasury to demonstrate the need for a new government-endorsed Australian dollar cryptocurrency.
Business Insider can reveal three fintechs, through industry body FinTech Australia and the governments Fintech Advisory Group, presented use-cases for a new Digital Australian Dollar the DAD which would be pegged to the physical Australian dollar and compete against the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The Digital Australian Dollar would be a huge step to grow our vibrant blockchain and digital currencies industry, said FinTech Australia chief executive Danielle Szetho.
Having key stakeholders like the RBA involved in further explorations of an Australian digital currency will help build trust and usage of cryptocurrencies, but at the same time will ensure we do not undermine Australias currency stability and sound monetary policy.
Cheers,
Harje Ronngard,
Junior Analyst, Money Morning
PS: If you want to know more about bitcoin before bans are lifted and the currency continues on its way towards worldwide mass adoption, click here.
Did you know Nigeria is the most populated country in Africa? This West African nation is divided into 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. These are further divided into local government areas (LGA) to ensure proper administration at the grassroots level. Discover the largest local government area in Nigeria by population.
The Nigerian flag against a clear blue sky. Photo: @Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
The most populated local government in Nigeria has over a million people. LGA authorities are located in various states and are tasked with service provision to the people. They deal with public health, education, town planning, local transport, and waste disposal. Read on to discover the largest local government in Nigeria by population.
Top 10 largest local government area in Nigeria by population
Below is the list of the largest local governments in Nigeria based on the last census conducted in 2006. The population is projected to have increased since then. The next census will be conducted in 2023.
10. Port-Harcourt - 538,558
Port Harcourt LGA is located in Rivers State. It has several districts, including Oroabali, Orolozu, Rumuobiekwe, Nkpogu, Abuloma, Ogbunabali, New GRA, and Diobu.
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People from diverse ethnic groups reside in this LGA, and Christianity is the predominant religion. English and Pidgin are the most commonly spoken languages, and the population is about 538,558 people.
9. Maiduguri - 540,016
Maiduguri LGA is situated in Borno State and is also the state's capital. Its districts include Maiduguri Urban, Bulablin I & II, Bolori I & II, Gamboru Liberty, Jabba Mari, Gwange I & II, Shehuri North, Lamisula, Shehiri South, Limanti, and Mafoni.
Fulani, Shuwa, Bura, Hausa, and Margi people are the predominant inhabitants of this LGA. It has a population of about 540,016, as per the last census.
8. Nasarawa - 596,411
Nasarawa LGA is one of the 13 LGAs in Nasarawa State. Its districts include Udege, Loko, Bakono, Aissa, Guto Aguba, Ataga, Angewa, Aza, Gwafa, Dora, and Ayele. It had about 596,411 people per the last census, but this number has since increased.
A high angle view of buildings and the city against the sky. Photo: @Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
7. Ojo - 609,173
Ojo LGA is among the 20 LGAs in the state of Lagos. Its districts include Olojo, Ira, Alaba, Ojo, Shibiri, Okokomaiko, Abule Ade, Ilogbo, and Idoluwo.
Yoruba is the most commonly spoken language, and the predominant religions are Christianity and Islam. The LGA had a human population of 609,173 in 2006.
6. Oshodi-Isolo - 629,061
Oshodi-Isolo is an LGA located northwest of Lagos City. Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, the second republic Governor of Lagos State, formed it. It had a human population of 609,173 in the 2006 census.
5. Mushin - 631,857
Mushin LGA is one of the twenty LGAs in Lagos State, and its headquarters are in the Palm Avenue district. Other districts in the LGA are Ladipo, Matori Industrial estate, Amu, Itire, Idi Oro, Ajeano, and Isolo road.
Yoruba and Pidgin English are the predominant languages. In 2006, there were 631,857 people in the area.
4. Kosofe - 682,772
Kosofe is another LGA in Lagos, and its headquarters are in Ojota town. Its districts include Ojota, Ikosi, Oworonshoki, Ajao Estate, Gbagada, and Ogudu.
People from diverse ethnicities reside in this LGA, and the Yoruba language is commonly spoken. As of 2016, the human population in Kosofe was 682,772.
A picture of the Lagos cityscape against a blue sky. Photo: @Getty Images
Source: Getty Images
3. Ajeromi-Ifelodun - 687,316
Ajeromi-Ifelodun is located in the Badagry division of the state of Lagos. Its headquarters are in the Ajegunle district. Popular areas in Ajeromi Ifelodun are Orudu, Ashafa, Onibaba, Awodi, Layeni, and Temidire.
Christianity and Islam are commonly practised, and the Yoruba tribe is predominant. The human population in Ajeromi-Ifelodun was 687,316 in 2016.
2. Abuja Municipal Area Council - 776,298
Abuja Municipal Area Council had a population of 776,298 people in the 2006 census. The number has reportedly increased since then, but this can only be confirmed in the next census.
The LGA was established in October 1984. It has 12 wards, namely Garki, City Centre, GUI, Gwarimpa, Gwagwa, Jiwa, Kabusa, Karshi, Nyanya, Orozo, Wuse, and Karo.
1. Alimosho - 1,288,714
Alimosho is the largest local government in Nigeria and Lagos State. It is also the most populated local government in Nigeria, with a population of 1,288,714 in the 2006 census.
The population of Alimosho is predominantly Egbados, and the Yoruba language is widely spoken. The two main religions are Islam and Christianity.
Which is the local government with the highest population in Nigeria?
The most populated local government in Nigeria is Alimosho in Lagos State. It had a population of 1,288,714 people in the 2006 census.
Which are the top 5 largest local government areas in Nigeria?
The top five largest LGAs are Alimosho, Abuja Municipal Area Council, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Kosofe, and Mushin. They had a human population of 1,288,714, 776,298, 687,316, 682,772, and 631,857, respectively.
Which is the biggest local government in Nigeria?
The biggest local government in Nigeria in 2022 is Alimosho. The LGA had a population of 1,288,714 people in the 2006 census.
Which LGA is the smallest in Nigeria?
Bakassi is the smallest LGA, with a population of 31,641 as of 2006. It is one of the country's richest gulfs.
The largest local government area in Nigeria is Alimosho in Lagos State, with over 1.3 million people in the last census. The population is projected to have grown significantly, but this will be confirmed or dismissed in the 2023 national census.
READ ALSO: Top 25 best schools in Nigeria in 2022: Get the best education
Legit.ng recently published a list of the 25 best schools in Nigeria in 2022. Every parent desires to give their child the best education. They also want a school that develops a holistic citizen.
Educational institutions in the country are ranked based on infrastructure, quality of education, and academic performance. All parents need to know the top institutions in 2022.
Source: Legit.ng
Healthcare in Nigeria has always been a delicate subject. Everyone knows that it is constantly underfunded, but the government is hardly doing something about it. As a result, year after year, Nigerians have to suffer from an inadequate healthcare system. If you would like to learn more about public health care financing in Nigeria, and how our country should try to fix it, continue reading below.
Health financing in Nigeria
Its kind of ironic how, every year, politicians talk about the poor condition of our health care, yet when its time to make some changes, they quickly diverge to other topics. This leaves us with the allocation of the same seven percent of the Nigerian budget, which isnt nearly enough. There are many diseases and viruses appearing from every corner. And yet somehow public hospitals have to fight against them spending only the bare minimum funds.
Compared to other countries, Nigeria is spending an annual amount of $118 per person on healthcare, while Sudan has allocated $130, and South Africa an impressive $570. If we were to look at GDP expenditures, we would see that our country dedicates only six percent to health financing, while other African nations that have a worse GDP per person spend from 8% to 22%. How did it come to this? Thats a good question.
First, lets take a look at the breakdown of health financing in Nigeria. Nearly 70% percent of money spent on healthcare comes from out-of-pocket expenditures, while international donors only account for somewhere around five percent. But the amount of funding isnt the only problem that Nigeria has. We also suffer from poor allocation.
For some reason, the governments priority is to send money to secondary and tertiary care, while primary health care is ignored. Logically, lots of citizens avoid primary institutions and look for primary care in second rated facilities. This creates a problem because the sustainment of secondary and tertiary institutions is more expensive. On the other side of this equation, there's the fact that primary facilities dont have the necessary equipment and they lack professional staff.
To make matter even worse, budget is usually allocated to big cities that already have developed healthcare centres, while rural areas continue to fade into obscurity.
Well, why dont the people use private facilities? You might ask. The government has taken care of this part too. The prices at these institutions are also high because of taxation and prices for electricity and equipment.
As a result, healthcare in Nigeria is left to rely on out-of-pocket spendings, which have proven to be the least economically viable financing method. Thousands of families each year go bankrupt when unexpected health bills fall on their heads.
Now that you know the most significant problems that public health care financing in Nigeria suffers from. Next, well talk about which path our country should take to fix this situation.
Solutions to healthcare problems in Nigeria
READ ALSO: 5 Health Blogs in Nigeria You Need to Visit
As you can see from the above, we have more than enough issues to deal with. And it is only when we resolve most of them can we enjoy the privilege of UHC. Lets talk about a couple of possible solutions that Nigeria can adopt.
First of all, our country has to rethink the financing of health insurance coverage. It needs to stop being available only to the people in wealthy urban areas and spread to all parts of Nigeria. While out-of-pocket expenditures cant disappear entirely, they need to be significantly lowered, so that the less fortunate portion of the population can have access to primary care.
Another way to improve the Nigerian health care system is to rethink the relationships between the public and private sectors. If the government changes its approach and create more investment-friendly circumstances, then the system would receive better infrastructure, and we would see the rise in the professional level of the staff as well. One of the things that would help the financing situation is to rethink the taxation model of the private sector. This way, costs will be lowered for the end-users.
One of the changes that absolutely need to be done is proper budget allocation. More money needs to be invested in facilities located in rural areas. Only then will the local communities have adequate healthcare, and highly-qualified medical staff will get the motivation to work there.
Our country also needs to create more opportunities for donor financing. This type of funding is the backbone of the healthcare system in some countries, yet in Nigeria, it remains an afterthought. The government needs to see health care as a potential investment. That way if proper management and planning is put into the system, everyone will benefit from it in the future.
Nigeria can also improve health care financing by bringing more accountability to the government officials. The public has to be able to see how much money is being spent on what, and have the ability to influence the policies. Funds should also be allocated to research so that we can always know which issues need to be tended to immediately, and what problems can wait. Because as it stands right now, youd think that money is just spent randomly.
A ripple effect can be caused, if the government improves the power supply system for the population. As energy becomes cheaper and more reliable, the out-of-pocket expenditures would decrease.
However, before Nigeria can do anything else, we have to learn how to plan and implement our policies. So far, we have seen a couple of potentially great initiatives, but none of them amounted to anything tangible.
Now you know everything about health care financing in Nigeria, and how our country can improve this crucial area. Be sure to share this information with your friends, and lets hope that we will see some changes for the better!
READ ALSO: Effects of population growth in Nigeria
Source: Legit.ng
- The military siege in the southeast geopolitical zone by the Nigerian military has officially ended
- The military exercise was carried out due to the activities of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB)
- The military exercise code named Operation Python Dance II sparked controversy in the region and beyond
The Nigerian army has officially ended its military operation in the southeast code named Operation Python Dance II.
This was made known by the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 82 Division Nigerian Army, Major General Adamu Baba Abubakar.
Abubakar who made the announcement on behalf of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General TY Buratai, formally declared the end of the operation on Saturday, October 14, in Sector 1 Tactical Headquarters at Umuahia, Abia state.
The Operation Python Dance II lasted for about a month. Photo credit: Nigerian Army
READ ALSO: Anambra governorship election: Police to deploy 21,084 personnel
The traditional activation of camp fire to formally signify the successful completion of the exercise was lit, a statement by Colonel Sagir Musa, deputy director public relations 82 Division, on Sunday, October 15, said.
General Abubakar commended all the officers, soldiers and personnel of paramilitary organizations that collaborated, synergized and worked throughout the period of the exercise.
He noted that: the achievements recorded in the areas of attainment of the mission specific training objectives, improvement in peace and security, curtailing the menace of violent irredentist groups in the theatre of the exercise is remarkable."
Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for the prosecution of the Nigerian soldiers who assaulted journalists in Abia state.
The CPJ made the call while reacting to the Nigerian army's statement that its personnel who assaulted journalists at the Nigerian Union of Journalists secretariat in Abia state, will be disciplined.
CPJ is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. They defend the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.
The group has been been defending and fighting for press freedom in the last 35 years of its existence.
READ ALSO: Yoruba people are regretting voting for Buhari - Adebanjo
Chief Chyna Iwuanyanwu accuses President Buhari of nepotism on - Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
- Governor Okorocha erected a statue in honour of President Jacob Zuma in Owerri, Imo state
- Femi Fani-Kayode, the former aviation minister, however, reacted to the erected Zumas statue
- Fani-Kayode said Okorocha built a statue to honor the South African president while Nigerians are murdered by the country security forces every day
Femi Fani-Kayode, the former aviation minister, has blasted Rochas Okorocha, the Imo state governor, for erecting a statue of South Africa president, in Owerri.
Fani-Kayode tweeted: ''Nigerians are murdered by South African security forces every day yet the clown in Imo state builds a statue in honor of Pres. Zuma.
''Igbos are murdered by Nigerian security forces every day yet that same clown in Imo state continues worship @MBuhari. Slavery is a curse!
READ ALSO: Biafra: US law firm drags President Buhari, Buratai to ICC
Zuma arrived in the state on a two-day working visit on Friday, October 13. He also bagged the chieftaincy title Ochiagha (Warlord) while in Owerri.
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Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that Governor Okorocha came under severe criticism for erecting a statue in honour the president South Africa in the state.
How Nigerians celebrated the 57th Independence anniversary in Umuahia - on Legit.ng TV:
Source: Legit.ng
- The APC says the proposed $5.5bn loan by the Buhari administration is necessitated by the modern financial realities of running a government
- The party states that governments in developing economies may need to resort to borrowing to finance development projects
- APC dismisses claims by the PDP that it handed over a buoyant economy to the Buhari administration in 2015
The All Progressive Congress (APC) has justified the proposed plan by the Buhari administration to obtain a $5.5bn loan to assist it in its developmental projects.
READ ALSO: Atikus associate, ex-Taraba speaker defect to PDP
The partys spokesperson, Bolaji Abdullahi, in a statement on Sunday, October 15, said the proposed loan was necessitated by the modern financial realities of running a government.
The APC also denounced the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for accusing the Buhari administration of mismanaging the buoyant economy it inherited.
The party said in an era where taxation and other revenue streams may not necessarily provide sufficient funds for economic development, governments in developing economies may need to resort to borrowing to finance developmental projects, Premium Times reports.
The recent borrowing plans proposed by the President Buhari administration is no different as the president has clearly stated in his request to the National Assembly that the loan will be used to finance the 2017 budget deficit and invest in critical and verifiable infrastructure project which will ultimately grow the economy, the party said in its defence.
The APC said the claims by the opposition that it handed a buoyant economy to the ruling party when it left power in 2015 was false.
The PDPs in its statement unapologetically claimed that it meritoriously governed the country for 16 years and handed over a buoyant economy to the APC in 2015.
Really, what could be further from the truth? The APC considers the claim a new height of PDPs insensitivity to the populace and has further exposed the PDP as a party unrepentant for the rot it left the country after its 16 years rule.
Even when crude sold above $100, the immediate-past PDP-led administration struggled to build savings. In addition, the excess crude account was misspent. Poor capital expenditure meant badly-needed infrastructure development was put on hold. This forced construction companies with government contracts to cut back and sack thousands of workers, the APC further explained.
Meanwhile, the 36 states shared N173.8 billion from the federation account in September 2017 from the distributable revenue generated for the month.
The breakdown was obtained by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a report from the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation in Abuja.
For example, revenue generated in January is shared in February; thus, the revenue shared was actually generated in August and shared in September.
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The key agencies that remit funds into the federation account are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Federal Inland Revenue Service and the Nigerian Customs Service.
Legit.ng learnt that the last Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in September, federal, states and local governments shared N637.7 billion.
The report showed that the revenue distributed included the Gross Statutory revenue, Value Added Tax, exchange gains and Petroleum Profit Tax.
The report showed that before distribution to the states, their liabilities were first deducted.
APC is the worst party in Nigeria, I regret being a member on Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
- No fewer than 20 persons have been killed in a deadly attack in Plateau state
- The attack was carried by gunmen in Nkyie Dongwro village
- Governor Lalong has vowed to fish out and punish the perpetrators
About 29 persons have been killed after gunmen launched a deadly attack in Plateau state.
Channels TV reports that the attack took place on Monday, October 16, in Nkyie Dongwro village which is located in Miango district of Bassa local government area of the state.
READ ALSO: Biafra: US law firm drags President Buhari, Buratai to ICC
This attack is coming just 24 hours after six people were killed in a late-night attack on Taagbe village.
This is even after the state government declared a curfew in the local government.
The state government has vowed to deal with the perpetrators of violent attacks and that any persons giving them refuge will also not be spared from the wrath of the law.
It said: Government is, therefore, pleading with all residents of these areas of conflicts in Bassa and the surrounding border villages to volunteer useful information that will lead to the apprehension of all the criminals behind this sudden resurgence of terror."
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The state governor, Simon Lalong, directed the State Emergency Management Agency and the Ministry of Health to urgently coordinate medical services for the injured.
He called on the citizens to be calm while also directing security operatives to fish out the perpetrators.
Vanguard reports that Sunday Abdu who is the president of Irigwe Development Association blamed soldiers for the attack saying they were the ones that asked the people to hide in a classroom only to abandon them.
He said: What happened was an annihilation of our people, innocent people killed that way in their cold blood; they just wiped them out. The soldiers ushered the people into a class block after an attack in the village. They later ran away and left them to be massacred by the assailants.
The mass burial is about taking place now; if they did not run away, those people wouldnt have been killed. How can you have security, Military of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would run away and leave the citizens, how and why? That is to tell you that we dont have security, it is a simple as that.
27 people have been confirmed killed but someone told us that two more bodies have been discovered but I have not confirmed that yet.
This is not the first time such attack is happening in the region as Legit.ng had reported that No less than 15 people were reportedly killed during a revenge attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Ancha village.
Legit.ng gathers that the unfortunate episode was narrated by a witness, Benjamin Aruku, in a telephone interview.
He stated: We are suspecting Fulanis to have carried out the attack on our village (Ancha) because about a month ago, Fulanis living within this location accused our village (Ancha) of killing and beheading a Fulani boy.
They invited police, some persons were arrested in connection with the killing of the said Fulani boy.
We thought the issue was over but we were taken by surprise last night with this attack.
Legit.ng had reported that 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.
STREET GIST: Signing of 2017 budget in June, same old story? - on Legit.ng TV.
Source: Legit.ng
- The rate of abduction for monetary rewards across Nigeria has become a menace and Catholic priests are not left behind in the sudden wave of terror that is now kidnapping
- Report has it that an Italian priest, Maurizo Pallu, abducted in Edo state
- He was kidnapped by unknown gunmen in broad day light
An Italian priest, Maurizo Pallu, was kidnapped on Thursday, October 12 by gunmen in Benin city, Edo state, according to Italian media reports.
The priest was reportedly snatched in broad day light, few days after a professor at the University of Benin was killed right in front of his residence in the state.
Pope Francis has been informed about the Italian priest Maurizio Pallu kidnapped in Nigeria and he is praying for him, chief Vatican spokesman Greg Burke wrote on Twitter on Friday, October 13.
READ ALSO: Osinbajo bashes churches for aiding and abetting corruption
Vatican Radio said the 63-year-old priest, who had been stationed in Nigeria for three years, was travelling with a group of four other people when they were attacked and robbed by armed men who took Pallu but let the others go.
The news was confirmed from Nigeria by Abuja Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan who told TV2000, an Italian Catholic TV channel, that the security forces are doing everything possible to find him.
For the moment, we dont have any good news but we are confident and will continue to hope that Father Maurizio will be freed, Onaiyekan said.
Similarly, two gunmen, on Sunday, October 15, abducted a Catholic cleric, Timothy Nwanja, of St. Marys parish, Okpokueze Nkomoro community in Ebonyi state.
According to sources in the area, the cleric was abducted around 8:30pm on Sunday evening.
READ ALSO: Ritualists confess to using human parts for money ritual
Boko Haram abducted my husband and government forgot about him on - Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
A Nigerian couple has taken to the social media to show off their beautiful and unique pre-wedding photoshoot done in the village.
This couple decided to be unique as they travelled to the village to take their pre-wedding photos. They sure had lots of fun during the photoshoot session.
Looking at the pictures, the bride-to-be was returning from the farm as she could be seen carrying a basket while her husband-to-be walked behind her carrying firewood and holding a cutlass.
Village themed pre-wedding photoshoot
READ ALSO: Menzgold and Zylofon Media boss acquires N5billion private jet in Ghana (photos)
In another picture the lady could be seen selling pepper to her man. In all the pictures, they were seen rocking the local fabric made in Abeokuta, adire and ankara, as they smiled happily at each other.
It could be recalled that a Nigerian man on Sunday, October 15, proposed to his girlfriend at a beer parlour as some friends and family members around prayed and wished them well.
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See more pictures below:
The groom-to-be seen buying pepper from his bride-to-be
The couple returning from the farm
Congratulations!
STREET GIST: Would you allow your mother in-law live with you as a newly-wed? - on Legit.ng TV.
Source: Legit.ng
As readers in Spain know, Catalonias regional president Carles Puigdemont again tried a long-shot gambit to resolve the standoff over Catalonias bid for independence. He again asked Spain to enter into negotiations over the regions autonomy, this time with the attention-getting ploy of joining with secessionist leaders to sign a declaration of independence, but then suspending it for a few weeks to allow for negotiations with Spain.
Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy promptly rejected the idea, first demanding a response as to whether Catalonia considered itself to be independent, then setting a deadline for an answer of 10:00 AM Monday. If Puigdemont says that Catalonia is independent, the Spanish government has given it another three days to reverse the declaration. Bloomberg reports that Catalonias government will ignore the demand.
As we pointed out, later in the week the press reported on what looked to be a planted story, that a team of members of Rajoys party and the opposition were looking at Constitutional reform, in particular, tidying up provisions relating to regional autonomy. We though this might be a public relations move to further isolate the separatists, in that they could be presented as proceeding recklessly when their issues were conceivably be about to be addressed. Our readers dismissed this idea as not even rising to the level of being a trial balloon, although I would not underestimate the possibility of the press in other countries taking this story up if the confrontation in Catalonia escalates.
If Rajoy takes action when the separatists havent taken a concrete step, he risks again looking trigger-happy, as he did with his overly heavy-handed crackdown on the referendum, when over 850 people were injured. It would seem better for him to resist his impulses to act, and at most make a statement, directly or through operatives, calling the separatists bluff. If they arent willing to say they are independent, then they have accepted the status quo, and Spain could even depict that as a mature response. But if they change their minds, the central government will take action as needed.
In the meantime, Catalonia is on a knife edge, as Don Quijones reports below.
By Don Quijones of Spain, the UK, and Mexico and editor at Wolf Street. Originally published at Wolf Street
In Catalonia the economy is already beginning to feel the pinch from the rise in political tensions, as tourist numbers plunge 20% to 30% and as hundreds of companies, both domestic and foreign, move their headquarters to other parts of Spain, albeit in most cases only on paper.
But theres one business thats doing a brisk trade: the flag business.
Wherever you go these days, flags are everywhere. For years the estelada flag, the starry symbol of Catalan independence, has been a ubiquitous feature of the urban landscape. But now the Spanish flag is doing its best to catch up. As Catalonias separatist movement grows in confidence, more and more balconies in Madrid, Valencia, Seville and other Spanish cities, including even Barcelona, are sporting the bold red and yellow of the Spanish flag.
I took these photos in Barcelona. The estelada draped from windows and balconies:
And the estelada on tractors:
Heres a mix of Catalan national flag (and former flag of the Crown of Aragon), the Senyera, and the Spanish flag:
And mostly Spanish flags:
The Chinese are happy to manufacture these flags. And the Pakistanis, Indians and Bangladeshis that run many of Spains convenience stores are happy to sell them. As the Catalans are fond of saying, pela es pela (money is money).
While all this frenetic flag buying, selling, waving and draping may be good business for some, it points to a very dark reality for Spanish and Catalan society: two deeply rooted, diametrically opposed forms of nationalism with a bleak not-so-distant past are on the verge of a head-on clash. While much of the focus of the international media has been on divisions between Spain and Catalonia, its within Catalonia itself that the most toxic effects of this political crisis are being felt.
Communities within the region are fracturing, families are splintering and friendships are breaking apart as the politics of sectarianism worm their way into just about every public and private space.
Stress levels are rising and many people are struggling to sleep. A friend of mine told me last week that the morning after the violence-marred referendum on Oct.1, two colleagues at the office where she works, belonging to a company whose management is fiercely unionist, were entrusted with the unpleasant task of finding out where all the other junior employees loyalties lie.
On the side of dialogue was my friends improvised response.
The pressures to conform are at times unbearable. The wife of a close friend complained at the weekend that she had been strongly criticized by her work colleagues for not taking part in last Tuesdays general strike. If theres another strike shell probably stay at home, if only to avoid the accusatory glares of her fellow colleagues.
Another friend, of Spanish-German descent, was interviewed by a German newspaper about his feelings over recent developments in Catalonia. Having suffered serious setbacks in his work as sales manager for a German chemicals company and facing the possibility of having to move to Madrid as a direct result of the political chaos in Catalonia, my friend was pretty candid about the chaos its causing.
But when the journalist sent him the final copy of the article, he saw that she had featured his full name and the name of the company he works for. You cant do that, he told her. I could lose my job. My company could lose all its contracts with local government institutions. I could even be blacklisted. In the end the journalist agreed to remove all mention of my friend and his business from the article.
That more or less sums up the bleak reality that has descended on Catalonia, a place where its becoming increasingly difficult to express your opinions freely and openly without paying a high price. The fact that this is happening in a country where the roots of democracy are still fairly shallow should give pause for thought. By Don Quijones.
Hopes that Catalonias woes could be contained are fading. Read Catalonia Crisis Far From Over Despite Market Surge
Update 5:30 AM: As anticipated, Puigdemont punted. From the Financial Times:
(Natural News) After days of terrorizing and destroying much of Californias wine country and surrounding regions, several wildfires continue to burn out of control, killing more than 30 people in what has now become the deadliest fire in the states history.
More deaths are expected, say officials in the region, as fires continue to rage, leveling forested land, single homes, and entire subdivisions. The most destructive of them, the Tubbs fire, killed 15 people, as newly released statistics also laid bare the extent of the damage, the San Jose Mercury News reported. In all, 31 people have died so far.
Officials say the fire destroyed 2,834 homes and about 400,000 square feet of commercial space, as Mayor Chris Coursey said he expected those numbers to increase.
We all have suffered a trauma here, he told the paper, adding that it will take time to bounce back from this incident.
He added: The city of Santa Rosa has suffered a serious blow.
Firefighting resources have continued to pour into the Golden State, though Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott said he and other officials believe the fires will keep behaving erratically while having the potential to shift in any direction at any time.
That likely will happen this weekend, as forecasters say they are expecting heavy winds. As USA Today reports:
Firefighters face another devastating round of the low humidity, dry foliage and strong weekend wind gusts up to 60 mph Friday as they battle more than 20 blazes in the deadliest week of wildfires in state history.
We had a series of statewide fires in 2003, 2007, 2008 that didnt have anything close to this death count, Daniel Berlant, a deputy director in the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told the paper. In all, some 25,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes; flames that have destroyed entire subdivisions have left thousands more homeless.
As an aside, among the homes in Santa Rosa that were leveled by fire was one built in the 1970s by the late Peanuts creator Charles Schulz (Full disclosure: I was a huge Peanuts fan growing up and remain one to this day). His widow, Jean Schultz, got out of the house before it caught fire, said her stepson.
As for the cause of the fires, some have speculated that a spark from a Pacific Gas and Electric power line or transformer may have ignited surrounding foliage but officials are not yet sure. Others, however, are blaming human-caused climate change and global warming. (Related: Make energy expensive again: California cities SUE oil companies over bogus climate change hoax.)
As fires raged across the state last year, The Daily Beast placed blame for them squarely on climate change, and even got officials in the state to agree with the conclusion.
There have been a lot of days over 100 degrees, said Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff. And despite some rain over the past winter, even the reservoirs are rapidly draining.
Others blamed the fires on the hoax of global warming/climate change as well, despite the fact that wildfires have been ignited and have raged around the world for billions of years. In fact, in a National Geographic video posted on the networks Facebook Page, life breeds fire.
Billions of years ago, the proliferation of life on our planet set the stage for the very first spark, it said.
It was likely weather not the climate that ignited the worlds first wildfire, say experts, via sparks from lightning. And while modern technology like electrical lines can and have caused fires in this day and age, its not because of climate change.
And yet, there are still far too many sheep who willingly believe such nonsense as they blame all natural disasters fires, storms, hurricanes on phenomena humans have no control over whatsoever.
J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.
Sources include:
Facebook.com
DailyBeast.com
MercuryNews.com
NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) One of the harshest realities of divorce is the ensuing tug-of-war between parents over their rights and responsibilities towards their children. While some parents seem to be able to navigate these dangerous waters peacefully and with the least possible damage to their children, there are some whose opposite views and inability to compromise leave their children emotionally scarred for life. And, as hard as figuring out the usual things like visitation and custody can be, it can sometimes be even trickier to find consensus on moral and religious issues. One such issue is the vaccination of children.
A Michigan family has been torn in two over this issue, with the mom and primary care-giver, Rebecca Bredow, refusing to vaccinate her 9-year-old son on religious grounds, while her ex-husband, James Horne, has insisted that his son should be vaccinated and has taken the matter to the courts. The result? Bredow recently landed up in jail for five days for refusing to vaccinate her son, and has had her custody rights reduced; she now has to share custody 50/50 with Mr. Horne.
Even worse, the little boy was forcibly vaccinated while Bredow was in jail, after a court order was issued by Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Karen McDonald. The judge found Ms. Bredow to be in contempt of court for not getting her son vaccinated after she agreed to do so during an earlier court case in November 2016, and warned her, You have seven days to get your child vaccinated. If not, you will appear here Wednesday and if you have not, Ill send you to jail. Let me say it one more time, you have seven days. Its ridiculous. Dont make me do that.
Bredows conscience would not allow her to have her son vaccinated, however, and seven days later she was sent to jail.
It was the worst five days of my life, except for the fact that I just found out that he was vaccinated and Im not going to get him back today, Bredow told the Detroit Free Press. Its been a rough few days to say the least.
Bredows attorney, Steven Vitale, claims Bredow never meant to agree to the vaccination at the earlier court proceedings, and that the papers were filed in error by her previous attorney. She has consistently refused to vaccinate her son since birth for religious reasons. (Related: Discover the facts at Vaccines.news.)
Interestingly, according to the National Vaccine Information Center, in terms of Michigan law, Bredow was legally entitled to make the decision not to vaccinate her son:
A child is exempt from immunization if a parent, guardian, or person in loco parentis of the child presents a written statement to the administrator of the childs school or operator of the group program to the effect that the requirements of this part cannot be met because of religious convictions or other objection to immunization. Medical exemptions are also allowed. [Emphasis added]
In spite of what shes been put through, Bredow has no regrets. When asked if she still stands by her choice not to vaccinate her son, she replied, I do, absolutely. I still stand by my choices because I stand up for what I believe in. (Related: Fake news is what you get when the mainstream media tells you vaccines are completely safe.)
In related news, Judge McDonald must now decide the fate of another child. The Detroit Free Press is reporting that another mom, Lori Matheson, is refusing to vaccinate her 2-year-old daughter until the completion of certain medical tests, while her ex-husband, Michael Schmitt, is insisting the little girl be immunized. After months of wrangling, Judge McDonald must now decide the little girls future.
Sources for this article include:
NewYork.CBSLocal.com
FreeP.com
FreeP.com
NVIC.org
CBSNews.com
(Natural News) A new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has cast a grim new light on Americas opioid crisis. The organization found that hospitals in the United States attend more than 100 children and teenagers a day who are already hooked on opioids, reported DailyMail.co.uk.
The researchers based this estimate on their retrospective analysis of 2008 to 2013 data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample. By combing through the database, they discovered that the number of under-21 patients admitted into the emergency room and diagnosed with opioid dependency or addiction rose drastically during the five-year period.
From 32,235 patients in 2008, the figure rocketed to 49,626 in 2013. This means that the average of 85 children and teenagers a day in 2008 jumped to 135 a day five years later. Of those who entered the emergency room, 88.3 percent were aged 18 to 21, and 8.4 percent were aged 16 to 17. Moreover, 200 children and teenagers died in the emergency room, while 325 died during the course of hospitalization.
However, the researchers behind the report acknowledged that the numbers could actually be higher in reality since its highly unlikely that every addicted child was screened by doctors.
Dr. Veerajalandhar Allareddy, study co-author and medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at the University of Iowa Stead Family Childrens Hospital, said that he and his team were taken aback by the magnitude of the problem, then added that their research is only skimming the surface.
He further stated that every child brought to the emergency room should be screened for addiction, and emphasized the need for parental intervention if parents suspect that their child may be playing around with drugs.
If it at all is a concern, a discussion needs to happen. This was intended to be an exploratory study one that we hope will help alert the public, researchers, and policymakers of the need to fully define and address this important, emerging public health problem among children in the U.S., said Allareddy. (Related: Opioid abuse causing a terrifying spike in infant dependency, especially in rural areas.)
In addition to sending more children and teenagers to the emergency room, the opioid crisis has claimed several lives as well. Last August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) put out a report about the rise of drug overdose-related deaths for those between the ages of 15 and 19. From 1999 to 2015, these rates more than doubled, with the number coming up to 772 deaths among older teenagers in 2015.
This too came as a surprise to the researchers, as the rate of drug overdose deaths dipped to 26 percent between 2007 and 2014, only for it to increase by a fifth the following year. Furthermore, while the rate of teenage boys overdosing has dropped, the number for teenage girls remained the same and even grew larger within the last two years.
These figures, combined with the fact that over half a million Americans died of drug overdoses between 2000 and 2014, prompted President Donald Trump to deem the opioid crisis a national emergency.
To remain abreast of all news relating to the opioid crisis, go to Addiction.news today.
Fast facts about the opioid crisis
Drug overdoses remain the leading cause of death among Americans below 50 years old.
The number of deaths caused by drug overdoses comes to an average of 78 everyday.
In 2015, the states with the highest number of drug overdose-related deaths were found to be West Virginia, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Ohio, and Rhode Island. In West Virginia, the overdose death rate was at around 41 per 100,000 people.
The United States is the country that uses the most opioids in the world, with the standard daily usage for every one million Americans coming to about 50,000 doses.
In terms of health and social costs, prescription opioid abuse mounts up to $55 billion each year.
Sources include:
DailyMail.co.uk
EMPR.com
HealthLine.com
IBTimes.com
(Natural News) Science fiction may become reality sooner rather than later.
Of course, when predictions about the future are thrown around, past performance is no guarantee of future results, as they say in the financial industry.
A 10-part anthology series airing on Channel 4 in the U.K. called Electric Dreams explores the works of Blade Runner author Philip K. Dick, the prolific and ahead-of-his-time sci-fi author who passed away in 1982. It will premiere in 2018 on Amazon Prime.
Many of Dicks novels and short stories have been made into movies, including the cult classic Blade Runner.
This British show may or may not be connected to the promotion for the Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049, which premiered on October 6 in theaters across the country.
Based on research from more than 100 experts conducted by a futurologist for Electric Dreams, the Daily Mail detailed the innovations that humanity can anticipate.
Concepts that were once confined to make-believe and fantasy such as space tourism, submarine trains and personal flying pods are all on the horizon and set to be ingrained into every day life in just 50 years.
Those under the age of 25 can look forward to enjoying implanted technology to constantly monitor their health, traveling in personal flying pods rather than cars and never missing out thanks to joining events as a hologram. If this isnt outlandish enough, there will also be supersonic trains that travel underwater without tunnels, thought police, who can detect a crime before it has been committed, and invisibility cloaks.
Parenthetically, Dick created the pre-crime concept in the short story The Minority Report, which was made into a film with Tom Cruise.
The Daily Mail added that when robots take over mundane tasks, humans will be able to take more vacation time, including holidays in outer space and virtual holidays. How all this factors into the already serious obesity epidemic remains to be seen. The more leisure time prediction assumes that robots will remain friendly, which is also an open question.
The scenario is not completely rosy perhaps. For example, as Natural News reported earlier this year, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk apparently claims that humans must become the equivalent of cyborgs for the purposes of establishing a direct connection with machines if they want to avoid becoming obsolete. Musk now owns a medical research start-up company that is developing the technology to hook up the human brain to computers. Musk has long warned that rapidly advancing artificial intelligence could destroy human life as smarter and more intuitive robots emerge. Natural News founding editor Mike Adams has also sounded similar warnings. (Related: Read more about futuristic innovations at FutureScienceNews.com.)
Elsewhere in the U.K., students at a London arts university participated in a design competition sponsored by French automobile manufacturer Renault to design vehicles of the future. The winning entry from Central Saint Martins University of Arts London called The Float, uses magnetic levitation instead of wheels to look like a bubble hovering towards its next destination. Coming to a road near you in less than a decade, apparently, the Daily Mail explained.
Here in the U.S., two engineers who say they were inspired by inventor Robert Downey Jr., the Ironman star, have created an underwater, four-motor jetpack. In the video below, Ryan and David of the Eclectical Engineering YouTube channel chronicle their experiment, including testing it in a lake near Berkeley, Calif., as well as in a swimming pool. The results seem to suggest that the jetpack can power a human faster than Olympian Michael Phelps can swim on his own.
Futurist Dr. Ian Pearson, who conducted research for the Electric Dreams TV series, summarized whats around the corner in relation to emerging technologies.
Our human quest for innovation is relentless and we will continue to see a whole raft of developments as ideas that were once features of futuristic sci-fi books and TV series become not only a reality but an accepted part of our everyday lives.
Sources include:
DailyMail.co.uk
DailyMail.co.uk
DailyMail.co.uk
What to Know At least 40 people killed by fires burning across Northern California
Roughly 213,000 acres nearly 333 square miles burned statewide since firestorm ignited
5,700 homes and businesses destroyed
With the winds dying down, fire crews gained ground as they battled the deadly wildfires that have devastated California wine country and other parts of the state over the past week, and thousands of people got the all-clear to return home.
While the danger from the deadliest, most destructive cluster of blazes in California history was far from over, the smoky skies started to clear in some places. People were being allowed to go back home in areas no longer in harm's way, and the number of those under evacuation orders was down from nearly 100,000 on Saturday to 40,000 Monday.
Many began to take the first steps toward rebuilding their lives.
"This is my home I'm going to come back without question," said Howard Lasker, 56, who returned Sunday with his daughter to view their torched house in Santa Rosa. "I have to rebuild. I want to rebuild."
[NATL-BAY]'Looks Like a War Zone': Santa Rosa Neighborhood Destroyed in Wildfires
The blazes have wiped out some 5,700 structures and been blamed for at least 40 deaths 22 in Sonoma County, eight in Mendocino County, six in Napa County and four in Yuba County. A contract firefighter was also killed Monday when the water tanker they were driving crashed in Napa County.
The death toll could climb as searchers dig through the ruins for people listed as missing. Hundreds were unaccounted for, though authorities said many of them are probably safe but haven't let anyone know.
In hard-hit Sonoma County, Sheriff Rob Giordano on Monday said 88 of the reported 1,863 missing persons remain outstanding. Many of those names were put on the list after people called from out of state to say they couldn't reach a friend or relative.
Authorities said they will not let people return home until it is safe and utilities are restored. Pacific Gas and Electric Company said it expects to restore power and gas to the area by late Monday.
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More than 213,000 acres nearly 333 square miles have burned across the Golden State since the firestorm ignited, Cal Fire reported Monday.
The Atlas Fire has burned 51,064 acres in Napa and Solano counties and is 68 percent contained; the Tubbs Fire has scorched 36,432 acres in Napa County and is 75 percent contained; the Nuns Fire, which includes the Partrick, Adobe, Norbbom, and Pressley fires, has burned 51,512 acres in Sonoma County and is 53 percent contained; the Pocket Fire has burned 12,430 acres in Sonoma County and is 45 percent contained; and the Oakmont Fire in Sonoma County has charred 875 acres and is 15 percent contained, according to Cal Fire.
Farther north, firefighters appear to be gaining significant ground on blazes burning across Lake and Mendocino counties. The Sulphur Fire in Lake County has torched 2,207 acres and is 85 percent contained; the Long Fire that burned 100 acres in Lake County is 100 percent contained; and the Redwood Valley Fire in Mendocino County has charred 35,800 acres and is 50 percent contained.
[NATL-BAY]'Looks Like a War Zone': Santa Rosa Neighborhood Destroyed in Wildfires
Many evacuees grew increasingly impatient to go home or at least find out whether their homes were spared. Others were reluctant to go back or to look for another place to live.
Juan Hernandez, who escaped with his family from his apartment Oct. 9 before it burned down, still had his car packed and ready to go in case the fires flared up again and threatened his sister's house, where they have been staying in Santa Rosa.
"Every day we keep hearing sirens at night, alarms," Hernandez said. "We're scared. When you see the fire close to your house, you're scared."
Tony Avina was forced to flee from his Calistoga neighborhood on Wednesday. His next few days were filled with nothing but anxiety.
"It was something that I tried to not think about, but it did come up in my mind a lot, and it was scary," he said.
Four days after evacuating, Avina and roughly 5,000 other Calistoga residents returned home. Ash littered Avina's neighborhood, but his home was still standing.
Dan Luhan and his girlfriend Valerie were not as fortunate. They returned to the Wikiup-Larkfield area of Santa Rosa only to find homes left in shambles, including Valerie's.
"They're all gone," Luhan said. "They look just like this house across the street, just leveled."
Amid the despair, Valerie found some hope.
"It was encouraging because there's some things left," she said. "There's some things to salvage. There's going to be some stuff to take away. So all is not lost, and that was our fear."
[BAY GALLERY BAY ONLY SB]North Bay Inferno: Images From Wine Countrys Deadly Fires
At the Sonoma fairgrounds, evacuees watched the San Francisco 49ers play the Redskins on television, received treatment from a chiropractor and got free haircuts.
Michael Estrada, who owns a barber shop in neighboring Marin County but grew up in one of the Santa Rosa neighborhoods hit hard by the blazes, brought his combs, clippers and scissors and displayed his barbering license in case anyone doubted his credentials.
"I'm not saving lives," he said. "I'm just here to make somebody's day feel better, make them feel normal."
[BAY JG] Apocalyptic Photos From California's Wine Country
Lois Krier, 86, said it was hard to sleep on a cot in the shelter with people snoring and dogs barking through the night.
She and her husband, William Krier, 89, were anxious to get home, but after being evacuated for a second time in a week Saturday, they didn't want to risk having to leave again.
"We're cautious," she said. "We want to be safe."
Governor Brown visited Santa Rosa Saturday morning for a tour of the areas affected by the wildfires, calling it one of the greatest tragedies that California has ever faced. Christie Smith reports.
Roughly 11,000 firefighters on Monday were still battling 14 large fires burning across a 100-mile swath of the state.
In the wooded mountains east of Santa Rosa, where a mandatory evacuation remained in place, a large plume of white smoke rose high in the sky as firefighters tried to prevent the fire from burning into a retirement community and advancing onto the floor of Sonoma Valley, known for its wineries.
Houses that had benefited from repeated helicopter water drops were still standing as smoke blew across surrounding ridges. A deer crossed the highway from a burned-out area and wandered into a vineyard not reached by the flames.
Those who were allowed back into gutted neighborhoods returned to assess the damage and, perhaps, see if anything was salvageable.
Fires have destroyed more than 3,500 homes and businesses, scorched in excess of 170,000 acres or roughly 265 square miles and forced at least 20,000 people to evacuate since Sunday.
Jack Daniels had recently completed a year-long remodel of his Napa house near the Silverado Country Club and watched it go up in flames last week as he, his wife, 7-year-old grandson and two pugs backed out of the driveway.
His neighbors, Charles Rippey, 100, and his wife, Sara, 98, were the oldest victims identified so far in the wildfires.
Daniels, 74, a wine importer and exporter, said he lost everything left behind, including his wife's jewelry and 3,000 bottles of wine in his cellar.
"It's heartbreaking," the 74-year-old said. "This was going to be our last house. I guess we've got one more move. But we're fortunate. We got away. Most things can be replaced. The bank didn't burn down."
The return home was emotional even for those whose properties were spared.
"When we came up to check on it, we were amazed it was here," said Tom Beckman, who credited his neighbor's two sheep with chomping vegetation surrounding his home and keeping the fires at bay.
"All the trivial things we have to work on cleaning up, replacing the stuff in the fridge and freezer that's nothing compared to my friends who lost their homes," Beckman said.
The smell of smoke remained thick in the air and spread to the San Francisco area, but skies were clearer in some places.
Although the weather was still hot and dry, the calmer winds and the possibility of rain later in the week should help crews tamp down the deadliest, most destructive cluster of blazes in California history.
"Any sort of moisture is welcome at this point," said Scott Rowe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "In terms of fire, the weather outlook is looking to be improving."
A fraction of an inch is predicted to fall late Thursday in Sonoma and Napa counties, though fire officials noted that if showers bring more wind than moisture, it could spell trouble for firefighters.
Passengers on an Indonesia AirAsia flight from Australia to the holiday island of Bali described a panicked flight crew announcing an emergency and oxygen masks dropping from the ceiling after their airliner lost cabin air pressure and rapidly descended.
Flight QZ535 returned safely on Sunday to the airport at Perth city where many of the 145 passengers spoke to media about the fear and confusion on board.
"The panic was escalated because of the behavior of staff who were screaming, looked tearful and shocked," passenger Clare Askew told reporters.
"Now, I get it, but we looked to them for reassurance and we didn't get any, we were more worried because of how panicked they were," Askew added.
The budget Indonesian airline said in a statement the pilot turned back "following a technical issue to ensure the safety of passengers."
"We commend our pilots for landing the aircraft safely and complying with standard operating procedure," AirAsia Group head of safety Captain Ling Liong Tien said.
"We are fully committed to the safety of our guests and crew and we will continue to ensure that we adhere to the highest safety standards," he added.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau, an accident investigator, said it was investigating the airliner's depressurization at 34,000 feet (10,363 meters).
The plane rapidly descended to around 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), an altitude to which cabins are pressurized and at which oxygen masks are no longer needed.
Data from FlightRadar, a website which tracks flights globally using GPS, shows the plane descended 23,800 feet (7,250 meters) in the space of nine minutes.
Perth Airport said in a statement that emergency services were on hand when the plane landed 78 minutes after it took off.
A passenger named Leah told Nine Network television: "I actually picked up my phone and sent a text message to my family, just hoping that they would get it."
"We were all pretty much saying goodbye to each other. It was really upsetting," she added.
Passenger Mark Bailey told Seven Network television: "Hostesses started screaming: 'Emergency, emergency.' They just went hysterical."
"There was no real panic before that, then everyone panicked," Bailey added.
Chris Jeanes told NBC News that he turned to his girlfriend and proposed, something he'd been planning to do in Bali.
"Luckily she said, 'yes,'" he said. "We both reconfirmed with each other when we were on the ground."
Peter Gibson, spokesman for Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the Australian industry regulator, said the airline had been asked for information on what occurred on board.
"Our job as the regulator is to gather information on these sorts of events and review that to see whether we're satisfied that everything was managed properly and determine whether we should dig any deeper," Gibson said.
A Malaysia-based AirAsia X flight from Perth to Kuala Lumpur turned back in June after one of the Airbus 330's engines failed. An aircrew member was criticized for suggesting that passengers pray.
In December 2014, an AirAsia flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the Java Sea, killing all 162 passengers and crew on board.
Indonesia AirAsia said passengers on the Sunday's aborted flight had been transferred to the next available flight and "provided with all necessary assistance."
"The safety of passengers and crew is our priority," the airline said. "AirAsia apologizes to passengers for any inconvenience caused."
The school board in Biloxi, Mississippi, has pulled "To Kill a Mockingbird" from an eighth-grade reading list after receiving complaints about wording in the book, NBC News reported.
Last week, Kenny Holloway, the board's vice president, said there was language in the book that "makes people uncomfortable."
"We can teach the same lesson with other books," Holloway said, according to the The Sun Herald newspaper. "It's still in our library. But they're going to use another book in the eighth-grade course."
The Biloxi School District didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
What to Know Connecticut has been without a budget since the prior budget ended on July 1.
The governor has released four budget proposals and vetoed the Republican-backed budget that the General Assembly passed.
The governor's latest proposal includes an additional $150 million in cuts.
A frustrated Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Monday released his fourth version of a state budget proposal Monday, hoping it will motivate the General Assembly to finally come up with a tax-and-spending plan he can sign into law after a months-long impasse.
But his latest two-year, $41.25 billion plan received lukewarm responses from legislators as they continued their closed-door, bipartisan talks in hopes of reaching a draft deal they can present to the Democratic governor.
"I welcome any and all ideas to the conversation and I appreciate the fact that Governor Malloy has shared this proposal," Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano said in a written statement. "That being said, it is obvious that the governor's proposal ... would not pass the legislature in its current form."
House Republican Leader Themis Klarides called Malloy's revised budget "a distraction" from the progress the top Republicans and Democrats have made in recent days without the governor in the room. Lawmakers hope to have a budget vote sometime next week, but it's unclear if that will happen.
Malloy said his latest proposal, which he noted comes 249 days after he proposed his first budget for the legislature to consider, is "bare bones," reducing spending by $144 million. It also eliminates some unpopular tax increases included in an earlier compromise budget he reached with fellow Democrats, such as a proposed state property tax on seasonal homes, a 25-cent fee on ride-hailing services and a cellphone surcharge.
"This is a lean, no-frills, no-nonsense budget," Malloy said in a written statement. "Our goals were simple in putting this plan together: eliminate unpopular tax increases, incorporate ideas from both parties, and shrink the budget and its accompanying legislation down to their essential parts."
The governor's plan also includes an updated formula for distributing state education funding to Connecticut schools.
Democratic and Republican legislative leaders have been meeting privately this month in hopes of finally reaching a bipartisan agreement, something that's seen as crucial given the close partisan makeup in the state legislature. Connecticut has been without a budget since the fiscal year ended June 30. While lawmakers contend they've been making strides, Malloy, who has been running the state government using his limited executive spending authority, is frustrated by their slow pace.
"I cannot stress enough, time is of the essence," Malloy said, noting how Connecticut's bond rating has suffered due to the impasse.
Last week, Standard & Poor's Global Ratings downgraded its outlook for the state's general obligation bonds to "negative," while keeping the rating at A-plus.
On Monday, Moody's Investor Service announced it had placed 26 Connecticut municipalities and three regional school districts under review for a possible downgrade. Another 25 cities and towns and three regional school districts were assigned negative outlooks. The rating agency cited the state's budget impasse and the vulnerability of state aid to municipalities.
"Such action only serves to reinforce that while state legislative leaders claim to have been meeting in good faith to resolve the state budget impasse, the time for action on a state budget agreement is now," said Joe DeLong, executive director of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.
He predicted Moody's actions will have "a devastating impact" by increasing communities' borrowing costs, potentially increasing local tax rates and limiting their ability to finance short- and long-term projects.
This month, Connecticut cities and towns are bracing for $140 million in school funding cuts the first of $557 million in total under the governor's executive order. Malloy's budget director, Ben Barnes, said there will be "large influxes of cash" into municipal coffers once a new budget is passed.
But the Connecticut Conference of Small Towns is still unhappy with Malloy's latest offering, calling it "a swing and a miss" for shifting teacher pension costs to municipalities "in a way that will overwhelm property taxpayers."
Tovah Feldshuh talks about latest role in Armageddon Time and the various mother roles shes played over the last six months, additionally she shares with Sara Gore that shes coming up on her 50th year of performing on Broadway in her latest role for Funny Girl.
Black communities in Pennsylvania continue to be disproportionately impacted by the war on weed, according to a new report released Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
In Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties, black adults are nearly seven times more likely than white adults to be arrested for pot, according to the report.
In Delaware County, the rate drops down to nearly five times more likely. And in Berks County, it's around four times more likely.
Philadelphia, which decriminalized small amounts of personal use pot three years ago, has the lowest racial disparity with black adults three times more likely to be arrested for cannabis-related offenses compared to their white counterparts.
Racial disparities have actually gotten worse across the state, Andrew Hoover, spokesman for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said. These arrests create major barriers for people in their daily lives.
The rates are especially glaring because marijuana use is virtually identical across the races, Matt Stroud, of the ACLU, said.
Roughly 70 percent of all arrests in Philadelphia were millennials between the ages of 18 and 30 years old, according to Chris Goldstein, Temple University adjunct professor and marijuana activist.
We see these arrests are primarily young people, he said. This is a very serious thing for young people - they lose their chances of going to college and getting jobs.
The report used data submitted by Pennsylvania law enforcement agencies to the state Uniform Crime Reporting System.
Between 2010 and 2016, nearly 178,000 people were arrested throughout the state for cannabis. The majority of those arrests were for marijuana possession, which accounts for half of the states total drug arrests even as cities and counties drown under the weight of a burgeoning and persistent opioid crisis.
Because low-income communities and people of color are disproportionately impacted by the so-called war on drugs, lawmakers throughout the region have called for comprehensive drug law reform.
State Sen. Daylin Leach, who represents portions of Montgomery and Delaware counties and co-sponsored the state's medical marijuana bill, has introduced legalization in every legislative session since 2013, according to his spokesman.
Prohibition is a "continuation of Jim Crow policies," Leach's spokesman, Steve Hoenstine, said. "We don't think about it that way, but that's exactly what it does and it has to stop for that reason."
In private conversations between Leach and other local lawmakers, several have expressed their support for legalizing adult-use cannabis, Hoenstine said. But few are willing to go public with their votes.
"It's a ridiculous policy that costs taxpayers money and now we have to borrow all this money just to pay our bill," he said. "It destroys [people's] lives and then they have to use state resources when they get out of prison."
Other jurisdictions in the region have also called for legalization. In August, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker introduced the Marijuana Justice Act, citing the uneven application of law enforcement when it comes to marijuana arrests.
His bill would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, expunge federal marijuana use and possession crimes and incentivize states through federal funds to change their cannabis laws if those laws were shown to have a disproportionate effect on low-income individuals or people of color.
Tragically, in this country, if youre African-American, youre going to be arrested for using drugs almost 4 times more than someone who is white, Booker said at the time.
His bill was largely taken as a symbolic gesture at a time when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has vowed to crack down on all cannabis use. But other local municipalities have started to soften on marijuana, including Delaware, which created a task force to examine the potential impact of legalizing adult-use pot.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia decriminalized cannabis in October 2014. A $25 fine was implemented for people possessing fewer than 30 grams of marijuana and up to 8 grams of hash, but police maintained the power to arrest people at their discretion.
Buying and selling recreational cannabis remains illegal at the state and federal level.
Philadelphia police spokesman Capt. Sekou Kinebrew said the findings are mostly good news for the city, but work still needs to done.
"We're moving in the right direction," he said.
"It is not our mission or desire to dispense law enforcement in a racially biased way. We start from day one with our recruits ... to indoctrinate a culture of fairness."
But Kinebrew admits that fostering a culture of fairness is a constantly moving target. Without knowing the circumstances of each arrest tallied in the ACLU report, it is impossible to know if someone was targeted because of their race or merely caught breaking the law, he said.
And that can create unintended consequences.
When you leave things to be subjective, racial bias creeps in. We need to decriminalize across the board, State Rep. Jordan Harris of Philadelphia and chairman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, said.
Decriminalization in Philadelphia led to an 88 percent decrease in marijuana-related offenses in the last three years, according to the ACLU report, but arrests surged in other parts of the state. Pennsylvanias overall possession arrest numbers for adults and minors combined increased by nearly 25 percent between 2010 and 2016.
I would much rather my tax dollars going to our police stopping gun violence, making sure child predators stay off our streets, than arrest a guy who smokes a doobie on his way to work or his way from work, Harris said.
A new private equity firm has set up shop in San Diego to fund startups that are serving the cannabis industry.
The company, called Floris Capital Management LLC, was founded by Skip Motsenbocker and Will Senn, the founder of San Diego dispensary Urbn Leaf.
The new fund is investing in six areas within the cannabis industry: cultivation, manufacturing, branding, retailing, real estate, and other ancillary businesses.
Motsenbocker, Floris Capitals president, said he thought it was smart to invest in several areas within cannabis, as the ancillary space alone has become overcrowded.
Our multi-sector approach represents both a better diversification strategy and anticipated return on investment, Motsenbocker said.
So far this year, 29 states have legalized cannabis for medical use, and eight states (including California) have legalized recreational use.
Floris Capital aims to help fuel the burgeoning industry with infusions of cash that will range from $1 million to $5 million. Motsenbocker said most of the companies Floris Capital will invest in will fall into two categories: startups less than three years old or companies that have recently landed regulatory approval to operate.
Additional stories from the San Diego Business Journal are available here. Sign up for their free daily email newsletter.
An Amber Alert has been canceled after a missing girl in Prince William County, Virginia, was found safe, according to county police.
Virginia State Police and the county police department said the 16-year-old girl was abducted at 1:43 a.m. from a location in Woodbridge, Virginia. She and her alleged abductor, Roberto Medrano Segovia, 21, were located in the Woodbridge area.
Detectives are conducting interviews to determine what happened.
Police said she was last seen in the 14800 block of Danville Road in Woodbridge. They said she was taken against her will by Segovia, and the two may have been traveling in a dark Honda Civic, possibly a hatchback.
Investigators said the victim and Segovia were attending a party in Woodbridge when there was an argument, and they separated. They said the victim left the party location, and witnesses saw her being forced into a vehicle by Segovia.
CORRECTION (Oct. 15, 11:15 a.m.): The Amber Alert through the Virginia State Police described the victim as a white female. A press release from Prince William County police changed the description to a Hispanic female.
The National Hurricane Center has issued storm surge, hurricane and tropical storm advisories for parts of the U.S. Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Nate approaches.
A storm surge watch has been issued from Morgan City, La., eastward to the Alabama-Florida border, including the northern and western shores of Lake Pontchartrain.
A hurricane watch is in effect from Morgan City eastward to the Mississippi-Alabama border, including metropolitan New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas. Punta Herrero, Mexico, to Rio Lagartos was also included.
A tropical storm watch has been issued from the Mississippi-Alabama border eastward to Florida's Okaloosa-Walton County Line. A tropical storm watch was also declared west of Morgan City to Intracoastal City.
Tropical Storm Nate was blamed Thursday for at least 22 deaths in Central America as it dumped rain across the region on a path that would carry it toward a potential landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast as a hurricane over the weekend.
Louisiana officials ordered some people to evacuate coastal areas and barrier islands, and evacuations began at some offshore oil platforms in the Gulf.
The NHC said the storm could cause dangerous flooding by dumping as much as 15 inches of rain in western Nicaragua and southern Honduras.
As of 5 a.m. Friday, Nate had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. The storm was about 75 miles east-southeast of Isla Guanaja, Honduras, and was moving northwest at a speed of 12 mph.
It is likely to continue over the Gulf of Honduras Friday and across the Caribbean Sea.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday urged residents in Florida's Panhandle to keep an eye on the storm, and declared a state of emergency for 29 counties in north Florida and the Panhandle.
Scott was in Pensacola on Thursday morning, meeting with city and emergency management officials. He said in a news release that the order helps ensure that federal, state and local governments can work together easily and make sure storm-related resources are provided without delay to local communities.
The western part of the Florida Panhandle remained in Nate's forecast track, along with Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
In Nicaragua, Nate's arrival followed two weeks of near-constant rain that had left the ground saturated and rivers swollen. Authorities placed the whole country on alert and warned of flooding and landslides.
Nicaragua's vice president and spokeswoman, Rosario Murillo, said that at least 15 people had died in that country due to the storm. She didn't give details on all the deaths, but said two women and a man who worked for the Health Ministry were swept away by a flooded canal in the central municipality of Juigalpa.
The government closed schools nationwide.
Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Organization blamed seven deaths in that country on the storm and said 15 people were missing. Flooding drove 5,000 residents into emergency shelters.
In Louisiana, officials ordered the evacuation of part of coastal St. Bernard Parish east of New Orleans ahead of the storm. Earlier Thursday, a voluntary evacuation was called in the barrier island town of Grand Isle south of New Orleans.
New Orleans officials outlined steps to bolster the city's pump and drainage system. Weaknesses in that system were revealed during summer flash floods.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's New Orleans office said in a news release that as of midday Thursday, six production platforms, out of the 737 manned platforms in the Gulf, had been evacuated. No drilling rigs were evacuated, but one moveable rig was taken out of the storm's path.
The agency estimated less than 15 percent of the current oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut-in, which equates to 254,607 barrels of oil per day.
The forecast track showed the storm could brush across the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula late Friday night and then hit the U.S. Gulf Coast as a hurricane by Sunday morning. Forecasters said hurricane conditions were possible in Mexico Friday night.
In the Pacific, former Tropical Storm Ramon dissipated off the southwestern coast of Mexico.
People from around the world are helping a 7-year-old Maine boy battling brain cancer celebrate his favorite holiday.
Brock Chadwick of Biddeford has a simple wish: he is asking people to mail him Halloween cards.
"It's been 8 long months of continuous chemotherapy, extensive radiation and major surgeries," his family posted on Facebook about the request. "Little things like this can really uplift him."
The response has been overwhelming. Since the start of the month, Chadwick has received hundreds of packages and thousands of cards from people across the country and around the world.
"Tons of packages, toys, candy and cards - he is loving every second of it," said Brittney Horton, the boy's mother.
Chadwick has an aggressive form of brain cancer that has spread to his spine. And even though he is exhausted from chemotherapy, his family says the kindness of strangers is helping him get into the holiday spirit.
"It motivates him, for sure," said Horton.
"He's been seeming a lot better than he was a few weeks ago," said William Chadwick, Brock's father.
They have nicknamed the month "Brocktober," and it has been a month full of surprises.
Last Saturday, a group of community members and the Biddeford Fire Department helped decorate Chadwick's front yard with donated Halloween decorations.
On Sunday, about 300 motorcyclists from across New England organized a ride for him. They dressed up in Halloween costumes and surprised him outside his Biddeford home.
"[The response] has been way bigger that I could have imagined," said Horton. She said Brock has received so many toys and donations that they plan on donating items to children's hospitals to spread the love to other children.
Chadwick said his favorite part of "Brocktober" has been receiving his favorite candy: Hershey Bars and Hershey kisses. He wants to dress up as either Captain America or the Incredible Hulk, but some say he doesn't need a costume to be a superhero.
Cards can be sent to:
Brock Chadwick
11 McKenny Drive
Biddeford, ME 04005
Cutting-edge British femtech brand Elvie is reimagining health and lifestyle technology for women with its soon-to-be expanding product range.
Their first product is Elvie Trainer, the category-defining pelvic floor trainer, which has already been touted as a 'game changer' in the womens health arena. Elvies award-winning pelvic floor trainer has transformed the way that women look after their pelvic floors, helping women get the most from their Kegel exercises by guiding them through fun, five-minute workouts.
Elvie Trainer is recommended by over 800 health and wellness professionals around the globe and is currently distributed through medical practices and womens health clinics in more than 10 international markets, including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Spain and Taiwan.
Representatives from Elvie will be at the event, to meet global medical distributors that are interested in bringing Elvies pioneering products to women around the world. More information available from the Elvie stand at Wearable Technology Booth 15A23.
Tatiana Escobar, Global Head of Sales for Elvie, says:
Women deserve better technology that pushes the boundaries of innovation and solves real problems. The technology that we are developing throughout our product range is improving the health and lives of women at all stages of their life. Were really excited to expand our global network and partner with retailers that are interested in revolutionizing womens health.
Elvie has received more than 15 awards to date for innovation and design, including Hottest Hardware Startup at The Europas 2017, Product Design Award at the Red Dot Design Award 2016, The Bump Best of Baby Tech Awards Finalist 2016 and Body Recovery Products Top Choice of the Year at the Baby Maternity Magazine Awards 2017. Elvies founder and CEO, Tania Boler, was named as a Porter Magazine Woman of the Year 2016 and won Innovator of the Year at the FDM Everywoman in Technology Awards.
A panel of advisors to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has voted unanimously in favor of an experimental gene therapy to treat patients with a rare kind of hereditary blindness.
The Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee voted 16-0 to recommend this new therapy. The FDA usually accepts the recommendations from its advisory committee. If so, this could be the first one time gene therapy approved for an inherited disease condition, creating history.
Philadelphia based Spark Therapeutics developed this new therapy called Luxturna> (voretigene neparvovec) that involves injection of a healthy version of the RPE65 gene into the eyes of patients who have a mutated form of this gene. This gene makes a special protein in the eye that is necessary for vision. Although perfect vision may not be achieved, the treatment does provide substantial improvements in vision to these blind patients. Luxturna is considered to be true gene therapy wherein a good, functioning gene is injected to perform the work of a defective gene. Until now Spark has not announced the pricing for their product but it could be high. Experts predict a price of $750,000 to $1 million for both eyes. The FDA would not consider this recommendation and has set a deadline of mid-January 2018, to decide upon the Spark treatments fate.
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The therapy could benefit around 1000 to 2000 people in the United States who have inherited retinal disorders that result from a defective RPE65 gene. The problem is usually detected in childhood as Leber congenital amaurosis or retinitis pigmentosa. Vision is low and there are symptoms of night blindness (inability to see in low light conditions) and defective peripheral vision or central vision. With time the children become completely blind usually by the age of 16. According to Jean Bennett, an ophthalmologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who was one of the researchers involved in the development of Luxturna, the children with low vision due to the genetic defect, after injection of the therapy could become much more independent.
The committee met all day on Thursday and voted after it heard accounts from patients who had benefited from the treatment. 29 patients aged ranging from 4 to 44 were presented before the committee to show the benefits from this treatment. None of the patients had gained full vision but 90 percent of them showed significant improvement especially in low light vision. The therapy was found to relatively safe. Some cases of raised intra-eye pressure was seen.
Katherine High, president and head of research and development at Spark said that there was a hope of developing medicines from the Human Genome Project. It was a complex deal but success in this field could mean a lot for patients with rare inherited genetic disorders. There are several other genetically inherited conditions such as Huntingtons disease (an inherited disorder of the muscles and nerves) and hemophilia (blood coagulation disorder) for which researchers are working towards gene therapies.
Human populations vary vastly in skin tones. European populations have been studied and some of the genes that determine skin color have been found. A latest study in a varied African population has found the specific and new genetic variants that could determine skin color and skin pigmentation. The study report is published in the journal Science.
University of Pennsylvania researchers studied the genetics behind skin pigmentation of diverse African populations, finding new genetic variants associated with skin color. Here, senior research scientist Alessia Ranciaro measures the skin reflectance of a man from a Nilo-Saharan group. Members of this population tend to have very dark skin pigmentation. Image Credit: Courtesy of the Tishkoff lab
A group of researchers led by University of Pennsylvania geneticists have determined these genetic variants that could help understand the evolution of skin tones and also help understand the risks of skin cancers and other conditions. Nicholas Crawford, a postdoctoral fellow was the first author of this study and there was a multi-institutional, international team of researchers working in collaboration.
Sarah Tishkoff, a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor said that the team had identified these genetic variants that could determine one of the most strikingly variable traits in modern humans. She explained that people think all African populations have similar dark skin tones. The actual fact is that they have a large variation of skin tones that could range from as light as the Asian populations to the darkest skin tone. An analysis of the genes has given clues towards the evolution of light and dark skin before the origin of modern humans. She explained that skin color is an adaptive trait in humans. This study would show how this adaptive trait could play a role in diseases.
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Researchers explain that darker skin prevents the negative effects of the suns ultraviolet rays. Lighter skin on the other hand is more efficient in producing vitamin D from suns rays in regions where sunlight is lower (colder regions with low sunlight).
For this study the team used a color meter to measure the light reflecting from the skin tones. They included over 2,000 Africans from ethnically and genetically diverse populations. The tones were taken from the inner arms of the participants where the exposure to sun is minimal. The levels of skin pigment melanin were estimated from the skin tones measured. The darkest skin tones were found in the Nilo-Saharan pastoralist populations in eastern Africa. On the other hand the San hunter-gatherer populations in southern Africa had the lightest skin tones. From the participants, genetic analysis was done for around 1600 participants. From the genetic fingerprints, more than 4 million single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs were estimated. SNPs or snips are regions where a single letter is different in the genetic code (the genetic code is made up of 4 letters A, T, G, C which are nucleotides). From this data the team did a genome-wide association study. They noted that there are four regions of the genome where variations could predict skin color changes.
One of the strongest associated genetic regions was at the SLC24A5 gene. Variations of this gene have been found previously to affect skin color of European and some southern Asian populations. These changes date back to over 30,000 years back. The variations at this gene are found in people from Ethiopia and Tanzania.
These people could have their ancestors from Southeast Asia and the Middle East from where the populations could have migrated to Africa, speculate researchers. The MFSD12 gene was another strong marker. This gene is associated with vitiligo found the researchers. Vitiligo is a condition where there are patchy discolorations of the skin due to lack of melanin pigment. Mutations in this region of the genome were seen most commonly in the Nilo-Saharan populations with the darkest skin and the sub-Saharan populations. Variants of this gene were also found among the South Asian Indian and Australo-Melanesian populations who have the darkest skin complexions outside of Africa. Tishkoff explained that several genetic traits were shared by populations of Melanesia and Australia and some sub-Saharan Africans.
Other genes of interest were MFSD12, OCA2, and HERC2 associated with light skin pigmentation as was seen in the African San population shared by Europeans. Tishkoff said this study not only shows how diverse African populations are but also challenges the existing ideas regarding race.
The United States military is funding research into octopus skin to develop new techniques of camouflage.
Blue-ringed Octopus (Hapalochlaena sp.) Image Credit: Sascha Janson / Shutterstock
The U.S. Army and Air Force actually are both funding this project where they want to see how the octopus skin changes its texture and appearance as a protective mechanism. Rob Shepherd, a professor and robotics hardware designer at Cornell University led this research and the findings of the study entitled, Stretchable surfaces with programmable 3D texture morphing for synthetic camouflaging skins are published in the latest issue of the journal Science.
Shepherd explained that the way the octopus changes the textures of its skin could be used on the planes wings to alter its appearances in combat. The octopus skin he explained, is technologically very advanced. It has a highly developed sensorimotor control system according to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. If these were to be understood and utilized, they could lead to development of several technical advancements such as soft robots, adaptive networks and artificial skin.
Shepherd said that octopuses are predators but they are also an easy target for predators. This fear of predators and being attractive to potential mates make them change their skin color and textures. He added however that the current research cannot match this natural wonder but they are trying to understand the details of what an octopus can do and try and match some of its potentials.
He said that they are trying to create virtual reality environments. It could help transform three-dimensional things into flat ones that could be reinflated after they reach their destinations. Those with limited sight could use some of this new technology as assistive robots too he explained. In addition they are creating octopus robots that can mimic the actual ones to go closer to them and help scientists study these shy and generally non cooperative creatures. Artificial skin is also on the cards. As of now the artificial skin that has been developed can only change its flat face to a textured surface. Shepherd said that the real octopuses can shift between two textures and researchers are trying to make these artificial skins attempt to do that. These skins could cover soft robots and help them hide in combat environments to prevent from being attacked.
The study explained how the team led by James Pikul, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania, used a fixed-length fiber mesh embedded within a silicone elastomer to convert a flat object into a 3D structure by inflating it. They thus transformed the painted models of rocks and plants to make a 3D image that could blend into the background. The researchers could reach within 10 percent of the actual model dimensions using this approach. Pikul explained that there are existing methods to control the shape of stretchable materials. However this time they wanted to try a method that was fast, strong and easy to control. He said that they drew inspirations from cephalopods like octopuses.
Reference: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/358/6360/210
Heres what to expect in the week ahead:
ECONOMY
Economic issues on the agenda when Trump and Greek leader meet.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece is to meet President Trump in Washington on Tuesday for talks that are expected to focus on military cooperation, economic investment and energy security. Also expected to be part of the discussion: Greeces efforts to emerge from its third international bailout and its calls for relief from its huge debt burden. The meeting will be watched in Europe for signs of the Trump administrations stance on the prospects for Greek debt relief and on the potential role of the International Monetary Fund in Greeces bailout. Some clarity on the funds role may emerge on Monday, when Mr. Tsipras meets with the funds managing director, Christine Lagarde. Niki Kitsantonis
BANKING
Morgan Stanley and Goldman report earnings.
Bank earnings will be a major focus again as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs report their results for the third quarter on Tuesday. Their rivals Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase have already reported positive results in the quarter, driven primarily by gains in their consumer and commercial lending businesses. Profits from banks sales and trading businesses, particularly fixed income trading, were hit in the third quarter and are expected to remain sluggish through the end of the year. That could particularly weigh on the results of Goldman and Morgan Stanley. Chad Bray
ECONOMY
Chinas Communist Party hears from hits leader.
Chinas Communist Party congress is scheduled to begin on Wednesday with a speech by the partys general secretary, Xi Jinping, who is also the countrys president. He is expected to outline progress over the past five years. A question-and-answer session at a news conference held on Tuesday afternoon by a senior Communist Party spokesman may actually produce more new information. China plans to announce on Thursday its economic output in the third quarter and other data, all of which are expected to be strong, partly because the government has been heavily stimulating the economy ahead of the congress. Keith Bradsher
Draghi to urge euro countries to do more for economies.
On Wednesday, Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, will urge countries in the eurozone to do more to improve the performance of their economies when he speaks in Frankfurt at an invitation-only conference, Structural Reforms in the Euro Area. Mr. Draghi has for years been calling on European countries to loosen labor rules and get rid of red tape that discourages entrepreneurship, but he has had only limited success. One theme of the conference, organized by the central bank, is how to overcome political obstacles to change in countries like Italy. Jack Ewing
MONDAY PUZZLES If you make odd connections between things as I do, the crossword might bring out different things for you. Jennifer Nutt, who wrote todays lovely Monday crossword, probably did not have this in mind when she created it, but her puzzle brought this up for me, so Im going to tell you a story.
The first time I visited Cape Town, I took the ferry to Robben Island to see the prison now a museum where former South African president Nelson Mandela and many others who resisted the National Party during the apartheid era were held. Its the kind of thing that is expected of first-time visitors (Oh, you must go!) and Im a student of history, so I climbed aboard the boat and off I went.
Cape Town is a very windy city because of its location between the mountains and the sea, and on that day, the wind was working against the ferry as it made its way across the water. With no warning, a pod of humpback whales appeared in the water at the front of the boat, and skimmed over the water toward the island, almost as if to lead us in. When we slowed down, they would loop back and continue to guide us. It was a very touching sight, almost as if they were saying, Follow us. There are secrets to be told here. Once we were close to the shore, they dispersed and made their way back out to sea.
The tour, which is more a heartbreaking example of mans inhumanity to man than a tourist trap curiosity, lasted about an hour and included talks by both former prisoners and the Afrikaaner guards who had held them captive. They had returned to educate mostly foreign visitors about a relatively recent period in history (1948 1994) where a nationalist government had succeeded in discriminating despicably against black Africans and criminalizing interaction between the races. There were also a surprising number of white South Africans in our group.
As people flooded into shelters in recent years, the city did not increase the shelter systems physical capacity, relying instead on renting hotel rooms and so-called cluster apartments as a short-term solution. That might have seemed cheaper than building and maintaining new shelters, but it now appears shortsighted. The city also did not adequately modernize the way it contracted for shelters.
Steven Banks, the citys city commissioner of social services, said he and his staff had already identified many of the problems cited in the audit, and that even as auditors began evaluating the shelter system, changes were underway.
In July, two months after eight auditors finished their fieldwork, the city Department of Homeless Services implemented a new model budget that will use a set of templates weighing factors, such as the type of shelter and maintenance, as it negotiates contracts for dozens of new shelters to open by 2021.
Thomas P. DiNapoli, the state comptroller, said in a statement that the city should be commended for its efforts to address shelter rates. More can be done to negotiate with providers and to pay consistent rates that are within guidelines, Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement. We hope this audit assists the city with its ongoing work.
Mr. Banks said that since the citys homeless services and welfare agencies were consolidated last year under the new Department of Social Services, homeless services has had more contracting support, which has helped control costs.
Richard Wilbur, whose meticulous, urbane poems earned him two Pulitzer Prizes and selection as the national poet laureate, died on Saturday in Belmont, Mass. He was 96.
His son Christopher confirmed his death, in a nursing home.
Across more than 60 years as an acclaimed American poet, Mr. Wilbur followed a muse who prized traditional virtuosity over self-dramatization; as a consequence he often found himself out of favor with the literary authorities who preferred the heat of artists like Sylvia Plath and Allen Ginsberg.
He received his first Pulitzer in 1957, and a National Book Award as well, for Things of This World. The collection included A Baroque Wall-Fountain in the Villa Sciarra, which the poet and critic Randall Jarrell called one of the most marvelously beautiful, one of the most nearly perfect poems any American has written.
In the poem, Mr. Wilbur, observing statuary in a fountain showered fauns concludes:
They are at rest in fulness of desire
For what is given, they do not tire
Of the smart of the sun, the pleasant water-douse
And riddled pool below,
Reproving our disgust and our ennui
With humble insatiety.
Francis, perhaps, who lay in sister snow
Before the wealthy gate
Freezing and praising, might have seen in this
No trifle, but a shade of bliss
That land of tolerable flowers, that state
As near and far as grass
Where eyes become the sunlight, and the hand
Is worthy of water: the dreamt land
Toward which all hungers leap, all pleasures pass.
By the early 1960s, however, critical opinion generally conformed to Mr. Jarrells oft-quoted assessment that Mr. Wilbur never goes too far, but he never goes far enough.
It must be cold and miserable standing in the shadow of someone greater and smarter, more loved and more admired. It must be infuriating to have risen on the wings of your derision of that persons every decision, and even his very existence, and yet not be able to measure up in either stratagem or efficacy when you sit where that person once sat.
This is the existence of Donald Trump in the wake of President Barack Obama. Trump cant hold a candle to Obama, so hes taking a tiki torch to Obamas legacy. Trump cant get his bad ideas through Congress, but he can use the power of the presidency to sabotage or even sink Obamas signature deeds.
In fact, if there is a defining feature of Trump as president, it is that he is in all ways the anti-Obama not only on policy but also on matters of propriety and polish. While Obama was erudite, Trump is ignorant. Obama was civil, Trump is churlish. Obama was tactful, Trump is tacky.
There is a thing present in Obama and absent from Trump that no amount of money or power can alter: a sense of elegant intellectualism and taste.
To the Editor:
Tax Cuts Wont Create Jobs, by Marcus Ryu (Op-Ed, Oct. 9), proposes that the purpose of the unified tax plan is to persuade more high-tech entrepreneurs to create start-ups. But this is not the purpose of President Trumps plan. Its purpose is to make our tax code simpler and fairer, grow the economy and increase wage growth for hard-working Americans.
A reasonable reduction in corporate tax rates will incentivize increased corporate investment in both existing and new endeavors. A reduced corporate tax rate facilitates an improved rate of return on new projects and leaves companies with more equity with which to fund them and bring back earnings trapped overseas, making companies more likely to fund projects in the United States.
Mr. Ryu goes on to argue that government is a better allocator of capital than the private sector. History shows otherwise: Think back to the messes at Fannie and Freddie and the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska.
Regarding Cohn and Mnuchin Risk Reputations, by David Leonhardt (column, Oct. 9): The details of the tax bill have not yet been released, so there is no empirical basis for the headlines claim. In fact, the framework explicitly says tax reform will result in a system at least as progressive as current law, and it will not shift the tax burden to low- and middle-income households from high-income households.
To the Editor:
Re You Cant Empower Us With Chickens (Op-Ed, Oct. 5):
Thanks to Rafia Zakaria for highlighting a critical issue in the growing efforts to empower women globally. I work with companies and local womens organizations that appreciate that empowering women requires more than a sewing machine or a chicken. Being able to make a living and support oneself is certainly a critical piece of the empowerment puzzle, but it is only one piece.
For women to gain control over resources, they must also be able to have a voice in society and in debates over violence, reproductive health, and the unpaid care work they perform.
Luckily, as Ms. Zakaria suggests, women themselves and the grass-roots womens groups that have been working with them in complex cultural contexts for many years understand the interconnectedness of these issues in advancing womens rights.
Putting these women at the center of designing strategies and programs for womens empowerment will accelerate all our efforts to achieve gender equality.
Do you have a spine-tingling story to share about your school or alma mater? Submit it here, and well publish our favorites in time for Halloween.
During my sophomore year, I lived in a haunted dorm.
Ill admit, I have always loved a good ghost story. So you could say I was primed to have a ghost sighting, or at least, hopeful for one. And at Kenyon College in Ohio, where I went to school, ghosts are a big part of campus lore.
Every October, the security guards host a bonfire and recount, straight-faced, tales of disappearing footprints, disembodied wails and an elevator that operated on its own. One professor leads a haunted campus tour, and Kenyon alumni from different generations share versions of the stories at reunions and gatherings; its part of our shared language and a useful conversation starter.
The stories themselves are regularly embellished, and some have taken on mythic proportions, but the original tales come from a handful of tragic accidents over the last century.
Canada, Mexico and the United States belong to a North American neighborhood, and all three countries benefit from being strong and prosperous.
North America is at a crossroads, with skepticism about the virtues of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the United States relationship with its neighbors. That skepticism disregards the considerable competitive advantage the agreement has given the United States and, in turn, transformed North America into a global powerhouse.
Nafta was signed in 1993, when the economy was much simpler. We have a unique chance to take advantage of three countries meeting at the negotiation table in order to modernize the accord and to make it, once again, the worlds state-of-the-art trade agreement. To maintain North Americas competitive edge, we have three ideas to update and improve Nafta, rather than simply discarding it.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. Nathalie and Michael Internicola had about 15 minutes to grab what they could as the flames roared toward their house, and it wasnt much: Some clothes, passports, their phones. They are grateful to be alive, they said, but as for what comes next and how and where they might rebuild their lives, they dont have a clue.
Were staying with friends as long as they will have us; then we dont know, said Ms. Internicola, 51, whose home in Santa Rosa burned to the ground, along with about 60 others in their neighborhood. We are desperately looking for a house we can rent, but theres just nothing available, because there are so many people displaced.
Though some of the fires in Northern California, the deadliest on record in the state, had been partly contained by Sunday afternoon, others were still raging. At least 41 people have died, and the count is likely to rise as the search for victims continues.
But for people like the Internicolas who escaped in time but lost their homes, the journey is just beginning. And the daunting implications of starting over, multiplied by thousands, are rippling through the state. About 100,000 people have been evacuated from fire zones, and some 5,700 houses and buildings have been destroyed.
One person was believed to be missing after an oil rig storage platform exploded Sunday night on Lake Pontchartrain, just north and west of New Orleans.
Seven people were taken to hospitals after the explosion, and three of them remained in critical condition Monday morning, Mike Guillot, the director of emergency medical services at East Jefferson General Hospital, said at a news conference. The other four were released.
Sheriff Joe Lopinto of Jefferson Parish said at the news conference, We are fairly confident there is an eighth person, adding that search efforts were continuing, and the Coast Guard had contacted the persons family.
No fatalities had been reported as of Monday morning.
The blast occurred shortly after 7 p.m. near St. Charles Parish and the city of Kenner. The platform is in unincorporated Jefferson Parish.
SUCRE, Venezuela She had heard the calls for a boycott of the election. She worried that the ruling party might toy with the results and undermine her candidate should he prevail. And the day promised to be a very long one: The government had relocated her voting site from the place she had cast ballots since 1972 to a distant, crime-ridden neighborhood.
But Roberta Elicelia Castillo Isturiz, 77, was not about to sit out regional elections on Sunday in Venezuela, the countrys first election in the months since President Nicolas Maduro forced through a major consolidation of power that most of the nations neighbors say amounts to a dictatorship.
The worst thing is to stay at home, Ms. Castillo said as she sat in her old voting site in this municipality in the state of Miranda, in northern Venezuela, waiting for a bus to take her to the new site. Hope is the last thing to be lost.
Amid an economic crisis that has caused crippling shortages of food and medicine and spurred a sharp increase in violence, Venezuelans went to the polls on Sunday to vote for governors in the countrys 23 states.
The Socialists, led by Chancellor Christian Kern, 51, finished third with 26.7 percent of the vote, preliminary results showed.
The most likely coalition partner appeared to be the nationalist, populist Freedom Party, which initial results showed winning 27.1 percent of the vote. The party complained during the election campaign that Mr. Kurz had stolen its playbook, seizing on issues like limits to immigration and the threat posed to Austrian identity by Islam.
The Freedom Party, led by Heinz-Christian Strache, 48, was believed to be eager to join the government. The party had hoped for a stronger showing months after it narrowly lost the presidency to Mr. van Der Bellen, a former leader of the Greens.
Despite participating in neo-Nazi activities as a youth, Mr. Strache has tried to cast his party in a more centrist light unlike previous leaders who were known for remarks sympathetic to the Nazis while remaining sharply critical of Islam. He has insisted that the party would not call into question Austrias European Union membership if it entered the government.
We say yes to Europe, but we are critical, Mr. Strache said on Sunday.
The Austrian result is the latest indication of Europes shift to the right, after the far-right Alternative for Germany party won more than 90 seats in the German Parliament last month, making it the third-largest bloc in the legislature.
The strong showing by right-leaning populist parties in the German-speaking world appeared to give new momentum to a surge of populism in Europe, after defeats of nationalists in the Netherlands and France.
Robert Fairchild bid farewell to the New York City Ballet on Sunday afternoon in George Balanchines Duo Concertant. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Mr. Fairchild, 30, described the ballet as tap dancing with ballet shoes, skimming like a stone on water.
Mr. Fairchild, who retires as a principal, hasnt danced his last dance. Nominated for a Tony for An American in Paris, he plans to pursue a career in acting and musical-theater. At his final curtain call, Mr. Fairchild, the youngest dancer to have a farewell event at City Ballet, choreographed an unusual flower presentation: he stood by a basket of roses and handed a flower to fellow principal dancers, who came onstage one by one.
Outcroppings of rocks hundreds of millions of years old occur naturally in Central Park, but even more exotic gems and minerals will be vividly on display across the street when the American Museum of Natural Historys new Allison and Roberto Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals open in 2019 in conjunction with the museums 150th anniversary.
Among the recently acquired specimens is a towering 12-foot amethyst geode from Uruguay, which will be on display in the museums Grand Gallery through this years winter holidays.
The renovated gallery will also display the Star of India blue sapphire, the 632-carat Patricia Emerald and the Subway Garnet, a nine-pound gem unearthed during the excavation for a sewer in Midtown Manhattan in 1885.
Ralph Appelbaum Associates designed the 11,000-square-foot transformation of the Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems and Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Minerals to showcase 4,500 specimens, explain how scientists classify them and illuminate how humans have used them for personal adornment, tools and technology.
Ms. Sheralds subjects, on the other hand, are mostly young and come in all shapes and sizes. Her images play black and white against color in different ways, most obviously in the skin tones, which are painted on the gray scale. This recalls old photographs but mainly gives the figures a slight remove from the rest of the painting, one that also signals their awareness of the obstacles to their full participation in American life. This simple device introduces the notion of double consciousness, the phrase coined by W.E.B. DuBois to describe the condition of anyone living with social and economic inequality.
Double consciousness may be inevitable in portraits of people outside the power structure. It is certainly present in Mr. Wileys portraits and it is a likely bet that it will figure in official portraits of groundbreaking leaders like the Obamas.
A precedent for such portrayals can be found in the proud sardonic oil portrait of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, from New Yorks 12th Congressional District. It is by the African-American artist and illustrator Kadir Nelson and is in the collection of the House of Representatives. Rest assured there will be more such official portraits in the years to come.
THE RED-HAIRED WOMAN
By Orhan Pamuk
Translated by Ekin Oklap
272 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $27.95.
A sense of place animates many novelists, but few more than Orhan Pamuk, for whom personal geography is artistic destiny. Istanbul, his home and his muse, is the ever-present character in his novels; his citys often-uneasy equipoise between East and West, secular and sacred, traditional and modern adding tension to whatever story is in the novels foreground.
The Red-Haired Woman once again explores this duality. Larded throughout the novel are references to two ancient and opposite tragedies of fathers and sons: Sophocles Oedipus Rex and the classic Persian tale of Rostam and Sohrab from Ferdowsis Shahnameh, or Book of Kings. In the former, Oedipus unwittingly murders his father; in the latter, the father, Rostam, unknowingly kills his son, Sohrab. These two classic tales become both the obsession of the novels protagonist, Cem Celik, and the determinants or overdeterminants of the novels action. The Sophocles tale not only comes out of the Western canon but its notion of the headstrong individualist who probes and questions and tempts fate is convenient shorthand for the would-be tradition-killers of Western modernity. In Ferdowsi, meanwhile, the father who kills his son can stand in for an old-against-young, backward-looking extremism, wielding an airless adherence to tradition against any would-be modernizing trends.
Divided into three parts, Pamuks novel appears at first to be narrated by Cem, whose Marxist father is more absence than presence in the boys life. Even before his father was jailed as a political activist, Cem sensed that his parents didnt love each other, that his father was attracted to other women. So its not entirely surprising when, upon his release, he deserts his family. This abandonment leaves the teenage boy and his mother in reduced circumstances and puts Cems dream of becoming a writer at risk. Needing money for cram school to assure his entry into a good college, Cem takes a summer job as a well-diggers apprentice, leaving his middle-class city life to camp with his master on a desolate rural site outside a garrison town.
Its supposed to be a short job two weeks at most but for all the skill of the digger and the backbreaking labor of his apprentice, the site refuses to yield water. The work drags on in the blazing heat amid rising tensions and fraying tempers.
At the start of the novel its been just two months since Lollys big brother Jermaine was shot outside a nightclub in the Bronx. Grief has moved into the apartment. No one wants to call it by name. Its a struggle to pay bills and put food on the table, while facing the challenge of keeping young people, especially teenage sons, from joining crews for protection and comfort. Who can blame these kids for wanting that? How do you make it through the day when the pressure of keeping a new coat or a cellphone from being jacked is overwhelming?
The answer, as Moore shows us, is in community. And its built piece by piece, Lego block by Lego block. Outside his apartment, that happens in an after-school program managed by Miss Jenna, of whom Lolly notes, for somebody white from Ohio, she had a big butt. Its under her supervision that Lolly does his homework, finds a male adult mentor who has his back and makes friends with Big Rose, a girl his age who is a head taller and seemingly in her own world, reading books in the corner.
Big Rose becomes one of Lollys saviors, and as in all good relationships, the connection goes both ways. These two characters compete building cities out of Legos in an unused storage room, challenging each other to go higher. Together they explore beyond their neighborhood, taking the train to other parts of Manhattan, marveling at the architecture of this other world. But Lollys success comes with temptations that bring new and wholly unexpected danger into his life, along with a chance to start building the kind of future he imagines.
Moore tells Lollys story of survival with the right mix of humor and hope to balance violence, fear, denial and deprivation. Thats a tall order. To succeed is a celebration. The power of adults as influencers and confidants, nurturing by words, deeds and acts of kindness large and small, fuels every page of this novel. Its a book in which art is celebrated, being different is an act of resistance, and acceptance, not resignation, is the answer.
The Stars Beneath Our Feet is filled with poetic detail that captures Lollys predicament, like a wild coyote that has wandered down from the suburbs and sought shelter in a Harlem park. Kids leave French fries and pastelles cornmeal-coated Caribbean holiday food for the animal, intuitively understanding what it means to be trapped in a hostile landscape.
4321 by Paul Auster (U.S.)
...its impossible not to be impressed and even a little awed by what Auster has accomplished. 4 3 2 1 is a work of outsize ambition and remarkable craft, a monumental assemblage of competing and complementary fictions, a novel that contains multitudes.
History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund (U.S.)
Few images in contemporary fiction have struck me as forcefully as that of Patra bent over in the driveway in anguish, mouth cracked open in a Munch-like silent scream. Fridlund has a tendency to double up on her descriptors, to use two adjectives where one would do. But she is masterly when she lets more scraped-down prose push a series of elemental questions to the fore: Do intentions matter? What price will you pay to feel wanted? How does it feel to be both guilty and exonerated? The result is a novel of ideas that reads like smart pulp, a page-turner of craft and calibration.
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (U.K.-Pakistan)
By mixing the real and the surreal, and using old fairy-tale magic, Hamid has created a fictional universe that captures the global perils percolating beneath todays headlines, while at the same time painting an unnervingly dystopian portrait of what might lie down the road. The world in Exit West is, in many respects, an extrapolation of the world we live in now, with wars like the one in Syria turning cities into war zones; with political crises, warp-speed technological changes, and growing tensions between nativists and migrants threatening to upend millions of lives.
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (U.S.)
As with you, probably, I know [Saunders] chiefly through his work, including Pastoralia and CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, his satirical diagnoses of our post-post-modern condition: our theme park life, mass-produced existential writings, the communal pig-wallow in the mud pits of consumerism. But if the historical theme park in CivilWarLand was a stage for its workers ludicrous miseries, the war here is a crucible for a heroic American identity: fearful but unflagging; hopeful even in tragedy; staggering, however tentatively, toward a better world.
Autumn by Ali Smith (U.K.)
Smiths writing is light and playful, deceptively simple, skipping along like a stone on the surface of a lake, brimming with humanity and bending, despite everything, toward hope.
Elmet by Fiona Mozley (U.K.)
Somalia is grappling with the security lapses that contributed to an attack some call the countrys 9/11. [The New York Times]
Julian Assange lashed out at Hillary Clinton after she called the WikiLeaks founder a tool of Russian intelligence on Australian television. [The Age]
Jakartas new governor was sworn in under pressure to prove that he can be as effective as his predecessor, the jailed politician known as Ahok. [The New York Times]
Madrid issued a new deadline of Thursday for Catalonia to clarify whether it had declared independence after its leader declined to meet its Monday deadline. [The New York Times]
Ahmad Khan Rahimi, a loner from New Jersey, was sentenced to life in prison for two-day bombing campaign in and around New York City last year. [The New York Times]
A U.S. soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, pleaded guilty to desertion and to endangering the troops sent to search for him after he walked off his base in Afghanistan in 2009. [The New York Times]
The suona, a traditional Chinese wind instrument like an oboe, was banned in 2016, as part of a crackdown on lavish ceremonies, and may be fading away forever. [Sixth Tone]
The worlds biggest hedge fund is trying to get bigger, with the help of small endowments and foundations.
Bridgewater Associates, a hedge fund firm with $160 billion in assets under management, is in talks with Cambridge Associates about creating a dedicated investment fund to take in money from the consulting firms institutional clients, which include endowments and foundations, said two people familiar with those talks who are not authorized to speak publicly.
Bridgewater, founded in 1975 by Ray Dalio, the billionaire investor, generally requires that clients have at least $7.5 billion of investable assets in order to put money into the hedge fund. Many investors pay at least $500,000 and sometimes as much as $4 million a year in fees to Bridgewater.
Those thresholds, among the highest in the $3 trillion hedge fund industry, put Bridgewater out of reach for all but a sliver of the worlds biggest institutional investors.
This story is one of the seven covers of T Magazines Greats issue, on newsstands Oct. 22.
THE DAY I WAIT in the hotel lobby of the Ritz-Carlton in Battery Park City to meet Nicki Minaj is the start of New York Fashion Week. I am early, and I watch as stylists push an overfull rack of designer clothes out of the elevator. I later learn they are from Alexander Wang, and are dressing Minaj for the designers show.
In the hall entrance of her suite, there is another rack bulging with outfits. Deeper into the suite, a lean and lanky hairdresser is combing a very long platinum-blond wig. He is wearing a fascinating outfit that includes black leather pants, a description that is doing those pants a great disservice because they are fabulous. He brushes the wig so carefully, so lovingly, that for a moment, I want to be that wig. A few feet away from his gentle ministrations, a makeup artist is organizing makeup and various brushes and other tools of the trade. Everyone speaks in hushed murmurs.
When Minaj enters, from an adjacent chamber, she is a petite wonder, wearing a fluffy white bathrobe, her face naked. After we greet each other with a light handshake, she asks if I mind if she gets her eyes lined. She isnt really asking, nor do I object. She sits in the makeup chair, and the artist begins applying Minajs trademark black eyeliner with its exaggerated cats eye flair.
I am stunned by the number of people Minaj has at her service. I also meet her day-to-day manager and personal assistant who are two different people and her stylist. In the hall just outside the suite wait a tailor and a couple of other people eager for Minajs time. She is the center of gravity for a great many professionals, and she wears that responsibility well.
WASHINGTON Capitol Hills most anticipated arrival on Monday did not come to pass: Senator Thad Cochran, the aging Republican patrician from Mississippi, stayed at home to continue recovering from a urological issue, his aides said.
Mr. Cochrans continued absence set off speculation about the severity of the senators condition, and it could have immediate ramifications for Republicans. Without his vote, Senate Republican leaders are down to a single-vote majority, 51, as they barrel toward a crucial late-week vote on a budget blueprint that would allow Congress to overhaul the tax code.
On Monday, the chambers leaders were confident that they would have the votes they needed, even without Mr. Cochran, but the senators absence and the expectation of unified Democratic opposition will narrow an uncomfortably thin margin. At least two Republicans are thought to be uncommitted to voting for the budget plan: Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona, who is being treated for brain cancer but is expected to be in Washington this week.
In a statement sent to reporters on Monday morning, Brad White, Mr. Cochrans chief of staff, said that the senator had developed a urinary tract infection as he underwent treatment for urological issues and did not offer a return date to Washington. Mr. Cochran has been absent from the Senate since late September, and his staff had previously indicated that he would return Monday.
SEOUL, South Korea The United States military said on Monday that it would practice evacuating noncombatant Americans out of South Korea in the event of war and other emergencies, as the two allies began a joint naval exercise amid heightened tensions with North Korea.
It has conducted similar evacuation exercises for decades. But with fears rising in the South that the United States might be preparing for military action against the North, the American military issued a rare news release on Monday stressing that the noncombatant evacuation exercise was a routinely scheduled drill.
The drill, known as Courageous Channel, is scheduled from next Monday through Friday and is aimed at preparing American service members and their families to respond to a wide range of crisis management events such as noncombatant evacuation and natural or man-made disasters, the United States military said in a statement.
The South Korean government of President Moon Jae-in has repeatedly warned that it opposes a military solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis because it could quickly escalate into a full-blown war in which Koreans would suffer the most.
MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. Marjorie Swanson was the first in the family to get a job at Baxter Regional Medical Center after moving to this rural Ozark town from Chicagos South Side in 1995.
A year later, her husband was hired by the maintenance department. Six months ago, their daughter snagged a job as a pharmacy technician and shares the night shift with her fiance, who works in housekeeping. Their son started in 2013 as a biomedical technician, repairing medical equipment. He was introduced to his wife by two nurses there: one who is now his mother-in-law and Beverly Green, an aunt through marriage.
Baxter County, Ark. DEMOGRAPHICS BAXTER U.S. Population 41,000 323 mil. Percentage white 97% 77% Percentage 65 and older 31% 15% Median household income in 2015 $35,400 $53,900 4.3% 4.4% Unemployment rate Health care share of employment 26% 13% ELECTION RESULTS 2012 2016 71% Trump Romney 74% Obama 27% Clinton 21%
Without our hospital, Id probably be working at McDonalds, said Ms. Green, who was born at the medical center 47 years ago and has worked there for the past 27, first as a nursing assistant, and now as a manager. Almost everyone has someone related here.
Thats not surprising in Baxter County, in a part of northern Arkansas known for two dragon-shaped fishing lakes filled with largemouth bass, walleye and bream. The hospital is the single largest employer, with 1,600 people paid to mop floors and code insurance forms, stitch wounds and perform open-heart surgery.
We are the economic anchor of the community, said Ron Peterson, Baxter Regionals president and chief executive. When we downsize, the whole community downsizes.
So for residents of the nearly all-white county, who overwhelmingly voted for President Trump, the fight over the Affordable Care Act is about both lives and livelihoods, access to care and to jobs. And the cloud that remains over the laws future is unsettling.
Even after the latest Senate effort to overturn the bill collapsed last month, Republicans insisted that the failure was not the final word on the matter for this Congress. At some point there will be a repeal and replace, Mr. Trump declared. In the meantime, he has moved to scrap subsidies to insurance companies that help cover low-income people and signed an executive order permitting policies exempt from some of the acts coverage rules actions that supporters of the law say will gut it.
Whatever happens, the economy of every state will be affected. Across the country, the health care industry has become a ceaseless job producer for doctors, nurses, paramedics, medical technicians, administrators and health care aides. Funding that began flowing in 2012 as a result of the Affordable Care Act created at least a half-million jobs, according to an analysis by Goldman Sachs.
In many rural areas, where economies are smaller and less diversified, the impact is magnified. Health care has long been an economic bedrock in Baxter County, with a population of 41,000. But its significance has grown since the Affordable Care Act passed. The hospital alone has added 221 employees, a 16 percent increase, since 2011. The health sector accounts for one in nine jobs nationwide, but one in four here roughly equal to the share employed by the countys manufacturers and retailers combined.
Im optimistic about the economy, but Im not optimistic about this health care reform, Marjorie Swanson said. Like many of her co-workers and neighbors, she dislikes parts of the law that President Barack Obama championed. But she also knows that undoing it now would reduce both the number of insured patients and the government payments that keep the hospital afloat.
One of 31 states (plus the District of Columbia) that chose to extend Medicaid coverage, Arkansas got extra money to cover more low-income residents. Its adult uninsured rate dropped 12.3 percentage points, more than nearly every other state.
Losing that Medicaid money now might not put Baxter Regional out of business, but it could compel the independent, nonprofit hospital to merge with a larger system and cut back its services and work force. And that could be as devastating as slashing jobs at a steel plant in a factory town.
Gathered in a conference room at the hospital between shifts, many in the extended Swanson clan, dressed in a rainbow of blue, red and maroon scrubs, said the law needed to be fixed, not scrapped. And they primarily blamed a corrupt Washington establishment not Mr. Trump for failing to do so.
Itd be like getting a new job as a manager here and every single person is against you, Ms. Green said of Mr. Trump. She grew up in a family that leaned Democratic, and she supported Bill Clinton, then the states governor, for president in 1992, but said she didnt trust Hillary Clinton.
Still, she is anxious about how Republican-led changes in health care could affect her job. Probably wed have to move, said Ms. Green, whose husband is a firefighter. But where to go? My whole familys here. Theres no one who comes for a holiday from somewhere else.
Ms. Swanson, 52, nodded. Wed have difficulty getting a job with insurance, she said. And where would we get our care?
Hospitals in rural areas have long struggled financially, but over the past decade the rate of closings has grown steadily. As young people gravitate to urban centers for college and employment, populations have dwindled, and those left behind are often poorer, sicker and less apt to have health insurance.
Baxter Regional, serving a county seat that is a retirement destination, is in a stronger position than most of the nations 2,500 rural acute-care hospitals. It offers neurosurgery and an emergency cardiac catheterization lab, the states first 3-D mammograms and magnetic resonance imaging. Still, it exists on a financial knife edge even as it helps prop up the local economy. The average operating margin began dipping below the break-even point in 2006 and has hovered near there since.
The financial effect of the Affordable Care Act on the hospital has been mixed. The Medicaid expansion in Arkansas allowed residents earning 138 percent of the federal poverty level $16,643 for an individual or $33,948 for a family of four to buy private insurance paid for primarily by the federal government. That extended health care access to people in the hills and surrounding counties who had never been insured, and shrank charity-case costs.
But it also reduced Medicare reimbursements, which cover the elderly. This trade-off left many hospitals ahead, but not Baxter Regional, which has an unusually large share of Medicare patients 67 percent compared with a national average of 40 percent.
The added $4 million in Medicaid payments did not make up for the $12 million lost through Medicare. As Mr. Peterson points out, however, the Republican proposals to remake the law would have decreased Medicaid money without restoring any Medicare cuts. Arkansas would be particularly hard hit because it is among a handful of states with provisions that automatically end expanded Medicaid benefits if federal funding is reduced. The results would include fewer insured patients and a lot more debt.
A repeal now, Mr. Peterson said, would be calamitous.
I was not initially a proponent, he said of the law. But once Medicare was cut, then it was very important to make sure you got the whole benefit from the Medicaid expansion. Otherwise, you would have just seen the cuts. Why would I be for that?
Health Care as a Reason to Stay.
Its a five-minute drive from Baxter Regional to the office of Robin Myers, the chancellor of Arkansas State University-Mountain Home, a two-year college that works closely with the hospital to produce job-ready students.
I cant tell you how intricately we are tied together with the hospital, Mr. Myers said. We could not survive without them.
Were really educating people in the health care professions to stay here, he added, noting that the schools typical student is a 28-year-old woman. Once housed in a funeral home and feed store, the college now occupies a stately campus completed in 2000 and styled on Thomas Jeffersons neo-Classical design for the University of Virginia.
Mountain Home, like other rural towns, is seeing an outflow of young people. The kindergarten has 100 fewer children than it did five years ago. But Mr. Myers said that if we have opportunities for them, they want to come back.
Marjorie Swansons daughter, Alison, 23, returned after graduating from college in 2016 with a fine-arts degree. She found an internship with a Stanford University professor, but when it ended, she had no job and no way to afford San Franciscos sky-high rents.
I was broke, she said. I came back home and was just trying to save up money and working a minimum-wage job that was terrible.
When a rare opening as a well-paid pharmacy technician arose, her mother urged her to apply. Im really, really fortunate, and I really like this job, Ms. Swanson said. I would have never thought I would have done this, but the opportunity was there.
Dr. Lucas Bradley, a neurosurgeon who had just finished up his residency in Little Rock, grew up in Maine, not Mountain Home, but he and his wife, Karla, knew they wanted to raise their family in a small town. Without a growing full-service hospital, though, Dr. Bradley, 37, said he probably wouldnt have moved here and bought a house. His children six with a seventh on the way wouldnt attend nearby public schools. His wife wouldnt shop at Harps or fill the cars gas tank at Valero. His family wouldnt attend one of the areas churches.
An economic impact review by the hospital concluded that workers earnings combined with their spending on groceries, clothing and the like generated more than $216 million a year in economic activity and helped create 1,280 jobs beyond their own. The hospital spends an additional $19 million a year on goods and services in a dozen surrounding counties. Based on the loss of Medicaid expansion money, the review estimated that a repeal of the Affordable Care Act could mean up to 500 layoffs at the hospital.
Vacationers looking for one square inch of heaven became retirees drawn to a community-centered hospital.
Even now, with a repaved Route 62 running through it, Mountain Home is still what residents call a place youve got to be coming to, to get to. Joe Miles, now 65 and president of Integrity First Bank, grew up about 90 miles downstream on the White River and used to hunt and fish here as a child. You couldnt get here except by ferry, he recalled.
Spectacular Ozark scenery, lakes and a river crowded with trout, thanks to federal dam projects, started luring fishermen to the area in the 1950s. The next decade, a group of local businessmen pushed development at a time when the ambulance doubled as a hearse, and the traffic light at Seventh and Main Streets was removed because there were so few cars.
One was T. J. McCabe, a co-founder of Integrity First, who traveled to boat and recreational-vehicle shows in the Midwest, giving away deeds for one square inch of heaven and telling the recipients to come visit their property.
And they would come, Mr. Miles recalled. What were reaping today are second and third generations from Chicago, Green Bay and Minneapolis.
Vacationers blue-collar workers with dependable pension plans turned into retirees. They were drawn by the lower cost of living, natural beauty and, over time, a full-service, community-centered hospital that could treat hip fractures, diabetes and congestive heart failure without a three-hour drive.
Marjorie Swansons parents moved to Mountain Home after researching best-places-to-retire lists. It was during a vacation visit that she and her husband decided it would be a great place to raise their children.
Many of the retirees who make up 30 percent of the countys population join a large network of volunteers at the hospital; a smaller circle of wealthier ones are big financial donors as well.
In a county where two-thirds of the public-school children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, such contributions have funded scholarships that helped pay for Ms. Greens advanced nursing training, and college for Alison Swanson and her brother, Matt. In addition, they have underwritten emergency-room furniture, wheelchairs, free wigs for cancer patients and more.
The stream of retirees slowed when the housing market crashed, and nest eggs turned into foreclosures. During the recession, those who came were like Sarah and Blair Brozynski, Chicago residents who had long vacationed here. They lost their jobs and moved to their summer house in Mountain Home, where they could live with their five children more cheaply.
Now director of education at the hospital, Ms. Brozynski, 47, remembers when the factories laid off workers, the hospital stopped hiring and a wave of closings hit resorts. Car lots were full because no one was buying.
That was pretty sad, and we got a taste of it, said Ms. Brozynski, whose husband is training to be a paramedic on a hospital scholarship. A son, also named Blair, is working in the hospital kitchen while he finishes college. She fears that if Republicans unwind the health care law, the tough times will return.
Many were skeptical about the Affordable Care Act, but its funding is cited as a lifeline in extending coverage.
Ms. Brozynski supported Mr. Obamas health care legislation when it was first proposed, but many others in the county were skeptical. Some objected to the rise in premiums or a provision devised to keep the plan solvent fining people who failed to sign up for coverage.
Now, whatever the criticisms, the dozens of employees interviewed at Baxter Regional and elsewhere all expressed thanks that more people had insurance. Michael Haynes, a 64-year-old real estate agent, credited the Affordable Care Act with saving his life. He didnt have insurance before 2014. Without it, he would not have gone for a routine physical, which led to a diagnosis of prostate cancer and Hodgkins lymphoma. After chemotherapy treatments, he is in remission.
At the Christian Clinic the health care provider of last resort the number of nonpaying patients seen each week has dropped from 90 to about 50 because of the expanded coverage, said Dr. Paul Wilbur, the clinics chairman.
The law has brought insurance to more than 360,000 people in Arkansas, and it now covers 61 percent of children in the states small towns and rural areas. That meant just a gigantic helicopter drop of federal funding, said Mark Duggan, an economist at Stanford. If that is reversed, the hospital sector is going to get really hard hit.
Dr. Bradley, who voted for Mr. Trump and credits him with shaking up inside-the-Beltway cronyism, said the health care law had benefited hospitals, patients and providers in the state of Arkansas.
There were lots of parts in that bill that were done right, parts that were necessary, Dr. Bradley said. There were significant shortcomings, too, he said, but they are fixable. Sadly, he added, bitter partisanship has made the law a lasting target.
The endless fighting over the health care law has left some of the Swansons so frustrated that they wonder if starting from scratch is the only way to move forward.
Let it implode and start from ground zero, Marjorie Swanson suggested at one point. But that prospect, echoing a threat by Mr. Trump, scared other members of the family.
What does that actually mean? Ms. Green said. If hes going to let it fail and theres no reimbursements and things are closing, how many casualties are in the wake?
Man rapes 8-year-old to use her blood for removing obstacles to his marriage
10 out of 15 companies of Central Armed Police Force to be withdrawn from Darjeeling and Kalimpong
India
oi-Amitava
By Amitava
Darjeeling: A day before the bipartite meeting between Hill political outfits and the West Bengal Government in Kolkata, the union Government, the Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi has decided to withdraw 10 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) out of the 15 presently deployed in the Hills of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of North Bengal. The process of withdrawal will commence from October 16.
The Fax message to the Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal states "It has been decided that out of the 15 companies of CAPFs (CRPF -12 including 3 Mahila companies and SSB - 3 companies) deployed in Darjeeling/ Kalimpong, West Bengal, 10 companies of CAPF (CRPF -07 including 3 Mahila companies and SSB 3companies) shall be de-attached with effect from 16.10.2017. However deployment of remaining 5 companies of CRPF is extended upto 20.10.2017 beyond 15.10.2017 for maintaining Law and order."
Copies have been sent to Home Secretary and Director General of Police, West Bengal.
The State Government has raised vehement objection to this decision stating that they had not been consulted before the decision was taken. It is a unilateral decision.
The State had written to the Union Home Ministry last week stating that the situation in the Hills is highly volatile and does not permit the withdrawal of even a single company and sought extension for the deployment.
Police Top Brass state that it will be difficult to tackle the situation with only 5 companies of CAPF specially at the point when the Government is trying to restore normality after the 104 days long bandh.
A high level meeting with take place at the State Secretariat "Nabannya" on Monday to access the situation and to chalk out future course of action. The Director General of Police, West Bengal, is also scheduled to visit the Hills this week.
Initially there were 11 companies of CAPF in the Hills. With the State Government and the Union locking horns over the West Bengal Government requesting additional deployment, the Calcutta High Court on July 14 had ordered for immediate deployment of additional forces. Following this, 4 companies were rushed to the Hills.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has welcomed the move. A letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh from Lopsang Lama, GJM Central committee member thanked the Minister for his "prompt action in withdrawing" the CAPF. "As I had briefed you in my earlier letter the West Bengal Government has been using central forces against the GJM. There is a deep conspiracy to finish the GJM politically wherin the West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC leadership is using everything at their disposal including police to attack the GJM" stated the letter.
The withdrawal of CAPF is being seen as the BJP led Center's strategy to provide leverage to Gurung and the GJM - an ally of the NDA, at a time when the West Bengal Government has been quite successful in isolating Gurung and his supporters.
The West Bengal Government will hold talks with Hill parties at Nabannya at 3pm on Monday. Jan Andolan Party (JAP) will not be attending talks.
Harka Bahadur Chettri, President, JAP stated that the whole essence of the meeting has been diluted with the CM having already sat in a meeting with GJM representatives.
"It will just be a farce where we will be made to endorse the decisions already taken. So we have decided not to attend" stated Chettri.
Meanwhile representatives of the Board of Administrators, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) met the West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi in Kolkata on Sunday. The team comprised of Chairman Binay Tamang and Vice Chairman Anit Thapa.
"We demanded that Tripartite talks should immediately be initiated for Gorkhaland. The Governor assured us that he will communicate our demands to the Centre" claimed Tamang.
Tamang dubbed their meeting with the Governor and earlier with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a courtesy call following the formation of Board of Administrators for the GTA.
The GJM has suffered a vertical split with one faction owing allegiance to Gurung and the other to Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 6:05 [IST]
10k cops to be on guard for Trump road show
NSG commandos not to perform shoulder to shoulder march-past this year on Republic Day 2021
33rd Raising Day Celebrations of National Security Guard
India
oi-Chennabasaveshwar
By Chennabasaveshwar
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India's elite anti-terrorism force National Security Guard (NSG) is celebrating 33rd Raising Day at its headquarter in Manesar near New Delhi.
The NSG was established in the wake of 1984 Operation Blue Star, and the high collateral damage to Golden Temple, and civilian and military collateral casualties. Since its raising the NSG has been used in the Punjab in 1986, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, speaking at the occasion of NSG'sraising day, said,"Our neighbour has made a state policy to aid, abet, fund, and train terrorism."
He said, "Capacity building of state police forces is need of the hour. NSG is training state police forces now.
Only once, in 2010, the NSG had postponed the Raising Day celebrations from October 16 to 22 as a major manpower of the force was deployed to secure the athletes and dignitaries participating in the Commonwealth Games that were held in Delhi. Else, all other years the celebrations were regular.
Federal Contingency Deployment Force The NSG was set up in 1984 as a Federal Contingency Deployment Force to tackle all facets of terrorism in the country. PTI photo NSG acts only in exceptional situations As a specialized counter-terrorism force, it is intended for use "only in exceptional situations" and not meant to take over the "functions of the State Police Forces or other Para Military Forces". Courtesy: ANI news NSG commandoes performing aerial act However, over the years its role has vastly expanded to provide personal security to influential politicians quite independent of the real threat that they face. Courtesy: ANI news Anit-terror opeation drill NSG commandoes demonstratinganti-hostage operation drill in Manesar, Haryana. Courtesy: ANI news
Latest update on NAC meet
The NAC was formed by the Union Government to look into the pay anomalies arising out of the pay panel's recommendations. Sources say that considering the fact that the government wants to take a final decision on basic minimum pay by January 2018 itself, the NAC is making all efforts to hold the meeting this month itself.
Why was NAC meet postponed
CG employees and pensioners were eagerly waiting for the NAC meet to take place. It was scheduled to be held on October 7. However there were some deliberations and discussions that were pending and hence the meeting was postponed. Moreover the decision to raise the fitment factor from 2.57 to 3 times was being discussed. If the fitment factor is raised to 3 times then the pay would go up from Rs 18,000 to Rs 21,000. However many employees were hoping that the pay is hiked to Rs 26,000.
What is the NACs final decision
The NAC basically will tow the line of the government. The government has made it clear that the fitment factor be risen to 3 times and for now it cannot go beyond that. With the government indicating that it has the funds to rise the basic minimum pay, the NAC meeting will vote in majority of what the government wants. While not many would be happy with the pay hike of Rs 21,000, sources in the government say that for now that would be the amount and over the next year or so the pay would vary.
Implementation of Children Education Allowance under 7th Pay Commission
Now, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel & Training) has conveyed the Government's decision on the recommendations of 7th Pay Commission in regard to grant of Children Education Allowance & Hostel Subsidy to Government servants These instructions shall apply mutatis-mutandis to Railway employees and shall be effective from July, 2017.
We started 210 new schools in Rajasthan in last three years: Gehlot
7th Pay Commission: What about non-teaching employees of colleges
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Now that the 7th Pay Commission recommendations have been approved for University and College Teachers, the Delhi University Teacher's Association (DUTA) has demanded immediate approval of the pay revision of the non-teaching employees of the Universities and the colleges.
The Narendra Modi-led Central government must approve the pay revision of the non-teaching employees without any further delay taking cognizance of the financial problems being faced by them, said DUTA.
The Cabinet decision can only be appreciated or responded to in its entirety when the details of the decision are communicated in full, through Gazette Notification.
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University and College Teachers are apprehensive about the long list of pay-related anomalies that had arisen from the previous Pay Revision and are yet to be resolved. The DUTA also appeals to the Government to release the Dearness Relief for pensioners at the earliest since it has not been released for the last two installments," the statement further read.
As per the recent announcement of the Central government, teachers' pay has been increased in the range of Rs 10,400 and Rs 49,800 as compared to their current pay.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 7:24 [IST]
Almatti dam full, increase in water levels at Nagarjunasagar following heavy rains
India
oi-Anusha
Heavy rains lashing parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have come as a blessing in disguise for dams and reservoirs. Incessant rainfall has ensured heavy inflow into the Nagarjuna Sagar Project.
Water levels at the Nagarjunsagar dam stood at 540 feet as against the full reservoir level of 590 feet on Saturday. Good rainfall over the last few weeks in catchment areas allowed authorities to release water from the Srisailam Dam into Nagarjuna Sagar Project. The inflow into the dam has been increased to 2,68,537 cusecs.
In Karnataka, water levels at Almatti dam have reached full capacity of 1704.81 feet. Water level at Krishnaraja Sagar dam (KRS), the lifeline of many districts in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu , has remained above 110 feet for well over a week. Parts of Karnataka including the capital city of Bengaluru have been witnessing heavy rainfall. While the unseasonal heavy rains have caused massive damage to life and property in the city, they have led to rising water levels at dams and reservoirs. The Kabini dam recorded water level of 2281.76 as on Monday.
The Tamil Nadu government on Sunday released water for irrigation from the Manjalar and Sothuparai dams. The move is expected to benefit 5,259 acres - 2,111 acres in Dindigul district and 3,148 acres in Theni district. Water will be released for the next 152 days from the dams. Water level at the Manjalar dam stood at 55 feet on Sunday.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 14:48 [IST]
Meet the pilot who quit flying because of the climate crisis
Aviation safety in India: A matter of concern
India
oi-Vikas
By Vikas
A sharp rise in the cases of engine failure in aircrafts has raised serious questions about the aviation safety in India.
According to the civil aviation regulator's data till August this year, as many as 15 passenger aircrafts suffered midflight engine damage.
Although the probe is on to find out the reasons for such failures, the data is worrying as the numbers are the highest for six years. The engine manufacturers have been approached and engines which encountered problems were sent for strip examination to pinpoint the cause.
In a case pertaining to a suspected engine fire in an Airbus 320neo aircraft of GoAir in February, the civil aviation ministry has asked the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to probe the incident. The case was initially to be probed by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), but the ministry asked DGCA to investigate.
There were conflicting reports as to whether there was a fire in the engine or not. Civil aviation secretary RN Choubey had said that it was a case of engine failure and not fire.
Airbus A320neo planes, which are fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines, are operated by IndiGo and GoAir in India.
The six-year data obtained through the right to information law show only seven aircraft reported engine snags during flights in 2016, said an HT report.
Of the 15 cases so far this year, seven engines were manufactured by CFM International while half a dozen was made by Pratt & Whitney.
According to reports, Pratt & Whitney has acknowledged that there were some issues with the engine, but maintained that none were serious.
The civil aviation has, meanwhile, assured that all aspects of air safety are being looked into.
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 13:07 [IST]
'Kantara' box office: Even as Bollywood's Akshays and Ajays struggle, this one hits Rs 75-crore mark
Bengaluru: Techie assaulted by mob; seven held
India
oi-Madhuri
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Female Techie attacked in Bengaluru for exposing cattle mafia | Oneindia News
The Bengaluru police have detained seven people after a techie on Sunday was alleged that she was attacked in Talaghattapura area located on the outskirts of the city. The victim has been identified as Nandini, a resident of Avalahalli.
She was brutally assaulted by a huge mob after she reported to the police about illegal transportation of cattle for slaughter near Tippu Circle in Avalahalli in Bengaluru South on Saturday night.
The victim said,''Trap was set up for me when I reported an illegal activity & the cattle mafia. This was a trap set up by the police. When we went to the spot after police complaint, I saw a mob gathered.'
''The mob took up big boulders, bricks and started hurling at the car and also abused us. I was scared for my life,'' Nandini added.
Meanwhile, condemning the incident, former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa took to Twitter and said, "Condemn the brutal mob-attack on the woman who exposed illegal cow slaughter. This violent attack today in Bengaluru is another proof law & order breakdown under @cmofkarnataka Sh. @siddaramiah."
OneIndia News
Taj Mahal built by traitors, should not get place in history: BJP MLA
Bulandshahr: 'If Akhlaq's family got compensation, why can't Sumit's family get it'
BJP tries to distance itself from Sangeet Som's Taj Mahal remark
India
oi-Vikas
By Vikas
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday attempted to distance itself from Sangeet Som's comments on the Taj Mahal, dubbing them as his "individual opinion".
BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Som had said that the Taj Mahal was built by 'traitors' and cannot be included in Indian history.
"That may be his individual opinion. My chief minister and I have on record said that it's our cultural heritage. It's an international heritage site. We are proud that the Taj is situated in UP. It's a great tourist site and we are also converting Agra into a first-class city. It is a great asset. I will not comment on individual opinions, government's stand is clear," UP minister Rita Bahuguna Joshi told the media.
The MLA from Sardhana also reportedly said that the Taj Mahal was a blot on India culture.
Som made these remarks during a function at Sisoli village in Meerut district on Sunday.
It needs to be noted that the Taj Mahal was also omitted from Uttar Pradesh's official tourism booklet
According to reports, Som also said that Mohammad Ali Jauhar University was a hub of terrorists.
Som has been in the news for making communally charged statements even in the past. He was earlier booked for making inflammatory statements in connection with the Muzaffarnagar riots, but was later given a clean chit.
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 15:36 [IST]
Jaitley statue at Kotla: Angry Bedi asks DDCA to remove his name from stands, quits membership
Reforms in India being done by conviction, not compulsion: PM Narendra Modi
BJP leaders pay tribute to former minister Arun Jaitley on his third death anniversary
BJP under delusion that world is praising reforms in India: Congress
India
oi-Vikas
By Vikas
Hitting back at Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for saying that the world is lauding economic reforms in India, the Congress party on Monday said the BJP is under a delusion.
Congress leader Ranjeet Ranjan told news agency ANI that the BJP must not ignore what former finance minister Yashwant Sinha has said. Ranjan also slammed the Centre over the issue of not being able to generate enough employment opportunities for the youth.
"They are in a delusion that the world is impressed with India's structural reforms," she told ANI.
She also said that Jaitley was an advocate and not a finance minister.
Jaitley had on Saturday said that countries across the world are lauding India initiating major structural reforms like the demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Jaitley, who was in the US last week, also said that the government was able to convince the public about allowing FDI into defence sector.
OneIndia News
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 10:38 [IST]
A Crawford County jury has acquitted an Iowa man of trying to kill another man during a concert in July 2013.
The panel found Anthony Runde, 36, of Dubuque, not guilty of attempted homicide and aggravated battery on Friday during a five-day trial in Crawford County Circuit Court.
Runde was accused of striking Joshua Milligan, 30, also of Dubuque, in the head, causing severe brain trauma late July 13 or early July 14, according to the Crawford County Sheriffs Department.
Milligan was discovered alone and unconscious in a campground in the town of Bridgeport during the Rock on the River concert. Runde and Milligan had an earlier run-in in Dubuque.
Braid chopping in Kashmir: Theory of anti-nationals debunked, read here
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
It is time that the theory being floated by the anti-nationals of the Valley is debunked where incidents of braid chopping are concerned. Anti nationals are trying to blame the Army and the Intelligence Bureau for these incidents and say that this is a tactic to divert attention from the freedom movement in Kashmir.
What the police have found that is that the mysterious braid choppers in the Valley are emerging as an alibi for some people to get out of their troubles and settle scores.
The J&K police has detected cases where people have beaten up their business rivals, stalkers and even migrant labourers on suspicions of them being braid choppers.
The recent 'braid chopper' episodes that have triggered panic in the Valley are being claimed by the separatists as the handiwork of central agencies to divert attention from their anti-national agenda and demand of 'Azadi'.
However, in a number of cases the police have found that people have used the excuse to escape from their own troubles. Director General of Police SP Vaid says it is a mass hysteria that is being generated by certain vested interests to whip up tension in the Valley.
"Some people are accusing security forces of braid chopping in the Valley only to create an unrest. We have formed teams in every area to provide assistance but people who make such allegations don't step forward for help.
"We have a team of additional deputy commissioner, deputy superintendent of Police and a lady doctor in every district. We have to examine the victims who claim braid chopping. They have to step forward and allow us to carry out psychological analysis. But that does not happen," Vaid said.
He also said that in various cases it was found that some people who were beaten for being alleged braid choppers turned out to be cases involving either persons having a love affair or a business or a personal rivalry or the matter involved high charges for labour work. "This trend has emerged and will not be tolerated. Police will take strict action in such cases," Vaid said.
Vaid said "people are requested not to fall prey to rumours and let me make it clear that strict legal action will be taken against attention seekers in the garb of braid chopping. Rumour mongers and mischief mongers will also be brought to book who take advantage of the situation to disturb the peaceful atmosphere."
According to the police, nearly 103 such incidents have taken place, out of which 63 related to people who are either taking treatment for mental illness or under the influence of local god-men.
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 6:45 [IST]
With the number of anonymous rogues from Pak rising, here's how BSF is beating down the drones
BSF officer attacked by cattle smugglers in Tripura
India
oi-Chennabasaveshwar
By Chennabasaveshwar
A Border Security Force (BSF) commanding officer on duty along the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura was attacked by miscreants in the early hours on Monday.
PTI reports said the officer was attacked by suspected cattle smugglers.
The second-in-command rank officer, Deepak K Mondal, commanding the 145th battalion of the border is said to be critical and has been airlifted to Kolkata for treatment, reported ANI.
The incident happened at about 2 am near the Belardepa border post at the border when the officer was allegedly hit by a four-wheeler being used by the smugglers.
He was patrolling the area with his team to check cattle smuggling and other illegal activities, he said.
It may be recalled that, in September, a BSF head constable was killed allegedly by cattle smugglers in the Angrail area of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.
(With agency inputs)
Did EC help Congress in 2012 Gujarat Assembly polls? CM Vijay Rupani claims so
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
Ahmedabad, Oct 16: The Election Commission (EC) has become the latest casualty of the continuous political bickerings between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition party, the Congress.
Days after the Congress alleged that the poll panel is helping the BJP to declare more sops ahead of the Gujarat Assembly elections 2017, slated in December, and thus have not declared election dates along with that of Himachal Pradesh last week to avoid implementation of model code of conduct, now Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has targetted the EC by stating that it helped the Congress during the state Assembly elections in 2012.
During 2012, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was in power at the Centre.
On Sunday, the Gujarat CM Rupani accused the poll panel of acting at the behest of the Congress ahead of the last state elections in 2012.
"In 2012 (Assembly election), the EC ensured at the behest of the Congress that the model code of conduct was in force for a record time to prevent Modiji (Narendra Modi, then CM of Gujarat) from working, because of which the state government could not take up development work," Rupani said at an election programme organised in Ahmedabad by news channel, India TV.
Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) VS Sampath, who oversaw the conduct of the Gujarat polls in 2012, rejected the allegation levelled by Rupani. Sampath called Gujarat CM's remark "unfair" and "uncharitable".
Talking to The Indian Express, Sampath said, "The EC follows the highest traditions of independence and has never compromised in its constitutional duties. It's very unfair and uncharitable to make such a remark after a lapse of five years from the last election."
During 2012, the EC had simultaneously announced elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh on October 3. The model code of conduct was in force for 83 days.
Sampath's colleague in the EC in 2012, HS Brahma, too, denied that the EC had acted under any influence in 2012. "Yes, the model code of conduct period was long, but it's wrong to say that we acted under some party's influence."
Last week, the EC announced that the assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh will be held in a single phase on November 9 and the results will be declared on December 18.
The poll panel did not announce the dates for assembly elections in Gujarat, but CEC AK Joti said that the elections will be held before December 18.
The Congress attacked the BJP for "pressuring" the EC to delay the announcement of Gujarat elections and alleged that "past practices, conventions and precedents" were being set aside to help the ruling party in the state.
The opposition party alleged that the "delay" in announcing Gujarat Assembly election schedule was to enable Prime Minister Narendra Modi to act as a "false Santa Claus" to offer sops and use "jumlas" (rhetoric) during his October 16 visit to his home state.
The model code of conduct would have come into immediate effect in Gujarat had the poll schedule been announced, it added.
Countering the Congress' allegations, Rupani said, "The Congress was complaining that the BJP will advance election because of the Uttar Pradesh result...we are not interfering in the process of the EC...we are not delaying elections".
"It is my responsibility to work for the public till the last day. Until the EC declares dates of elections, we will keep working for the public. There is nothing wrong in it. It is our right to work until the dates are declared," the chief minister said.
He said the opposition should raise an objection only when there is an interference in the election process.
"It is the right of the EC to declare model code of conduct...(the opposition) wants government to stop working. This is against democratic values," Rupani said.
Former CEC, SY Quraishi, in a column for The Indian Express explained why non-announcement of Gujarat poll dates invites questions from several quarters.
"There are two sets of questions: Why have the Gujarat dates not been announced? And, why a gap of 39 days between the voting and counting in Himachal Pradesh? Actually, both these questions are interlinked...Both mainstream and social media are abuzz with speculation and snide comments, casting aspersions on the EC. Is it to accommodate some VVIP visit to the state (Gujarat)?" asked Quraishi in his column.
"If the government does announce new populist schemes and freebies, it would cause the EC a huge embarrassment. It would be accused of giving the government of Gujarat the few extra days before invoking the model code of conduct. The hard-earned reputation of the Commission's ferocious independence could be in tatters, which would be disastrous for our democracy.
"Politicians must remember that their legitimacy comes from free and fair elections conducted by a constitutional body whose own legitimacy is the ultimate guarantor of the credibility of elections. The EC has been fortunate to have established such a reputation not just in India but globally. Hillary Clinton described it as the gold standard. Reputations take years to build but minutes to crash," the ex-CEC added.
Quraishi lamented the fact that the EC has come under scanner over the issue of announcement of poll dates in Gujarat.
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 13:27 [IST]
Linking Aadhaar with mobile: Not needed till February, plea in SC
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
A petition challenging the move by the government to link bank accounts and mobile phones with Aadhaar will be heard by the Supreme Court of India.
Although the deadline to link your mobile number with Aadhaar is February, telecom operators continue to harass their customers. Scores of messages are being sent everyday to customers to link Aadhaar with the mobile number failing which the connection would be cancelled.
The petition filed by activist Dr. Kalyani Menon Sen has challenged Rule 2(b) of the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017 for mandatory submission of Aadhaar number for individual clients, companies, partnership firms and trusts for opening of bank accounts, maintaining existing bank accounts, making financial transactions of and above 50,000 and crediting foreign remittance into 'small accounts'. Existing bank account holders have been directed to furnish Aadhaar numbers by December 31, 2017.
Non-compliance would render the bank accounts concerned "in-operational indefinitely" subject to submission of the Aadhaar Number and the Permanent Account Number (PAN).
"Non-compliance incurs the same liability as Section 5 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (for involvement in money laundering), that is rendering the concerned bank account in-operational. Present and potential bank account holders, who do not wish to part with their biometric information, are therefore treated on par with alleged offenders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA)," the petition stated.
The petition challenges the Department of Telecom on March 23, 2017 making it mandatory for all mobile phone holders to link their mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar.
The mobile phone circular is violative of Article 300A of the Constitution which protects a person's right to not be deprived of property. "A bank account and mobile phone connection is the personal property of an individual," the petitioner also stated.
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 6:50 [IST]
Modis mega rally in Gujarat today
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address around seven lakh BJP workers in Gujarat, where assembly elections will be held by the end of this year. On the eve of his visit to Gandhinagar, the Prime Minster tweeted, "I bow to the people of Gujarat for blessing BJP for decades. We will always fulfil the dreams of every Gujarati with full strength & vigour".
The "Gujarat Gaurav Mahasammelan" marks the conclusion of the party's 'Gujarat Gaurav Yatra' (March for Honour), launched on October 1. Modi said the Gujarat Gaurav Mahasammelan will be attended by "lakhs of BJP karyakartas" from across the state. The public meeting, he said, comes after the "successful culmination of the 2 Gujarat Gaurav Yatras", which covered almost 4,500 km and 149 of the state's 182 assembly seats.
OneIndia News
NDRF Twitter handle hacked; will look into it right away, says DG Atul Karwal
RSS worker hacked in Kerala
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
An RSS worker was hacked allegedly by CPI(M) workers in Kerala on Sunday. The incident took place at Muzhuppilangad near Thalassery in the politically volatile Kannur district of Kerala.
According to the police, the condition of Nidesh (28), the RSS worker, was critical and he had been shifted to the Kozhikode Medical College hospital.
He had suffered injuries on his hands and legs, the police said.
The local BJP unit alleged that the workers of the CPI (M), the ruling party in Kerala, wasbehind the attack on Nidesh.
The police suspect that the attack was carried out by bike-borne persons at around 5.30 PM on a road near the Muzhuppilangad beach.
Additional police personnel have been deployed in the area as a precautionary measure. Kannur in north Kerala has a history of political violence between the workers of the CPI(M) and BJP-RSS.
The saffron party is currently taking out a 'Janaraksha Yatra', protesting against attacks on its workers, allegedly by CPI(M) workers, in the southern state.
The march, which was flagged off by BJP chief Amit Shah at Kannur on October 3, is scheduled to conclude at state capital Thiruvananthapuram on October 17. Shah is expected to be present in Thiruvananthapuram on that day.
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 6:11 [IST]
Places of Worship Act: SC gives more time to Centre to file affidavit by Dec 12
SC refuses to ban Kancha Ilaiah's controversial book on Arya Vysyas
India
oi-PTI
New Delhi, October 16: The Supreme Court has refused to ban prominent Dalit writer and intellectual Kancha Ilaiah's book -Samajika Smugglurlu Komatollu (Vysyas are social smugglers), saying every author has a fundamental right to voice ideas freely.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud junked a PIL filed by a lawyer seeking direction to the government to ban the book.
The apex court said that any request to ban a book has to be strictly scrutinised because "every author or writer has a fundamental right to speak out ideas freely and express thoughts adequately", and that curtailment of an individual writer or author's right to freedom of speech and expression should never be viewed lightly.
"We do not intend to state the facts in detail. Suffice it to say that when an author writes a book, it is his or her right of expression. We do not think that it would be appropriate under Article 32 of the Constitution of India that this Court should ban the book/books.
"Keeping in view the sanctity of the said right and also bearing in mind that the same has been put on the highest pedestal by this court, we decline the ambitious prayer made by the petitioner," the bench said.
The order came on a plea filed by lawyer K V Veeranjaneyulu, who is also a member of Arya Vysya Officials Professionals Association, alleging that the writer had made "baseless" allegations against certain castes in his book and tried to divide the society on caste lines.
A criminal case had also been registered against Ilaiah in Andhra Pradesh for hurting sentiments of people belonging to certain castes.
PTI
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 9:00 [IST]
Sunanda Pushkar's Death: Experts to examine documents, Arguments on charges on Aug 20 and 22
Sunanda Pushkar's death: Cops say she was in mental agony because of Tharoor-Mehr affair
Delhi police gets time to go through Sunanda Pushkars tweets
4 years after Sunanda Pushkar's death, Room 345 handed over to Leela Hotel
India
oi-Madhuri
After almost 3 years 9 months, the five-star hotel suite where Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in 2014 has been de-sealed, court told on Monday.
Earlier, the Patiala House Court had asked the Delhi Police to de-seal the room in Hotel Leela Palace in the national Capital where Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead.
The court also told the police that they could take anything they need from the room for the purpose of investigation. The court also directed the police to file a compliance report on its order by September 26.
The suite was so far remained closed to guests since the incident while the rest of the floor was fully operational.
On January 17, 2014, Pushkar's body was found in the room number 345 after she allegedly overdosed on sleeping pills. This came a day after she had a public spat on Twitter with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar over her alleged relationship with Tharoor. Since then, a number of conspiracy theories have cropped up over the circumstances leading to her death.
In January, a medical board constituted to examine findings of reports by the FBI and AIIMS also failed to submit conclusive results.
An FIR was registered by Delhi police on January 1, 2015 against unknown persons under IPC section 302 (murder).
OneIndia News
Talwars likely to walk free on Monday
Even after release, Talwar couple to visit Dasna Jail every 15 days
Aarushi murder case: No appeal from CBI yet against acquittal of Rajesh, Nupur Talwar
SC to hear CBIs appeal against acquittal of Talwars in Aarushi murder case
Nupur and Rajesh Talwar walk out of Dasna jail
India
oi-Chennabasaveshwar
By Chennabasaveshwar
Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were released from Ghaziabad's Dasna Jail on Monday after Allahabad High Court acquitted them in 2008 Aarushi-Hemraj murder case.
Rajesh Talwar's brother Dinesh Talwar and their lawyers Manoj Sisodia and Tanveer Ahmed Mir were present during talwars' release.
The lawyers of Talwar couple have received a certified copy of the Allahabad High Court order acquitting the dentist couple in the murder case of their daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj.
#WATCH: Rajesh & Nupur Talwar released from Ghaziabad's Dasna Jail after Allahabad HC acquitted them in 2008 Aarushi-Hemraj murder. pic.twitter.com/mSkoXbExFs ANI (@ANI) October 16, 2017
It was provided to a special CBI court in Ghaziabad on Monday, which will then issue an order to the Dasna prison authorities to release the couple.
D. Maurya, Jailor, Dasna Jail, told ANI, "Court has opened after a two day holiday, there is a strong possibility of the Talwars being released today."
Court has opened after a 2 day holiday, there is a strong possibility of the Talwars being released today: D. Maurya, Jailor, Dasna Jail pic.twitter.com/mVGYQeZDC8 ANI (@ANI) October 16, 2017
He told media persons that Talwars will continue to visit jail periodically so that medical assistance provided by them to inmates can continue.
Appreciating Talwar couple's medical service in the jail, jailor said that Talwars treated inmates for free and refused remuneration."If they would have taken it, the amount would've been approximately Rs 49,500," he added.
Last week, the High Court struck down a CBI court order convicting them for the murder of their daughter, Aarushi, and domestic help, Hemraj, in 2013.
The court said the Talwars can't be convicted based on mere suspicion and the Talwars should be given the benefit of doubt." On 26 November 2013, the Talwars were awarded life sentence by a special CBI court in Ghaziabad.
(With agency inputs)
Ahead of Diwali, UP CM directs police to keep close eye on anti-social elements
India
pti-PTI
Lucknow, Oct 16: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has issued directions to the police to keep a close eye on anti-social elements and identify foreign nationals living illegally in the state. The directions comes in view of the festival season and urban local bodies' polls in the state.
In an official statement late last night, Adityanath said, "There should not be any hurdle in celebrating the festivals in a traditional manner. Security arrangements should be made to ensure that idols of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh are established and immersed." He further said that steps be taken to ensure that incidents of theft, dacoity, eve teasing, chain snatching etc. are curbed, and security arrangements made at different markets including bullion markets. The chief minister was addressing district magistrates, superintendents of police/senior superintendents of police through video conferencing.
Issuing directions for peaceful conduct of urban local bodies' polls, he said, "Effective action is needed for peaceful conduct of urban local bodies' poll. Sensitive polling stations must be identified, and steps should be taken to ensure that no untoward incident takes place during the election." The chief minister noted that illegal foreign nationals are a threat to law and order. "Foreign nationals living illegally in the state especially Bangladeshis must be identified and complete information about their activities must be obtained," he said.
Adityanath instructed officials to launch a massive drive in the state against criminals, and said establishing rule of law in the state is the priority of the state government. The chief minister also told the administrative and police officials to ensure that public complaints are effectively redressed at the tehsil and police station level.
PTI
Induction of Congress MLAs into BJP is death of Parrikar's legacy, says outgoing Goa deputy CM
Violence in Kerala: Parrikar accuses Vijayan of creating atmosphere of fear
India
pti-PTI
Kollam (Ker) Oct 16: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has lashed out at his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan over the attack on RSS workers in the state. Parrikar claimed that while the BJP government at the Centre was trying to take the nation on the development path, Vijayan was 'creating an atmosphere of fear.'
Taking part in the BJP's 'Jana Raksha Yatra' on Sunday to "expose" the alleged "political violence and jihad" under the CPI(M)-led LDF rule in the state, he said all people in Kerala should unite to remove the state's "tainted image" caused by attacks on BJP and RSS workers, allegedly by Left party workers.
"While the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to take the nation on the path of development, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is creating an atmosphere of fear," Parrikar alleged.
"Well-cultured people of the state should denounce the political violence of the CPI(M)", he said, adding all should become torch-bearers of change.
He said India was on the path of change and people across the world acknowledge this fact. National president of BJP Mahila Morcha Vijaya Rahatkar was among those who took part in the two-week long padyatra, led by BJP's state president Kummanom Rajasekharan.
[RSS worker hacked in Kerala]
On Sunday evening, yet another RSS worker was hacked allegedly by CPI(M) workers in Kannur district of Kerala.
PTI
Foundation works for Ram Mandir to be ready by October, 'garbhagriha' by Dec 2023: VHP
SC judges hearing Gyanvapi case were associated with Ayodhya matter as well
Will Ram temple in Ayodhya be ready by next Diwali?
India
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
Patna, Oct 16: Days ahead of Diwali festival, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Sunday in Patna, Bihar, said that the proposed Ram temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, will be ready to welcome devotees from next Diwali onwards.
He added that the construction of the temple in the disputed site of Ayodhya will commence soon.
"Hurdles in the way of the proposed Ram temple are being removed," the BJP leader said, without explaining much about the contruction of the temple in the disputed site.
"Construction of the temple is likely to begin sooner than later. This week we will be celebrating Diwali and by next Diwali the Ram temple is likely to be ready to receive devotees," he said addressing a seminar in Patna hosted by the Bihar unit of Virat Hindustan Sangam (VHS). Swamy is the founder of the VHS.
The Rajya Sabha member of Parliament (MP) said for electoral success "it is essential that the ideology of Hindutva is never lost sight of".
In recent times, several BJP leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, spoke in favour of the construction of the controversial Ram temple.
Adityanath said the significance of Ayodhya issue cannot be overlooked, adding that people "want construction of Ram temple".
The final verdict on the Ayodhya case by the Supreme Court is slated to take place on December 5 this year, a day before the 25th anniversary of the Babri masjid demolition.
Swamy said the VHS would make efforts for the construction of a grand temple dedicated to Lord Ram's consort Sita at Sitamarhi in north Bihar, believed to be her birthplace.
"It is impossible to think of Maryada Purushottam Sri Rama without his companion Jagat Janani Janaki".
Plans were also afoot by the VHS to also set up a university there. The university will serve as a centre for Indian renaissance where ancient Indian learning will be promoted alongside imparting of contemporary vocational training, he said, adding the organisation also proposed to undertake similar projects at other places of historical importance in all districts across Bihar.
However, the Congress alleged that the BJP raises the Ram temple issue to polarise the masses ahead of any elections.
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 11:15 [IST]
Amid North Korea's Guam threat, S Korea and US begin naval drills
International
pti-PTI
Seoul, Oct 16: Amid North Korea's fresh threats to fire missiles at Guam, South Korean and US troops have begun five days of naval drills in the Korean Peninsula.
South Korea's navy says the drills that began today in the waters off the Korean Peninsula involve fighter jets, helicopters as well as 40 naval ships including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.
South Korean and US militaries regularly conduct joint exercises, though North Korea condemns them as an invasion rehearsal.
North Korea last week accused the United States of provoking the country by mobilising the aircraft carrier and other war assets near the peninsula. The North said it could take military counteraction such as a salvo of missile launches into waters near Guam. North Korean officials on Friday renewed their threat to launch ballistic missiles near Guam, an American territory in the western Pacific.
US B-1B "Lancer" bombers earlier this week conducted live-fire exercises off both coasts of the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan has been undertaking manoeuvres nearby, and a nuclear-powered attack submarine made a high-profile visit to a South Korean port.
PTI
There is no 'one-size-fits-all' to curb poverty
Thief calls cops for help after being caught by mob
Cyclone Sitrang heading towards Bangladesh; Heavy rains likely to pound West Bengal, Odisha and NE
Bangladesh enhances security along Indian border amidst Rohingya crisis
International
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Bangladesh has tightened security along its western border with India amid concern that hundreds of Rohingya Muslim refugees could be pushed into its territory, officials said today.
Patrols have been stepped up along the frontier with India's West Bengal state, where border guards say they have been ordered in recent weeks to steer Rohingya into Bangladesh.
Tariqul Hakim, an area commander of the Border Guard Bangladesh, said Rohingya could be seen gathering opposite the Putkhali frontier post, where just a narrow river divides the two countries.
"We have stepped up surveillance and patrols so that no Rohingya can be pushed into our territory," Lieutenant Colonel Hakim told AFP.
Hakim said Rohingya communities inside India could be trying to reunite with their families in southeast Bangladesh, where more than half a million Rohingya refugees have arrived since August from Myanmar.
An estimated 536,000 refugees have crossed since August 25, fleeing violence in western Myanmar described by the United Nations as ethnic cleansing.
An Indian border guard in West Bengal told AFP that patrols had previously turned over all Rohingya intercepted at the frontier to local police.
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"But now our directions are very clear, and that is to push all Rohingya into Bangladesh," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"We are trying to accomplish our task with active local support".
Bangladesh already hosts at least 800,000 Rohingya, including those who fled earlier crackdowns in Myanmar, and does not want to accept any from India.
It is trying to repatriate the Rohingya to Myanmar. But the stateless Muslim minority are reviled in the mainly Buddhist nation and considered to be illegal immigrants.
The unprecedented influx of refugees has put immense pressure on Bangladeshi authorities and charities, who have described the crisis as one of the world's most pressing humanitarian emergencies.
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 6:26 [IST]
Doklam effect? China puts Chennai-Bengaluru high speed train project on backburner
International
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
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Doklam standoff delayed high-speed train project in South India | Oneindia News
Did the Doklam standoff lead to the delay in the implementation of the high speed train project in south India?
An internal brief of the Mobility Directorate on the status of nine high-speed projects of the railways shows that the Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore corridor, a 492 km stretch, lies in limbo because the Chinese railways has failed to respond to the ministry's communiques.
China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co Ltd (CREEC), a state-owned firm, had completed a feasibility study around a year ago but has stopped responding to Railway Ministry's emails, officials told PTI.
"The Chinese company submitted the final report in November 2016 and after that the Chinese team has suggested for a face to face interaction. No date has been fixed from their side," said the note prepared by the Mobility Directorate. On the reason for the delay, the brief states - "lack of response" from Chinese railways.
The brief also states that the feasibility study by CREEC was submitted to the Railway Board in November 2016 and after that the Chinese company had sought meetings with officials of the Board.
However, officials say that the Board has been unable to get in touch with officials of CREEC despite repeated communications sent to them via mails in the last six months.
"We have even tried to get in touch with them through their Embassy here, but we are yet to hear from them," said an official.
The ministry officials said that it was the standoff between the two countries in Bhutan's Doklam area between June 16 and August 28 this year that seems to have derailed the project.
"The study began in 2014 and they submitted the report in 2016. The entire cost was borne by them. In fact they have shown so much interest in collaborating with us for other projects as well, so we think that it was the standoff that must have raised doubts," said a senior rail official.
Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam since June 16 after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed area by the Chinese Army. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam.
The brief, prepared by the department in charge of all the high speed corridors, also states that except the Chinese roadblock, work on the eight other projects was on track.
China had in fact not only pitched for the Mumbai- Ahemdabad high speed network, which was finally bagged by Japan, but also for the bullet project in the Mumbai-Delhi sector, which is yet to be finalised.
China is also training railway engineers in heavy hauling and it is with Chinese collaboration that India is setting up its first railway university.
The Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore corridor is one of nine such high speed corridors being developed by the ministry. The aim was to increase the speed from the present 80 kmph to 160 kmph.
OneIndia News
French President plans to revoke Hollywood producer Weinstein's Legion of Honor
International
pti-PTI
Los Angeles, October 16: A day after Harvey Weinstein was expelled by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he is moving to revoke Hollywood producer's Legion of Honor.
In an interview with French TV channel TF1, Macron confirmed he had reached out to the Grand Chancellor of the Order in Paris to ask the institution to revoke Weinstein's Legion of Honor, France's highest award.
Then-president Nicolas Sarkozy had given the Legion of Honor to Weinstein in 2012, after "The Artist", which Weinstein distributed and campaigned for, won five Oscars.
"I have asked the Grand Chancellor of the Order to examine quickly this case and launch a disciplinary procedure (against Weinstein)... considering the gravity of the facts," said Macron, adding that the Chancellor will have to make the ultimate decision.
Earlier this week, the Grand Chancellor of the Order told Variety that it would not consider stripping Weinstein of the decoration until there is a "final condemnation."
Macron argued Weinstein violated the code of ethics of the Legion of Honor by behaving "in a way that's contrary to honor." Hence, Macron is looking to fast-track the process. as
PTI
Hillary Clinton accuses Wikileaks of blunting impact of crude Trump tape
International
pti-PTI
Sydney, Oct 16: Hillary Clinton on Sunday accused WikiLeaks of working with Russia to deflect attention away from an infamous tape of Donald Trump bragging about groping women in the run-up to the US presidential election. The former secretary of state's devastating election loss to Trump remains raw and she again lashed out at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his alleged role in damaging her candidacy.
"Assange has become a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator," she said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin. "WikiLeaks is unfortunately now practically a fully-owned subsidiary of Russian intelligence." The US intelligence community concluded Putin ordered an influence campaign to discredit Clinton and had a "clear preference" for Trump in last year's poll. Clinton used the bombshell Trump tape as an example of how WikiLeaks allegedly tried to deflect attention away from a bad news story, resurrecting the incident in the wake of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein's fall from grace over his treatment of women. In the 2005 videotape, which surfaced in October last year, Trump brags about being able to get away with groping women.
Trump said the comments were "locker-room banter". Several women subsequently accused him of sexual misconduct, which he denounced as lies. Within hours of the tape emerging, WikiLeaks published more than 2,000 hacked emails from the personal account of Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta, which she said blunted its impact.
"WikiLeaks, which in the world in which we find ourselves promised hidden information, promised some kind of secret that might be of influence, was a very clever, diabolical response to the Hollywood Access tape," she said, referring to the Trump recording.
"And I've no doubt in my mind that there was some communication if not coordination to drop those the first time in response to the Hollywood Access tape." Clinton claimed WikiLeaks' actions were motivated by Assange's personal dislike of her. "I had a lot of history with him because I was secretary of state when WikiLeaks published a lot of very sensitive information from our State Department and our Defence Department," she said.
"If he's such a martyr of free speech, why doesn't WikiLeaks ever publish anything coming out of Russia? You don't see damaging, negative information coming out about the Kremlin on Wikileaks," Clinton added. Australian Assange, who has spent five years inside the Ecuador embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, has denied Russia was the source behind the leaked documents.
PTI
With the number of anonymous rogues from Pak rising, here's how BSF is beating down the drones
Panama Papers probe: Pak's FM Ishaq Dar appears before anti-corruption court
International
pti-PTI
Islamabad, Oct 16: In connection with the Panama Papers probe, Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday again appeared before an accountability court in Islamabad to face trial in a corruption case.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had registered three cases of corruption and money laundering against ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his family members and Finance Minister Dar in the Islamabad Accountability Court.
The cases were registered weeks after the Supreme Court disqualified Sharif as prime minister on July 28 in the Panama Papers scandal.
Dar, 67, appeared in the court but his chief counsel Khawaja Harris was not present due to some prior commitments. The court was informed that Harris would come later in the day. Judge Muhammad Bashir then postponed the hearing till afternoon.
Meanwhile, the court also rejected an application by Dar to exempt him from hearing today. The prosecution is set to present another witness against Dar.
Earlier, three witnesses have testified in the case, including Al-Baraka Bank Senior Vice-President Tariq Javed and Shahid Aziz of the National Investment Trust (NIT) asset management company during the previous hearing on October 12. Dar was indicted last month in the case in which he is accused of making assets, which are not in accordance with his known sources of income.
PTI
India's stand on Rohingyas gracious so far but housing them would be risky
Why Bangladesh is suspecting a section of Rohingyas of having links with terror outfits
International
oi-Oneindia
By Oneindia
Agartala, Oct 16: The crisis of Rohingya refugees that emanated in Myanmar has now embroiled both Bangladesh and India massively.
While more than 520,000 Rohingyas have taken shelter in Bangladesh after fresh violence has erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine state since August 25, India which shares porous borders with both Myanmar and Bangladesh is on a high alert to thwart any kind of illegal infiltration.
Moreover, the Narendra Modi government in its affidavit to the Supreme Court has stated its plans to deport Rohingya refugees staying in various parts of India as intelligence reports suggest possible links between the Rohingyas and terror outfits and in such a scenario the Rohingyas pose a threat to the "national security".
While rights groups and aid agencies, including the United Nations (UN), said that India can't deport Rohingya refugees as it is against international laws, the Centre stated that the Rohingyas are not "refugees" but "illegal infiltrators".
Amid all these allegations and counter allegations, now Bangladesh, which has been lauded by international bodies for giving shelter to the violence-hit Rohingyas in spite of its land and financial constraints, too has echoed views similar to that of the government of India, suspecting terror links of a section of Rohingya refugees.
The possibility of terrorist links of a section of Rohingya refugees, sheltered in Chittagong, could not be ruled out, a top official of Bangladesh said on Sunday in Agartala, Tripura. He, however, asserted that his country would not allow any group to use its soil for terrorist activities.
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Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, the media advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said that Bangladesh had already announced its policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism.
Chowdhury, who inaugurated a cultural event in the capital city of Tripura, said that Bangladesh expected India to take a stand on the "ethnic cleansing" of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
"We have given shelter to 10 lakh Rohingyas from Myanmar on humanitarian grounds despite much constraint. They were forced to leave their country following an ethnic conflict. So, a sense of retaliation might prevail among a section of the refugees. We cannot rule out the possibility of their involvement with any terrorist outfit.
"But, we will not allow any terrorist group to use our soil. Our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced zero tolerance towards any kind of terrorist activity," he said.
Asked if Pakistani spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had penetrated the Rohingya refugees, Chowdhury said that the country has its "own agenda".
"They (Pakistan) cannot forget their defeat in 1971 (Bangladesh Liberation War). So they might try to penetrate among the Rohingyas, but we are not aware of it. Even if ISI penetrates, it would unable to survive because the Bangladeshi government is against this kind of activity," he said.
Chowdhury said though the UN has condemned the torture of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and called it "ethnic cleansing", India, China and Russia have maintained silence on the issue.
"We do not want that the relations between India and Myanmar become bitter on the (Rohingya) issue, but we expect India to take a stand for the solution of the problem," he said.
"Bangladesh's economy is feeling the impact of the Rohingyas' stay and it wants the refugees to return to their homeland in Rakhine state in Myanmar and be properly repatriated.
"Can we force them to return if the situation is not normal? The Rohingyas were brutally tortured, their properties destroyed and their women molested and raped," he added.
On the Indo-Bangladesh relations, the official said those were very cordial. It has consolidated further with Modi at the helm of affairs in India and Hasina in Bangladesh.
Chowdhury said the minority Hindus in Bangladesh were "very safe" now. "Over 30,000 Durga pujas were organised in Bangladesh this year, which is 777 more than last year."
Fourteen lakh Bangladeshis had visited India last year for different purposes including treatment and tourism, he added.
Experts fear that if India continues to maintain silence on the Rohingya crisis for long, it might strain its relationship with Bangladesh in the future. However, at the same time, India doesn't want to alienate Myanmar, an important ally, by criticising its policies against the Rohingyas.
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Story first published: Monday, October 16, 2017, 6:53 [IST]
From Counterpunch
Hurricanes develop in the Atlantic Ocean and move across the cold water towards the warmer sea of the Caribbean. All that energy journeys, picking up steam, driving forward with immense force. This September, hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose, Katia and Maria thrust themselves into the Caribbean and devastated many of its islands as well as the coastline of the United States and Central America. One meteorologist, Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University, suggested that this September was the most deadly hurricane month since 1893.
Changes in the world's climate, scientists suggest, have made these Atlantic cyclones much more powerful than before. Warming waters increases the ability of the storms to draw in water vapour and to engorge themselves with more energy. These devastatingly formidable storms then drag the rising waters to produce dangerous storm surges that beat against coastlines and produce large-scale flooding.
Hurricane Irma, which arrived in the Caribbean Sea in early September, destroyed many of the small islands such as Anguilla, Antigua, Barbuda and St. Martin. Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda said that Barbuda, which housed short of 2,000 people, had become "barely habitable." The government called for an evacuation of the island, which now has a population of zero. It has been abandoned. This country in the Lesser Antilles or the Leeward Islands faces the brunt of hurricanes since it is in the mouth of the Caribbean. Daniel Gibbs of the government of St. Martin, a French territory also in the Lesser Antilles, said that 95 percent of the island had been destroyed. "It is an enormous catastrophe," said Gibbs, who represents the island in the French parliament.
Cuba and Irma
Irma, a Category 5 hurricane -- the strongest possible -- struck Cuba with immense force in early September. The storm came fast and hard. The devastation was severe. In the small town of Moscu in the municipality of Esmeralda (Camaguey province), only 10 of its 289 houses remained standing. The Cuban journalist Yaditza del Sol Gonzalez reported for Granma that near Jiguey beach "the sea took it all." The storm surge overcame the Malecon sea wall in Havana, sending water into its streets with ferocity. Havana, with its old buildings, suffered from flooding and power cuts. Ten people died, the majority of them in Havana. Cuba's President Raul Castro took to the airwaves, calling for unity of the nation and for reconstruction of the island. "This is not the time to mourn," Castro said, "but to build what the winds of Irma attempted to destroy."
By all indications, the death toll in Cuba was remarkably low as was the devastation to the island's infrastructure. Certainly, homes in the old part of Havana are brittle and parts of the infrastructure are in severe need of modernisation. But the island's preparation for the hurricane and the general community spirit that prevails there saved it from total devastation. Tens of thousands of people had been evacuated from Havana in anticipation of the storm, and over a million people from across the island went into shelters. One such shelter was at the Karl Marx Vocational Pre-University in Matanzas, where volunteers gathered food, water and medical supplies for the evacuees.
The country's pharmaceutical industry halted production of medicines a week before the storm in order to build up the stock of hydration salts, which were then distributed across the island. Electricity and gas supplies were cut before the storm came to the island, and measures were taken to protect the lines and transformers from the impact of the winds and the flooding. The government made sure to dispatch flour to state bakeries, which worked overtime to produce stocks of bread for the aftermath of the storm. Agricultural workers from Santiago de Cuba harvested their crops before they ripened in the field and distributed the produce.
Meanwhile, brigades and defence councils began to conduct search-and-rescue operations across the areas most affected by the hurricane. "The most important task is, and will be, the preservation of life," said Dr Jose Luis Aparicio Suarez, a coordinator of one of the medical brigades. "The recovery will come later, gradually. Health and life are the absolute priorities."
But rebuilding was not left to later. Radio Cadena Agramonte in Camaguey reported during the storm that electric workers had begun to restore power in the area. Within weeks, such workers restored the electric grid, which is not anyway in the best shape. The electric providers reported that the storm destroyed two high-tension pylons, downed 3,616 poles and 2,176 kilometres of power lines, and damaged 1,379 transformers and several substations. Today, almost the entire island has electrical power.
Just before Hurricane Irma hit Cuba, U.S. President Donald Trump renewed the embargo of the island. This means that Cuba will be denied crucial supplies needed for reconstruction, including financial assistance from multilateral organizations. Cuba's finances cannot manage the reconstruction, but nonetheless the government has announced that its state budget will finance 50 percent of the construction materials needed for the 158,554 homes that have been affected by the storm. Also, the government has said it will provide a 50 percent discount on damaged household goods. For those who have had all their goods destroyed, the government has said it will cover 100 percent of their expenses.
Puerto Rico and Maria
Hurricane Irma did not directly strike the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, but it did knock out its power grid. More than a million customers lost access to power and half of the island's hospitals went offline. This happened without any rainfall on the island and without a direct hit from Irma. Last July, the government-owned power company declared bankruptcy when it could no longer service its debt of $9 billion. There was no money to protect the grid, nor was there money to hastily get it back on its feet. Irma's strike on Puerto Rico was a warning of what was to come.
Ten days later, with the power grid still in distress, Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm, struck Puerto Rico. Power went out across the island. Drinking water was no longer available and fuel vanished. The 3.4 million U.S. citizens of the island found themselves stranded in an apocalyptic nightmare. The official death toll was given as 16, although the Centre for Investigative Journalism (School of Law at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico) says that there are already dozens of confirmed deaths, with the toll likely to rise to the hundreds. As hospitals are unable to function, the infirm are under danger of death. Dialysis has been halted; oxygen is not available. The Demographic Registry that certifies deaths has no power. It cannot do its work.
While Cuban journalists and brigades fanned Cuba to provide information to the authorities about destruction and reconstruction, Puerto Rico went dark. Communications collapsed and information about the damage was not easily available. While in Cuba the authorities tried to get exact information of the damage done to each home, in Puerto Rico the numbers thrown about were the price tag for recovery -- between $40 billion and $85 billion is the estimated insurance claims that will likely be triggered by the devastation. It says a great deal about the different approaches to disaster: one makes sure each person is tended to and the other worries about the cost of the recovery.
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The head of the states influential business lobby says Wisconsin should consider scrapping the slogan that has adorned its vehicle license plates since World War II: Americas Dairyland.
Theres no indication the idea has traction at the state Capitol, and the states dairy lobby is opposed. The suggestion by Kurt Bauer, executive director of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, prods the state and its residents who affectionately refer to themselves as Cheeseheads to reimagine their identities in the 21st century.
Such an image makeover could be linked to a $10 billion plan by Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn to build a manufacturing campus near Racine, Bauer added.
Americas Dairyland has been on Wisconsin-issued vehicle license plates since 1940, as required by state law. Policymakers discussed discarding the slogan three decades ago, only to arrive at a new license plate design that retained it.
The suggestion created a stir on social media Monday immediately after Bauer suggested it publicly at a Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce luncheon.
Later Monday, Bauer clarified in a follow-up email that his organization perhaps the most influential lobbying group among Republicans who control the state Capitol would not lobby lawmakers in favor of the change, adding that its only a conversation starter.
Bauer said the state motto, Forward, would be a good license-plate alternative.
To me, Forward connotes resolve, indomitability and progress not a bad image to project to the rest of the world, Bauer said.
The Americas Dairyland slogan reflects Wisconsins longstanding leadership in the U.S. dairy industry. The state ranks first nationally in cheese production and second, behind much larger California, in milk production.
Amy Eckelberg, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau, said in a statement that the mantra makes sense because no other single product has more of an economic impact in Wisconsin than milk.
It has earned its right to be the states slogan on our license plate, Eckelberg said.
But Bauer said many other exciting things are happening in the states economy, starting with Foxconns plans to build a liquid-crystal display manufacturing campus near Racine. To do so, the company is getting a state subsidy of as much as $3 billion, depending on how many jobs it creates in Wisconsin, under a law passed by the Republican Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker last month.
Bauer called Foxconn our mega-opportunity.
It can draw people into the state, Bauer said.
Bauer first floated the idea of a new license plate slogan in an April 2016 column titled Wisconsin Needs an Image Makeover for his organizations quarterly magazine, Wisconsin Business Voices.
The column, which also mulled changing the state flag, said Wisconsins pastoral image and its Cheesehead residents may boost the states agricultural and tourist industries, and that we are clearly proud of our agricultural past.
But Bauer wrote that the image also may hamper efforts to recruit workers in other industries. Thats especially true, he wrote, for businesses seeking to recruit millennials many of whom, he wrote, prefer to work and live in urban settings and in places they view as welcoming and tolerant.
Our agrarian image may give them pause, Bauer wrote. Wisconsin needs to craft an image that accurately reflects and promotes our high quality of life and economic diversity.
A Walker spokesman said in a statement Monday that the office has not received any contacts about changing the license plate slogan.
This wouldnt be the first time Wisconsin mulled a new mantra for its license plates. But if the past is any guide to the future, the dairy theme may be around for good.
A committee appointed by then-Gov. Anthony Earl appealed to residents for suggestions. Those submitted included Americas Northern Escape and We Like It Here, both of which were picked to be among five finalists on which state residents voted.
After more than 111,000 ballots were cast, a new design was approved that retained the Americas Dairyland slogan, the Wisconsin State Journal reported at the time. The contest produced a design similar to the current one.
Earl offered, but ultimately passed on, one of the most memorable suggestions: cow-shaped plates with the slogan: Eat Cheese or Die, a play on New Hampshires motto, Live Free or Die.
Another suggestion that was discarded: Come and Freeze in the Land of Cheese.
From The Nation
Donald Trump was expected to refuse to recertify the Iran nuclear deal. He did that on Friday.
But the president did much more than signal his personal disapproval of Tehran's compliance with an agreement that the Obama administration and international allies reached in 2015 to avert the development of nuclear weapons by the Iranians. In a bombastic address, Trump pointed toward a dramatic ramping up of hostility toward a country that international observers and even his own aides indicate has been in compliance with the nuclear deal.
The president's pronouncements on Friday were not merely at odds with the facts regarding the agreement. They steered the United States away from diplomacy and toward a more charged -- and potentially far more dangerous -- relationship with Iran. They also distanced the United States from its allies. As former vice president Joe Biden explained on Friday, "Unilaterally putting the Iran deal at risk does not isolate Iran. It isolates us."
Trump did not seem to recognize that prospect, let alone to understand the consequences of a go-it-alone strategy that will make the United States an international outlier.
In his televised speech to the nation Friday, the president said he wanted Congress to set new benchmarks that Iran would be required to meet in order to avoid nuclear-related sanctions. He bluntly declared that the deal "will be terminated" if no plan is reached to radically alter the agreement.
"If the U.S. backs out of the Iran agreement, that would put war with Iran back on the table."-- Peace Action
The president's over-heated language was decried by serious observers of the deal and of US relations with Iran. "Make no mistake: With his announcement today, President Trump is putting America at risk," announced Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who explained that:
"Most immediately, this reckless decision could give Iran a path to back out of the nuclear deal and resume its race to a nuclear bomb. A nuclear-armed Iran could become the single greatest national security threat we face and would be an immediate existential threat to Israel. At a time when our own intelligence agencies and every international monitor says that Iran is in compliance with the strict limits and monitoring of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), blowing up this agreement is the definition of a self-inflicted wound." Click Here to Read Whole Article
Trump rubbed the wound raw with remarks that pointed toward a significant intensification of US hostility toward Iran. The president accused Tehran of stirring "chaos" in the Middle East and beyond. He labeled the Iranian government as "fanatical regime" and accused it of spreading "death, destruction and chaos around the globe." Directing the Treasury Department to impose new sanctions on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- which the White House identified as a "primary tool and weapon in remaking Iran into a rogue state" -- Trump took steps that the administrations of Barack Obama and George W. Bush carefully avoided.
What Trump did Friday was serious, and unsettling. He took steps to alter relationships not just with Iran but with allies of the United States that helped to forge the nuclear agreement.
"The fallout of the U.S. going back on our word will reverberate far beyond just Iran. It will hurt our relationship with our European allies, on whom we rely as critical partners in nearly every aspect of international relations," said Merkley, who explained that...
"[At] an absolutely crucial moment, it could torpedo efforts to secure international collaboration to end North Korea's nuclear program. Why would international partners work with us to impose sanctions on North Korea to bring them to the negotiating table, and why would North Korea come, if they know the United States does not live up to its word?"
Congress still has a say with regard to the Iran deal. Indeed, says House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Linda Sa'nchez (D-CA), "It is now up to Congress to prevent Donald Trump's 'America First' strategy from turning into 'America Alone.'"
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I don't like horror films. They're too much like real life with its mass shootings, hurricanes, and the policies of that clown in the White House. So I demurred when friends invited me to see the film version of Stephen King's IT.
In the end, however, I was somehow persuaded. After all, as a box-office phenomenon, IT remains the highest grossing "R"-rated film in history. Its subconscious cultural content, I suspected, might somehow explain that huge box-office success. So I accompanied my friends to our local Miramax determined to find that content.
Before I get to that however, a word about the film itself... To put it succinctly, IT was quite boring. In terms of horror, it didn't even succeed in the (otherwise quite easy) task of scaring me!
Think about the movie's unlikely premise: a group of 7 pre-teens meet a terrifying clown who lives submerged in the sewer underworld of Derry, a small town in Maine. The kids are all outsiders; they even call their group "The Losers' Club." One is black, another Jewish, and the remainders a tomboy, a stutterer, a frail hypochondriac, an overweight intellectual, and a wise-cracking smart-aleck.
The Losers' adversary appears every 27 years to maim, kill and disappear children in Derry. No one but the kids can see the motley spirit who appears all-powerful. Nonetheless, in the end (spoiler alert), the children improbably, but only apparently kill the clown. (Readers of King's book know Pennywise will return in 30 years or so -- thus setting up the dreaded sequel.)
Oh hum!
None of this is to say that IT wasn't terrifying. However, its truly scary characters were the story's adults -- especially the Losers' parents. They were variously fat and lazy, sexually abusive, violent in the extreme, deceptive, authoritarian, possessive and stultifying.
What united them all was their mirror-perfect depiction of our country's adult refusal to recognize an extreme violence threatening our own children, even when it's staring us in the face. Nothing mobilized the adults; not disappearances, shootings, torn limbs, decapitations, bleed-outs, bullying, racism, child abuse, and even a room covered with blood. They just couldn't see any of it, and got angry when the children suggested that something was wrong.
Of course, all of this reflects our culture's normalization of terror in a country described by that other Mr. King (Martin) as the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world." We're blind, for instance, to the horror of our economic system that today allows the preventable deaths of 30,000 children each day -- without most of us taking any more note of the tragedy than the adults in Derry's Maine-stream.
With the clown, we leave the terrifying adult world, and enter an ironically less-threatening spirit world. But the spirit of what? The clown's name "Pennywise" might offer a clue. (After all, Stephen King did choose to call him that?) Pennywise's puzzling designation implies a connection between terror and money. Could he be the embodiment of an economic spirit that saves pennies, while being pound-foolish -- the implied second half of the clown's name? There's got to be some meaning there.
In any case, and regardless of Stephen King's intentions, our culture's short-term focus on saving pennies (e.g., by defunding public schools, and healthcare) destroys children's lives as surely as bites from the movie-clown's yellowed incisors.
So, my premonitions may have been spot-on. Despite its artistic demerits, IT does hold lessons for those determined to probe its cultural context. They include:
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A uniquely wayward president, Donald Trump, has managed to isolate the United States equally uniquely, and contrary to the stated position of his Secretaries of State and Defense and the National Security Adviser (respectively Rex Tillersen, John Mattis, and H.R. McMaster) by scuttling the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, citing issues outside its scope. His charges have been dismissed categorically by the European Union foreign-policy chief Frederica Mogherini. Again uniquely, the Pentagon and the State Department agree with her (and not their president) that Iran has not violated the agreement.
sy.' Donald Trump ... not forgetting the inimitable cigar-wielding 'I-feel-your-pain' Bill Clinton -- he of the 500,000 dead Iraqi children from his sanctions.
The consequences of a gun culture reliant on a naive and obdurate interpretation of the Second Amendment became headline news over several days in the aftermath of the Las Vegas mass shooting. The toll of 58 killed and 546 injured set a new record -- for how long? No one knows what went on in the mind of Stephen Paddock -- also a victim -- except that he had amassed an arsenal in his 32nd-floor Mandalay Bay hotel room: a total of 23 machine guns, rifles with scopes and hand guns, all carried up without question or detection. Another arsenal including 1000 rounds of ammunition, explosives and weapons were found in his car parked in the hotel garage and his house.
The 58 deaths could have skewed the statistics but not by much. It so happens there are 93 firearm deaths per day and an average of one mass murder (defined as the killing of four or more persons) a day in the US. With statistics like this can the US seriously claim to be a cultured and civilized society; or are there pockets of civilization in a desert of barbarism.
Ignorance is the handmaiden of prejudice. So we find in the wanton 2012 attack on a Sikh Gurdawara (temple) in quiet Oak Creek, Wisconsin. The gunman killed himself after a responding officer shot him in the stomach. The Sikhs have a wonderful custom of langar, a community kitchen run by the temple offering a free meal to anyone who comes. The temple members were busy preparing just such a meal, to be served in the evening, when the incident occurred.
For sheer scale, Las Vegas is but a drop in the ocean compared to military action. Wholesale destruction in Iraq, Libya and Syria. Afghanistan in agony for more than two decades. A million-plus dead and millions displaced leading to EU tensions and Britain's exit. Absent Libya's heavy hand, fundamentalist groups are operating even as far away as Nigeria. Then there is also Yemen, Somalia, Ukraine and now Niger ...
So it goes on. A nation in distress causes the same abroad. .
From The Guardian
After failing to pass a "healthcare" bill that would have thrown up to 32 million Americans off of health insurance, a bill that was more unpopular than the Wall Street bailout, Donald Trump and the Republican leadership in Congress are back.
Now, they are pushing one of the most destructive and unfair budget and tax proposals in the modern history of our country -- a plan that would do incalculable harm to tens of millions of working families, our kids, the sick, the elderly and the poor.
The Republican budget, which will likely be debated on the floor of the Senate this week, is the Robin Hood principle in reverse. It takes from those in need and gives to those who are already living in incredible opulence.
Donald Trump and Republican leaders claim their plan would provide a "big league" tax cut for the middle class. Nothing could be further from the truth. According to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, by the end of the decade, nearly 80% of the tax benefits of the Republican plan would go to the top 1% and 40% would go to the top one-tenth of 1%.
Meanwhile, while the Republicans want to give a $1.9trillion tax break to the top 1%, they are proposing massive cuts in programs that working-class Americans desperately need.
This budget cuts Medicaid by more than $1trillion over 10 years -- which would throw some 15 million Americans off of the health insurance they currently have. Further, this budget does what the Republicans have not yet attempted to do in their previous healthcare legislation and that is to make a $473billion cut to Medicare, despite Trump's campaign promises not to cut these programs.
Poll after poll after poll tells us that the overwhelming majority of Americans do not want Congress to cut Medicare or Medicaid and they do not want to provide tax breaks to the wealthy or large corporations.
A recent Pew Foundation poll finds that 85% of Republicans and 94% of Democrats want to either maintain or increase funding for Medicare. And 60% of Americans oppose slashing Medicaid, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.
A recent Wall Street Journal and NBC poll finds that only 12% of the American people believe the wealthy should receive a tax cut; while 62% believe the wealthy should pay more in taxes.
Why are the Republicans bringing forth such an absurd budget that, in almost every instance, is diametrically opposed to what the American people want?
The answer isn't complicated. Follow the money.
Today, we have a corrupt campaign finance system that enables multibillionaires, along with some of the most powerful CEOs in America, to contribute many hundreds of millions of dollars to elect Republican candidates to represent their views. As a result, the top 1% has been able to rig the political system to favor them at the expense of virtually everyone else. Here are just a few examples.
The Republican budget would give the richest family in America, the Walton family of Walmart, a tax cut of up to $52billion by repealing the estate tax -- a tax that only applies to multi-millionaires and billionaires. But, if you are a lower-income senior citizen, you and over 700,000 other families may not be able to keep your home warm in the winter because of a cut of about $4billion to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
This budget says that if you are the second-wealthiest family in America, the Koch brothers, you will see a tax break of up to $33billion. But if you are a working-class student trying to figure out how you could possibly afford college, your dream of a college education could evaporate along with 8 million other students because of more than $100billion in cuts to Pell Grants and other student financial assistance programs.
This budget gives members of the Trump family a tax cut of up to $4billion, but if you are a low-income pregnant woman, you and over 1.2 million new moms, babies, and toddlers may not be able to get the nutrition you need thanks to a $6.5billion cut to the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.
What is alarming is that, despite this incredible giveaway for the billionaire class, the Koch Brothers and their network say that it's not enough.
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From Strategic Culture
Donald Trump - Caricature
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US President Trump's threats this week to shut down critical news media is an ominous sign of how fragile American democratic rights have become.
For Donald Trump to impugn media freedom -- albeit in his usual whimsical, boorish fashion -- nevertheless shows how far democracy has been eroded in the "land of the free."
The latest furore followed a report this week by NBC in which Trump purportedly harangued his top Pentagon advisers for a 10-fold increase in the US nuclear weapons arsenal.
Trump's outlandish demand was reportedly made during a high-level national security meeting back in July. It was the same meeting during which Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is said to have scoffed at Trump's antics and called him a "moron."
Trump has reacted angrily to the reports, dismissing them with his characteristic jargon as "fake news."
But, adding to the furore, the president also went on to question whether the broadcasting license of NBC and other networks should be cancelled because of what Trump views as "fake news." That is, the president is speculating on shutting down media outlets.
Such a move by a president would be legally unviable, according to US laws. But it shows the kind of slippery slope that US media and democratic rights are on.
Trump's latest musing about shutting down NBC and other channels drew predictable outcry from US media, who rightly to a degree, deplored his attack on democratic rights.
The irony is, however, that the attack on American democratic rights has already been underway before Trump entered the White House, and without much protest from the same media outlets who are now railing against Trump over this rant. We can point to the increasing surveillance powers of federal intelligence agencies which have steadily encroached since the September 2001 terror incidents in New York and Washington DC.
Media freedom in the US has been under assault for a long time.
Trump's latest outburst is not a one-off anomaly. In recent weeks, the US government has moved to severely restrict the freedom of Russia-based news media operating in the country. A move that has so far not been reciprocated by Moscow on US media operating in Russia.
Russian state-owned news channel RT has been forced to register as a "foreign agent" which will curtail how it carries out normal journalistic functions. Sputnik, another Russian state-owned channel, is also under investigation by US authorities over allegations of destabilizing American politics with "fake news."
The crimping of Russian news media is part of a wider campaign to suppress all alternative media outlets, including US-based websites, which are being labelled as agents of "foreign interests" because of merely posting articles sourced from RT and Sputnik.
The willing participation of US internet companies, Google, Twitter and Facebook, in blocking news sources that are designated "fake" or "interfering in US politics" is another troubling sign of how citizens' access to information is being curtailed. These gatekeepers of information are openly moving to restrict access to "authoritative," "respectable" media outlets. Many of these "respectable" news outlets, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, have in the past been guilty of purveying outrageously fake news, like the "weapons of mass destruction" claims which led to the 2003 US war in Iraq that killed over a million people and unleashed on the world the ongoing scourge of jihadist terrorism.
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As the American media pumps up its Russophobic rhretoric, escalating the status of the Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation from "rival" to "adversary" to "enemy, " and the crisis from "rivalry" to "The equivalent of war," finally to (unqualified) "war," numerous urgent questions arise. These questions are, for the most part, ignored by our "mainstream media" (MSM) by which I mean I mean the 90% of all American media that is owned by just six mega-corporations, together with the portion of the remaining 10% following the party line.
Absent a serious discussion of these questions by the MSM, I will pose some of these question and suggest a few answers.
Are we really "at war" with Russia, due to Russia's alleged election interference?
When Russia tries to interfere with the American elections, our media calls it "the equivalent of war." When the United States does the same thing to Iran, Chile, Ukraine, Russia, etc. (it's a long list), we call it "regime change."
"At war with Russia?" Where are the missile launches, the air combat, the marines on the beaches, the armies in deadly combat, the bombed cities? And where are the casualties -- the young men killed in battle? None of the above? Then in what realistic sense are we "at war?"
Even so, we are told that this is "the equivalent of war!" If so, then so too was Iran (1952), Chile (1973), Ukraine (2014), when we overthrew legally elected governments, and in Russia (1996) when we successfully prevented Yeltsin's defeat. Did we then hear hyperventilating media rhetoric about "the equivalent of war?"
Our media have made it clear to the Russians that we regard them as are our enemies. Why then should we be surprised if they then apply the same "election tampering" tricks on us that we have inflicted upon other nations, including Russia?
If the American public is convinced that "we are at war" (albeit "metaphorically"), might not that public be eager to retaliate with a "real war" -- with missiles, tanks, aircraft, bombs and casualties."
No, we are not "at war" with Russia in any meaningful sense of that word. "War talk" is inflammatory, irresponsible and very dangerous. Let's stifle it. Are you listening, Morgan Freeman, Rob Reiner, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Malcolm Nance, (and many more)? Not likely. And so the beat goes on, as we march confidently toward unspeakable disaster.
Do the Russians and the Americans have different attitudes toward war?
American and Russian attitudes toward war are vastly different, and for very good reasons.
For Americans, war is an adventure, glamorized by Hollywood and video games, and always fought on foreign soil "over there." In World War II, not one Nazi bomb or artillery shell fell on the American continent.
For the Russians, war is an unmitigated catastrophe. Russia has been invaded countless times in its history, most horribly in World War II (which the Russians call "The Great Patriotic War"). In that war, twenty-five million Soviet citizens perished, including ninety percent of all males born in 1920.
Recently, NATO conducted "war games" in Estonia, within artillery range of St. Petersburg, where, in the 900 day siege of Leningrad (1941-1944), a million Russians starved to death. NATO exercises were also conducted in Poland, across which the Wehrmacht marched on its way toward the slaughter of those twenty-five million Soviets
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Fact: U.S. billionaires (even just one or two) could, if they wished, totally destroy the power of the Israel lobby in a few months. All they would have to do is form an independent media network (as Oprah Winfrey, worth "only" $3.1 billion created OWN) and use it to tell the United States public the sordid truth about Israel's ruling class. The truth is not only that the Israeli ruling class of billionaires and generals and politicians carries out violent, racist and morally completely unjustifiable ethnic cleansing against non-Jews (the Palestinians) as discussed here, but also--something that would surprise most Americans even more--that this Jewish-Israeli ruling class has a shameful history of betraying ordinary Jews and demonstrating nothing but contempt for them. Read here how the Israeli ruling class is oppressing ordinary Jews today.
I have created here a document, with referenced sources, listing some of the ways that Israeli rulers have betrayed ordinary Jews from the days of the Nazi Holocaust to recent times. If the American public knew the facts in this document they would be appalled. I have personally experienced that even pro-Israel Jews would be appalled, so much so that they change from viewing people like myself as anti-Semites to viewing us as well-intentioned bearers of the truth.
I experienced this when a Jewish colleague of mine at work declared that I was "close to Hitler" when he saw me collecting signatures supporting the Right of Return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland inside the 78% of Palestine now called Israel. When I began recounting to him the facts about how Israel's leaders had betrayed ordinary Jews, he was stunned, and then became very friendly towards me--no longer viewing me as anti-Semitic but rather as both pro-ordinary Jew and pro-Palestinian.
The document cited above (you really ought to read it!) relates how 1. Israel's leaders during the Holocaust sabotaged all efforts to rescue Jews from the Nazis if the rescue didn't entail sending the Jews to Palestine (to be ruled over by the (future) Israeli ruling class); 2. how Israel's leaders collaborated with the Nazis; 3. how Israel's leaders used violence against Jews in the Displaced Persons camps at the war's end to force them against their will to go to Palestine to fight Arabs; 4. how Israel's leaders orchestrated the horrible Achille Lauro murder of an Israeli wheelchair-bound passenger by a Palestinian to paint all Palestinians as evil; 5. how Israel's leaders allied with and helped Argentina's fascist rulers murder 3,000 Argentinian Jews; and the list goes on and on through more recent years.
A billionaire could hire talented film directors and authors, etc., to create T.V. documentaries and films and books to tell the public the truth about Israel's ruling elite, and do it with the persuasive power of, for example, the eloquent T.V. documentary, Roots, or the masterful film Schindler's List or the deceitful novel, Exodus: there's plenty of talent to let the public know the sordid truth about the Israeli ruling class; the problem is that nobody with the big bucks hires them to do it. The Big Money goes to those who produce what Big Money wants produced.
If a billionaire told the American public the truth about the Israeli ruling class's contempt for, and betrayal of, ordinary Jews (as well as its horrible ethnic cleansing of Palestinians), the result would be a sea change in how Americans viewed the Israeli government. The Israel lobby would have as much influence on who got elected to Congress as the Church of Satan! The pro-Israel U.S. foreign policy would be viewed by the American public the same way it came to view the pro-South African apartheid foreign policy--disgusting! The Israel lobby would be dead in the water in about three months.
What Is NOT the Reason?
Before I say what the reason is why no billionaires lift a finger to destroy the Israel lobby, I need to dismiss a wrong explanation that many foes of Israel's ethnic cleansing give. They say, "The billionaires (at least the non-Jewish ones, [who are 52% of all U.S. billionaires, by the way]) would love to destroy the Israel lobby because the pro-Israel foreign policy is against their interest (a.k.a against the 'national interest'), but they dare not say anything against the lobby because they fear being accused of anti-Semitism."
Please stop for a second and consider the absurdity of this "explanation." According to this "explanation," people like myself and many other similar people--people who are not independently wealthy and who depend for our living on keeping our jobs, and who lack the financial means to effectively publicly refute a campaign to smear us as anti-Semitic--we are able to publicly oppose (with our meager resources) Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. But according to this same "explanation," billionaires--who ARE independently wealthy and thus have total economic security plus the means to publicly refute a slander campaign against them--are supposedly too frightened of being called an anti-Semite to speak the truth. According to this "explanation" billionaires (the non-Jewish ones at least) prefer to yield to the Israel lobby and let it force them (i.e., the actual U.S. rulers) to go against their own self-interest by supporting Israel. Really? Does this make any sense at all?
This crazy "theory" has a name among its advocates: "Tail wags dog" (the Israeli tail wags the U.S. dog). But as everybody knows, in real life tails don't wag dogs. So why do people opposed to Israel think they do? There are two reasons that come to mind.
One reason is that pro-Israel (often Jewish) people are heavily represented in the foreign-policy-making part of the executive branch of the government, there are virtually no opponents of Israel in Congress, and the Israel lobby works hard to make sure this remains so. Also, American presidents and would-be presidents all attend and speak at the Israel lobby's main organization, AIPAC. The "tail-wags-dog"-ers point this out (often saying that "Congress is Israeli-occupied territory") to make their case. I will shortly address what's wrong with their logic on this point, how they have reversed cause and effect.
Another reason that the tail-wags-dog theory has some credibility is that it appeals to the old anti-Semitic canard about Jews having some mysterious power to control non-Jews (gentiles). It has to be a mysterious power indeed to enable a tail to wag a dog! This old canard was famously popularized by the fraudulent document known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Advocates of tail-wags-dog usually don't explicitly or even knowingly appeal to this anti-Semitic canard, but they are often perceived by others as employing it because the tail-wags-dog theory lacks any other credible basis (i.e., many people know that there could be a very different reason why so many pro-Israel politicians are in our government.)
The reason no billionaires destroy the Israel lobby, even though they easily could, is because they don't want to; they have no self-interested reason for doing it. On the contrary, the billionaires benefit enormously from Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Why?
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Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121
"Rob Kall's Bottom Up is a revaluation of values, not the empty mouthing of the word 'democracy' that is so common, but the application of belief in popular wisdom to every aspect of life. Actually believing that the views of more people is better, means a new way of thinking about the world that is democratic, feminist, localist, populist, and radically richer than the elitist perspectives that are more common even in the parts of the world that shout the word 'democracy' the most. Here we come to understand both the power of small groups and the upsides to internet crowd sourcing, the potential of nonviolent movements and ways in which the past has not been what we supposed. Don't just read this book; get lots of people to read and talk about it."
David Swanson, host, Talk Nation Radio, author of War No More: The Case for Abolition.
From WSWS
Leading Republican and Democratic members of Congress and top Obama administration officials collaborated to shut down efforts by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to stem the flow of prescription opioids that have killed 200,000 Americans over the past two decades, according to a devastating exposure published Sunday by the Washington Post and broadcast Sunday night on the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes."
The joint investigation by the Post and "60 Minutes" made use of extensive whistleblower revelations by former officials of the DEA, which has the main responsibility for halting the flow of illegal narcotics, including prescription drugs like oxycodone and hydrocodone.
Three major companies, all in the top 20 of the Fortune 500 and hugely profitable, dominate the distribution of these opioids: McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen, with combined revenues of more than $450 billion. McKesson chairman and CEO John Hammergren has the largest pension fund of any US corporate boss, a $160 million nest egg.
These gigantic revenues and huge personal fortunes were accumulated by means of what can only be termed a massive social crime: the flooding of impoverished working-class neighborhoods with high volumes of opioids, narcotics that were being prescribed in vast quantities by doctors and pharmacists and illegal "pain centers" and "pill mills" that were a constant presence in the affected areas.
The consequences have been felt in an historic reversal in the long-term rise of life expectancy in the United States. For middle-aged whites, particularly those living in rural areas, life expectancy is declining and death rates soaring, in large part because of the impact of opioid abuse and addiction.
Appalachia is a center of the opioid crisis. The figures presented in the Post/"60 Minutes" report are staggering -- and damning. To Mingo County, West Virginia, an impoverished former mining area on the state border with Kentucky, population 25,000, the mid-sized Ohio-based drug distributor Miami-Luken shipped 11 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone in a five-year period: enough to give two pills a week to every man, woman and child in the county.
In the county seat, Williamson, population 2,938, Miami-Luken shipped 258,000 hydrocodone pills in one month to a single pharmacy. The city of Williamson has filed suit against the company and other drug distributors, charging them with deliberately flooding the city with pain pills to supply the black market. A document filed in the suit charges, "Like sharks circling their prey, multi-billion dollar companies descended upon Appalachia for the sole purpose of profiting off of the prescription drug-fueled feeding frenzy."
Post reporters Scott Higham and Lenny Bernstein and "Sixty Minutes" reporter Bill Whitaker conducted dozens of interviews for their expose', but the principal whistleblower is Joseph T. Rannazzisi, who headed the DEA's Office of Diversion Control for a decade until he was forced out in 2015.
The Office of Diversion Control oversees the flow of prescription drugs produced by the major US pharmaceutical companies and shipped to hospitals and pharmacies and other prescribers by distributors, including the big three. By targeting unusually large and unexplained sales -- for example, several Walgreen's pharmacies in Florida sold more than one million opioid pills in a year, compared to a nationwide average of 74,000 -- the DEA unit could force companies to pay substantial fines.
These big three and smaller distributors paid more than $400 million in fines over the last decade as the result of the DEA, but this is a pittance compared to their gross revenues during that same period, well over $5 trillion. One former DEA official told the Post this sum simply represented "a cost of doing business."
A more serious problem for the industry was the issuance of "freeze" orders, in which the DEA could use its authority to order a distributor to halt a shipment if there is "imminent danger" to the community. According to Rannazzisi, there was increasing resistance from top-level DEA officials, from 2011 on, to approving such "freeze" orders against opioid distributors. During this period, the drug distributors hired 46 DEA officials either directly or through law firms or lobbying groups representing them.
In 2014, industry lobbyists produced a bill, written by a former DEA lawyer, and introduced by Republican Representative Tom Marino, that substantially raised the threshold of proof for a DEA order to halt a shipment. Instead of "imminent danger," such an order required proof of "a substantial likelihood of an immediate threat," a standard so strict that, once adopted, there were no further DEA orders to halt drug distribution.
Marino's bill was initially blocked by DEA opposition, but it was reintroduced with Democratic cosponsors and passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote, without opposition, in April 2015. In October 2015, Rannazzisi was pushed into retirement at the DEA, after previously being removed as head of the Office of Diversion Control by means of heavy pressure from congressional Republicans on the Obama Justice Department. In March 2016, the Senate passed a modified version of the Marino bill, and the House accepted the changes the following month. The DEA was now handcuffed, and the drug distributors could proceed without any concern about federal oversight.
As Rannazzisi told "60 Minutes": "The drug industry -- the manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and chain drugstores -- have an influence over Congress that has never been seen before. And these people came in with their influence and their money and got a whole statute changed because they didn't like it."
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China has sold rat meat billed as lamb, gutter oil billed as cooking oil and baby formula contaminated with melamine. In the U.S. its pet food killed many dogs and cats in 2007. But this spring the U.S. agreed to import cooked chickens from China. Why? Because China agreed to accept U.S. beef imports after a 13-year "mad cow" scare in which many countries refused U.S. beef.
In June, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue flew to China to ink the agreement.
We should eat lab animals says the new FDA commissioner
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No USDA officials will be onsite at the Chinese chicken processing plants. They will, instead, "self-verify" the safety of their food products as plants are increasingly doing in the U.S. under the dubious "Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points" program. (More on that later.) The National Chicken Council says the processed chicken will have "increased inspection upon entry into the United States" and that substandard exporters will be disqualified. "The good thing about it is our food safety inspection agency, in the USDA, does a marvelous job," agrees Secretary Perdue.
Yet a quick look at how the U.S. government ensures the safety of imported shrimp, much of it from Asia, raises many doubts. Take for example the on-site certifiers that the FDA uses to ensure the safety of imported shrimp. By the FDA's own audit, six out of eight of the certifiers did not even know what drugs and chemicals were approved in U.S. exports. Nice. In addition to problems with data collection and language barriers which the FDA notes, third party certifiers are paid by the companies seeking to export to the U.S. Talk about incentives to look the other way.
Imported food, once it reaches the U.S., is not necessarily safer. Only 200 full-time inspectors police 300 U.S. ports and 96 percent of shrimp shipments are not opened or checked at the ports. The FDA relies on an automated system that flags companies with prior offenses and only then inspects documents, opens shipments or send samples to a lab. If a country is blocked, it often "trans-ships" through a country that is believed to be safe, government inspectors I interviewed told me. According to officials, many China imports are rejected because of "pesticides, bacteria and filth."
In 2000, the HACCP inspection system was developed by former Monsanto lobbyist Michael Taylor who was appointed the FDA's Deputy Commissioner for Food by President Obama in 2009. Instead of visually inspecting food as government inspectors used to do, under HACCP they simply ratify that food producers are following systems they created themselves. Yes--"trust us."
Soon after HACCP was implemented, a study by the Government Accountability Project and Public Citizen found that 62 percent of inspectors surveyed allowed contamination like feces, vomit and metal shards in food under HACCP on a daily or weekly basis, which did not happen before , reported the Hartford Advocate. Almost 20 percent said they'd been instructed not to document violations.
A full 80 percent of 451 inspectors surveyed said HACCP attenuated their ability to enforce the law and the public's right to know about food safety. No wonder HACCP was dubbed "Have a Cup of Coffee and Pray."
Despite serious health, environmental, worker and humane questions about chicken production, chicken remains a U.S. favorite because of its cheap price----a fact which is driving the Chinese initiative. Over 1.25 billion chicken wings, for example, are eaten on one Super Bowl day. But even in the U.S. chicken will remain cheap if the National Chicken Council has anything to say about it. It is petitioning the USDA to make chicken "kill lines" move faster to produce a cheaper product. Currently, the lines "only" kill 140 birds a minute.
(Article changed on October 16, 2017 at 03:32)
On October 16, Morgan Chalfant of The Hill reports, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the Justice Department's appeal in Microsoft Corp. v. United States. The question before the court: Are search warrants issued by American courts valid abroad?
In 2013, Microsoft refused to turn information from a customer's email account over to law enforcement pursuant to a warrant in a narcotics investigation. The information, Microsoft noted, was stored on a server in Ireland. Ireland, as you may have learned in elementary school, is neither one of the fifty states nor a US territory. It's a sovereign state with its own laws. US search warrants carry no weight there.
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sided with Microsoft, and the full court denied the government's request for a rehearing. Apparently they learned geography as youngsters, too.
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, maybe not so much. But he does seem to have a perpetual burr under his fur about "national sovereignty." Sessions is on record criticizing both "illegal immigration" (under the US Constitution there's no such thing) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement as attacks on US sovereignty. So why is the Justice Department he leads seeking a declaration from the US Supreme Court that US search warrants override the sovereignty of Ireland? American exceptionalism much?
Hopefully the court will uphold the Second Circuit's decision and make it clear to Sessions that the whole border/sovereignty thing goes in both directions.
But the tech sector and individuals who value their privacy shouldn't just sit still and hope for the best. What we need is a the continued erosion of "national" borders and the perfection of individual borders that are, as a practical workaday matter, mostly impenetrable to people like Jeff Sessions. While the former may take some time yet, the latter are already partially available and the unavailable part represents opportunity for reasonably entrepreneurial "sovereign states."
The available part, as you might guess, consists of strong encryption. The sooner Microsoft and other email and data storage providers implement well-crafted end-to-end encryption for their users -- encryption the providers do not hold the keys to -- the sooner the data in question will become useless to the Jeff Sessionses of the world. "Oh, you have a warrant? OK, fine, here's what you asked for. Good luck reading it."
The unavailable part consists of (hopefully more than one) "data haven" states: Countries whose governments are willing to write strong data privacy and freedom protections into their laws, believably commit to sticking with those protections, then stand back and watch as Microsoft, Google, Facebook, et al. build huge data centers and perhaps even decide to re-domicile themselves (presumably paying lots and lots of taxes in both cases).
Sometimes the Supreme Court gets things right, but it's definitely an imperfect and untrustworthy vessel to entrust with the protection of our privacy and our rights. Better to take those rights into our own hands with encryption, and decentralize their protection across friendly sovereignties.
Korean War Veterans Memorial
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[This is the First article in a series, "Return to South Korea". For the second article click here.]
Tomorrow I will be boarding an airplane at Tampa International Airport for a flight to Inchon, South Korea. Although I have never been to Korea, I was able to maneuver a slot in the reunion of Korea veterans for the commemoration of the 100thanniversary of the 2nd Infantry Division, which was formed in 1917 during the First World War. The 2nd has a long history of being on the front line during the wars of the 20th century, and is now stationed in South Korea. I will be part of a group that is the guest of the Republic of Korea. I am going there to learn, experience Korea today and I hope to pass on some of that to readers of my diary.
With the events of the past few months and the threat of another war in Korea, I have been studying the history of the Korean War of 1950 to 1953. As I dug into it I became fascinated with how much I did not know and how much there is to learn.
The Korean War was an epoch war that had a major role in the future foreign policies of the US, and the domestic impact those policies have had on all of our lives. The war was a turning point that has evolved into where we are today. For sure it was the path setter of the direction of the Cold War between the US, China and Russia. The Cold War took a hiatus in 1991, but as many argue is now on again as the Cold War Redux.
So far my return to Korea is the remembering of childhood memories. In 1950 I was six years old. Few people had television then, so we got the news from newspapers, radio and newsreels shown in theaters before the main attraction. Current events were not discussed much in my world then, and what I heard about the Korean War was not very meaningful.
What I do remember about the war was that my mother was very worried that her brother might be sent there. All I knew about war was what I saw at the movies and that looked pretty exciting. Soon we got a TV and the war came alive in our living room.
As the next few years passed, I became aware of the shock at the battles the U.S. lost, and the shame and anger of American prisoners of war being put on displayed. I had no reason to question that the "communists" were brainwashing the prisoners. How could this be happening to an America that I was told "never lost a war because God was on our side"?
My older brother explained to me that we were fighting in Korea because of communist aggression, that the United Nations agreed with the US, and that the Russians had "stupidly" been boycotting the U.N. when the vote was taken to organize a police action with the US leading it.
I remember one day my father came home outraged that Truman had fired McArthur, who I was told was a famous war hero. How all this could be happening, I wondered. Later my mother "Liked Ike" because Eisenhower promised to end the war if he was elected president. It seemed that everybody just wanted it over. Then one day it was. American POW's were released. More outrage and shame that some of the Americans deserted and refused to come home. Finally the Korean War faded and was forgotten.
It wasn't until 1963 when I joined the Army that the Korean War had meaning to me again. In boot camp many of our instructors were combat hardened in Korea. They said we were men and they were teaching us the lessons they learned. I remember those lessons, the 20 mile marches and cleaning machine guns at 0200 in the morning. They were serious, and they told us we better be too, because one day there would be another war. I was quite impressed.
So now I am returning to Korea. I think it is going to be an epoch event for me now at the age of 73. Yet, I am trying not to have any expectations. In the next few weeks the historical places I have been reading about will come alive. I will be landing at Incheon where McArthur pulled off his amphibious landing that turned defeat into a pushback of the North Koreans and a breakout of beleaguered US soldiers from Pusan where they were barely hanging on.
In the next few days our group will be heading for the 38th, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) northeast of Seoul. The schedule says we will spend a few days touring the battlegrounds. Then work our way south to Seoul.
The rest I will let myself be surprised and savor it.
[Here is a fantastic documentary of the Korean War on YouTube, part 1 of a 3 part history of the Korean War: Modern Warfare. All three parts are available on YouTube. Those that subscribe to Amazon "Prime" can see it in its entirety without interruption.]
From Reader Supported News
I was in a terrible traffic accident two weeks ago. I was on a Vespa scooter driving up Connecticut Avenue in Washington, DC, when the driver of the car in front of me slammed on his brakes for no reason. There was nobody in front of him and the lane was completely clear. I had no idea why he did it. I hit my brakes and swerved left to avoid him, but I clipped the left end of his bumper and went over the handlebars, landing on my shoulder. I fractured my spine, broke six ribs, and broke my clavicle.
The driver, meanwhile, continued driving to the end of the block, pulled over, and sat in his car. He never got out to see if I was injured. He just sat there and waited for the cops to arrive. Two pedestrians came to my aid, with one calling 911 and the other asking me questions like, "Do you know your name? Do you know what year it is? Do you know what happened?" Finally, an ambulance came, along with the fire department and a uniformed police officer. As I was being loaded into the ambulance, I saw the cop talking to the driver of the car I hit.
I spent the next six days in George Washington University Hospital. A few days into that stay, a friend called me to say that an article about the accident had appeared in Newsweek. The article said that I had "questions" about the accident and that maybe it had indeed not been an accident. I actually did have questions about it. The article said that there was no police report, and when the Newsweek reporter asked the police department for one, he was told that there was no record of any accident having taken place. A witness added that after I was loaded into the ambulance, the cop just told the driver of the car to leave. Just drive away. Was this a Michael Hastings-type incident? I didn't know.
But it wasn't. It was just a traffic accident. Newsweek later updated its article to say that a bus had suddenly pulled out from the curb lane into the driving lane and the driver had hit his brakes to avoid hitting the bus. He didn't see that I was behind him.
A few days into my hospital stay, I gave an interview to a Greek television station. The interviewer asked what had happened, and I told him that I thought it was just a simple traffic accident. He asked if I had considered the idea that perhaps it was a set-up. I replied that, sure, it had crossed my mind. But there were so many moving parts in such a scenario that it just seemed to be too complicated to pull off. Besides, despite the severity of my injuries, I was only going five miles per hour, according to the fire department. But why, the reporter asked, had the police told the car's driver to drive away? Why was there no police report? Could this have been something more sinister?
I knew from my many years in the Intelligence Community that employees of several different governmental agencies carry what is euphemistically called a "get out of jail free" card. If you are on some sort of secret mission inside the United States and you get wrapped up in something that requires the intervention of law enforcement, you hand the cop your "get out of jail free" card, he calls a number on the card, the person who answers confirms that you're on sensitive government business, and he asks that the cop send you on your way. This was probably what happened, I said. It was probably just an accident.
Still, the reporter pressed, "You've been outspoken about the existence of the Deep State. Isn't it possible, after all you've said about the CIA, torture, human rights, and such over the years that this was something more ominous? A message, perhaps?"
I have to admit that he got me on that one. Deep down, I still think it was an accident. But when the Attorney General of the United States tells a U.S. senator, with a completely straight face in an open Congressional hearing, that the president can have an American citizen assassinated on U.S. soil without benefit of a trial, it gives one pause. I didn't want to acknowledge it, but maybe there was something more to this than I was willing to admit to myself.
And that leads to a far more important issue than John Kiriakou's traffic accident. Where is the accountability for the Deep State? When Congress does not exercise its constitutionally-mandated oversight, who is responsible for protecting Americans from their government? To whom do those secretive governmental agencies report, if not to Congress?
Thanks to the revelations of Ed Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Tom Drake, and others, we know that the Deep State is real. It's ominous. It's a threat to our democracy. We have to demand accountability through our elected officials. We have to keep talking about these issues, writing about them, marching to draw attention to them, and demanding that our Congressional representatives do what we say. Without it, the country is doomed and we're all in danger, even from a simple "traffic accident."
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com.
Karen Greenberg first arrived at TomDispatch in January 2005 in tandem with defense attorney Joshua Dratel. Their book The Torture Papers was just being published and they were asking questions. Thirty-seven of them, to be exact, all pointed, all uncomfortable, all directed at then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, all focused on the Bush administration's torture policies and what, after a visit to Guantanamo in 2007, Greenberg would term "the jewel-in-the-crown of American offshore prisons or, to be Pentagon-accurate, 'detention facilities.'" Here were just four of those questions: "Do you fear review by the courts? Why do you dismiss the role of the courts and ordinary law enforcement in eliciting information from prisoners in the war on terror? Isn't it possible that the art of interrogation, practiced by law enforcement officers and professional lawyers, might, in fact, elicit more important and more accurate information in assessing the motives, networks, and plans of terrorists than, say, dogs at Guantanamo Bay or waterboarding in some CIA holding area? What exactly was it you felt it was so important to keep secret from the courts?"
Almost 13 years later, Guantanamo remains open. It is still officially a "detention facility," not a "prison," and those held within it still aren't "prisoners" -- you weren't even allowed to use that word there in 2007 -- but "enemy combatants," a category the Bush administration believed put them beyond all legal norms, American or international. As Greenberg reports today, the Trump administration has just classified its first American prisoner off the battlefields of Syria as an "enemy combatant." Gulp.
And sadly, you already know just where our president, who praised torture to the heavens during campaign 2016 (while threatening to "take out" the families of terrorists), is likely to go with this. It seems that we're heading back to the future, back to what Greenberg, in another piece, written a mere two and a half years ago, called "the Age of Barbarism Lite." Let her then bring you up to date, while the rest of us only hope that she won't be back 13 years from now to tell us that the latest American president is once again stashing "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Tom
"Enemy Combatants" Again?
Will Washington Never Learn?
By Karen J. Greenberg
Eight years ago, when I wrote a book on the first days of Guantanamo, The Least Worst Place: Guanta'namo's First 100 Days, I assumed that Gitmo would prove a grim anomaly in our history. Today, it seems as if that "detention facility" will have a far longer life than I ever imagined and that it, and everything it represents, will become a true, if grim, legacy of twenty-first-century America.
It appears that we just can't escape the perpetual pendulum of the never-ending war on terror as it invariably swings away from the rule of law and the protections of the Constitution. Last month, worries that had initially surfaced during the presidential campaign of 2016 over Donald Trump's statements about restoring torture and expanding Guantanamo's population took on a new urgency. In mid-September, the administration acknowledged that it had captured an American in Syria. Though no facts about the detained individual have been revealed, including his name or any allegations against him, the Pentagon did confirm that he has been classified as an "enemy combatant," a vague and legally imprecise category. It was, however, one of the first building blocks that officials of George W. Bush's administration used to establish the notoriously lawless policies of that era, including Guantanamo, the CIA's "black sites," and of course "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Placing terrorism suspects apprehended while fighting abroad in American custody is hardly unprecedented. The U.S. government has periodically captured citizen and non-citizen members of ISIS, and fighters from the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabaab, as well as from al-Qaeda-linked groups. To those who have followed such matters, however, the Trump administration's quick embrace of the term "enemy combatant" for the latest captive is an obvious red flag and so has elicited a chorus of concern from national security attorneys and experts, myself included. Our collective disquiet stems from grim memories of the extralegal terrorism policies the Bush administration institutionalized, especially the way the term "enemy combatant" helped free its officials and the presidency from many restraints, and from fears that those abandoned policies might have a second life in the Trump era.
Guantanamo's Detainees
What, then, is an enemy combatant? After all, memories fade and the government hasn't formally classified anyone in custody by that rubric since 2009. So here's a brief reminder. The term first made its appearance in the early months after 9/11. At that time, then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo -- who gained infamy for redefining acts of torture as legal "techniques" in the interrogation of prisoners -- and others used "enemy combatant" to refer to those captured in what was then being called the Global War on Terror. Their fates, Yoo argued, lay outside the purview of either Congress or the courts. The president, and only the president, he claimed, had the power to decide what would happen to them.
"As the president possess[es] the Commander-in-Chief and Executive powers alone," Yoo wrote at the time, "Congress cannot constitutionally restrict or regulate the president's decision to commence hostilities or to direct the military, once engaged. This would include not just battlefield tactics, but also the disposition of captured enemy combatants."
The category, as used then, was meant to be sui generis and to bear no relation to "unlawful" or "lawful" enemy combatants, both granted legal protections under international law. Above all, the Bush version of enemy-combatant status was meant to exempt Washington's captives from any of the protections that would normally have been granted to prisoners of war.
In practice, this opened the way for that era's offshore system of (in)justice at both the CIA's black sites and the prison camp at Guantanamo, which was set up in Cuba in order to evade the reach of either Congress or the federal court system. The captives President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld sent there beginning in January 2002 fell into that category. In keeping with the mood of the moment in Washington, the U.S. military personnel who received them were carefully cautioned never to refer to them as "prisoners," lest they then qualify for the legal protections guaranteed to prisoners of war. Within weeks, the population had grown to several hundred men, all labeled "alien enemy combatants," all deemed by Yoo and his superiors to lie outside the laws of war as well as those of the United States, and even outside military regulations.
American citizens were excluded from detention there. Some were nonetheless labeled enemy combatants. One -- JosePadilla -- was arrested in the United States. Another -- Yaser Hamdi -- was initially brought to Gitmo after being captured in Afghanistan, only to be flown in the middle of the night to the United States as administration officials hoped to escape public attention for their mistake.
Padilla had been born and raised in the United States; Hamdi had grown up in Saudi Arabia. To avoid the federal detention system, both would be held in a naval brig in South Carolina, deprived of access to lawyers, and detained without charge. For years, their lawyers tried to convince federal judges that keeping them in such circumstances was unconstitutional. Eventually, the Supreme Court weighed in, upholding Yoo's position on their classification as enemy combatants, but allowing them lawyers who could challenge the grounds for and conditions of their detention.
Although the government defended the use of enemy combatant status for years, both Padilla and Hamdi were eventually -- after almost three years in Hamdi's case, three and a half for Padilla -- turned over to federal law enforcement. Never charged with a crime, Hamdi would be returned to Saudi Arabia, where he promptly renounced his U.S. citizenship, as the terms of his release required. Padilla was eventually charged in federal court and ultimately sentenced to 21 years in prison.
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Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell appeared at the White House for a press conference after they had lunch. Trump took the opportunity to insult Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as he aggrandized himself.
Mitch McConnell gave an uncomfortable but very visibly pained smile after Trump implied that McConnell was on the take from the healthcare lobby.
To many, it may seem shallow to concentrate what Trump did to McConnell in his answer to an important question. A reporter asked Trump what specifically did he want to do to the insurance and drug companies. The following reply was interesting.
"So the insurance companies have made a fortune with Obamacare, an absolute fortune," said Trump. "As you know what I did with the cuts at the end which we're all going, you know, you're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars a month going right into the pockets of the insurance companies. And I'm very happy with what I did. And because of that people are talking now. Democrats are talking to the Republicans for a short-term taking care of what we will call health care; So that people can have good health care without big spikes. You would have had massive spikes. You already have. I mean every year the massive spikes to Obamacare have been ridiculous. As far as, and I didn't speak to Mitch about this today, but a priority of mine and you know that this is coming up, will be the cost of prescription drugs. We're going to get the costs way down, way down."
Trump, then went at Mitch McConnell in a rather direct manner. He was speaking about the Washington Establishment.
"And those drug companies," Trump said. "So you have the insurance companies in one case and the other case, actually with regard to both, you have the drug companies. They contribute massive amounts of money to political people. I don't know Mitch maybe even to you. But I have to tell you, they contribute massive amounts of money. Me I'm not interested in their money. I don't need their money. I will tell you. You have prescription drugs. You go to England. You go to various places, Canada. You go to many many countries and the same exact pill from the same company, the same box, the same everything is a tiny fraction of what it costs in the United States. We are going to get drug prices, prescription drug prices, way down. Because the world has taken advantage of us. The world has taken advantage of us."
Of course, Trump does not talk about him being on the take throughout his life. He does not mention that his cabinet looks like Wall Street. Many Americans will see that jab as the outsider beating back a corrupt Washington on the take.
This is a funny aside but one that will mean a lot to his followers. It will give him some cover when working with the evil Washington Establishment. I would not be surprised to see this in an ad.
Most of the time people are asking me 'what's wrong with the Kurds?' After thinking about this question for many years as the author of 'the history of the Kurdish people' book, I believe that the question must be going through analyses by me first before answering.
In America visiting good doctors, they want to do blood examination before telling you about your illness. After finding the illness the doctor will recommend action to be taken to cure the symptoms of a disease. In third-world countries, they give medicine and hope will cure the patient. And they repeat treatment randomly and hope the disease will go away. It works sometimes and does not do much most of the time.
In last 12 years of research, I read many books and documents to be able to write 'the history of the Kurdish people'. I found out the descendant of King Kuru, the ruler of Kurukshetra (Medes), had very good experience to lead forefather of Kurds for thousands of years. And Sassanid Empire founder as the descendant of Kuru had very good education about the history of his forefather to be able to build such empire.
Today so many leaders lead Kurdistan without education about Kurdish people's history. Since the fall of Sassanid Empire, most of the so-called Kurdish leaders were ignorance about Kurdish people's history. They failed one by one to bring Kurds peace and freedom.
Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan is the only leader who has done research and written many books to mobilize Kurds and organize them successfully. He was not ashamed to write that he does not have access to information to find out the relationship between Kurds and Hebrew Jews' histories. Indeed, successful leaders want to know others before depending on them or fighting them. A leader must know enemies and friends to make decisions.
The current Kurdish leaders are mostly without knowledge about enemies and friend of Kurds. But they are making decisions randomly like third-world country's doctors.
Global Cardiac Monitoring Market 2017-2021
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The following companies as the key players in the global cardiac monitoring market: Abbott, GE Healthcare, Hill-Rom, Medtronic, and Philips HealthcareOther Prominent Vendors in the market are: BIOTRONIK, Cheetah Medical, Deltex Medical, dms-service, Edwards Lifesciences, LiDCO, Manatec Biomedical, Midmark, NIHON KOHDEN, Schiller, SORIN GROUP, and Spacelabs Healthcare.View Our Report @Commenting on the report, an analyst from Technavios team said: The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is Increasing number of M&A and strategic collaborations. Strategic M&A and collaborations are common in the global cardiac monitoring market. The key vendors acquire other companies to improve their products and increase their revenues. For instance, in January 2017, Abbott announced that it had completed the acquisition of St. Jude Medical. The acquisition provides Abbott with expanded opportunities for future growth. It will also help the company develop a strong and diverse portfolio of devices, diagnostics, nutritionals, and branded generic pharmaceuticals.PDF sample download @According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is Increasing prevalence of CVDs. The prevalence of CVDs such as angina, MI, stroke, heart failure, venous thromboembolism (VTE), and heart arrhythmia is increasing. CVDs are estimated to cause approximately 19 million deaths across the world by 2020. According to Eurostat, in 2013, CVDs caused 1.9 million deaths in the EU-28. According to the CDC, in the US, each year, approximately 610,000 people die from heart disease. Every year, in the US, about 735,000 people have a heart attack and about 795,000 people have a stroke.Buy Discounted Copy @Further, the report states that one of the major factors hindering the growth of this market is High cost of cardiac monitoring devices. The high cost of cardiac monitoring devices such as ECG devices and ILRs is affecting their adoption. ECG devices that are offered by key vendors such as GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, and NIHON KOHDEN cost around $1,000-$3,000. Hence, these devices are bought mostly by Tier-1 and Tier-2 hospitals. Patients without insurance find it difficult to afford ECG tests. For instance, the average cost of a provider-administered ECG test in the US is around $1500-$2000. This includes the cost of the test and the interpretation of the result by a trained cardiologist. Many vendors are developing alternative ECG devices such as ReadMyHeart, which is by DailyCare BioMedical, and AliveCor, which is offered by AliveCor, that use one to three leads, rely solely on integrated digital displays, are handheld, and inexpensive.Buy Copy Now @The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to a SWOT analysis of the key vendors.About Cardiac MonitoringCardiac monitoring refers to the continuous or intermittent observation of heart activity to determine the health of the heart. It helps diagnose cardiac arrhythmias and other heart conditions. Cardiac monitoring devices include ECG devices, cardiac event monitors, ILRs, and COM devices.ECG devices are non-invasive diagnostic tools that are commonly used to monitor and record the electrical and muscular activity of the heart.About Market Reports Center;Market Reports Center is an e-commerce platform obliging the needs of knowledge workers, experts, professionals who are subject to market research information for their work, or to make strategic business decisions. We are dedicated to create a comprehensive offering of market research which is accurate, credible and affordable.Market Reports Center currently has more than 4,00,000 plus titles and 50+ Publishers on our platform and growing consistently. We cover more than 35 industry verticals being: Automotive, Electronics, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Chemicals, Construction, Agriculture, Food, Beverages, Banking & Finance, Media and Government, Public Sector Studies.Connect for more details:Sam CollinsMarket Reports Center1-646-883-3044 (US)Email: info@marketreportscenter.comWebsite:
Global Broadcast Lenses Market Reports 2017 Canon, Cavision, Fujinon, Panasonic
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5 Key Takeaways from Fact.MRs Report on Garlic Market for Forecast Period 2017 - 2022
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Consisting anti-rheumatic, carminative and digestive properties, garlic is consumed all over the world in form of an ingredient in various cuisines. Garlic is used mostly in cooking as it softens its pungent flavor, roasted garlic is also being consumed as it balances the flavor by offering nutty and delicate flavor. A fresh and raw form of garlic is consumed more than the other forms as the raw garlic is effective in cold and flu, high blood pressure, heart diseases, it is considered as one of the best antibiotics for fungal and bacterial infections. Manufacturers are also focusing on retaining maximum benefits and taste offered by raw garlic even after converting it into a paste or powdered form. The major market players are also focusing on infusing garlic with oil to produce flavored oil. Garlic is also being used as a meat and fish preservative, offering long shelf-life to these foods. Restaurants and fast food chains also use fresh garlic as it enhances the taste of the food.Request Free Sample Report-According to a study by Fact.MR, the global garlic market is expected to experience moderate growth. The market is estimated to register 4.3% CAGR during the forecast period 2017-2022. Due to the increasing consumption of garlic as an ingredient in various foods and also being used as a traditional medicine, the demand of garlic is boosting. Manufacturers are also producing garlic in various forms such as paste, powder, oil, etc. to make it easy to use and to also balance the flavor. Below are some of the insights on how the global garlic market will perform in the next five years.5 Forecast Highlights on Global Garlic Market1. Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) is expected to emerge as one of the biggest markets in the global garlic market. Witnessing a steady growth rate during the forecast period, APEJ garlic market is estimated to exceed US$ 8,200 million value by 2022 end. China and India are the two highest garlic producing countries in the APEJ region. Moreover, initiatives by the government in both the countries are also supporting the garlic production.2. Europe and North America are also expected to experience moderate growth in the global garlic market.3. Hard Neck garlic is expected to be one of the highly preferred garlic product. Hard neck garlic is estimated to reach nearly US$ 13,000 million revenue by 2022 end. Meanwhile, the soft neck is also expected to account for more than one-third of the revenue share by 2017 end.4. Garlic in fresh form is expected to witness the highest growth as compared to any other form. Fresh form of garlic is estimated to create an incremental opportunity of more than US$ 2,000 million between 2017 and 2022.5. Garlic is expected to be widely used in culinary. By 2022 end, culinary is estimated to reach nearly US$ 8,900 million revenue. Although garlic is also expected to find large application in soups, sauces, and dressings.Browse Full Report with TOC-Market Player-The report has also profiled leading players in the global market for garlic, which will remain active through 2022. These include companies such as The Garlic Company, Italian Rose Garlic Products Inc., California Garlic Company, Monterey Bay Spice Company Inc., Mcfadden Farm, South West Garlic Farm, Mr. Lucky, Shandong Liancheng Garlic Industry Co., Ltd, Filaree Garlic Farm, and Atmiya International.Check Discount-About Fact.MR:Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact US:Suite 9884, 27 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTel: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.comWebsite-
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Pipeline Layer Barge IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Pipeline Layer Barge -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis of Top Key Player Forecast To 2022 To Its Research DatabaseThis report studies the Pipeline Layer Barge market status and outlook of global and major regions, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and major regions, and splits the Pipeline Layer Barge market by product type and applications/end industries.The global Pipeline Layer Barge market is valued at XX million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Pipeline Layer Barge.Europe also play important roles in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2016 and will be xx million USD in 2022, with a CAGR of XX.Request for Sample Report @The major players in global market includeAllseas, Saipem, Global Industries, Subsea 7, ZPMC, Daewoo, Offshore Oil Engineering, Sinopec Petroleum Engineering & Construction Shengli, CIMC Raffles, Dredge Brokers, Van Oord, Horizon Ship Brokers.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share (%) and growth Rate (%) of Pipeline Layer Barge in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUSAChinaEuropeJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOn the basis of product, the Pipeline Layer Barge market is primarily split intoS-Lay Pipeline InstallationTow-In Pipeline InstallationJ-Lay Pipeline InstallationOthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report coversDeepwaterShallowaterOthersLeave a Query @Table of ContentsGlobal Pipeline Layer Barge Sales Market Report 20171 Pipeline Layer Barge Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Pipeline Layer Barge1.2 Classification of Pipeline Layer Barge by Product Category1.2.1 Global Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units) and Growth (%) Comparison by Types (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Pipeline Layer Barge Sales Market Share (%) by Types in 20161.2.3 S-Lay Pipeline Installation1.2.4 Tow-In Pipeline Installation1.2.5 J-Lay Pipeline Installation1.2.5 Others1.3 Global Pipeline Layer Barge Market by Applications/End Users1.3.1 Global Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units) Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)1.3.2 Deepwater1.3.3 Shallowater1.3.4 Others....9 Global Pipeline Layer Barge Players Profiles and Sales Data9.1 Allseas9.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.1.2 Pipeline Layer Barge Product Category, Application and Specification9.1.2.1 Product A9.1.2.2 Product B9.1.3 Allseas Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)9.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.2 Saipem9.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.2.2 Pipeline Layer Barge Product Category, Application and Specification9.2.2.1 Product A9.2.2.2 Product B9.2.3 Saipem Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)9.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.3 Global Industries9.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.3.2 Pipeline Layer Barge Product Category, Application and Specification9.3.2.1 Product A9.3.2.2 Product B9.3.3 Global Industries Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)9.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.4 Subsea 79.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.4.2 Pipeline Layer Barge Product Category, Application and Specification9.4.2.1 Product A9.4.2.2 Product B9.4.3 Subsea 7 Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)9.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.5 ZPMC9.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.5.2 Pipeline Layer Barge Product Category, Application and Specification9.5.2.1 Product A9.5.2.2 Product B9.5.3 ZPMC Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)9.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.6 Daewoo9.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.6.2 Pipeline Layer Barge Product Category, Application and Specification9.6.2.1 Product A9.6.2.2 Product B9.6.3 Daewoo Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)9.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.7 Offshore Oil Engineering9.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.7.2 Pipeline Layer Barge Product Category, Application and Specification9.7.2.1 Product A9.7.2.2 Product B9.7.3 Offshore Oil Engineering Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)9.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.8 Sinopec Petroleum Engineering & Construction Shengli9.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.8.2 Pipeline Layer Barge Product Category, Application and Specification9.8.2.1 Product A9.8.2.2 Product B9.8.3 Sinopec Petroleum Engineering & Construction Shengli Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)9.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.9 CIMC Raffles9.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.9.2 Pipeline Layer Barge Product Category, Application and Specification9.9.2.1 Product A9.9.2.2 Product B9.9.3 CIMC Raffles Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)9.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.10 Dredge Brokers9.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.10.2 Pipeline Layer Barge Product Category, Application and Specification9.10.2.1 Product A9.10.2.2 Product B9.10.3 Dredge Brokers Pipeline Layer Barge Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)9.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.11 Van Oord9.12 Horizon Ship BrokersBuy Now @Continued...Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (Us) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune 411028Maharashtra, GlobalPh: +91 841 198 5042
Image Signal Processor (ISP) Global Market Key Players Intel, DxO, NVIDIA, Renesas, Altek Analysis and Forecast to 2022
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SummaryWiseguyreports.Com Adds Image Signal Processor (ISP) Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 2022This report studies sales (consumption) of Image Signal Processor (ISP) in Global market, especially in United States, China, Europe and Japan, focuses on top players in these regions/countries, with sales, price, revenue and market share for each player in these regions, coveringIntelDxOTHine ElectronicsON SemiconductorFujitsuNVIDIACELRenesasGeneric ImagingAltekXilinxClick here for a sample report @Market Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales (consumption), revenue, market share and growth rate of Image Signal Processor (ISP) in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), likeUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanKoreaTaiwanSplit by product Types, with sales, revenue, price and gross margin, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided intoType IType IISplit by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Image Signal Processor (ISP) in each application, can be divided intoApplication 1Application 2At any Query @Table of ContentsGlobal Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales Market Report 20171 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Image Signal Processor (ISP)1.2 Classification of Image Signal Processor (ISP)1.2.1 Type I1.2.2 Type II1.3 Application of Image Signal Processor (ISP)1.3.1 Application 11.3.2 Application 21.4 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Market by Regions1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Korea Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Taiwan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Image Signal Processor (ISP) (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Image Signal Processor (ISP) Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)9 Global Image Signal Processor (ISP) Manufacturers Analysis9.1 Intel9.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.1.2 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Product Type, Application and Specification9.1.2.1 Product A9.1.2.2 Product B9.1.3 Intel Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.2 DxO9.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.2.2 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Product Type, Application and Specification9.2.2.1 Product A9.2.2.2 Product B9.2.3 DxO Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.3 THine Electronics9.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.3.2 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Product Type, Application and Specification9.3.2.1 Product A9.3.2.2 Product B9.3.3 THine Electronics Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.4 ON Semiconductor9.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.4.2 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Product Type, Application and Specification9.4.2.1 Product A9.4.2.2 Product B9.4.3 ON Semiconductor Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.5 Fujitsu9.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.5.2 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Product Type, Application and Specification9.5.2.1 Product A9.5.2.2 Product B9.5.3 Fujitsu Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.6 NVIDIA9.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.6.2 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Product Type, Application and Specification9.6.2.1 Product A9.6.2.2 Product B9.6.3 NVIDIA Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.7 CEL9.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.7.2 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Product Type, Application and Specification9.7.2.1 Product A9.7.2.2 Product B9.7.3 CEL Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.8 Renesas9.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.8.2 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Product Type, Application and Specification9.8.2.1 Product A9.8.2.2 Product B9.8.3 Renesas Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.9 Generic Imaging9.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.9.2 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Product Type, Application and Specification9.9.2.1 Product A9.9.2.2 Product B9.9.3 Generic Imaging Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.10 Altek9.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors9.10.2 Image Signal Processor (ISP) Product Type, Application and Specification9.10.2.1 Product A9.10.2.2 Product B9.10.3 Altek Image Signal Processor (ISP) Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)9.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview9.11 Xilinx..CONTINUEDBuy Now @Contact infoContact Us: sales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US) ; Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Catalytic Impact of New Financing Structures to Drive Global Renewable Energy Market
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QYResearchReports.com announces the addition of a new research report titled Global Renewable Energy Sales Market Report 2016. This study present a detailed understanding of the market for renewable energy sales. This study is collated by gathering information from reliable sources. A general overview of market coupled with applications, industry chain, classifications, and definitions has been presented in this study. The study takes into account important data and necessary information coupled with market statistics presented in a coherent format. The study also encapsulated the prime drivers, trends, opportunities, and restraints impacting the development of the overall renewable energy sales market. The study employs Porters five forces analysis and SWOT analysis in order to represent the competition prevalent in the global renewable energy sales market.The report starts by presenting an overview of the market for renewable energy sales. The scope of renewable energy market and the product overview has also been presented through this study. Renewable energy is the energy that has been gathered from resources such as geothermal heat, waves, tides, rain, wind, and sunlight. Renewable energy presents energy within four significant areas such as energy services, transportation, air and water cooling/heating, and generation of electricity.Get free sample copy of the report at:The global renewable energy sales market has come as amongst the most transformative, fast-changing, and vibrant sectors within the global economy. Factors such as catalytic impact of new financing structures, cost declines, and technology advancements will provide impetus to the development of the market. In addition, the low cost of majority of the renewable energy technologies will also support their demand in spite of the presence of fossil fuels.In the next section of the report, the segmentation of the renewable energy sales market has been presented. The report segments the renewable energy sales market into geothermal energy, ocean energy, biomass energy, hydro energy, wind energy, and solar energy. On the basis of geography, the market is categorized into Southeast Asia, Europe, Japan, the U.S., India, and China. The extent of the market in all these areas has been covered.Moving further, the manufacturers operating in the global renewable energy sales market have been presented. The mergers and acquisitions that took place in the market and are predicted to take place in forthcoming years have also been presented in this study. This section on the vendor landscape also throws light on the strengths and weaknesses of the prime vendors and the strategies being adopted by them for a better penetration into the global renewable energy sales market.To check available discount on this report, visit at:The application areas, specification, and the renewable energy product types of these manufacturers have also been presented in this section of the study. EnBW, SolarReserve,LLC, Southern Company, Exelon Corporation, Hawaiian Electric Company,Inc, RWE Group, and Abengoa Solar, CGN Solar Energy Development Co.,Ltd, SDIC POWER HOLDINGS CO.,LTD, Dongfang Electric Corporation, Vattenfall Europe, and CGN Solar Energy Development Co.,Ltd, among others.List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Renewable EnergyTable Classification of Renewable EnergyFigure Global Sales Market Share of Renewable Energy by Type in 2015Figure Solar Energy PictureFigure Wind Energy PictureFigure Hydro Energy PictureFigure Biomass Energy PictureFigure Ocean Energy PictureFigure Geothermal Energy PictureTable Applications of Renewable EnergyFigure Global Sales Market Share of Renewable Energy by Application in 2015Figure Application 1 ExamplesFigure Application 2 ExamplesFigure USA Renewable Energy Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure China Renewable Energy Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure Europe Renewable Energy Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure Japan Renewable Energy Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure India Renewable Energy Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure Southeast Asia Renewable Energy Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure Global Renewable Energy Sales and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Figure Global Renewable Energy Revenue and Growth Rate (2011-2021)Table Global Renewable Energy Sales of Key Manufacturers (2011-2016)Table Global Renewable Energy Sales Share by Manufacturers (2011-2016)Figure 2015 Renewable Energy Sales Share by ManufacturersFigure 2016 Renewable Energy Sales Share by ManufacturersTable Global Renewable Energy Revenue by Manufacturers (2011-2016)...About QYReseachReports.comQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Smart Self-help Applications to Propel Growth of Smart City ICT Infrastructure Market
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QYResearchReports.com has announced the addition of a new market intelligence report to its repository titled, Global Smart City ICT Infrastructure Market 2016 Industry, Analysis, Research, Share, Growth, Sales, Trends, Supply, Forecast to 2021. The publication provides a detailed analysis of the historical growth trajectory, current situation, and future prospects of the market along with the prevalent trends. An assessment of the factors that are expected to impact the growth of the market positively or adversely has also been presented in the research report. The study further provides information on the market shares, key strategies, and product portfolio of the leading companies.Get free sample copy of the report at:The global smart city information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure market is anticipated to expand at a promising CAGR from 2016 to 2021. The prime factor driving the growth of the market is rapid industrialization across the globe and the need for an advanced ICT infrastructure. Smart city development is being encouraged by governments across the world to combat several environmental, management, economic, social, and engineering challenges that are likely to occur with the robust industrialization. A smart city comprises aspects of environment protection, security, efficient transportation, energy management, and sustainability. Furthermore, the demand for a well-organized and planned infrastructure is increasing due to an extensive rise in migration to urban areas and cities from rural areas.The growth of the global smart city ICT infrastructure market is expected to witness significant growth over the coming years owing to the rising availability of smart self-help applications. In order to improve the serviceability and automation of smart cities, automation solution providers are incessantly focusing on the introduction of user-friendly self-help applications deploying platforms. Consumers can set controls that can be switched off and on when required with programming solutions becoming more distinct. For instance, smart self-help applications such as smoke detectors, video monitors, and smart thermostats are deployed as smart home equipment.To check available discount on this report, visit at:The first chapter of the report presents an overview of specifications, classifications, and applications of the global smart city ICT infrastructure market. An evaluation of the key segments has also been provided in the report. The study also provides information on the raw material suppliers, price of the raw materials, the cost of labor, and the expenses incurred by the manufacturers during the manufacturing process. The viability of the upcoming projects has also been discussed in the report.The global smart city ICT infrastructure market has been segmented into United States, Europe, China, and Japan. The regional cost, supply, revenue, price, consumption, import, and export analysis has also been offered in the study. The key companies covered under the report are Cisco, Oracle, IBM, AT&T, Huawei, China Mobile, NTT Communication, Vodafone, ABB, and Verizon Communications among others.List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Smart City ICT InfrastructureTable Product Specifications of Smart City ICT InfrastructureTable Classification of Smart City ICT InfrastructureFigure Global Production Market Share of Smart City ICT Infrastructure by Types in 2015Table Applications of Smart City ICT InfrastructureFigure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Smart City ICT Infrastructure by Applications in 2015Figure Industry Chain Structure of Smart City ICT InfrastructureTable Global Smart City ICT Infrastructure Major ManufacturersTable Global Major Regions Smart City ICT Infrastructure Development StatusTable Industry Policy of Smart City ICT InfrastructureTable Industry News List of Smart City ICT InfrastructureTable Raw Material Suppliers and Price AnalysisTable Equipment Suppliers and Price AnalysisTable Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Smart City ICT Infrastructure in 2015Figure Manufacturing Process Analysis of Smart City ICT InfrastructureTable Capacity (K Units) and Commercial Production Date of Global Smart City ICT Infrastructure Major Manufacturers in 2015Table Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Smart City ICT Infrastructure Major Manufacturers in 2015Table R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Smart City ICT Infrastructure Major Manufacturers in 2015Table Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Smart City ICT Infrastructure Major Manufacturers in 2015Table Global Capacity (K Units) of Smart City ICT Infrastructure by Regions 2011-2016Figure Global Capacity Market Share of Smart City ICT Infrastructure by Regions in 2011Figure Global Capacity Market Share of Smart City ICT Infrastructure by Regions in 2015Table Global Production (K Units) of Smart City ICT Infrastructure by Regions 2011-2016...About QYReseachReports.comQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Digital Textile Printing Market in Americas, APAC and EMEA Region 2017 to 2021
Digital Textile Printing market
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MarketResearchNest.com adds Global Digital Textile Printing Market 2017-2021 new report to its research database. The report spread across 82 pages with table and figures in it.Research analysts forecast the global digital textile printing market to grow at a CAGR of 18.29% during the period 2017-2021.About Digital Textile PrintingDigital printing is a process of printing digital data through printing systems. This digital printing is carried on in textiles of fabrics, such as polyester, cotton, nylon, wool, and rayon. Digital textile printing process includes four ink types, namely disperse and sublimation, reactive, acid, and pigment inks. The usage of these inks varies between different types of fabrics. The market includes four types of digital inks such as disperse and sublimation, reactive, acid, pigment inks.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global digital textile printing market for 2017-2021. The report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.Browse full table of contents and data tables atThe market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEATechnavio's report, Global Digital Textile Printing Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Technavio recognizes the following companies as the key players in the global digital textile printing market: DuPont, Huntsman International, JK Group, Kornit Digital, and Kiri Industries.Other Prominent Vendors in the market are: FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation, SPGPrints, Jay Chemical Industries, Marabu, Sensient Imaging Technologies, Sun Chemical Corporation, and Hongsam Digital Science & Technology.Commenting on the report, an analyst from Research team said: One trend in the market is increasing significance of UV-cured inks. The demand for ultraviolet (UV)-cured ink is growing immensely owing to the lesser drying time and lesser volatile organic compounds (VOC) content. Several furniture manufacturers are adapting UV-cured inks to conserve the production time and to expand the production volumes. Adding on, the higher density achieved by UV-cured inks results is enhanced physical properties.Order a Purchase Report Copy atAccording to the report, one driver in the market is increasing trade show exhibits. Soft signages are predominantly used in trade show exhibits as they provide an attractive look and are easy to install, setup, and store. The number of trade shows is increasing year on year owing to the demand for face-to-face marketing, creating an impression in prospective customers, and to create connections within the industries. The biggest trade shows in 2016, such as IPC APEX Expo in the electronic industry, held in Las Vegas, and Lightfair International, held in San Diego, used many textile soft signages.Further, the report states that one challenge in the market is shift from print media to digital media. The print media is currently facing heavy challenges from Internet advertising and TV advertising. The increasing use of smartphones and Internet of Things (IoT) have led to the shift from print media to digital media for marketing and brand promotions. This rapid digital shift is being mainly driven by the expansion of mobile telephony, growing number of connected consumers, and rapid growth in the rate of mobile broadband adoption.The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to a SWOT analysis of the key vendors.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;Enquiry before Buying atAbout us:MarketResearchNest.com is the most comprehensive collection of market research products and services on the Web. We offer reports from almost all top publishers and update our collection on daily basis to provide you with instant online access to the worlds most complete and recent database of expert insights on industries, organizations, products, and trends.ContactMr. Jeet JainSales Managersales@marketresearchnest.com+1-240-284-8070(U.S)+44-20-3290-4151(U.K)Connect with Global: Google+ | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook
Carnauba Wax Market to Expand with Significant CAGR During 2015 - 2025
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Carnauba wax is a type of natural wax-containing mono and di hydroxyl fatty alcohols, hydroxyl acids and their polyesters. Carnauba wax is majorly found in the Brazil and obtained from palm tree leaves. Some of the important properties of carnauba wax are the high melting point, hardest among other natural waxes such as bee wax, high oil retention capability etc. Carnauba wax finds major usage in the cosmetic industry as an additive owing to its characteristic properties. For instance, it delivers high-gloss finish in the makeup products such as lipsticks and lip balms, hypoallergenic properties makes carnauba wax to be used in sensitive skin care products also. In food and pharmaceutical industry, carnauba wax finds application as food additives and binding & coating tablets respectively. The carnauba wax market is well established with the presence of suppliers. The demand for carnauba wax is increasing since the individuals are turning towards adoption of natural and organic products over synthetic and petroleum based products. Carnauba wax is also used as release agents, car polishes and in wood floor polishes.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @The global cosmetic industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.9% till 2020 coupled with rising population. The global carnauba wax market is primarily driven by the two major end-use industries, cosmetic and food. Increasing disposable income of individuals which aids in expanding the behavior of individuals towards more adoption of cosmetics boosts the global carnauba wax market. For instance, carnauba wax is widely used an additive in lip balms, mascaras and lipsticks owing to the better emulsification, oil binding properties. Further, for carnauba waxes, there are no price fluctuations when compared to synthetic and petroleum based waxes, which gives an additive advantage for carnauba wax manufacturers.However, the regulations for the manufacture of carnauba wax are strict, since they are widely consumed in food, pharma and cosmetics industries which make the global carnauba wax quite consolidated.Global Carnauba Wax Market: SegmentationOn the basis of type, carnauba wax market can be segmented as follows:-Prime Yellow (Type 1)Extra light Fatty Grey (Type 3)Fatty Grey (Type 4)Prime Yellow MicronisedOn the basis of carnauba wax form, carnauba wax market can be segmented as follows:-FlakesPowderLumpsOn the basis of application, carnauba wax market can be segmented as follows:-AdditivesPolishesRelease agentsFood CoatingsOn the basis of end use, carnauba wax market can be segmented as follows:-PharmaceuticalCosmeticsFoodOthersGlobal Carnauba Wax Market: Region wise OutlookThe global carnauba wax market is divided into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan and Middle East and Africa (MEA). The carnauba wax market in Latin America and APEJ regions is robust owing to the availability of suitable climatic condition for palm trees from which carnauba wax is extracted. Countries such as Brazil in Latin America and Indonesia, India, China are prominent for carnauba wax production. North America and Eastern European regions majorly import high amounts of carnauba wax.Global Carnauba Wax Market: Drivers and RestraintsGlobal Carnauba Wax Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players identified in the global carnauba wax market includes:Tropical Ceras do Brasil Ltda.Brasil CerasFONCEPIKerax LimitedStrahl & Pitsch, Inc.Carmel Wax Inc.Kahl GmbH & CO. KGMicro Powders, Inc.PARAMELTAMEDEO BRASCAAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
UV Light Disinfection Industry Analysis by Type , Application & Key Players Halma, Atlantic Ultraviolet, HYDROTEC Detailed study till 2022
UV Light Disinfection Market Research Report 2017
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HTF MI recently added a new research study in its database that highlights the in-depth market analysis with future prospects of UV Light Disinfection market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for marketing managers, analysts, industry executives, consultants, sales and product managers, and other key people who are in need of ready-to-access and self analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges. Some of the key players mentioned in this research are Halma, Atlantic Ultraviolet, HYDROTEC, Heraeus Holding, Calgon Carbo, Oceanpower, Xylem, Philips Lighting, Trojan Technologies, American Ultraviolet, Evoqua Water, Severn Trent Services, Onyx, Newland Entech, GElighting, Xenex & Cnlight.Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global UV Light Disinfection market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data. It also covers various types of segmentation such as by geography [North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan & India], by product /end user type [Ordinary Cathode Low Pressure Mercury UV Disinfection, High-Intensity Ultraviolet Disinfection & Ozone UV Disinfection], by applications [Drinking Water and Wastewater, Air and Surface & Food Processing] in overall market. The in-depth information by segments of UV Light Disinfection market helps monitor performance & make critical decisions for growth and profitability. It provides information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Global UV Light Disinfection Market.The study also contains company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of various international, regional, and local vendors of Global UV Light Disinfection Market, some of them are Halma, Atlantic Ultraviolet, HYDROTEC, Heraeus Holding, Calgon Carbo, Oceanpower, Xylem, Philips Lighting, Trojan Technologies, American Ultraviolet, Evoqua Water, Severn Trent Services, Onyx, Newland Entech, GElighting, Xenex & Cnlight. The market competition is constantly growing higher with the rise in technological innovation and M&A activities in the industry. Moreover, many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new vendor entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Global UV Light Disinfection (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Ordinary Cathode Low Pressure Mercury UV Disinfection, High-Intensity Ultraviolet Disinfection & Ozone UV DisinfectionMarket Segment by Type 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022Ordinary Cathode Low Pressure Mercury UV Disinfection xx xx xx xx xx Xx xx-Change (%) xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx%High-Intensity Ultraviolet Disinfection xx xx xx xx xx Xx xx-Change (%) xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx%Ozone UV Disinfection xx xx xx xx xx Xx xx-Change (%) xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx% xx%The research study is segmented by Application such as Drinking Water and Wastewater, Air and Surface & Food Processing with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Global UV Light Disinfection (Thousands Units) by Application (2016-2022)Market Segment by Application 2012 2016 2022 Market Share (%)2022 CAGR (%)(2016-2022)Drinking Water and Wastewater xx xx xx xx% xx%Air and Surface xx xx xx xx% xx%Food Processing xx xx xx xx% xx%Total xx xx xx 100% xx%Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of UV Light Disinfection in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringMarket Segment by Regions 2012 2016 2022 Share (%) CAGR (2016-2022)North America xx xx xx xx% xx%China xx xx xx xx% xx%Europe xx xx xx xx% xx%Southeast Asia xx xx xx xx% xx%Japan xx xx xx xx% xx%India xx xx xx xx% xx%Total xx xx xx xx% xx%Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @The research insights solutions to the following key questions: What will be the market size and the growth rate in 2022? What are the key factors driving the Global UV Light Disinfection market? Who are the key market players and what are their strategies in the Global UV Light Disinfection market? What are the key market trends impacting the growth of the Global UV Light Disinfection market? What trends, challenges and barriers are influencing its growth? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the Global UV Light Disinfection market? What are the key outcomes of the five forces analysis of the UV Light Disinfection market?Buy this research report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the Global UV Light Disinfection market.Chapter 1, to describe UV Light Disinfection Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of UV Light Disinfection , with sales, revenue, and price of UV Light Disinfection , in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the Global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of UV Light Disinfection , for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan & India;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application [Drinking Water and Wastewater, Air and Surface & Food Processing], from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, UV Light Disinfection market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe UV Light Disinfection sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Get customization & check discount for report @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact US :Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA 08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Global Sodium Cyanide Market Driven by Consistent Growth of Chemicals, Mining Sectors
QYResearchReports
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QYResearchReports.com announces the addition of a new report to its growing market intelligence repository. The report, titled Global Sodium Cyanide Market Research Report 2017, presents a thorough study of the global sodium cyanide market in terms of its present conditions, the five-year period that led to the markets current position, and the expected five-year prognosis for the market. The leading players in the global sodium cyanide market are profiled in the report and a granular picture of the segmentation of the market is presented to provide readers with an accurate idea of the market dynamics.The global sodium cyanide market is likely to make steady progress in the coming years due to the growth of various end-use applications of sodium cyanide. The steady rise of the mining industry and the increasing use of sodium cyanide therein is a key driver for the global sodium cyanide market. Sodium cyanide is used in gold mining, the demand for which has been steadily rising. The consistent demand for gold in both electronics and jewelry is likely to ensure a steady demand channel for the global sodium cyanide market.Get free sample copy of the report at:The booming chemicals industry is another leading driver for the global sodium cyanide market. Sodium cyanide is a key material in the production of several commercially important chemicals, including cyanogen chloride and, primarily, several nitrile compounds. The rising specialty chemicals sector is thus a key driver for the global sodium cyanide market. Other leading application segments of the global sodium cyanide market include the dyes and textiles industry, electroplating, and others.The report elaborates upon the role of each application in the global sodium cyanide market and provides detailed data regarding the development trajectory of each application segment from 2012 to 2022. The historical development of each application segment from 2012 to its latest figures in 2017 is charted in the report, providing a solid foundation for reliable predictions regarding the development of each segment till 2022.By product type, the global sodium cyanide market is bifurcated into solid and liquid sodium cyanide. The pricing structure of the market for both types of sodium cyanide is studied in the report. A comprehensive 2012-2017 overview is provided in the report regarding the pricing framework of the sodium cyanide industry.To check available discount on this report, visit at:The report assesses the performance of the sodium cyanide market in leading regional segments such as North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, India, China, and Japan. Detailed data regarding the pricing structure as well as the import and export scenario of the sodium cyanide market in each region is provided in the reportThe report also sheds light on the competitive dynamics of the global sodium cyanide market by profiling leading players such as Cyanco, DuPont, Evonik, Australia Gold Reagents, Tongsuh Petrochemical, Sasol Polymers, and others.List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Sodium CyanideFigure Global Sodium Cyanide Production (K MT) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Types (Product Category) (2012-2022)Figure Global Sodium Cyanide Production Market Share by Types (Product Category) in 2016Figure Product Picture of Solid Sodium CyanideTable Major Manufacturers of Solid Sodium CyanideFigure Product Picture of Liquid Sodium CyanideTable Major Manufacturers of Liquid Sodium CyanideFigure Global Sodium Cyanide Consumption (K MT) by Applications (2012-2022)Figure Global Sodium Cyanide Consumption Market Share by Applications in 2016Figure Mining Industry ExamplesFigure Chemical Industry ExamplesFigure Dye and Textile Industry ExamplesFigure Electroplating Industry ExamplesFigure Others ExamplesFigure Global Sodium Cyanide Market Size (Million USD), Comparison (K MT) and CAGR (%) by Regions (2012-2022)Figure North America Sodium Cyanide Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Europe Sodium Cyanide Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China Sodium Cyanide Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Sodium Cyanide Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Sodium Cyanide Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure India Sodium Cyanide Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Sodium Cyanide Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Sodium Cyanide Capacity, Production (K MT) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Sodium Cyanide Major Players Product Capacity (K MT) (2012-2017)Table Global Sodium Cyanide Capacity (K MT) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)...About QYReseachReports.comQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Spinal Implants and Surgical Devices Market Expected To Be Worth US$ 17 Billion By 2022
Spinal Implants and Surgical Devices Market
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https://www.marketresearchengine.com/reportdetails/spinal-implants-and-surgical-devices-market
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The global spinal implants and surgical devices market is segmented into technology, product, type, and region. The technology segment includes spinal fusion and fixation, spinal decompression, motion preservation/non-fusion, and spinal vertebral compression fracture treatment technologies. Under the product segment, it covers thoracic fusion & lumbar fusion, spine biologics, cervical fusion, vertebral compression fracture treatment, spinal decompression, non-fusion treatment devices and spine bone stimulators. By type, the market is further segmented as open invasive and minimally invasive. North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa are the regional segmentation of the market. Each region is further segmented to provide market revenue for select countries such as the U.S., Canada, U.K. Germany, China, Japan, India, Brazil, and the GCC countries.The global market size of spinal implants and surgical devices would cross US$ 17 billion by 2022 and is projected to register a CAGR of more than 5% in the forecast period.A glimpse of the report structure is provided in the report description available on the website.Key players profiled in the report include Medtronic, Stryker Corporation, Pioneer Surgical, NuVasive, DePuy Spine, Globus Medical, K2M, Orthofix International, TranS1, Amedica, Zimmer, LDR Holdings, Biomet Spine, Exactech, Integra LifeSciences, Alphatec Spine, Orthovita, and Synthes. A detailed competitive landscape of these companies is provided with company summary, financial summary, business strategy and planning, SWOT analysis and current developments.The growth of this market is largely influenced by increasing demand for minimally invasive spine surgeries, technical advancements in spine surgery devices, and growing aging and obese population with rising number of spine deformities. Opportunities such as emerging Asian and Latin American countries, increasing number healthcare providers and surgical centers, and commercial applications in high growth areas such as MIS, nucleus arthroplasty, artificial disc replacement, and stem cell technologies are driving the attention of global players in the market. However, the market is not above its restraining factors. Some factors hindering the growth of the market are stringent product approval process, uncertainty in reimbursement, high cost of treatment actions, and lack of sufficient physicians and patient awareness.The Global Spinal Implants and Surgical Devices Market has been segmented as below:By Technology Analysis Covering spinal fusion and fixation Spinal decompression Motion preservation/non-fusion Spinal vertebral compression fracture treatment technologiesBy Product Analysis Thoracic fusion & lumbar fusion Spine biologics Cervical fusion Vertebral compression fracture treatment Spinal decompression Non-fusion treatment devices Spine bone stimulatorsBy Type Analysis Open invasive Minimally invasiveBy Regional Analysis North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the WorldPlayers in the market engaged in the development and distribution of spinal implants and surgical devices are expanding their presence in emerging markets in Asia Pacific such as China and India. This is due to the rising government healthcare expenditure, growing income levels, presence of a large patient population, and rising obesity cases.Request Sample Report:The deep-dive study on the global spinal implants and surgical devices market will help customers with identifications of new market opportunities and targeted promotional plans.Table of Contents1 INTRODUCTION2 Research Methodology3 Executive Summary4 Premium Insights5 Market Overview6 Industry Insights7 Spinal Implants Market, By Technology8 Spinal Implants Market, By Product9 Spinal Implants Market, By Type of Surgery10 Spinal Implants Market, By Region11 Competitive Landscape12 Company Profiles12.1 Introduction12.2 Medtronic PLC12.3 Depuy Synthes (A Subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson)12.4 Nuvasive, Inc.12.5 Stryker Corporation12.6 Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc.12.7 Globus Medical, Inc.12.8 Alphatec Spine Inc.12.9 Orthofix International N.V.12.10 K2M Group Holdings, Inc.12.11 RTI Surgical, Inc.About UsMarket Research Engine (MRE) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. MREs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each Market Research Engines research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Media ContactCompany Name: Market Research EngineContact Person: John BayEmail: john@marketresearchengine.comPhone: +1-855-984-1862Country: United StatesWebsite:Address: 3422 SW 15 Street, Suite #8942, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442, United States
Coin Deposit Bags Market Revenue, Opportunity, Forecast and Value Chain 2017-2025
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Growing awareness among customer towards the use of secure packaging has thus led to an increase in demand. Over the years, the flexible packaging has replaced the traditional heavy-duty rigid packaging solutions. One of such novel packaging solution is the coin deposit bags packaging. Unlike other solutions, coin deposit bags are made up of high-quality multi-layered polymer resins that produce highest strength tamper proof films used for dispensing cash, coins, and other valuables. Depending on end-use, coin deposit bags are used to cater the demand of financial institutions, casinos, cash-in-transit service providers, etc. Coin deposit bags are equipped with advanced security features such as sequential barcoding, warning indicator, use of RFIDs, temper-evident closures, etc. against multiple types of intrusion.Request Report Brochure @Coin Deposit Bags Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe key factors that fuel the coin deposit bags market are growing customer inclination towards secure tangible transactions of currencies & other valuables with enhanced security features. Temper-evident, light in weight, reduced cost per trip are some of the other features that accelerate the coin deposit bags market. However, these bags are manufactured from high-quality polymers, and hence prices of this raw materials are dynamic in nature. Thus, any negative change in the cost of raw-materials is expected to hamper production of coin deposit bags to some extent over the forecast period.Coin Deposit Bags Market: SegmentationOn the basis of material type, the coin deposit bags market is segmented into:PlasticLDPEHDPEPVCOthersFabricPaperOn the basis of type of use, the coin deposit bags market is segmented into:Multi-use Coin deposit bagsDisposable Coin deposit bagsOn the basis of product type, the coin deposit bags market is segmented into:Clear bagsOpaque bagsOn the basis of end-use industry, the coin deposit bags market is segmented into:Financial InstitutionsCourier ServicesCasinosGovernment organizationsHospitalsRetailHotelsAcademic InstitutionsCoin Deposit Bags Market: Segmentation OverviewThe demand of temper proof bags has seen a steep growth in the recent past, and thus the use of coin deposit bags over the years is gaining momentum in parallel. The revenue contribution from disposable coin deposit bags segment is expected to drive the inclusive growth of the global coin deposit bags packaging market to a higher extent during the forecast period. Also, coin deposit bags that were earlier available only in the opaque format are currently available in the transparent form with added security features. Coin deposit bags has been witnessing rapid growth among consumers in developing countries, especially countries from Asia Pacific.Coin Deposit Bags Market: Regional OverviewGeographically, the coin deposit bags market is segmented into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and the Middle East and Africa (MEA).Growing inclination towards secured packaging of coins & other valuables is expected to fuel the vertical upward growth in global coin deposit bags market over the forecast period. The growth in BFSI industry along with small & mid-size businesses among the developing economies such as India, China and ASEAN countries is expected to drive the growth of coin deposit bags market in the Asia-Pacific region. The demand for coin deposit bags is supposed to show a steady growth in North America and Europe region owing to developed security infrastructure and the extensive use digital payment modes. Also, Middle-East and Africa along with Latin America are likely to show a rise in demand of coin deposit bags. Overall, Global coin deposit bags market is estimated to grow at a healthy rate of growth over the forecast period 2017-2025.Visit For TOC @Coin Deposit Bags Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players that currently operate in the global coin deposit bags market include Shields Bag & Printing Co, Ampac Holdings, LLC, A. Rifkin Co., International Plastics Inc., Dunbar Security Products Inc., Initial Packaging Solutions Ltd, B-Sealed Nz Pty Ltd., Block and Company, Inc., Packaging Horizons Corporation and many othersAbout Us Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among othersContact Us:Transparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street, Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Lab-on-a-chip LOC Market Research Report An Overall Industry Analysis
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Research Beam has added a report on Global Lab-on-a-chip LOC Market Research Report 2017. The report entails the qualitative and quantitative analysis of current and future market estimations. It also divulges details about the mode of research methodology used for the study. It includes data from primary as well as secondary resources. The report is a useful resource for industry players, new entrants in the marketplace, and investors as it helps them plan their business to gain fruitful and meaningful outcomes. It makes them aware of the production, capacity, revenue, supply, consumption, export, import, the challenges and risks associated with the industry, and much more. The report has a mention of the market drivers and opportunities. Key players are profiled in the report and their developments in recent years are mentioned, which helps in understanding the competitive outlook of the global Lab-on-a-chip LOC market.Purchase Enquiry for this ReportA brief overview of the global Lab-on-a-chip LOC industry is provided in the report based on product scope and market status & outlook. The market is segmented on the basis of type, end-users/application, and geography. By type, the market is further bifurcated into Extreme File In Silicon, In Glass, In Ceramics, In Metal, Other Carrier. The report provides information about the production, price, revenue, market share, and growth rate of each type. Application wise, the market is segmented into Extreme File Genomics and Proteomics, Diagnostics, Drug Discovery. Regarding this segment, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption, market share, and growth rate. Geographically, the market has been analyzed across North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. The status and prospect through 2012-2022 for each of these regions are listed in the report. The projections in the report are made by studying the current and future market potential from 2017 to 2022 in terms of value and volume. The market forecast is provided on the basis of capacity, production, consumption, import, export, revenue, price, trends, and growth rate.Looking for more information on this market? Request a Sample ReportThe global Lab-on-a-chip LOC market report also provides an analysis of the manufacturing cost of the product. This includes the key raw materials, the proportion of manufacturing cost structure, and manufacturing process analysis. The key raw materials encompass the price trend, key suppliers, and market concentration rate. The proportion of manufacturing cost structure incorporates the raw materials, labor cost, and manufacturing expenses.The global Lab-on-a-chip LOC market report has a mention of the industrial chain, sourcing strategy, and downstream buyers. This incorporates the overall industrial chain analysis, upstream raw materials sourcing, raw materials sources of the product major manufacturers in 2015, and downstream buyers.The report also throws light on the marketing strategy used for the study. It includes marketing channel (direct marketing, indirect marketing, and marketing channel development trend) and market positioning (pricing strategy, brand strategy, and target client).The global Lab-on-a-chip LOC market report also covers an analysis of the market effect factors. This includes the technology progress/risk (substitutes/threat and technology progress in the related industry), consumer needs/customer preference change, and economic/political environmental change.Enquire About Report@The key players which provide solutions in the global Lab-on-a-chip LOC market include Becton, Dickinson, Agilent Technologies, PerkinElmer, Danaher, Bio-Rad Laboratories. Information about the production, capacity, price, revenue (value), and market share of each of these manufacturers from 2012 to 2017 are clearly described in the report. In addition, the report details the basic information, manufacturing base, area of sales, and competitors of each of the players. The trends and marketing strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, adopted by each of the manufacturers provide an understanding of the level of competitiveness prevailing in the industry.About UsIt is crucial for market players to take leaps strategically and update themselves with recent trends, opportunities, and emerging investment pockets. We, at Research Beam, adhere to these factors and offer a wide range of reports that are detailed and enable our clients to achieve their goals with long term planning coupled with competitive advantage.Our database includes a broad array of various market reports from numerous publishers across the globe. These reports of several market categories and sub-categories help our clients to find the exact report they are looking for. We are instrumental to provide quantitative and qualitative insights in their area of interest and bring reports from various publishers under one umbrella to save their time and money. 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Abuja to become the centre of the Nigerian mining vision as Nigeria Mining Week comes to the city from Tuesday
Free technical workshops at expo for artisanal and small-scale miners
http://www.nigeriaminingweek.com/
Excitement is building in Abuja in preparation before becoming the centre of the Nigerian mining vision next week during the Nigeria Mining Week conference and expo with over 500 mining professionals gathering to discuss the state and the future of this burgeoning sector.Nigerias Minister of Mines & Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, will deliver the ministerial address during the opening session on Tuesday, 17 October at the Nigerian Air Force Conference Center (NAF). The high-level event will provide the industry with access to the latest mining technologies and services while a new feature at the event, the Dragons Den, will give small scale miners and junior mining licence holders the opportunity to pitch their prospective investors.Entry to the expo is free and visitors can take advantage of the technical workshop programme to enhance practical expertise to grow artisanal and small-scale operations with an A to Z mining toolkit.Nigeria Mining Week is a successful partnership between PwC, the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) and event organisers Spintelligent.Line-up for opening sessionThe opening session on Tuesday, 17 October, starting at 09h00, features an enviable line-up of the whos who in the mining industry in Nigeria, and focus on the way forward, how to promote investment into the sector and how to assist the sector with the right regulations. Speaker highlights include:- Dr Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Mines & Steel Development, Ministry of Mines & Steel Development, Nigeria- Uyi Akpata, Country and Regional Senior Partner, West, PwC Nigeria- Alhaji Sani Shehu, President, Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN), Nigeria- Kwame Addo-Kufuor, President, Ecowas Federation of Chambers of Mines- Mallam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, Nigeria- Waziri Adio, Executive Secretary, Nigeria Extractive Transparency Initiative, NigeriaNigeria Mining Week provides a high-level, strategic mining investment platform linking investors, project developers, financiers, technology providers and government to share best practices and demonstrate the latest strategies to evolve the sector successfully.Some of the exciting and leading mining experts and suppliers who will be there are:- "We must acknowledge the big strides achieved by the current leadership of the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development" - Oluwaseun Olatunji, MD/CEO of SBOG Nigeria, silver sponsors- Our molybdenum and niobium project in Bauchi State has just been granted a licence and we also have a nickel development coming up in Taraba - Aliyu Mamman, CEO of 3MGeo Resources, bronze sponsors- Minelab has been supplying metal detectors in Africa for over 15 years and we have a close understanding of the needs of artisanal gold mining communities throughout the continent - Christopher Higgins, International Business Manager at Minelab Metal Detectors- Through the collaboration with NIMET and industry, we intend to assist in building meteorological capacity with our customised local weather models and analysis systems - Peter Hocking, Meteorologist at UBIMET (Institute for Ubiquitous Meteorology), exhibitors- Our vision is to help miners to bring down the cost per ton of material movement by providing the right equipment and support, making the industry more profitable thereby encourage more investments Panafrican Group, exhibitors- Right equipment, right support, maximum uptime because every ton counts - Chrysanthus Ugwuezumba, Engine/NRP - Nigeria, Africa and Middle East ABO at Cummins Nigeria, exhibitors- Nigerian mining companies do not need to travel around the world any longer in search of the best technical services - Gbenga Ojo, Managing Partner, Afromin Consulting Limited, exhibitorsIndustry supportAs with previous years, the Nigeria Mining Week is enjoying strong support from the industry with confirmed sponsorships from Palladium Mining Limited, SBOG, 3MGeo Resources, AELEX, AG Vision Mining, Congo Energy Solutions, Italtec, Kian Smith Trade & Co, Mantrac, Minelab, NiMet, Panafrican Group, Rubble Master, Ubimet, SMT and Wilbahi.Nigeria Mining Week dates and location:Pre-conference: 16 October 2017 pre-booking requiredConference: 17-18 October 2017Venue: Nigerian Air Force Conference Center (NAF), Abuja, NigeriaThe Nigeria Mining Week organiser Spintelligent is a multi-award-winning trade conference and expo organiser on the continent. The company has particular expertise and experience in mining and infrastructure development events; including the long running flagship shows such as Future Energy Nigeria in Lagos (formerly WAPIC), DRC Mining Week in Lubumbashi, the Kenya Mining Forum in Nairobi and African Utility Week in Cape Town.Senior communications manager: Annemarie RoodbolTelephone: +27 21 700 3558Email: annemarie.roodbol@spintelligent.comWebsite:Postal address: PO Box 321, Steenberg, 7947, South Africa
Yeast Extract Market projected to reach USD 7.88 billion at a CAGR of 9.1% during the forecast period 2017 to 2023
Yeast Extract, Yeast Extract Market
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Yeast & Yeast Extract Market Research ReportGlobal Yeast and Yeast Extracts market Information by type (Bakers, Brewers, Wine,) by form (Dry yeast, Instant yeast and Fresh yeast) and Yeast extracts by product type (Yeast Autolysates, Yeast Beta-Glucan, Yeast Derivatives) and by Applications (food and beverages, animal feed, pharmaceuticals industry and intermediary suppliers) - Forecast to 2027Request for Sample Report @Study Objectives of Yeast and Yeast Extract Market Forecast to 2027Detailed analysis for individual micro and macro markets for yeast and yeast extractTo estimate market size by type, form, yeast extract product type application and regionTo understand the supply and demand dynamics of yeast and yeast extractTo provide region level market analysis and future outlook for U.S., Europe, China, Japan, and South-East AsiaCompany profiling of major players & competitive positioning for the yeast and yeast extract marketValue chain analysis and supply chain analysis of yeast and yeast extractAnalysis of historical market trends, and technologies, and current government regulatory requirements related to yeast and yeast extract marketReport DescriptionThe global market for yeast & yeast extracts has witnessed continued demand during the last few years and is projected to reach USD 7.88 billion at a CAGR of 9.1% during the forecasted period 2017 to 2027. Increase in versatile demand across various industries including food and beverages, animal feed, pharmaceuticals and academics & research Institutes will continue to drive the yeast and yeast extracts market in the coming decade.Higher demand from the downstream markets and higher availability of various products during the fermentation process will support the yeast market growth in the coming years. In addition to it, increased adoption of biofuels will also drive demand for yeast.The yeast market, based on type, is segmented into bakers yeast, brewers yeast, and wine yeast. The bakers yeast segment dominated the market share and the brewers yeast segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.The yeast and yeast extracts market, based on application, and is segmented into food and beverages, animal feed, pharmaceuticals and for Academics & Research Institutes studies. Food and beverages finds a significant application for yeast usage and is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.The yeast and yeast extracts market, based on product type, and is classified into yeast autolysates, yeast beta-glucan and yeast derivatives. Yeast autolysates dominate the market and projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The yeast and yeast extracts market, based on form, and is segmented into dry yeast, and instant yeast. The dry yeast segment dominates the market and is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.Key PlayersThe leading market players in the global yeast and yeast extract market primarily are Angel Yeast Co., Ltd, Dsm N.V, Kerry Group, Lesaffre Group, Chr. Hansen, British Foods Plc, Leiber Gmbh, Synergy Flavors and Lallemand IncTarget AudienceYeast and yeast extract ManufacturersHummus manufacturesContinental RestaurantsSauces & Dips ManufacturersTraders, Importers and exportersKey FindingsThe global yeast and yeast extract market is projected to USD 7.88 billion by 2027Bakers segment accounted for the largest market share in 2015 growing at CAGR of 8.9%Europe accounted largest market share in 2015 and it is growing at CAGR of 7.36%Access Complete Report @At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Office No. 524/528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar
High Temperature Superconducting Fibers Market
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Superconductivity, an attribute that allows a material to show almost zero resistance to electric current flowing through it, is becoming a much sought-after advantage in newer materials used in various industries. Some of the most inherent challenges associated with electric power transmission and storage can be nullified with the use of superconducting materials, as has been evidenced by the scientific community over the last century.This has stirred a greater degree of interest in high temperature superconducting fibers in recent years. As emergent uses of high-temperature superconducting fibers in industries such as transportation, electronics, energy distribution and storage, and healthcare come to the fore, this market is expected to register a significant increase in size. However, the markets growth will be curbed to some extent as challenges related to the integration of fiber optics with superconducting fibers still persist. Although there have been several experiments involving the use of yttrium barium copper oxide as the core material for superconducting fiber, widespread commercialization has only recently begun to gather steam.A sample of this report is available upon request @The demand for high temperature superconducting fibers is expected to demonstrate a healthy rate of growth thanks primarily to the many end-use industries that are showing a heightened interest in using this novel material. With numerous academic and commercial research activities underway in the market, it is expected that more superconductivity breakthroughs will occur. Over the forecast period of the report, the adoption of high temperature superconducting fibers could rise dramatically in sectors such as electric energy generation, transformation and storage, and transmission.Global High Temperature Superconducting Fibers Market: TrendsWith an ever-increasing emphasis on energy conservation against the backdrop of rising electricity prices and depleting fossil-fuel reserves, high temperature superconducting fibers provide a viable solution. Moreover, the demand for electric and electronic components with high endurance levels has necessitated the development of power cables that can transmit energy at high speeds and storage systems that demonstrate unprecedented efficiency. The energy sector also has the need for generators and transformers that can offer failsafe performance even under demanding conditions. As the demand for high-temperature superconductors grows in the energy and electronics sectors, the high-temperature superconducting fibers market will also experience growth.Both commercial entities in the market and academia are focusing on the development of novel superconducting materials. Governments, on their part, are also backing such research initiatives. While such developments will positively impact the market, they will only do so in the long run as research projects could take as many as two decades to achieve commercialization.Global High Temperature Superconducting Fibers Market: Regional and Competitive OutlookTMR expects the Asia Pacific region to register the fastest rate of growth in the global high-temperature superconducting fiber market over the forecast period. This regions growth will largely be defined by the brisk pace of industrialization in countries such as India, Korea, and China as well as a few other South East Asian countries where the contract manufacturing sector is developing well. The demand for high temperature superconductors is projected to remain higher than that of low temperature superconducting fibers.The market will also remain dynamic in developed countries in North America and Western Europe, where energy-related research activities are receiving generous funding from governments.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @The competitive landscape of the global high temperature superconducting fibers market is becoming progressively dynamic with companies vying to bag new orders, especially from the energy industry. Companies that are currently at the forefront of the global high temperature superconducting fibers market are Hyper Tech Research, Inc., American Superconductor Corporation, Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies, Inc., SuperPower, Inc., and Superconducting Technologies, Inc.About USTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact USState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Website:Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
2027 Americas Gold Nanoparticles Market Absolute Analysis & Global Foresight
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Americas Gold Nanoparticles Market Analysis by Key Companies - Nanopartz Inc (U.S) Nanosphere (Canada) Nanostellar (U.S) NanoRods LLC (U.S), by Application (photodynamic therapy, diagnostics, medical imaging), by Type, by End-users (Hospitals, Clinics,Dental clinics) - Forecast to 2027Market Synopsis of Gold nanoparticlesMarket ScenarioThe market for Gold nanoparticles is increasing rapidly due to increasing advancement in nanotechnologies. The factors that influence the growth of Gold nanoparticles market; expanding medical diagnostics industry, increasing growth in advance healthcare technology, high advantages in medicinal imaging applications and many others.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players:Cytodiagnostics (Canada)Goldsol (U.S)NanoHybrids Corp (Austin)Nanopartz Inc (U.S)Nanosphere (Canada)Nanostellar (U.S)NanoRods LLC (U.S)Sigma Aldrich (U.S)SegmentsThe Americana market for Gold nanoparticles is segmented into mainly three; by type, by application and by End-users and its various sub-segments. By types include nanorods, nanoshells and nanocages. By application include photodynamic therapy, diagnostics, medical imaging and others. Whereas by End-users it includes medical, electronics, catalysis and others.Study Objectives of Gold nanoparticles To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Americas Gold nanoparticles market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To Analyze the Gold nanoparticles market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by Application, by End-users and its sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Americas Gold nanoparticles marketBrowse Full Report Details @The report for Gold nanoparticles of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Americas Gold Nanoparticles Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
2022 Microelectronic Medical Implants Market Ultimate Analysis & is to Grow with ~9.1% of CAGR
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Microelectronic Medical Implants Market Analysis, Key Companies-( Abiomed Inc Biomet Inc. Cyberonics Inc. & others) by Product (Neurostimulators, Drug Infusion Pumps), by Application (Pacemakers, Defibrillators, Neurostimulators, Spinal Fusion Stimulators, Implantable Drug Pumps) - Forecast till 2022Market Synopsis of Microelectronic Medical Implants Market:Market Scenario:The global market of microelectronic medical implants is growing at a rapid pace. The global Microelectronic Medical Implants market is growing at the CAGR of around 9.1% for the forecasted period. The major factors that are influencing the market for microelectronic medical implants are increasing advancement in field of healthcare, increasing demand for nano technology in the field of life science and healthcare and increasing innovation in capsule endoscopy. A portion of the prominent trends that the market is witnessing incorporate rise in medical implant equipment with technology advancement, rising prevalence of cardiovascular issue, epilepsy are driving the market.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players for Microelectronic Medical Implants Market:Abiomed IncBiomet Inc.Cyberonics Inc.Envoy MedicalMedtronic Inc.Microsemi Corporation.Neuropace Inc.Retina Implant AGSt. Jude Medical Inc.Worldheart CorporationStudy objectives of the Market: Providing a detail analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 5 years related to various segments and sub-segments of the Microelectronic Medical Implants market. Giving insights about factors affecting the market growth. Analyzing the market based on price analysis, supply chain analysis, Porters Five Force analysis etc. Giving the past revenue and estimated future revenue of the markets segments and sub-segments with respect to the main market and various markets globally. Giving regional level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospect. Giving regional level analysis of the market with respect to segments, by product, by application also giving regional level analysis of the markets sub-segments. Providing an overview of key players and their strategic profiling in the market; comprehensively analyzing their core competencies and drawing the markets competitive structure. Tracking and analyzing competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments along with research and developments in the global Microelectronic Medical Implants market.Regional Analysis of Microelectronic Medical Implants Market:North America is the largest market of global microelectronic medical implants market. The North American market for microelectronic medical implants is expected to grow at the CAGR of 8.7%. Europe is the second largest market for Microelectronic Medical Implants which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.9%. Asia Pacific region is expected to be fastest growing region of the global Microelectronic Medical Implants market.Browse Full Report Details @Segments:Global microelectronic medical implants market has been segmented on the basis of product which comprises neurostimulators, drug infusion pumps and others. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into pacemakers, defibrillators, neurostimulators, spinal fusion stimulators, implantable drug pumps, hearing implants, eye implants, ocular implants and others.The report of Microelectronic Medical Implants market by Market Research Future comprises extensive primary research along with the detail analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain a deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives a clear picture of current market scenario which includes past and estimated future market size with respect to value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides detail information and strategies of top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study about different markets segments and regions.ContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Microelectronic Medical Implants Market Research Report - Global Forecast To 2022 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Strong Expansion of Medical Supplies Market: Worth USD 132 Billion By 2022
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Medical Supplies Market Analysis, By Key Companies-(3M Company (U.S.), Medtronic plc (Ireland), B. Braun Melsungen AG (Germany), & Others), by type (infusion products, blood collection tubes, wound care products, dialysis consumables, surgical drapes, adult incontinence products, blood glucose test strips, and others), by application (urology, wound care, anesthesia, sterilization and others), by end user (hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and others) - Forecast to 2022Market Synopsis of Medical Supplies Market:Market Scenario:Globally the market for medical supplies is increasing at constant rate. Medical supplies comprises disposable products or one time use products. These products are intended for single use only. The major market drivers in this sector are growing population of geriatrics, rising number of patients with chronic diseases like cardiovascular, renal, diabetes, hypertension and others. Safety-enhanced devices for the minimally invasive delivery of parenteral medicines, inhalation therapies, and IV and dialysis solutions will lead growth. Globally the market for medical supplies is expected to reach approximately $132 Billion by the end of 2022.Get a Copy of Sample Report @Key Players for Medical Supplies Market:Some of the key players in this market are: 3M Company (U.S.), Medtronic plc (Ireland), B. Braun Melsungen AG (Germany), Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.), Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (U.S.), Baxter International Inc. (U.S.), and Halyard Health, Inc. (U.S.) and others.Study objectives of Medical Supplies Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 6 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the medical supplies market To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth To analyze the medical supplies market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by treatment type, by application, by end user and its sub-segments. To provide overview of key players and their strategic profiling in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global medical supplies market.Segments:Medical supplies market has been segmented on the basis of type which comprises of infusion products, blood collection tubes, wound care products, dialysis consumables, surgical drapes, adult incontinence products, blood glucose test strips. On the basis of applications, the market is segmented into urology, wound care, anesthesia, and sterilization. On the basis of end user, the market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, nursing homes.Browse Full Report Details @Regional Analysis of Medical Supplies Market:Considering the global scenario of the market, Americas region is believed to be the largest market for medical supplies. Moreover the European market is also growing continuously and slowly catching up with the North American market. On the other hand, Asia-Pacific market is expected to grow at the fastest pace in the medical supplies during the forecasted period. Middle East & Africa region are likely to have a limited but steady growth in the market.The report for Medical Supplies Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regionsContinueWe are thankful for the support and assistance from Global Medical Supplies Market Research Report-Forecast To 2022 chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Spices Market Report by Application Type, Trends, Growth, Expectation Margin Market Research Report
Spices Market, Spices Market Industry, Spices Market Forecast
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Spices Market Research ReportGlobal Spices Market Information- by Type (turmeric, chili & pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and others), by function (flavor, color, preservative and others) and application (culinary, sauces and dips, bakery foods, RTE foods, beverages, and others) by Region - Forecast to 2022Request for Sample Report @India being a major producer of spices boosts stronger potential for spices supply. Spice exports contribute to nations gross income considerably in countries like China, India, Africa and the Middle East. Spices are generally sold at premium spices and also in greater demand which can further enhance export revenues in major spice producing countries. Spices farming mechanism starts at grass root level conserving the generative and renewing capacity of the soil, plant nutrition, and soil management, yields nutritious food rich in vitality which has resistance to diseases. Increasing demand of natural flavoring and coloring agents in food, medicinal properties and health benefits are driving the spices market. There is high demand for spices from regions like Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe.The global market for spices has witnessed continued demand during the last few years and is estimated to reach 83,468 kilo tons by 2022, at a CAGR of 2.84% from 2016 to 2022. Increase in versatile demand across various food and beverage segments particularly for convenience foods and beverages is likely to drive the global spices market during forecast period 2016 to 2022.Based on spice function, flavor formed an essential function base for spices enabling it to gain maximum share in the year 2016 followed by color. Spices have been majorly used for flavoring or as a garnish since ancient times. The flavor of a spice is derived in part from compounds (volatile oils) from various parts of plants roots, seeds, bark and other plant parts. Based on spice form, whole form and powdered form held a major share in the spices market in the year 2016. Increase in demand for convenience products there is strong potential for powder form growth in the spices market. Crushed/chopped/flakes are emerging as new segment especially for bakery and pizza preparations.Key PlayersThe leading market players in the global spices market primarily are McCormick & Co., Inc. (U.S.), Olam International (Singapore), Everest Spices (India), B&G Foods Holdings Corp. (U.S.), Cerebos Greggs Limited (New Zealand), MTR Foods Private Limited (India), Mahashian Di Hatti Limited (MDH)(India) and ITC Spices (India)Study Objectives of Spices Market Forecast to 2022Detailed analysis for individual micro and macro markets for SpicesTo estimate market size by type, form, function, application and regionTo understand the supply and demand dynamics of SpicesTo provide region level market analysis and future outlook for Asia Pacific, North America, Central America, Europe, Middle East and AfricaCompany profiling of major players & competitive positioning for the Spices marketValue chain analysis and supply chain analysis of SpicesAnalysis of historical market trends, and technologies, and current government regulatory requirements related to Spices marketTarget AudienceSpices ManufacturersAgriculture IndustryFood IndustryContinental RestaurantsSauces & Dips ManufacturersTraders, Importers and exportersKey FindingsThe spices market in Asia pacific is projected to grow at CAGR of 3.14%In 2016, chillies among the various spices accounted for the highest shareSpices is majorly used for flavor application and is projected to grow at rate of 2.94% during the forecasted periodAccess Complete Report @1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY2 INTRODUCTION2.1 Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 Limitations2.3 Market Structure3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research4 MARKET DYNAMICS4.1 Introduction4.2 Drivers4.2.1 Increase In Spices Consumption4.2.2 Increase In Demand For Processed Foods4.2.3 Advancements In Technology4.2.4 Globalization And Openness To New Foods4.3 Restraints4.3.1 Government Regulations4.3.2 Side Effects Of Spices On Health4.3.3 Low Productivity In Spices4.4 Opportunities4.4.1 Innovations In Products And Processes4.4.2 Liberalization In Trade4.4.3 Increasing Demand Of Essential Oils4.5 Challenges4.5.1 Higher Costs In Quality Management4.5.2 Insufficient Quantities Of Quality Spices4.5.3 Food Safety Regulations5 MARKET TRENDS5.1 Trends In Supply/Production5.2 Trends In Demand/Consumption5.3 Emerging Markets (Supply & Demand)5.4 Emerging Brands5.5 Trade (Import-Export) Analysis5.5.1 Export Analysis5.5.2 Import Analysis5.6 Innovations In Product/Process5.7 Macroeconomic Indicator Analysis For Top 2 Spices Market5.7.1 PESTLE Analysis -U.S.5.7.2 PESTLE Analysis -IndiaAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Office No. 524/528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar
Point of Care Technology market To Reach 9.5% CAGR Forecast to 2023
Point of Care Technology
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Market Research Future.com add new report of Point of Care Technology Market Research Report Global Forecast To 2023 it contains Company information, geographical data and Table of ContentPoint of Care Technology Market Information: By Type of Products (Glucose Testing, Cardiac Markers, Hba1c Testing, Coagulation and others), and By End Users (Clinics, Hospital, Home Care, Ambulatory Care) - Global Forecast Till 2023Research MethodologySource: World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Organization for Rare Disorders, The American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association, The International Society for Human and Animal Mycology, Expert Interview Market Research Future Analysis, Annual report, White paper, Company PresentationMarket Synopsis of the Global Point of Care Technology MarketPoint-of-care testing allows patient diagnosis, in an ambulance, the home, the field, or in the hospital. The results of care are timely, and allow rapid treatment to the patient. Point of care technology market is growing rapidly due to the evolving healthcare industry, especially in developing nations. The major factors that propel the growth of the market are development in diagnostics, patients with chronic diseases, increasing growth in medical technology, and other uses of point of care technology. Moreover, increasing investment in research and development among the developed countries will also boost the growth of the market positively during the forecast period. Furthermore, advancement of diagnostic laboratories and adoption of automated lab systems, is likely to fuel the growth of the market. On the other hand, complexity of documentation and investment cost involved in this type of care technology, may hinder the growth of the market during the forecasted period.The global point of care technology market is expecting a healthy growth at a CAGR of 9.5% during forecast period.Some of the key players in this market are Abbott (U.S.), Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.(U.S.), Techno MedicaCo., Ltd. (Japan), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Switzerland), Siemens AG (Germany), Alere Inc. (U.S.), Instrumentation Laboratory (U.S.), PTS Diagnostics (U.S.), Nova Biomedical (U.S.), Beckman Coulter, Inc. (U.S.) BD (U.S.), Quidel Corporation (U.S), Meridian Bioscience, Inc. (U.S).Get Sample Copy@The global point of care technology is segmented by type of products, and end users.On the basis of type of product, it is segmented into glucose testing, cardiac markers, HbA1c testing, and coagulation, and others.On the basis of end users, it is segmented into clinics, hospital, home care, ambulatory care, and others.Regional Analysis of the Global Point of Care Technology MarketOn the regional basis, the market is segmented into Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The Americas own a significant share in the global market as a result of huge investment and its strong economic conditions which favor the research and development of the healthcare sector. Increasing number of surgeries along with rising demand for point of care technology products is predicted to boost the growth of the market.Europe is the second largest point of care technology market followed by Asia Pacific on account of growing importance of research in healthcare sector which inturn is increasing investment in research and development activities. Asia Pacific market shows the fastest growth due to increasing prevalence of communicable diseases and demand for more diagnostics. Additionally, India and China have started investing in research and development of healthcare domain.The Middle East & Africa holds the least share in the global point of care technology market since poor economic condition and less development in medical facilities.Table Of Contents1 Report Prologue2 Market Introduction3 Research Methodology4 Market Dynamics5 Market Factor Analysis6 Global Point Of Care Technology Market, By Type Of Products7 Global Point Of Care Technology Market, By End Users8 Global Point Of Care Technology Market, By End Users9 Global Point Of Care Technology Market, By Region10 Competitive Landscape11 Company Profile12 ConclusionAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMRFR has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.Our Research Analysts are eager to share their knowledge and assist you in refining market research parameters, choosing right market studies, and evaluating both the market scope and the research methodologies of varied segments.We bridge the gap between our clients and their clients by identifying and decoding just the target group, while generating leads with the highest accuracy.Years of research into diverse fields of work has ingrained within us, a proficiency so distinguished that our industry-specific specialists identify with your business ideas and feel the pulse of your challenges and opportunities. This enables us for providing assistance, through our consulting and strategic consulting services, in informed managerial decision making. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industries, WantStats Research and Media often conducts industrial visits for its research analysts. Relevant inputs from various established market participants, help our clients make significant contribution in respective markets are a huge motivation for all of us to endlessly furnish quality. We depend greatly on profound insights into complex realms of our study.Pune, India
United States Pediatric Vaccine Market 2017 Demand, Insights, Analysis, Opportunities Segmentation and Forecast to 2024
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United States Pediatric Vaccine market is likely to reach nearly US$ 10 Billion by 2024.Growth in US pediatric vaccine market can be attributed to factors such as increased disease awareness, growing public acceptance, increasing government focus on immunization programs and increased government funding for the vaccine development.The research report titled United States Pediatric Vaccine Market 2017 Demand, Insights, Analysis, Opportunities Segmentation and Forecast to 2024 examines the market dynamics, competitive landscape and discusses major trends. The study describes an indepth analysis of the United States pediatric vaccine market.The report contains a granular analysis of the market segmentation, reveal facts on the market size, volume and revenues and provides forecasts through 2024. The report also provides a deep and thorough evaluation of the top 10 pediatric vaccines by disease indication. On the basis of disease indication, the top 10 pediatric vaccines provide an in-depth analysis of doses administered, number of children being vaccinated and market size. The report also explores detailed description of growth drivers and inhibitors of the United States pediatric vaccine market.Complete Report @The report concludes with the profiles of major players in the United States pediatric vaccine market. The key market players are evaluated on various parameters such as company overview, pediatric vaccine portfolios and latest development & trends of the pediatric vaccine market.Major Pediatric Vaccines (Disease Indication) Covered Under This Report Are:Diphtheria, Tetanus & Pertussis (DTap)Hepatitis AVaricella/Chicken PoxPneumococcalHaemophilus Influenzae Type B (HIB)PolioRotavirusHepatitis BInfluenza PediatricMeasles, Mumps & Rubella (MMR)Key Companies Covered in the Report are as follows:Sanofi PasteurGlaxoSmithKline(GSK)Merck & Co.Pfizer IncGrifolsKey Deliverables in the StudyMarket Definition for the specified topic along with identification of key drivers and inhibitors for the marketIt provides a growth map over time to understand the industry growth rateIt provides a seven-year forecast assessed based on how the market is predicted to growIt helps in understanding the key product segments and their futureIt helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segmentsA comprehensive list of key market players along with the analysis of their current pediatric vaccines portfolios and latest development and trendsDPI Research is a business solutions firm which offer bespoke market research reports, custom research solutions and consulting across multi geographies and industry verticals. We deliver wide range of cutting-edge research solutions that helps organizations in making better decisions of the business to business needs.DPI Research provides high standard of business research reports to the clients across industry verticals comprising Life Sciences, Information Technology, Telecom & Internet, Food Beverages & Agriculture, Travel & Tourism, Consumer Goods & Retail, Education and Social Sciences. We are committed to use advanced analytical tools and methodologies to help clients with crucial industry information for decision making.DPI Research approaches for the business research led by a team of dynamic industry experts. DPI Research provides a real insight for effective decisions to help business with the help of current source and accurate data available in the market. DPI Research reach across the globe with global standards from established markets in the North America and Europe to emerging markets in South America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa to provide the best business solutions.Contact Us:Maria RaiTel :+91 -7289949987Email: sales@dpiresearch.comWebsite:
Passenger Car Sensors Market Revenue Predicted To Go Up by 2022
Passenger Car Sensors Market
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Market Highlights:As the government norms become more stringent and the demand for safety increases, more and more sensors are needed, to meet this demand. Innovations such as monitor temperature, pressure and other things driving the market of passenger car sensors market and also shows stagnant growth for the development of sensors .Geographically, Asia pacify is referred as fastest growing region for passenger car sensors market. Recently, government announced to make it mandatory for all vehicles to either have the anti-lock braking system or the combined braking system gains the popularity for the growth of the market. Moreover, the changing focus of the Automotive Industry to technological advancement and electrification is expected to boost the demand of passenger car sensor market. Whereas, cost of sensors, is acting as a barriers for the electric vehicle market.Request a Sample Copy @Market Research Analysis:Asia pacific is fastest growing region for automotive sensors market owing to factors such as Technology & demand drivers for large batteries as well as mandatory installation of sensors in vehicles. Moreover, compact size, ecofriendly nature, and bulk manufacturing capability are the key drivers that are helping the automotive sensors market to grow. Increased R&D in the sensor industry is creating opportunities for technological advancements that open up new horizons for sensor applications. The rise in purchasing power of the consumers, increasing focus on safety, rising demand for comfort driving and the stringent safety regulations imposed by different governments, are key factors that fuel the growth of the market.Key Players of Passenger Car Sensors Market: Robert Bosch GmbH Continental AG Denso Corporation Delphi Automotive PLC Allegro Microsystems LLC Analog Devices Inc. CTS Corporation Elmos Semiconductors Infineon Technologies TRW AutomotiveScope of the Report:This study provides an overview of the global Passenger Car Sensors industry, tracking three market segments across four geographic regions. The report studies key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region. The scope of the study segments the global Passenger Car Sensors market as sensor type, application. On the basis of sensor type it is segmented as Pressure, Temperature and Speed and other. On the basis of application it is segmented as Powertrain/ Drivetrain, Exhaust, Interior/Comfort, DAS and Body control.Brief TOC for Passenger Car Sensors:1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market Structure:1.3.1 Global Passenger Car Sensors Market: By Sensor Type1.3.2 Global Passenger Car Sensors Market: By Application1.3.3 Global Passenger Car Sensors Market: By Region2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Type2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research2.4 Forecast Model2.4.1 Market Data Collection, Analysis & Forecast2.4.2 Market Size Estimation2.4.3 Market Crackdown & Data Triangulation3 Market Dynamics3.1 Introduction3.2 Market Drivers3.3 Market Challenges3.4 Market Opportunities4 Executive Summary5. Market Factor Analysis5.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis5.2 Supply Chain AnalysisContinueAccess Report Details @Target Audience: Packaging Organizations Manufacturer Research Institute / Education Institute Potential InvestorsAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Filters for Wastewater Treatment 2017 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 6.15% and Forecast to 2021
Filters for Wastewater Treatment 2017
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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On - Filters for Wastewater Treatment 2017 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 6.15% and Forecast to 2021.The analysts forecast the global filters market for wastewater treatment industry to grow at a CAGR of 6.15% during the period 2017-2021.Wastewater treatment is the process of converting wastewater into its usable form, where either it can be returned to the water cycle or can be re-used in various other sectors. The global filters market for the water treatment industry is broadly categorized into agricultural, industrial, and municipal segments.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global filters market for wastewater treatment industry for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the aftermarket.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEAThe report, Global Filters Market for Wastewater Treatment Industry 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 GE Water & Process Technologies Lenntech Pall Parker Hannifin VeoliaOther prominent vendors ChemTreat De Nora Water Technologies Eaton Evoqua Water Technologies Koch Membrane Systems NALCO Outotec Fluence Samco Technologies WTE Infra ProjectsMarket driver Depletion of freshwater resources For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Impact of hard water on water treatment filters For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Increased demand for freshwater For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space?Report Details @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: IntroductionMarket outlinePART 05: Market landscapeMarket overviewMarket size and forecastFive forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by applicationGlobal filters market for water treatment industry by applicationGlobal filters market for water treatment industry by municipal segmentGlobal filters market for water treatment industry by industrial segmentGlobal filters market for water treatment industry by agricultural segmentPART 07: Geographical segmentationGlobal filters market for water treatment industry by geographyGlobal filters market for water treatment industry in AmericasGlobal filters market for water treatment industry in EMEAGlobal filters market for water treatment industry in APACPART 08: Decision frameworkPART 09: Drivers and challengesMarket driversMarket challengesPART 10: Market trendsIncreased demand for freshwaterTechnological innovationAdvances in membrane technologyPART 11: Vendor landscapeCompetitive scenarioOther prominent vendorsPART 12: Key vendor analysisGE Water & Process TechnologiesLenntechPallParker HannifinVeoliaContinue.For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Palletizing Equipment Market by Manufacturers,Types,Regions and Applications Research Report Forecast to 2021
Palletizing Equipment Market 2017
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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On - Palletizing Equipment Market by Manufacturers,Types,Regions and Applications Research Report Forecast to 2021.The analysts forecast the global palletizing equipment market to grow at a CAGR of 4.14% during the period 2017-2021.The palletizing process is a part of material handling. The palletizing equipment stacks or places cases of products onto a pallet. Manual palletizing process is expensive and time consuming due to the involvement of labourers to carry out the process of palletizing. Hence the need for automated palletizers is gaining traction in the market. The growth in the various manufacturing sectors will result in the shift from manual to automated systems like palletizers.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global palletizing equipment market for 2017-2021. The report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEAThe report, Global Palletizing Equipment Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors ABB Columbia Machine FANUC Kawasaki Robotics KUKAOther prominent vendors American-Newlong ABC Packaging ARPAC BEUMER Group Brenton Engineering Krones Maschinenfabrik Mollers Schneider Premier Tech Chronos Hartness InternationalMarket driver Growing demand in various industries For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Reluctance of industries to migrate to latest technologies in developing countries For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Demand for hybrid palletizers For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space?Report Details @Table Of Contents Major Key PointsPART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYPART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORTPART 03: RESEARCH METHODOLOGYPART 04: INTRODUCTION Market outlinePART 05: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market overview Market size and forecast Five forces analysisMARKET SEGMENT BY END-USER Global palletizing equipment market by end-user segment Global palletizing equipment market by food and beverage industry Global palletizing equipment market by pharmaceutical and personal care industry Global palletizing equipment market by chemical industry Global palletizing equipment market by othersPART 06: REGIONAL LANDSCAPE Geographical segmentation Regional comparison EMEA market size and forecast Americas market size and forecast APAC market size and forecast Key leading countries Market opportunityPART 07: DECISION FRAMEWORKPART 08: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers Market challengesPART 09: MARKET TRENDS Demand for hybrid palletizers Rise in adoption of mixed load palletizing equipment Rise in the use of collaborative robotsPART 10: KEY VENDOR ANALYSIS Competitive Scenario ABB Columbia Machine FANUC Kawasaki Robotics KUKA Other prominent vendorsContinue.For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) Market Report for Period 2011 till 2023 Asahi Glass, Dupont, Daikin, Asahi Glass and Others
Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) Market
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Global Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Solvay, Daikin, Asahi Glass, Dupont, 3M and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Dupont3MSolvayDaikinAsahi GlassOthersGlobal Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2OthersGlobal Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) Market: Key Application TypePetroleum & Chemical IndustryAerospace IndustryElectronics IndustryOthersGlobal Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Objectives of Research1.1.1 Definition1.1.2 Specifications1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 Upstream1.2.2 Downstream1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 by Type1.2.1.1 Type 11.2.1.2 Type 2........................Continue (Global Perfluoroelastomer (FFKM) Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Global Frozen Baby Food Market Report 2017 Key Players : Bambinos, Nurturme, Plum Baby
Market Research Reports
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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Frozen Baby Food Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.(Global Market) - A thorough overview of the global market for Frozen Baby Food has been furnished in this research report. It offers a detailed analysis of the prominent trends prevailing in the market, including important growth drivers and restraints. The report, at the outset, provides a detailed overview of the products and outlines their scope. It then segments the global market for Frozen Baby Food depending upon different parameters such as product type, application, and region. The report takes up each segment separately to understand the sales and revenues it generates and its prospects going forward.The study also furnishes important information on the prominent players operating in the global Frozen Baby Food market. It sheds light on their product portfolios, sales and revenues, and position in the market. It uses popular analytical tools, namely Porters Five Forces analysis and SWOT analysis to understand the competitive dynamics in the global market. The report discusses the key strategies of market participants and their growth prospects. The report also presents important data in a comprehensive and meaningful manner by leveraging graphs, charts, graphics, and tables that help to spot key trends in the market easily.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringYummy SpoonfulsBambinosHappy BabySquare One OrganicsEarth's bestNurturmePetite SelectMom Made FoodOrder a copy of Free Sample Report @To sum up, the report attempts to answers a number of important questions related to the global market for Frozen Baby Food pertaining to prominent trends, its estimated size, top regional segments, and others.The report also offers information on the prices of important raw materials and discusses suppliers and distributers in the global Frozen Baby Food market. It further analyses the value chain and other important factors like technological progress and substitutes.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Frozen Baby Food1.1 Definition and Specifications of Frozen Baby Food1.1.1 Definition of Frozen Baby Food1.1.2 Specifications of Frozen Baby Food1.2 Classification of Frozen Baby Food1.3 Applications of Frozen Baby Food1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Frozen Baby Food2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Frozen Baby Food2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Frozen Baby Food2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Frozen Baby Food3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Frozen Baby Food3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Frozen Baby Food Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Frozen Baby Food Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Frozen Baby Food Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Frozen Baby Food Major Manufacturers in 20168 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Frozen Baby Food8.1 Yummy Spoonfuls8.1.1 Company Profile8.1.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.1.3 Yummy Spoonfuls 2016 Frozen Baby Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.1.4 Yummy Spoonfuls 2016 Frozen Baby Food Business Region Distribution Analysis8.2 Bambinos8.2.1 Company Profile8.2.2 Product Picture and Specifications8.2.3 Bambinos 2016 Frozen Baby Food Sales, Ex-factory Price, Revenue, Gross Margin Analysis8.2.4 Bambinos 2016 Frozen Baby Food Business Region Distribution Analysis9 Development Trend of Analysis of Frozen Baby Food Market9.1 Global Frozen Baby Food Market Trend Analysis9.2 Frozen Baby Food Regional Market Trend9.3 Frozen Baby Food Market Trend (Product Type)9.4 Frozen Baby Food Market Trend (Application)Browse full table of contents and data tables of Report @List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Frozen Baby FoodTable Product Specifications of Frozen Baby FoodTable Classification of Frozen Baby FoodFigure Global Production Market Share of Frozen Baby Food by Type in 2016Table Major Manufacturers of Frozen Fruits and VegetablesFigure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Frozen Baby Food by Application in 2016Table Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Frozen Baby Food Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Frozen Baby Food Major Manufacturers in 2016About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Micro Motors Market - Evolving Industry Trends & Insights 2022
Micro Motors Market
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Market Scenario:The Micro Motors market has registered high growth in recent times on account of growing demand from the Automotive, home appliance, and medical equipment industries among others. Specifically the micro motors market is witnessing increasing demand from the automotive industry. With recent technological developments, high quality micro motors are finding rapid integration in various industries, thus resulting in increasing demand in the micro motors market. With new markets such as electronic information and 3D printing also increasing adopting micro motors the market is expected to register high growth in the forecast period.Request a Sample Copy @Key Players:Some of the key players in the Automotive Position sensor market are Mitsuba Corporation, Nidec Corporation, Johnson Electric Holdings Limited, Mabuchi Motors, Abb Ltd, Wellings Holdings Ltd, Asmo Co Ltd., Constar, Maxon Motors Ag, Buhler Motors Gmbh.Segments:The Automotive Position Sensor market has been segmented on the basis of application as automotive, medical equipment, industrial automation and others. On the basis of technology the market has been segmented as brushed and brushless. On the basis of power consumption the market has been segmented as >11v, 12v-24v, 25v-48v,About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Heparin Sodium Market Report for Period 2011 till 2023 SPL, Dongcheng Biochemicals, Bioibrica, Nanjing King-friend, Sichuan Deebio, Shenzhen Hepalink, Opocrin, Aspen Oss and Others
Heparin Sodium Market
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Global Heparin Sodium market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Pharma Action, Baxter, Dongying Tiandong Pharmaceutical, Opocrin, Aspen Oss, Xinbai Pharmaceuticals, Yino Pharma Limited, Sichuan Deebio, Shenzhen Hepalink, Bioibrica, Nanjing King-friend, Pfizer, SPL, Dongcheng Biochemicals, Changzhou Qianhong Bio-pharma, Changshan Biochemical and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Heparin Sodium Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:Shenzhen HepalinkBioibricaNanjing King-friendPfizerSPLDongcheng BiochemicalsChangzhou Qianhong Bio-pharmaChangshan BiochemicalPharma ActionBaxterDongying Tiandong PharmaceuticalOpocrinAspen OssXinbai PharmaceuticalsYino Pharma LimitedSichuan DeebioOthersGlobal Heparin Sodium Market: Key Product TypeType 1Type 2Type 3OthersGlobal Heparin Sodium Market: Key Application TypeTreatment of Venous ThromboembolismComplications of PregnancyCardioversion of Atrial Fibrillation/FlutterOthersGlobal Heparin Sodium Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Heparin Sodium Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Heparin Sodium Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Heparin Sodium Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Objectives of Research1.1.1 Definition1.1.2 Specifications1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 Upstream1.2.2 Downstream1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 by Type1.2.1.1 Type 11.2.1.2 Type 21.2.1.3 Type 3........................Continue (Global Heparin Sodium Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Mica Tape for Insulation Market Report for Period 2011 till 2023 Pamica, Meifeng Mica, Glory Mica, Ruby Mica, ISOVOLTA Group, Electrolock, Jyoti, Cogebi and Others
Mica Tape for Insulation Market
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Global Mica Tape for Insulation market report provides detailed analysis of companies namely Haiying Insulation, OKABE MICA, Electrolock, Jyoti, Cogebi, Sakti Mica, Ruby Mica, ISOVOLTA Group, VonRoll, Pamica, Meifeng Mica, Chhaperia, Glory Mica, Nippon Rika, Spbsluda and Others. This report study includes global market statistics and analysis for example, company performance, historical analysis 2012 to 2016, market forecast 2017 to 2023 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2017 to 2022, etc.Mica Tape is a high quality insulation material, non-toxic, tasteless, high temperature resistance, high pressure resistance, anti-aging, corrosion resistance, dielectric strength up to A-level. Especially its high temperature resistance and re-processing cannot be replaced by other material, and is the best high temperature resistance, insulation material.Request for Free Sample Copy of Global Mica Tape for Insulation Market 2017Top Company Profiles and Analysis included in this report:ISOVOLTA GroupVonRollPamicaMeifeng MicaChhaperiaGlory MicaNippon RikaSpbsludaHaiying InsulationOKABE MICAElectrolockJyotiCogebiSakti MicaRuby MicaOthersGlobal Mica Tape for Insulation Market: Key Product TypeMica Glass TapeMica Polyester TapeOthersGlobal Mica Tape for Insulation Market: Key Application TypeMotors (Medium Voltage)Motors (High Voltage)GeneratorOthersGlobal Mica Tape for Insulation Market: Key RegionNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)The Global Mica Tape for Insulation Market analysis report provides detailed value chain for analysis of Global Mica Tape for Insulation Market. The value chain helps to analyze major upstream in raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities happened in current and past few years. The Global Mica Tape for Insulation Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors.Enquire before Buying @Table of Contents:1 Market Overview1.1 Objectives of Research1.1.1 Definition1.1.2 Specifications1.2 Market Segment1.2.1 by Type1.2.1.1 Mica Glass Tape1.2.1.2 Mica Polyester Tape1.2.1.3 Others1.2.2 by Application1.2.2.1 Motors (Medium Voltage)1.2.2.2 Motors (High Voltage)1.2.2.3 Generator1.2.2.4 Others........................Continue (Global Mica Tape for Insulation Market Research Industry Report is prepared with the help of extensive primary and secondary sources, directories, journals, newsletters and with the help of third-party application like Hoovers, Factiva, Bloomberg, Businessweek, etc.About Us:Market Reports Company is a global research and consulting company. We provide customized reports. We can study and analyze any market based on wide range of parameters. We can provide market insights for any particular region, country across the globe within shortest possible turn around time.What we offer: Customized Reports: we provide customized report study on any market or industry. Region Specific Study: If you need region specific or if you are searching for particular region market study then, we have expert research team for that. How we work: We work in all domains and industries, you name it and we provide the market research industry report analysis of it. Expertise: Superior Research Team, 24*7 Customer Care ServiceContact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website:Email: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States
Automated Sortation System Market 2017 Global Analysis By key Players Daifuku, SSI SCHAEFER, KION Group, Vanderlande, BEUMER, Siemens
Automated Sortation System Market
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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On - Automated Sortation System Market 2017 Global Analysis By key Players Daifuku, SSI SCHAEFER, KION Group, Vanderlande, BEUMER, Siemens.Automatic sorting machine is the machinery that according to the preset computer instruction to sorting of goods and delivering the goods to the specified location. Automated Sortation System is similar to conveyors but typically having higher capacity and can divert containers more quickly. Typically used to distribute high volumes of small cartons to a large set of locations, automated sortation systems offer a highly accurate and efficient means of sorting, routing, consolidating, and diverting a wide range of parcel types to unique destinations for the purposes of order selection, processing, packaging, palletizing, storing, and shipping.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comScope of the Report:This report focuses on the Automated Sortation System in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversDaifuku, SSI SCHAEFER, KION Group (Dematic), Vanderlande, BEUMER, Siemens, Intelligrated, Fives Intralogistics, Murata Machinery, TGW Group, Interroll, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Shanxi Oriental Material Handing, Potevio, Equinox, Okura,Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)Latin America, Middle East and AfricaMarket Segment by Type, coversLinear Sortation SystemsLoop Sortation SystemsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoRetail and E-commercePost and ParcelFood and BeveragePharmaceutical and Medical SupplyLarge AirportsOthersReport Details @There are 13 Chapters to deeply display the global Automated Sortation System market.Chapter 1, to describe Automated Sortation System Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Automated Sortation System, with sales, revenue, and price of Automated Sortation System, in 2015 and 2016;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2015 and 2016;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Automated Sortation System, for each region, from 2011 to 2016;Continue.Table Of Contents Major Key Points1 Market Overview 11.1 Automated Sortation System Introduction 11.2 Market Analysis by Type 41.2.1 Linear Sortation Systems 41.2.2 Loop Sortation Systems 61.3 Market Analysis by Applications 81.3.1 Retail and E-commerce 101.3.2 Post and Parcel 101.3.3 Food and Beverage 111.3.4 Pharmaceutical and Medical Supply 121.3.5 Large Airports 121.4 Market Analysis by Regions 131.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) 131.4.1.1 USA 131.4.1.2 Canada 141.4.1.3 Mexico 141.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) 151.4.2.1 Germany 151.4.2.2 France 161.4.2.3 UK 161.4.2.4 Russia 171.4.2.5 Italy 171.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) 181.4.3.1 China 181.4.3.2 Japan 191.4.3.3 Korea 191.4.3.4 India 201.4.3.5 Southeast Asia 201.4.4 Latin America, MEA 211.4.3.1 Brazil 211.4.3.2 Egypt 221.4.3.3 Saudi Arabia 231.4.3.4 South Africa 241.4.3.5 Nigeria 251.5 Market Dynamics 261.5.1 Market Opportunities 261.5.2 New Product Launches 261.5.3 Acquisitions 281.5.4 Other Developments 291.6 Automated Sortation System Technology Analysis 302 Manufacturers Profiles 332.1 DAIFUKU 332.1.1 DAIFUKU Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors 332.1.2 Automated Sortation System Product Type and Technology 342.1.2.1 Daifukus Surfing Sorter 342.1.2.2 Sorter "Surfing Sorter mini" 352.1.3 DAIFUKU Sales, Revenue, Price of Automated Sortation System 2011-2016E 362.2 SSI SCHAEFER 382.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors 382.2.2 Automated Sortation System Product Type and Technology 392.2.2.1 Batch Pick 'N Scan Sorter 392.2.2.2 Automatic Picking Systems 402.2.3 SSI SCHAEFER Sales, Revenue, Price of Automated Sortation System 2011-2016E 442.3 KION Group (Dematic) 452.3.1 KION GROUP Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors 452.3.2 Automated Sortation System Product Type and Technology 462.3.2.1 Linear (Sliding Shoe) Sorters 462.3.2.2 Dematic FlexSort SL2 472.3.2.3 Dematic FlexSort RL 482.3.2.4 Automatic Speed Control 492.3.3 KION Group (Dematic) Sales, Revenue, Price of Automated Sortation System 2011-2016E 502.4 Vanderlande 512.4.1 Vanderlande Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors 512.4.2 Automated Sortation System Product Type and Technology 522.4.2.1 CROSSORTER 522.4.2.2 POSISORTER 532.4.2.3 TRAYSORTER 542.4.2.4 AIRTRAX 552.4.2.5 Baggage Handing 562.4.2.6 Parcel and Postal 592.4.3 Vanderlande Sales, Revenue, Price of Automated Sortation System 2011-2016E 602.5 BEUMER 622.5.1 BEUMER Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors 622.5.2 Automated Sortation System Product Type and Technology 632.5.2.1 Airport baggage Automated Sortation Systems 632.5.2.2 Cross-Belt Sortation Systems 662.5.2.3 Tilt-Tray Sortation Systems 692.5.3 BEUMER Sales, Revenue, Price of Automated Sortation System 2011-2016E 712.6 Siemens 722.6.1 Siemens Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors 722.6.2 Automated Sortation System Product Type and Technology 742.6.2.1 Parcel Sorting 742.6.2.2 Mail Sorting 742.6.2.3 Baggage Handling 752.6.3 Siemens Sales, Revenue, Price of Automated Sortation System 2011-2016E 762.7 Intelligrated 772.7.1 Intelligrated Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors 772.7.2 Automated Sortation System Product Type and Technology 792.7.2.1 IntelliSort 796.7.2.2 Sweeper Sorter 812.7.3 Intelligrated Sales, Revenue, Price of Automated Sortation System 2011-2016E 822.8 Fives Intralogistics 832.8.1 Fives Intralogistics Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors 832.8.2 Automated Sortation System Product Type and Technology 842.8.3 Fives Intralogistics Sales, Revenue, Price of Automated Sortation System 2011-2016E 85Continue.For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Latest report on North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market Trend Analysis, Growth and Forecast 2022- Market Research Report
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North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market Latest Research Report provides in-depth analysis of definitions, classifications, applications and North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market chain structure forecast until 2022. The Report also consists of development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status of North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market.North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market: Type wise segment: Network Security Endpoint Security Application Security Cloud Security OthersNorth America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market: Applications wise segment: Wearables Building and Home Automation Supply Chain Management Patient Information Management Energy and Utilities Management Customer Information Security Asset Optimization Manufacturing Process Management Communication Technology Management TelematicsGet a PDF Sample of North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market Research Report at:The Internet of Things (IoT) security market is driven due to rising security concerns in the critical infrastructures and strict government regulations and is expected to grow from 7.90 Billion in 2016 to 41.85 Billion by 2022 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 35.21%. The year 2016 has been considered as the base year for the study, while the market size forecast is from 2017 to 2022.North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market Segment by Regions mainly contain United States, Canada and Mexico.Top Manufacturers of North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market are: Geographic Revenue Mix Cisco Systems,Inc BM Corporation Infineon Technologies Intel Corporation Symantec Corporation Arm Holdings PLCAnd moreComplete Details Report with List of Figures, Tables and Charts Available @:North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market Research Report is a meticulous investigation of current scenario of the market, which covers several market dynamics. The Europe Acrylate Monomer Market Research Report is a resource, which provides current as well as upcoming technical and financial details of the industry. The thorough analysis in this report enables investors, CEOs, traders and suppliers to understand the market in a better way and based on that knowledge make well-informed decisions.Have any query? ask our expert @A complete analysis of the competitive landscape of the North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market is provided in the report. This section includes company profiles of market key players. The profiles include contact information, gross, capacity, product details of each firm, price, and cost are covered. This report investigates new project feasibility with a purpose of enlightening new entrants about the possibilities in this market. In this report, thorough SWOT analysis & investment analysis is provided which forecasts imminent opportunities for the North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market players.Single User License: $4480Access this report of North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market @In the end, the report elaborates the North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market overview various definitions and classification of the industry, applications of the industry and chain structure are given. Present day status of the North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market in key regions is stated and industry policies and news are analysed.Some Major Point cover in this North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market Report are: - What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market in 2021? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Manufacturers Profiles of North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market? Knows Upstream Raw Materials Sourcing and Downstream Buyers Who are the key vendors in North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market space? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the North America Internet of Things (IoT) Security Market?Precise market reports, a one-stop research platform designed to help key decision makers and dynamic thought leaders across various industry verticals worldwide by making them aware of the past, current and future market scenario.Contact us:Precise Market ReportsOffice No. 48, Akshya Complex, Dhole Patil road,Maharashtra, Pune 411001India.sales@precisemarketreports.com+1 (323) 744 6588
Semiconductor Packaging Material Global Analysis & Forecast to 2027 Market Research Report
Semiconductor Packaging Material Market 2017
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Title:Global Semiconductor Packaging Material Market Research Report - Forecast to 2027Summary:Global Semiconductor Packaging Material Market Information by types (organic substrates, bonding wires, encapsulation resins, ceramic packages, solder balls, wafer level packaging dielectrics and others) by technology (Grid Array, Small Outline Package, Dual Flat No-Leads, Quad Flat Package, Dual In-Line Package and others) - Forecast To 2027Key PlayersThe leading market players in the global semiconductor packaging material market primarily includeHenkel AG, Hitachi Chemical, Sumitomo Chemical, Kyocera Chemical, Mitsui High-Tec, Toray Industries Corporation, Alent PLC, LG Chemical and others.The reports also covers brief analysis of Geographical Region includes:North AmericaUSCanadaEuropeGermanyFranceItalySpainUKRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanAustralia/New ZealandRest of Asia-PacificLatin AmericaBrazilOthersMiddle East & AfricaThe market report for Semiconductor Packaging Material of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Request For Sample Report @Market Synopsis of Semiconductor Packaging Material MarketThe global semiconductor packaging material has witnessed a remarkable growth over the past year owing to the rising demand for mobile phones, tablets and other communication devices and as per the estimation the market will keep on growing during the forecast year. The semiconductor packaging materials is major platform to the success of the semiconductor business across the globe and the changing in consumer electronics are driving the changes in packaging materials market. The major factor which is driving the global market is continuously growing mobile industry and technological advancements. Owing to the increased demand for mobile and other communication devices has augmented the semiconductor packaging material market. Geographically, Asia-Pacific is one of the crucial market due to the presence of vast electronic industry in China, Japan and South Korea. This factor has placed Asia-Pacific the leading market in near future followed by North America and Europe.Study Objectives of Semiconductor Packaging Material MarketTo provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Semiconductor Packaging Material MarketTo provide insights about factors affecting the market growthTo Analyse the Global Semiconductor Packaging Material Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW)To provide country-level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospectiveTo provide country-level analysis of the market for segment by technology and typesTo provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analysing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the marketTo track and analyse competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global Semiconductor Packaging Material MarketSegmentationAs per MRFR analysis, the global semiconductor packaging material market has been segmented into:By Types: organic substrates, bonding wires, encapsulation resins, ceramic packages, solder balls, wafer level packaging dielectrics and others.By Technology: Grid Array, Small Outline Package, Dual Flat No-Leads, Quad Flat Package, Dual In-Line Package and others.Complete Report Details @Table of ContentsREQUEST FOR TOCContinued.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR) and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have the prime objective to provide optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies depending on products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments enables our clients to know more consequently do more, which gives them answer for their each and every important question. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industryCONTACT US:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Europe Dental Software Business Patterns That Will Drive Accomplishment In 2023
Europe Dental Software
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The Europe Dental Software Market Research Report provides detailed analysis of the key regional market status of the The Dental Software Industry.Europe Dental Software Market information, by Type (Practice Management Software, Patient Communication Software, Treatment Planning Software, Patient Education Software, Dental Imaging Software), by Application (Clinical Application, Administrative), by Deployment (On-Premise Model, Web-Based/ Cloud-Based Model), by End User (Hospitals & Clinics, Academics & Research Institutes) - Forecast to 2023Market Scenario:The Europe Dental Software market is expected to witness high growth in the coming years. The demand for dental software is dignified by improving process quality, patient satisfaction and speeding up the process for the treatments provided by dental organizations, and dental institutes. The growing availability of electronic data offers practitioners increased opportunities for reusing clinical data for research and quality improvement.Get Sample Copy @Considering the scenario of the Europe Dental Software market, the total market was US$ 488.6 million in 2016 and expected to reach US$ 861.0 million by 2023.Key Players for Europe Dental Software Market:Some of the key players in this market are: Carestream Health, Inc (US), Dentsply Sirona (US), Elite Computer Italia (OrisLine Group) (italy), Henry Schein, Inc (US), KaVo Dental GmbH (Germany), PLANMECA OY (Finland)Segments:Europe Dental Software Market has been segmented on the basis of type which comprise Practice Management Software, Patient Communication Software, Treatment Planning Software, Patient Education Software, and Dental Imaging Software. Patient management segment was holding largest market share. On the basis of application, it is segmented into Clinical Application, Administrative. Clinical application segment is dominating The European dental software market by application. On the basis of deployment, it is segmented into On-Premise Model, and Web-Based/ Cloud-Based Model. On-premise model is leading in this segment. On the basis of End User it is segmented into Hospitals & Clinics, Academics & Research Institutes. Hospitals and clinics was holding largest market share in 2016.Ask Question to Expert atRegional Analysis of Europe Dental Software Market:Considering the scenario of Europe Dental Software market, Germany was holding largest market share of 20.6% in 2016 and is expected to reach 165.9 million by 2023. France is second largest country in Europe Dental Software market. UK is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.6% during 2017-2023. On the other hand. Eastern Europe Dental Software market is growing significantly and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period.Table Of Contents1 Introduction 101.1 Definition 101.2 Scope Of Study 101.3 Research Objective 101.4 Assumptions & Limitations 111.4.1 Assumptions 111.4.2 Limitations 111.5 Market Structure 112 Research Methodology 122.1 Research Process: 122.2 Primary Research 132.3 Secondary Research 132.4 Forecast Model 142.5 Market Size Estimation 153 Report Excerpts 184 Forecast Indicators 224.1 Introduction 224.2 Drivers 234.2.1 Technological Advancements In The Dental Equipment 234.2.2 High Adoption Of Digital Dental Radiography Systems 234.2.3 Growth In Aging Population 234.2.4 Dental Surgeries Gaining Impetus Due To Changing Lifestyle And Food Habits 244.2.5 Growing Dental Industry 244.3 Restraints 244.3.1 High Price Of Digital Dental System 244.3.2 Complexity In Operating Software 254.4 Opportunities 254.4.1 Increasing Incidence Of Dental Disorders And Patient Database 254.5 Macro-Economic Indicators 25About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMRFR has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.Our Research Analysts are eager to share their knowledge and assist you in refining market research parameters, choosing right market studies, and evaluating both the market scope and the research methodologies of varied segments.We bridge the gap between our clients and their clients by identifying and decoding just the target group, while generating leads with the highest accuracy.Years of research into diverse fields of work has ingrained within us, a proficiency so distinguished that our industry-specific specialists identify with your business ideas and feel the pulse of your challenges and opportunities. This enables us for providing assistance, through our consulting and strategic consulting services, in informed managerial decision making. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industries, WantStats Research and Media often conducts industrial visits for its research analysts. Relevant inputs from various established market participants, help our clients make significant contribution in respective markets are a huge motivation for all of us to endlessly furnish quality. We depend greatly on profound insights into complex realms of our study.Pune, India
Americas Lancet & Pen Needels Market Growth Drivers, Trends, Dynamics and Competitive Landscape Along With Company Profiles
Americas Pen Needles
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Market Research Future published new report, titled Lancet & Pen Needels Market -Research Report: Americas Forecast to 2021.Market Synopsis for Americas Influenza Vaccination Market:Americas Lancet & Pen Needles Market Forecast to 2021 The report firstly introduced Americas Lancet & Pen Needels Market including classification, application and industry chain overview; Then we deeply analyzed Americas growth forecast indicators by the as well as the regional market conditions that including the product price, profit, utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc. In the end, the report introduced medical suction device market SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, market share analysis and competitive landscape, company profiles by analyzing the major players It is a depth research study on Americas Lancet & Pen Needels Market. We are thankful for the support and assistance from Americas Lancet & Pen Needels Market chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Table of Contents:1 INTRODUCTION1.1 DEFINITION1.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY1.2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES1.2.2 ASSUMPTIONS & LIMITATIONS1.3 MARKET STRUCTURE2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2.1 RESEARCH PROCESS2.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH2.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH2.4 FORECAST MODEL3 REPORT EXCERPT4 FORECAST INDICATORS4.1 INTRODUCTION4.2 GROWTH DRIVERS4.3 GROWTH BARRIERS4.4 GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES4.5 MACROECNOMICAL INDICATORS5 MARKET ANALYSIS6 Americas LANCET MARKET, BY Type6.1 INTRODUCTION 6.2 Standard Lancets6.3 Safety Lancets7 Americas SAFETY LANCET MARKET, BY GAUGE7.1 INTRODUCTION7.2 17/18G7.3 21G7.4 23G 7.5 25G7.6 28G7.7 30G7.8 OTHERS8 AmericasSAFETY LANCET MARKET, BY PENETRATION DEPTH8.1 INTRODUCTION8.2 0.8 MM TO 1.0 MM8.3 1.1 MM TO 1.5 MM8.4 1.6 MM TO 2.0 MM8.5 2.1 MM TO 2.5 MM8.6 2.5 MM TO 3.0 MM8.7 OTHERS 9Americas Pen Needles MARKET, BY Type9.1 INTRODUCTION 9.2 Standard Lancets9.3 Safety Lancets10 Americas Pen Needles MARKET, BY DEPTH10.1 INTRODUCTION10.2 4mm10.3 5mm10.4 6mm10.5 10mm10.6 12mm10.7 OTHERSBUY-NOW REPORT @CONTINUEDAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312
If you have a PC, youre a target. You need security software.
Thats as true today as it was a decade ago, despite significant security improvements to Windows over the years. But you have a choice: You can continue paying a security software vendor an annual fee for protection or take matters into your own hands. If you choose the latter youll need to put together a custom security suite using various free products.
The pros and cons of free AV
Going free can save you some cash, but it isnt a perfect solution for everyone. When you buy a paid antivirus product you usually get some form of customer support with it. Free products, on the other hand, often mean youre on your own for solving problems. Going free also means stitching together a combination of utilities. That takes a little trial and error to find the best tools for your needs. Premium suites, by comparison, offer seamless, relatively pain-free security solutions.
Another downside is that free products can include browser toolbars, extensions, or other desktop programs that you might not want. Freebies can also have ads that help their makers pay the bills. Be mindful while youre installing free programs to avoid also installing bloatware you dont want, which is often flagged for installation by default.
Best free AV software: Our picks
Antivirus software is the key component of any security suite, and for good reasonits going to be your primary defense against malware. Windows offers its own built-in anti-virus program called Windows Defender for Windows 8.1 and upWindows 7 users can download and install Security Essentials. Windows solution offers fairly good basic security, but most third-party testing firms find that it falls short of third-party security suites. The upshot is: If youre a security-aware user whos willing to occasionally run a scan with Malwarebytes (see below) then Defender may be enough.
If you arent willing to do that, however, then a third-party option is probably better, and when it comes to free antivirus apps you have some really good options.
Ian Paul/IDG Independent tester AV-Test gives Avira Antivirus top marks, so you can feel assured about the integrity of its free product.
Avira Antivirus Free Edition and Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition are two free products worth your attention. According to recent benchmarks published by the German antivirus testing firm AV-Test, paid products for both Avira and Bitdefender won top marks on all three of the firms major testing categories including protection, performance, and usability; both did a perfect or near-perfect job at stopping malware and other threats. Avira did score one false positive from AV-Test when it identified legitimate software as malware during a system scan.
If Avira and Bitdefender dont appeal there are other popular choices such as Avast Free and Panda Free Antivirus.
No matter which antivirus app you choose, make sure you pick one that does a good job at catching so-called zero-day attacks. Antivirus programs that can stop zero-day attacks are going to be more effective at stopping brand-new malware, which is very important given how quickly malware can evolve.
Use a secondary antivirus app
Even the best traditional antivirus software can have a hard time removing stubborn, deeply embedded malware. With that in mind, its good to have a secondary antivirus app at your disposal.
Ian Paul/IDG Malwarebytes can remove rootkits and other baddies that other antivirus products wont touch. Best of all, you can run it alongside your traditional antivirus.
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free can provide an extra layer of security against internet baddies. It is not for use as your primary antivirus since the free version doesnt offer real-time protection. You can use it alongside most other antivirus programs as a tool for infrequent, secondary manual scans, and its earned its stellar reputation by offering above-average protection against cutting-edge zero-day attacks. In other words, it can sometimes catch infections that other antivirus software might miss.
Another utility worth downloading is Norton Power Eraser: This free tool targets so-called scarewarethose annoying bits of malware that try to get you to buy phony antivirus programsthat traditional antivirus software may miss. Symantec warns that Norton Power Eraser is an aggressive scanner that may occasionally flag a legitimate program as malware, so youll want to use it as a last resort, but its a good weapon to have in your PC security arsenal.
Use a firewall
Windows comes with a built-in firewall thats turned on by default. Its a good basic option that sits quietly in the background until it detects a suspicious connection attempt, and its as low-maintenance as low-maintenance can be.
Ian Paul/IDG GlassWire serves the dual purpose of being both a firewall and a wealth of system information.
Still, one additional piece of software worth installing is the firewall GlassWire. This program blocks outgoing connections if you explicitly mark them as disallowed (say you install a new program that youre a little leery of, preventing its ability to make outgoing connections could ease your concern). Thats more than Windows Firewall does since Microsofts basic solution doesnt block outgoing connections at allthough theres debate over whether thats truly necessary.
GlassWires biggest advantage is that its chock-full of information. By default, it will show an alert in the lower-right corner of your desktop every time an application initiates an internet connection. Youll also see an alert when a program is updateduseful if youre not expecting an automatic update. That sounds intrusive, but GlassWire doesnt use Action Center notifications and they appear less frequently than youd think.
Open the application and youll see even more information including a real-time graph of your PCs internet traffic, and a chart showing which apps are using the most bandwidth.
Bolster your browsers security
Even with the best security software in place, you can still be taken for a fool online.
McAfee SiteAdvisor will check links in search results and indicate, via a small icon next to a link, whether its safe to visit. It also works on social networks like Twitter or Facebook, which tend to be security minefields thanks to the widespread use of URL shorteners as well as viral links of questionable origin.
If youre on Firefox, check out NoScript, an add-on that blocks all JavaScript from running unless you approve it. Its a bit of a power-user tool, and it can disable some features on websites you visit, but it does help protect you from all-too-common JavaScript attacks online, assuming youre okay with the added hassle.
Meanwhile, the HTTPS Everywhere extension from the Electronic Frontier Foundation can automatically encrypt your connection to most websites. Thats useful if you want to prevent others on your network from potentially eavesdropping on your web browsing. HTTPS Everywhere cant hide which websites you visit, but it does protect information sent between you and the website as well as obscure the specific pages you visit.
In this day and age, no browser is complete without an ad blocker. Thats not only to avoid annoying advertising. Every now and then a popular site ends up delivering malware via one of its advertising providers. An ad blocker can help mitigate these threats. Two popular options are AdBlock Plus and uBlock Origin (available for Firefox too).
In addition, the EFFs Privacy Badger is a popular option to stop tracking cookies and other forms of online surveillance.
Keep the kiddies from seeing stuff they cant unsee
No matter how responsible your kids are online, theres always a chance theyll inadvertently venture into parts unknown.
Luckily, recent versions of Windows come with a comprehensive suite of parental controls, so you dont need to download anything. On Windows 10, open the Start menu and click Settings, then go to Accounts > Family & other users to get started. Note that the Family feature on Windows 10 requires you to sign in with your Microsoft account.
Ian Paul/IDG Windows 10 will step you through the process of setting up parental controls on your PC.
Beyond that, OpenDNS FamilyShield is worth a look. FamilyShield isnt an app; instead, its a service offered by OpenDNS that automatically blocks adult websites. You can set it up on individual computers at home, or you can set it up on your router so that every device on your home is protected. Of course, FamilyShield wont provide you with the full suite of parental controls, such as app restrictions and time limits, but you can use it in conjunction with other parental controls tools for added online safety.
Oftentimes, malware creators dont target Windows itselfinstead, theyll target security holes in popular PC software such as Adobe Reader. To reduce this risk, youll want to keep all your software up to date. Doing this manually can be a pain, so an update checker can save you lots of time.
Ian Paul/IDG Flexera PSI will let you know if you need to install software updates.
Flexera Personal Software Inspectorformerly Secunia PSIis a free tool that does just that: It scans your PC for insecure older versions of popular programs and can even automatically install the latest security patches for them.
Lock down your laptop
Laptops get lost or stolen all the time. There are things you can do to reduce the risk, such as using a notebook lock or simply not using your notebook in public, but nothing can mitigate the risk of theft entirely. You can keep your data from falling into the wrong hands, though.
The Prey service lets you lock down your laptop in case its been stolen. It consists of a piece of software that runs in the background and tracks your laptops location whenever it goes online.
Ian Paul/IDG The Prey Project provides various tools for tracking and locking down a wayward laptop.
If your laptop ever goes missing, you can use Prey to find its whereabouts, snap a photo of the alleged thief, and lock down the device if necessary. For $5 per month, you can also remotely wipe your machine, or retrieve files from a wayward laptop. It may seem weird to suggest paying for something in an article about free security products, but in this case its money well spent.
Ian Paul/IDG Windows 10s Find My Device setting is under Home > Security > Find My Device.
Windows 10 offers a find-my-device feature that lets you locate a lost or stolen laptop or tablet; however, Microsofts built-in version doesnt offer all the features of Prey, including the critical remote wipe.
Another critical part of locking down a laptopor any PC, reallyis to use encryption. If you have a PC running Windows 8.1 or later that supports Microsofts device encryption, you can encrypt your data simply by pairing it with your Microsoft account. But be warned: This feature typically stores your encryption key on your OneDrive, as Ars Technica notes, which could be an issue if the entity trying to break your encryption is a government agency that could legally compel Microsoft to hand over the key.
If youre running Windows 10 Pro you can also use BitLocker encryption, which comes built-in. Its also available on versions of Windows going back to Vista. See our tutorial to get started. Alternatively, theres VeraCrypt, a free and open-source fork of the long-trusted (and now defunct) TrueCrypt software.
Secure your BIOS: The advanced option
This recommendation is best suited to advanced users. Popular Twitter-based security pundit SwiftOnSecurity recommends on its associated website Decent Security that users set a password for their BIOS. To do this, enter your BIOSthis differs depending on your PC model but we have a general guide to entering the BIOS. Once youre there the password option should be under a heading such as General or Security. Then create the password youd like to use. Try to opt for something simple and memorable as this is only a security measure meant to stop someone who has access to your computer or low-level malicious software trying to do something bad.
Go forth and be free
Those are the essentials for putting together a free security suite. It takes a little work, but the savings are worth it. Plus, you can swap out any of these components when better options come along.
Editors note: This article was updated in full in September 2017.
The bad news: A severe WPA2 protocol vulnerability dubbed KRACK holds the potential to break Wi-Fi security for virtually all wireless devices or networks, allowing attackers to snoop on your Internet traffic or even inject malicious code into websites you visit. The good news: If youre running a Windows PC, youre already safeat least if you automatically apply new updates.
Microsoft quietly released a KRACK-smashing update as part of last weeks Patch Tuesday blitz, the company confirmed to Windows Central and other websites. Phew! Here is the companys statement:
Microsoft released security updates on October 10th and customers who have Windows Update enabled and applied the security updates, are protected automatically. We updated to protect customers as soon as possible, but as a responsible industry partner, we withheld disclosure until other vendors could develop and release updates.
And now for the even better news: Fixes for KRACK can be backward-compatible, per Mathy Vanhoef, the researcher who discovered the Wi-Fi flaw. That means if youve updated your PC with Microsofts KRACK patch, you can likely connect to wireless networks running on unpatched routers without fear. Weve reached out to Microsoft to confirm whether thats the case with this patch for Windows devices.
Brad Chacos/IDG A screenshot of Windows 10s Windows Update status screen.
So if you havent applied last weeks Windows updates yet, do so now. You can force the issue in Windows 10 by opening the Start menu and heading to Settings > Updates & Security > Windows Update. The status at the top tells you if your device is up to date, and when its status was last checked. If its been awhile, click the Check for updates button to scan for the Patch Tuesday updates.
Macs, iPhones, Android phones, Linux PCs, routers, and other devices still need patches to protect against the far-ranging vulnerability. Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself in the interim, from sticking to secure websites to running a VPN and more. Check out PCWorlds guide to staying safe from the KRACK Wi-Fi attack for everything you need to know, including the latest info on incoming patches for other devices.
Petoskey girls hoops returns to the court with deep roster to work with
Phil Hellmuth, Patrik Antonius Confirmed for World Series of Poker Europe High Roller
October 16, 2017 Jason Glatzer Editor
The 2017 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) is just around the corner. The series will take place at King's Casino, located on the German border in Rozvadov, Czech Republic from Oct. 19 until Nov. 10.
A total of 11 WSOP gold bracelets are slated to be awarded throughout the festival. The highlight, of course, is the 10,350 WSOPE Main Event featuring a humongous 5 million guarantee on Nov. 4-10. But there's a little something for everyone, including those who prefer the highest stakes.
WSOPE High Roller for One Drop
This event may generate even more excitement with poker players and fans. The 111,000 WSOPE High Roller for One Drop features a 10 million guarantee twice as much as the Main Event and will attract some of the biggest names in poker, including Phil Hellmuth, Fedor Holz, Patrik Antonius, Antonio Esfandiari, Gus Hansen, Liv Boeree and Tony G. The event will donate the 11,111 rake less taxes to the One Drop Foundation from every player's initial buy-in.
The three-day tournament from Nov. 3-5 is a deep-stacked affair with players starting with 2 million in chips and blinds increasing every 60 minutes. Players can late-register or re-enter an unlimited amount of times until the end of Level 12 or the third blind level of Day 2.
Demand is strong for the event. Over the summer in Las Vegas, the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop, won by Doug Polk for $3,686,865, attracted a field of 130 players.
However, European-edition of the event is capped at 111 entrants. This is the main reason why King's Casino Owner Leon Tsoukernik decided to relinquish his seat while still donating money to charity.
"The demand is strong and I have given up my own seat and will play host instead," Tsoukernik said about the High Roller event. "My 11,000 deposit will go to One Drop."
In addition to the Main Event, the High Roller for One Drop and the nine other WSOP gold bracelet events, the WSOPE schedule features many affordable side events where bracelets will not be awarded. And of course, there will also be plenty of cash games of all buy-in levels running around the clock throughout the festival.
WSOP Europe Bracelet Event Schedule
Date Time Event Buy-in Guarantee Oct. 19 2 p.m. Event #1A: No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack 1,100 500,000 Oct. 20 2 p.m. Event #1B: No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack 1,100 500,000 Oct. 21 2 p.m. Event #1C: No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack 1,100 500,000 Oct. 23 2 p.m. Event #2A: Pot-Limit Omaha 550 Oct. 24 2 p.m. Event #2B: Pot-Limit Omaha 550 Oct. 25 3 p.m. Event #3: No-Limit Hold'em Super Turbo BOUNTY 1,100 Oct. 26 3 p.m. Event #4: No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed 1,650 Oct. 27 12 p.m. Event #5A: The Colossus No-Limit Hold'em 550 2,000,000 Oct. 27 6 p.m. Event #5B: The Colossus No-Limit Hold'em 550 2,000,000 Oct. 28 12 p.m. Event #5C: The Colossus No-Limit Hold'em 550 2,000,000 Oct. 28 2 p.m. Event #6: Pot-Limit Omaha 2,200 Oct. 28 6 p.m. Event #5D: The Colossus No-Limit Hold'em 550 2,000,000 Oct. 29 12 p.m. Event #5E: The Colossus No-Limit Hold'em 550 2,000,000 Oct. 29 6 p.m. Event #5F: The Colossus No-Limit Hold'em 550 2,000,000 Oct. 30 12 p.m. Event #5G: The Colossus No-Limit Hold'em 550 2,000,000 Oct. 30 12 p.m. Event #5H: The Colossus No-Limit Hold'em 550 2,000,000 Oct. 31 12 p.m. Event #5I: The Colossus No-Limit Hold'em 550 2,000,000 Oct. 31 2 p.m. Event #7: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better 1,650 Oct. 31 6 p.m. Event #5J: The Colossus No-Limit Hold'em 550 2,000,000 Nov. 1 2 p.m. Event 8A: Little One for One Drop No-Limit Holdem 1,100 500,000 Nov. 1 3 p.m. Event #9: No-Limit Hold'em High Roller 25,000 Nov. 2 2 p.m. Event #8B: Little One for One Drop No-Limit Hold'em 1,100 500,000 Nov. 3 2 p.m. Event #10: High Roller for One Drop 111,111 10,000,000 Nov. 4 12 p.m. Event #11A: No-Limit Hold'em Main Event 10,300 5,000,000 Nov. 5 12 p.m. Event #11B: No-Limit Hold'em Main Event 10,300 5,000,000
Follow all of the World Series of Poker Europe action right here at PokerNews.com!
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 23:27:14
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Argex Titanium Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---MONTREAL, Quebec (FSCWire) - Argex Titanium Inc. (TSX:RGX). has issued a press release with the following headline:Argex Titanium Product CompletionTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Argex Titanium Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Argex Titanium Inc.Source: Argex Titanium Inc. (TSX: RGX, WKN: A1J1GR, ISIN: CA04014T1021)Date: October 16, 2017Time: 5:27 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Argex Titanium Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
House Speaker Paul Ryan pressed for a Republican tax overhaul in Madison on Monday, arguing it would jolt the national economy and aid wealthy and middle-class taxpayers alike.
Ryan, R-Janesville, brushed aside as class warfare rhetoric criticism that the plan is tilted to favor the wealthy. His comments came as he pitched the GOP plan to a receptive audience: the states business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.
The visit comes as congressional Republicans hope to ramp up efforts, which Ryan has led, to pass a sweeping cut of corporate and individual taxes and do a once-in-a-generation streamlining of the federal tax code.
This is about giving a break to middle-class families, and its about getting tax rates on businesses down, Ryan told reporters at the event, held at Monona Terrace.
President Donald Trump and congressional Republican leaders last month released a broad framework for a tax overhaul that would reduce the number of individual income tax brackets, eliminate deductions and exemptions, and repeal the estate tax. It also would slash tax rates for corporations and pass-through businesses.
A left-leaning think tank, the Wisconsin Budget Project, analyzed the impact of the plan on Wisconsin taxpayers. It found 61 percent of the value of the tax cuts for Wisconsin residents would accrue to the top 1 percent of highest-earning taxpayers.
Its also unclear exactly how the plan would affect middle-income earners. While the plan would increase the standard deduction, it would eliminate the personal exemption and limit itemized deductions. Officials have also not disclosed the income ranges for the various tax brackets.
The Budget Project study found some Wisconsin taxpayers would actually face tax increases under the plan.
Ryan declined to comment on the Wisconsin Budget Project study in a Monday press conference.
But Ryan said the class warfare rhetoric especially rings hollow these days amid talk about how to make Americas business climate more globally competitive and entice multinational corporations to locate their headquarters and manufacturing facilities in the U.S.
Theres nothing wrong with lowering the tax rates on businesses so Wisconsinites can go back to work, so that Wisconsin businesses can grow, Ryan said.
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Black Earth, who represents Dane County and south-central Wisconsin, countered that Ryan is the one conducting war against the middle class.
The truth is, this is a tax giveaway to the wealthiest in the country at the expense of working families, Pocan said in a statement.
The GOP tax overhaul plans provisions include reducing the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. It also would reduce to 25 percent the maximum tax rate on income from pass-through businesses such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, and S-corporations.
Getting a tax overhaul done is widely seen as politically essential for congressional Republicans after their repeated failures to repeal and replace Obamacare. Last week, Ryan vowed to keep the House in session through the Christmas season, if necessary, to ensure passage.
Also Monday, Ryan suggested he opposes restoring Obamacare subsidies to health insurers that Trumps administration unexpectedly announced last week it will end.
Instead, lawmakers should renew efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, he said.
The answer is not just to shovel more money at a failing program, Ryan said.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 11:14:02
Paris, Amstelveen, 16 October 2017 - Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, in cooperation with its subcontractor SLTN Inter Access (SLTN), has signed agreements with seven University Medical Centres (UMCs) in the Netherlands for the provision of server and storage capacity, and service desk facilities. This three-year contract allows the UMCs to develop their server and storage infrastructure, collaborate more efficiently and minimise costs. The contract also enables the hospitals to easily procure additional services such as support and maintenance services, cloud services and consulting.
With this partnership Atos and SLTN become one of the leading providers of server and storage services in the Netherlands to over 65,000 end-users at seven UMCs: Academisch Medisch Centrum (AMC) in Amsterdam, Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum (LUMC), Maastricht UMC+ (MUMC+), Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen (UMCG), Universitair Medisch Centrum Utrecht (UMC Utrecht) and VU Medisch Centrum (VUmc) in Amsterdam.
The benefits of this contract include:
Savings in time and resource, which mean UMCs can focus on innovation in order to offer an optimal 24/7 ICT service to their users.
The UMCs can continue using existing services and previously chosen technical options for minimal disruption and seamless transition.
Sharing of knowledge, insights and best practice is simplified, strengthening collaboration between UMCs, which can include more efficient and sustainable working practices, joint deployment of resources, and joint projects.
A common infrastructure at a reasonable cost
This is the first time that the UMCs have launched a joint call for tender of this size.
"We chose Atos and SLTN because their offer best suited our specific requirements, in order to ensure continuity of our operations. Together, Atos and SLTN form a partnership capable of providing solutions that contribute to the quality of our care and adequate protection of confidential information, including patient data," explains Jeroen van Rooden, CIO UMCG, on behalf of the UMCs.
"UMCs in the Netherlands are facing the challenge of being able to offer high-quality care at a reasonable cost. ICT plays an important role here. With this contract, we offer the UMCs the ability to optimise their individual infrastructures and, where possible, make cost savings", says Herman van den Tempel, Director of Healthcare at Atos for Benelux & The Nordics. "We are proud to be able to contribute to optimised care in the Netherlands and are looking to expand similar services to other hospitals in Europe."
"The server and storage infrastructure forms a vital basis for proper and reliable information provision within hospitals. Atos and SLTN are joining forces to provide optimum support to the UMCs in this field", says Chris Liebregts, Sector Director of Care at SLTN. "We are proud to be able to play a role in the development and innovation of the UMCs' ICT resources."
***
About Atos
Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with approximately 100,000 employees in 72 countries and annual revenue of around 12 billion. The European number one in Big Data, Cybersecurity, High Performance Computing and Digital Workplace, The Group provides Cloud services, Infrastructure & Data Management, Business & Platform solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payment industry. With its cutting-edge technologies, digital expertise and industry knowledge, Atos supports the digital transformation of its clients across various business sectors: Defense, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media, Energy & Utilities, Public sector, Retail, Telecommunications and Transportation. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, Unify and Worldline. Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index.
About NFU
Through the joint procurement programme of the Netherlands Federation of UMCs (NFU), the UMCs are committed to providing high-quality, affordable care, both now and in the future, by purchasing sustainably and innovatively with an emphasis on cost benefits and added value for the patient. For more information, visit www.nfu.nl
About SLTN
SLTN Inter Access takes care of ICT. It is what they have been doing for over 20 years, driven by their core values: Passion, Quality and Innovation. With sales exceeding 150 million, they are among the largest unlisted IT companies in the Netherlands: www.sltn.nl
Press contacts:
Atos | Jose de Vries | jose.devries@atos.net | +31 6 30 27 26 11 | @josee_de vries
SLTN | Pauline van Dulken | pauline.van.dulken@sltn.nl | +31646075684
NFU | Sjon Buijs | buijs@nfu-inkoop.nl | + 31 6 51 47 91 22
This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: ATOS via Globenewswire
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 22:25:12
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for 360 Blockchain Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - 360 Blockchain Inc. (CSE:CODE). has issued a press release with the following headline:360 Blockchain Inc. Announces Closing of Over-Subscribed Private PlacementTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on 360 Blockchain Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/360 Blockchain Inc.Source: 360 Blockchain Inc. (CSE: CODE, FWB: C5B)Date: October 16, 2017Time: 4:25 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of 360 Blockchain Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 19:07:01
Expanding New York Manufacturers Commitment to Research and Development Cited as Key to Technological Advances
Pomona, New York, Oct. 16, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cambridge Security Seals (CSS), a leading American manufacturer of tamper-evident and loss prevention security seals, was awarded a patent (U.S. Patent No. 9,770,839) by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its innovative in-line cutting technology which streamlines the automated manufacturing and packaging process. The patent covers a revolutionary design that improves the efficiency, flexibility, speed, accuracy, consistency, and reliability of a post-molding cutting technique.
This is the second patent that CSS has secured in the past three month that markedly enhances the efficient performance of the manufacturing and finishing process.
Our experience has shown us that a better manufacturing process results in better products and shorter lead times, says Brian Lyle, President of Cambridge Security Seals. Every improvement we make along the production lines manifests itself in an improved offering to our customers.
Cambridge Security Seals manufactures a wide variety of its award-winning security seals in its New York headquarters and production facility. According to Lyle, the companys patented processes further elevates CSS and our ability to offer a wider variety of customizable features while reducing costs and lead times.
Founded in 2010, Cambridge Security Seals has grown into one of the leading and most inventive security seals manufacturers in the world. The company continues to invest heavily in research and development, and was ranked by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in America.
An essential element to CSSs commitment to American manufacturing is our relentless pursuit of the advancement of automated manufacturing technology and techniques, explains Elisha Tropper, the companys CEO. Providing our customers with the highest quality products and services demands the dual commitments to R&D and Continuous Improvement that are the calling card of our rapidly growing organization.
About Cambridge Security Seals
Cambridge Security Seals, a privately-held enterprise headquartered in New York, offers an extensive line of tamper evident, tamper resistant, and high-security loss prevention seals to customers across a wide range of industries. The companys dedication to uncompromising quality, dedicated customer service, and outstanding value provides a blueprint for reliability and security. CSS services an increasingly diverse customer base spanning a variety of industries, including airlines, freight, logistics, distribution, trucking, retail, cash handling, rail transportation, government, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, medical, and agriculture.
Cambridge Security Seals commitment to technology, quality standards, environmental responsibility, and attention to detail fuels its drive to provide security-conscious customers with the products, services, and value they demand from an industry leader.
The backbone of Cambridge Security Seals is a diversified team of technical experts and business professionals, including experienced engineering, design, production, and logistics specialists. This unique blend of management and production expertise enables the company to provide an unmatched level of value. For more information about Cambridge Security Seals, please visit http://www.cambridgeseals.com.
3D printing i.e. additive manufacturing involves a layer by layer process to create physical objects out of digital 3D blueprints.
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PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 12:29:18
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CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/Associate Consultant1-347-918-3531
3D printing i.e. additive manufacturing involves a layer by layer process to create physical objects out of digital 3D blueprints. It was mainly used for rapid prototyping in the late 1980's. However, it has now become a next-generation technology which can produce localised, on-demand final products or even spare parts. 3D printing is possible with a range of thermoplastics, metal alloys, ceramics & various foodstuffs. It has seen an application in diverse areas like aerospace, retail, supply chain optimisation, & the medical industry. The 3D printed Hip & Knee Implants Market could dramatically improve both the effectiveness of surgery along with reducing the time taken to recover. It was pioneered by Dr Susannah Clarke and has already been used in hundreds of hip & knee surgeries across the world. It uses CAT scans to create a 3D blueprint of the damaged hip or knee joint to be replaced. Surgeons can then use this to practice the operation on a computer, deciding beforehand where to make incisions or how to realign the bone. The 3D printed hip & knee implant market will help to make replacement surgery much safer & quicker in the long run.A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2312 3D printed Hip & Knee Implants Market DriversAn ageing population in developed countries & China are expected to be the biggest driver of the 3D printed hip & knee implant market. Millions of people worldwide have to undergo either hip or knee replacement surgery every year. It is not people above 60 years but those between ages 45-54 who have shown the largest increase in percentage terms. This is because of improved implant quality and awareness of how they improve mobility and quality of life. Some of these initial surgeries fail due to contracting infections & patients then have to undergo another surgery to replace the implant. This has a much lower success rate & also causes significant pain & inconvenience. A second driver is that 3D printing is a minimally invasive procedure preferred by patients. Surgeons can rehearse the operation with the help of 3D models beforehand which allows them to make smaller incisions, reduce blood loss & assures an easier recovery. The 3D printed hip & knee implant market helps to reduce costs & inefficiencies as these parts will be an exact fit for an individual patient.3D printed Hip & Knee Implants Market RestraintsWhile the 3D printed hip & knee implant market has a tremendous scope with the pace at which 3D printing is advancing, there are still major challenges faced today. The first one is long term performance. 3D printed parts are inherently weaker than forged parts which are how traditional metal implants are made today. They are stronger than cast parts, but they wear down much faster than forged parts in lab tests. The second main concern is the lack of regulation. At present, more than 70 3D printed devices have been approved by 510(k) of the U.S. FDA Act and this includes medical implants as well. While those drafts have been approved, FDA technical guidance is still some time away. It is an open question how restrictive the guidelines will be once published. And this just pertains to the U.S as there is no governing body or standard worldwide. This means that the 3D printed hip & knee implant market will have to go through separate approvals in each country, increasing the effort and time taken by manufacturers.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-2312 3D printed Hip & Knee Implants Market Key RegionsThe largest 3D printed hip & knee implant market is the U.S as half of all joint replacements worldwide take place there. China is the fastest growing market. Implants are heavily regulated there as the country currently imports a majority of them. Greater government pressure to manufacture indigenously is encouraging companies to enter the domestic 3D printed hip & knee implant market. The China Food And Drug Administration has also approved 3D printed hip plants for medical use there.3D printed Hip & Knee Implants Market Key Market PlayersSome companies in the 3D printed hip & knee implant market are Medtronic, DePuy, 3D Systems, Embody Orthopaedics & Smith & Nephew.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 02:02:02
Newly opened office shows commitment to the region
Dealogic Now in Singapore!
Dealogic
Stephen Allington, + 852 3698 4757
stephen.allington@dealogic.com
Financial platform company Dealogic has opened its doors in Singapore as a sign of the companys dedication and confidence in business opportunities in Southeast Asia. Weve worked with clients in Singapore for years via our Hong Kong office, noted Romaine Jackson, Southeast Asia Head of Client Coverage at Dealogic. We realized we could provide so much more value and deepen the relationships with a local presence.
Singapore is a major financial hub, and Dealogic has provided content and software solutions to top global banks for more than 30 years. Now with Dealogic Connect, its new buyside offering, the company is working closely with investment managers too.
Were very excited, added Mr. Jackson. The new office lets us better understand the specific needs of the region, and in-person support means faster product delivery, better services, and ultimately, an impact on clients bottom line.
Singapore is a continuation of Dealogics investment across the Asia Pacific region, with offices already in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Sydney, and Mumbai. With a truly global and growing network, Dealogic is uniquely positioned to connect banks and investors like no one else can.
Dealogic Singapore Limited
8 Marina View
Asia Square Tower 1
Level 07-04
Dedicated telephone number: +65 6407 1020
About Dealogic
Dealogic offers integrated content, analytics, and technology via targeted products and services to financial firms worldwide. Whether working in capital markets, sales and trading, banking, or the buyside, firms rely on Dealogics platform to connect and more effectively identify opportunities, execute deals, and manage risk. With 30 years experience and a deep understanding of financial markets, Dealogic is a trusted global partner.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201710150050
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 23:42:12
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Gamehost Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Red Deer, Alberta (FSCWire) - Gamehost Inc. (TSX:GH). has issued a press release with the following headline:Gamehost Announces Regular Monthly Dividend for OctoberTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Gamehost Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Gamehost Inc.Source: Gamehost Inc. (TSX: GH, OTC Pink: GHIFF, WKN: A1H5MC, ISIN: CA36468B1040)Date: October 16, 2017Time: 5:42 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Gamehost Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 14:38:02
Fourth edition of the forum will take place on November 1 st -2 nd in Dubai
Organised by Dubai Chamber, the forum is set to attract over 1000 high profile delegates
Global Business Forum on Africa in Dubai to Host 5 Heads of State
Dubai Chamber
Ruba Abdel Halim, +97142028450
ruba.halim@dubaichamber.com
The 4th Global Business Forum on Africa is set to welcome five African heads of state, 12 ministers, and more than 1,000 top-level government and corporate decision-makers and industry experts when the event takes place on November 1st and 2nd, 2017, in Dubai.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201710160056
H.E. Hamad Buamim, President and CEO of the Dubai Chamber (Photo: AETOSWire)
The forum, organised by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, will be held under the theme Next Generation Africa. The two-day event will examine the current economic outlook for the continent, and explore prospects for its development, as well as investment opportunities and the potential for forging partnerships between African businesses and their UAE counterparts.
The event will bring together high-profile attendees such as H.E. Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda; H.E. Danny Faure, President of the Republic of Seychelles; H.E. Yoweri Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda; H.E. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, President of the Republic of Mauritius; and H.E. Edgar Lungu, President of Zambia; along with a long list of ministers, senior government officials, young African entrepreneurs, economic and industry experts.
H.E. Hamad Buamim, President and CEO of the Dubai Chamber, noted that the timing of the forum is ideal as Africa is currently witnessing a sizeable uptick in private-sector led development and investment opportunities.
This years Global Business Forum on Africa is drawing an unprecedented top-tier attendance, including distinguished African heads of state and ministers, to discuss a variety of key trends that are expected to drive Africas next phase of economic growth, as well as challenges and opportunities that fast-growing markets on the continent are experiencing, H.E. Buamim said.
The two-day event welcomes a host of ministers from various African countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and Zambia.
Editors note
Established in 1965, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry is a non-profit public entity, whose mission is to represent, support and protect the interests of the business community in Dubai by creating a favourable business environment, supporting the development of business, and by promoting Dubai as an international business hub.
*Source: AETOS Wire
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201710160056
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 12:30:14
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Banyan Gold Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Calgary, Alberta (FSCWire) - Banyan Gold Corp. (TSX Venture:BYN). has issued a press release with the following headline:High Grade Gold Demonstrated in Main Zone Surface Trench Results at Hyland Gold Project, YukonTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Banyan Gold Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Banyan Gold Corp.Source: Banyan Gold Corp. (TSX Venture: BYN)Date: October 16, 2017Time: 6:30 AM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Banyan Gold Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 05:38:01
LayerStack Launches CloudNet for a Higher Elasticity of Resources Management
LayerStack
Matthew Wu, +852 2139 7318
sales@layerstack.com
LayerStack, a Hong Kong based IaaS provider, released CloudNet as the new product category. CloudNet is an IT resource pooling cloud infrastructure that enables customized resources allocation in terms of SSD storage, vCPU, RAM, IP address and image storage. It serves as a pool of compute resources for multiple VMs across multiple datacenters in Hong Kong and Singapore. It also addresses different virtual machine requirements under the same control panel for centralized management. Users can enjoy high controllability in developing a fully customized cloud infrastructure in terms of specifications.
This resource pooling architecture supports multi-tenancy model with dedicated processing resources to facilitate different specification needs, said Matthew Wu, Product Engineering Manager of LayerStack. CloudNet starts at a reasonable price from US$75 per month with 8 vCPU, 16GB RAM, 400GB SSD storage, 4 IP addresses and 50GB image storage. On top of the default resources package, clients can also purchase additional resources separately according to specific needs.
Designed for agencies and system integrators by scalable resources management
CloudNet is designed for system integrators and resellers who require self-resource management. This provides clients with enhanced efficiency and management benefits includes:
Flexible location selection
Deploy VMs across multiple zones within the same region for applying the redundancy.
Deploy VMs across multiple zones within the same region for applying the redundancy. Instant provision
Deploy VM efficiently with standard OS templates or custom templates with your preferable VM configuration and data.
Deploy VM efficiently with standard OS templates or custom templates with your preferable VM configuration and data. Elastic and Agile
Instantly scale up, scale down or scale out the compute resources like vCPU and RAM for VMs. Upgrade/ downgrade only needs a soft reboot with all data remain the same.
Instantly scale up, scale down or scale out the compute resources like vCPU and RAM for VMs. Upgrade/ downgrade only needs a soft reboot with all data remain the same. Disaster recovery
Utilize image storage for rescuing or fixing system configuration and settings with free snapshot and Acronis Offsite Backup.
Utilize image storage for rescuing or fixing system configuration and settings with free snapshot and Acronis Offsite Backup. Secure communication
Allows private network between VMs across all data centers within the same region. Each server can communicate with private IP under 1Gb port.
For more information, please visit: https://www.layerstack.com/cloudnet
About LayerStack
LayerStack is an IaaS provider leveraging on hardware and networks to provide stable and high performance cloud solutions launched by Pacificnet Hosting Limited. LayerStack offers cloud solution from Hong Kong and Singapore Datacenters to SME, government, agencies, and major listed companies across Asia Pacific, Europe and the rest of the world.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201710150050
LayerStack launches CloudNet for a higher elasticity of resources management
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 12:34:26
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Abhishek Budholiya
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# 501 Words
Abhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531
A mass notification system is essentially a broadcast communications tool that contacts any number of people immediately with minimal effort on the part of the call initiator. A mass notification system is an integral component of an organizations emergency and routine communication capabilities. While these systems are most often associated with emergency notification for contacting employees during and after a disaster, mass notification dramatically improves an organizations operational efficiency and bottom line when implemented for day to day operations. A mass notification system provides effective communications to deliver time sensitive information in an emergency situation.Mass Notification Systems in Healthcare Market: DynamicsUtilization of mass notification system is most important for any business to ensure that their communication plan includes quick notification to all contacts for this is the groundwork for successful emergency response. Most notification systems are able to send voice messaging, text messaging and email messaging to entire organizations in a matter of minutes. The use of mass notification system allows real time communication. With advanced technology, these notifications offer real time follow up instruction, reports and assistance. With an automated notification system communication is consistent to a wide range of people. It supports the notification of all critical members within an enterprise and facilitates a timely gathering for discussion and immediate response. Although, there are chances that the mass notification system can have glitches. At times it is difficult to determine cost to value. While looking at any mass notification system it is important to consider the features that are included and what additional fees there may be, such as overage costs or setup fees.Request for Report TOC @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/14740 While mass notification is a very useful tool when emergency contact is required, most applications of the technology focus on more mundane, but equally critical business processes. These processes realize significant benefit from the use of mass notification, making any organization more efficient and making employees more productive.Mass Notification Systems in Healthcare Market: Region-wise OutlookRegionally, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa. North America is predictable to lead the market since there is presence of a large number of mass notification system vendors offering custom solutions to multiple industry verticals. Developing countries in Asia Pacific such as India, Russia, Brazil, South Africa and China are also witnessing the increasing inclination towards the use of mass notification systems.Request for Report Sample @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/14740 Mass Notification Systems in Healthcare Market: Key PlayersSome of the players in mass notification systems market are AtHoc, Inc., Desktop Alert, Inc., Eaton Corporation, Emergency Communications Network, Everbridge, Inc., Honeywell International, Inc., Lone Star Communications, Inc., Metis Secure Solutions, MIR3, and Siemens AG. The companies in this market are adopting various strategies like partnerships, collaboration, agreements, mergers and acquisitions, expansions, product enhancements and product deployment to increase their share and create a strong position in the global mass notification systems in healthcare market.
Future Market Insights
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 11:34:17
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# 585 Words
616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesMarketing Head+1-347-918-3531
Future Market Insights (FMI) announced the release of a latest report titled, POU Water Purifiers Market: MENA Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2014 - 2020. FMI estimates that the Point of Use (POU) water purifier market in Middle East and North Africa is expected to reach US$ 471 Mn at a CAGR of 7.6% from 2014 to 2020.Residential water purification system includes point of use water purifiers (POU), point of entry (POE) water purifiers, portable water purifiers. Moreover, the demand for POU water purifiers is high among consumers in MENA region as compared to POE and portable water purifiers.In the POU water purifiers market, products with high purification capabilities such as combination of reverse osmosis (RO) and Ultraviolet (UV) technologies are more preferred. It has also been observed that a majority of the demand is coming from urban centres in GCC when compared to the entire MENA region.View and Download TOC of Mena Pou Water Purifiers Market Research Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/mena-pou-water-purifiers-market/toc Market SegmentsThe POU water purifiers market is segmented on the basis of technology which includes RO, UV and media-based. RO technology based water purifiers segment is estimated to account for slightly over 40% of the total POU water purifiers market in MENA region in 2014. Media-based water purification, which is a conventional water purification technology has also witnessed technological advancements, and is estimated to display a CAGR of 9.3% during the forecast period, in terms of volume. The third technology, UV based water purifiers, is estimated to exhibit a sluggish growth rate during the forecast period due to its limitation in removing only organic contaminants from water. Additionally, UV-based water purifiers are also priced higher in comparison to media-based water purifiers and hence the product preference for UV based water purifiers is comparatively low.Region-wise, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Israel, Egypt and Algeria are the promising markets for POU water purifiers. In addition, a cumulative scenario has been highlighted for rest of MENA (includes smaller countries like Kuwait, Jordan etc.). Among the aforementioned regions, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is estimated to be the prominent market for POU water purifiers, followed by Turkey, due to its growing population and rapid urbanization, and increasing awareness for safe drinking water forecast period.In addition, penetration of bottled water is a challenge for the POU water purifiers market in Anatolia. As a result, Anatolia is estimated to demonstrate a sluggish growth rate in the near future. Furthermore, POU water purifiers market in UAE is anticipated to reach 149.2 thousand units by 2020, exhibiting a CAGR of 10% between 2014 and 2020.Request and Download Sample Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-ma-30 Drivers and RestraintsDeteriorating water quality, rising cost of bottled water, increasing population coupled with increasing per capita income are some of the prominent factors which will catalyse the point of use water purifiers in the region. Though the MENA market is attractive in terms of absolute dollar opportunity, low awareness about safe drinking water and product unavailability are major challenges for the MENA POU water purifier market.Browse Complete Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/mena-pou-water-purifiers-market Competitive LandscapeKey players operating in the MENA water purifier market are LG, Eureka Forbes, Strauss Water, Panasonic, WaterLife and Coolplex. The report sheds light on their key growth strategies and recent developments. In addition, the report also discusses the value chain followed by multinational companies in MENA for POU water purifiers.Buy Full Mena Pou Water Purifiers Market Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/30
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 12:15:30
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# 592 Words
Abhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531
Chemotherapy is widely used as to target the neoplastic cells. However, this therapy is effective against most of the cancer, but the cells of the hematopoietic system that produces billions of blood cells needed daily are highly sensitive to this therapy and result in loss of blood cell population. This condition is known as the chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. In chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, the body has a low level of neutrophils which are types of white blood cells. Neutrophils are bodys defense system against infections. Neutrophils fight against infection by destroying fungi, bacteria or yeast. Neutropenia occurs in about half of the people receiving chemotherapy. People with chemotherapy-induced neutropenia are most likely to develop infection and fever. It can also lead to delay in treatment and reduction in chemotherapy dose intensity. Chemotherapy-induced neutropenia is most likely to occur in cancer that directly affects the bone marrow such as leukemia. Chemotherapy-induced neutropenia patients mostly require hospitalization and cost of the treatment also increase with the anti-infective treatment.Chemotherapy-Induced Neutropenia Treatment Market: Drivers and RestraintsChemotherapy is the most preferred choice of treatment for cancer. Increasing use of chemotherapy will drive the growth of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia treatment market. But due to the patent expiration of the most preferred drugs for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia and emerge of various biosimilars, market revenue is expected to reduce. But due to increase in the frequency use of biosimilars this condition will be balanced.Request for Report TOC @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/14626 Chemotherapy-Induced Neutropenia Treatment Market: OverviewChemotherapy-induced neutropenia treatment market is expected to show the significant growth over the forecast period. Increasing prevalence of the cancer and chemotherapy being the first line of treatment for the most of the cancer, sales of these drugs will increase. But with the patent expiration of the highest revenue generating drugs of this therapeutic area and emergence of the biosimilars, revenue of the chemotherapy-induced neutropenia treatment market is expected to decrease. Antibiotic therapy is the most preferred line of treatment for the infection occurred due to chemotherapy-induces neutropenia. Colony-stimulating factor therapy is expected to be the highest revenue generating segment in the chemotherapy-induced neutropenia treatment market as this therapy helps in the production of functionally active neutrophils.Chemotherapy-Induced Neutropenia Treatment Market: Region Wise OutlookGeographically, chemotherapy-induced neutropenia treatment market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa. North America is the highest revenue generating market for the chemotherapy-induced neutropenia treatment due to the presence of the key players and better reimbursement policies. Better healthcare infrastructure is also driving the growth of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia treatment market. Followed by which is Europe. Asia Pacific market is expected to be fastest growing chemotherapy-induced neutropenia treatment market owning to the patent expiration of the top selling drugs and biosimilars production. India is expected to be most attractive market over the forecast period due to the presence of the strong generic manufacturing companies. Improving healthcare infrastructure is also expected to drive the growth of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia treatment market in this region.Request for Report Sample @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/14626 Chemotherapy-Induced Neutropenia Treatment Market: Key PlayerSome of the market participant in the global chemotherapy-induced neutropenia treatment market are Amgen, Inc., Sanofi, Novartis AG, Baxter International, Inc, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd, Apotex, Inc., Dr. Reddys Laboratory Ltd., Biogenomics Limited, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc., NAL Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Coherus BioSciences, Inc. and Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Most of the generic manufacturers are focusing on the production of the biosimilars. Companies are focusing on the collaboration strategy to market these drugs in different countries.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 12:05:42
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# 747 Words
Abhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531
Group of diseases that tend to mutate the cells in the body resulting into uncontrolled division of cells forming a mass or lump called as tumor. Cancer is generally named after the body part from where the tumor originates. The breast cancer originates in the milk production glands that are present in breast tissues called to be as lobules and also originate in the ducts that are connected to lobules. Cancer that originates in the lobules are known to be lobular carcinoma while which begins in the ducts is ductal carcinoma. According to the report published by ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) in 2014, ductal carcinomas contribute to about 75% of all breast cancers. The breast cancer that spreads beyond the ducts or lobules is known to be infiltrating ductal or invasive carcinoma. For invasive cancer, a hospital laboratory test is carried out, wherein HER2 levels are measured particularly, in a sample of breast tissue obtained from a biopsy or surgery.HER2 is also known to be as ERBB2 which is Erb-B2 receptor tyrosine kinase 2. HER2 or ERBB2, is human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 which plays an important role in view of breast cancer. HER2 or ERBB2 gene is responsible for coding HER2 or ERBB2 proteins which are the receptors on the breast. Three common test employed to test for HER2 levels are chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH), immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). Depending on the levels of HER2 or ERBB2 in the laboratory test breast cancer is classified as HER2 or ERBB2 positive or HER2 negative breast cancer. In HER2 or ERBB2 receptors in a normal breast maintains growth, division and repairing while in HER2 or ERBB2 positive breast cancer over-expression of HER2 or ERBB2 is seen. In case of HER2 negative breast cancer the levels of HER2 protein is in normal. About 80% of all breast cancers in the U.S are diagnosed as HER2 negative breast cancer, as reported by ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) in a clinical practice guidelines update published for HER2 negative breast cancer in 2014. HER2-negative breast cancer is most common among patients with metastatic breast cancer.Request for Report TOC @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/14566 The treatment for HER2 negative breast cancer includes chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and hormonal or endocrine therapy. Hormonal or endocrine therapy is generally an adjunct therapy given to patients after surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. For treatment of breast cancer receptor testing plays an important role for deciding the treatment for the patient. HER2 negative breast cancer can be ER (Estrogen Receptor) positive if it is tested positive for estrogen receptors; PR (Progesterone Receptor) positive if it is tested positive for progesterone receptor; while breast cancer can be TNBC (Triple Negative Breast Cancer) if there is absence of all three receptors i.e. HER2 or ERBB2, estrogen and progesterone.Generally hormonal therapy is employed for HER2 negative breast cancer. Hormonal therapy works on two basic wherein hormonal drugs or medications that brings down the estrogen level in body or the growth and function of breast cells supported estrogen is blocked. Thus, hormonal therapy is helpful only if the breast cancer cells have hormone receptors that can be targeted in the therapy. But in cases such as TNBC (Triple Negative Breast Cancer) wherein the breast cancer cells are negative for estrogen, progesterone as well as for HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2), the hormonal therapy is of no use for treatment.The driver for HER2 negative breast cancer treatment market is the high incidence and growing prevalence of breast cancer in women worldwide. Also there are many drugs in pipeline for the treatment of HER2 negative breast cancer and for treatment of breast cancer in general. While the restraints in HER2 negative breast cancer treatment market is the side effects of treatment such as chemotherapy; there is a threat of reoccurrence of the tumors in majority of treatments; and treatment of cancer requires few or more treatments together which is stressful and expensive for the patient.Request for Report Sample @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/14566 On the basis of regional presence, global HER2 negative breast cancer treatment market is segmented into five key regions viz. North America (NA), Latin America (LA), Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Some of the major players in global HER2 negative breast cancer treatment market are Array BioPharma, AstraZeneca plc., CELGENE CORPORATION, Eli Lilly and Company, Novartis AG, AbbVie Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Pfizer Inc., etc.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 12:35:16
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+1-347-918-3531
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# 551 Words
Abhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531
Taste masking techniques are applied to overcome or mask the unpleasant and bitter taste of active pharmaceutical ingredients to achieve patient acceptability and compliance. Oral administration of bitter and unpleasant tasting drugs is often the biggest challenge for pediatric and geriatric patient groups. Unless the active ingredient is tasteless or does not have any unpleasant taste, taste-masking plays a key role in the success of a final solid oral dosage form. The efficiency of taste-masking is often a key determinant for the success of specialized dosage forms like orally disintegrating tablets and films, and chewable tablets. The mechanisms of taste-masking techniques often rely on two major approaches the first is to add excipients like sweeteners, flavors, and effervescent agents to mask the unpleasant taste, and the second is to avoid the contact of bitter and unpleasant drugs with taste buds.Pharmaceutical Excipients for Taste Masking Market: DynamicsDue to advancement in drug delivery system, there has been a need of novel excipients to fulfill the multi-functional role like affecting release pattern, improvement of bioavailability and stability, taste masking and enhancement of patient acceptability. For these purpose researchers have been investigating on both natural and synthetic excipients. However, disadvantages of synthetic excipients like toxicity, expensive, environmental issues, and incompatibility can led to give more emphasis on extensive investigation of natural excipients. Some of polymers, preservatives, penetration enhancers and sweeteners from various plant sources are also being reviewed and discussed. Herbal excipients are preferable as they not only full filling their role in formulation but provide health benefits by discarding the hazards of synthetic chemicals. More research effort should be provided for investigation on materials to innovate no-toxic, biocompatible, patient acceptable, cost effective, eco-friendly excipient, suitable to be incorporated in pharmaceutical preparations.Request for Report TOC @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/14743 Stimuli responsive drug delivery systems incorporating ion sensitive and pH sensitive polymers have been developed for masking bitter API tastes. Techniques like nano hybridizing and wet spherical agglomeration have also been used for taste masking Lycopodium derived microcapsules have been used to taste mask.Pharmaceutical Excipients for Taste Masking Market: Region-wise OutlookRegionally, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa. Presently the US, Japan and UK together account for 30 to 35 percent of the global demand for pharmaceutical excipients. The Indian pharmaceutical excipient industry has also come a long way since the time of independence when the multinational corporations dominated the pharma industry. Implementing taste-masking programs into the drug-manufacturing process is crucial to avoid losses due to noncompliance. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are faced with challenges in life-cycle management, cost control, global regulations, and patent protection.Request for Report Sample @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/14743 Pharmaceutical Excipients for Taste Masking Market: Key PlayersSome of the players in the pharmaceutical excipients for taste masking market are Adare Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Asahi Kasei Corporation, Ashland, Inc., Azelis, BASF SE, Capsugel Belgium, Dow Chemical Company, Gattefosse, SPI Pharma. Both regulators and industry groups are consequently taking steps to establish process for ensuring the safety and quality of excipients across the entire excipient supply chain. Also, leveraging upon the cheap labor available, the manufacturers in the emerging countries are producing competitive products at lower costs which will provide a momentum to the growth of the pharmaceutical excipients market globally.
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PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 12:05:17
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Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb: http://www.persistencemarketresearch.comAssociate Consultant8009610353
Photonic ICs Market: Market OverviewThe Photonic ICs are also known as integrated optoelectronics devices or planer light wave circuits. The rising need for the high transmission capacity of the optical fibers is the primary parameter responsible for the popularity of the photonic ICs in the industry applications. The data generated at the organizational operations is increasing day by day with the globalization of the businesses, with the deployment of photonic ICs in the systems the operations speed of a large amount of data is increasing drastically. The photonic ICs are formed using the integration of the variety of material systems which includes electro-optic crystals such as silica on silicon, lithium niobate, Silicon on insulator, semiconductor and various polymers materials. These are used to make semiconductor lasers such as GaAs and InP. The demand for the Photonic ICs is rising day by day with the increasing request of the compact hardware solutions in the circuits. The Photonic ICs are widely used by the manufacturers as well as system designers to combine the various electronic components such as electronic components, optical amplifiers, multiplexers, lasers, modulators, etc. The Photonic ICs are easily leading to the size reduction of the components and reduction in the cost of the products.A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/18070 Photonic ICs Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe fact that with the deployment of the Photonic ICs is resulting in the compact size of the equipment and cost reduction this factor is the prime factor responsible for the growth of the global market for the Photonic ICs. The manufacturers and users both are mostly focused on the price factor and the photonic ICs helps in cost reduction for both is contributing to the increasing popularity of the photonic ICs.The photonic integrated circuits are one of the major components responsible for the increased optical performance and reliability. The Photonic ICs also results in the less power consumptions by devices. On the other hand, the lack of awareness about the photonic ICs is one of the major restraining factors for the growth of the global Photonic ICs market.Global Photonic ICs Market: Market SegmentationGlobal Photonic ICs Market can be divided into three segments, based on raw materials used, components, and applications.Segmentation on basis of raw material used in Photonic ICs market:The segments in Photonic ICs market by raw material used include:Indium PhosphideGallium ArsenideLithium NiobateSiliconSilicon-on-InsulatorOthersSegmentation on basis of Components for Photonic ICs Market:The major segments of Photonic ICs market on basis of components include:LasersModulatorsDetectorsAttenuatorsMultiplexers/De-MultiplexersOptical AmplifiersSegmentation on basis of Applications of Photonic ICs Market:The major segments of Photonic ICs market on basis of application include:BiomedicalQuantum computingOptical Signal ProcessingOptical CommunicationSensorsGlobal Photonic ICs: Regional OutlookThe global Photonic ICs market is divided into seven regions as North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East and Africa. Among the given regions, North America is dominating the global market for Photonic ICs due to the higher presence of Photonic ICs vendors as well as users in this region followed by Western Europe, Eastern. The developing regions such as APEJ and Japan are predicted to grow at the highest CAGR owing to the rapid industrialization and technological adaptation in developing countries present in this region such as India and China. These countries are more focused on reducing the manufacturing cost of the electronic equipment as well as developing products at lower cost for the customers. The photonic ICs market in MEA region is expected to grow at moderate CAGR.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/18070 Global Photonic ICs: Competitive LandscapeSome of the key vendors of the Photonic ICs includes APIC Corporation, Infinera Corporation, NeoPhotonics Corporations, PhotonIC Corporation, etc. These players are consistently focused on developing new and advanced ICs for improvising the applications portfolio.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 12:45:14
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Abhishek Budholiya+1-347-918-3531
Consumer health is one of the area which can more dramatically reshaped by the internet of things. Internet of things (IoT) medical devices or web connect medical devices have revolutionized the medical and healthcare industry in terms of delivering advanced and improved medical care thus leading to better clinical outcomes. Web connected medical devices offer tremendous benefits including remote monitoring with the use of sensors network, actuators and other mobile communication devices called as web connected medical devices. Web connected medical device is a cloud based technology wherein patients vital parameters transmitted to the cloud based platforms where it is stored, aggregated and analyzed.Advantages of using web connecting technology includes timely management of the patients medical condition thus reducing the overall mortality rate, reduced clinics visits, reduced hospital and emergency admission. Leading manufacturers of the medical devices are increasingly taking advantage of internet of things (IoT) in order to deliver the solutions in more efficient manner. Various types of web connected medical devices that area currently in use in medical practice include, insulin pumps, asthma inhalers, pacemakers, glucose monitoring devices, infusion pumps, blood pressure monitors etc. One of the primary advantage of web connected medical devices is extended ability for continuous remote monitoring of the patient struggling with a chronic medical condition. Web connected medical devices allow care for pediatric and the older population group, deliver personal health and fitness management and chronic diseases management.Request for Report TOC @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/14809 As the geriatric population is increasing there is an immense need of delivering in home medical care not only to reduce unwanted hospital visits but also to align with consumers preferences in order to live healthy while allowing their independence at home. Furthermore, rising prevalence of chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease such as heart failure, diabetes and hypertension and increasing number of obese population are boosting the demand for technologically advanced remote patient monitoring solutions. Web connected medical devices enhance self-care options capturing early signs of any medical condition, document patient engagement, and collect health-related data resulting in substantial savings for payers and patients. The global market for web connected medical devices is expected to grow in popularity as increasing number of hospitals leverage technologies in multiple ways so as to increase the efficiency. Several challenges in the integration of web connected medical devices is difficulty in managing diversity and interoperability of the medical device, issue with regards to the data integration, scaling, data volume and performance. Furthermore, lack of dedicated tools to secure the data and inadequate medical expertise and reluctance to adoption of such devices in the under developed countries are few of the factors hampering the market growth of web connected medical devices over the forecast period.Capability of assessing, monitoring and obtaining real time data of patient's medical condition, physiological parameters and activities, and in turn delivering precise care by collecting valuable data from patients and clinicians thus improving patient care and overall operations, is expected to boost the web connected medical device market in the near future.By product type, the global web-connected medical devices market is segmented into vital signs monitoring devices, medication monitoring devices, safety monitoring devices and activity monitoring devicesBy modality, the global web-connected medical devices market is segmented into wearable web-connected medical devices, and non-wearable web connected devices.By end, user the global web-connected medical devices market is segmented into, hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, specialty clinics and home care settings.By regional presence, global web-connected medical devices market is segmented into five key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America will continue to dominate the global web-connected medical devices market followed by Europe. Increasing The US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) efforts to encourage the leading medical device manufacturers of web connected medical devices to actively monitor their software for bugs is expected to fuel the market growth in the U.S. Therefore, in 2016 FDA issued guidelines outlining the web connected medical device security. Also, increasing efforts of medical device manufacturers to incorporate connectivity to their formally unconnected medical devices will further accelerate the market growth and for connected medical devices. Rapid adoption of mobile health technology and increasing health conscious population will drive the market growth in the near term. Also, countries like Brazil, Mexico, China, India and Japan have the largest patient pool with chronic medical condition thus driving the demand for web-connected medical devices. Hesitation with respect to the data privacy concerns and reluctance to spend on such devices is expected to hamper the market growth of web connected medical devices in African countries.Request for Report Sample @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/14809 Some of the major players operating in global web-connected medical devices market are Medtronic, Philips Healthcare (Koninklijke Philips N.V.), GE Healthcare (General Electric Company), St. Jude Medical, LLC, Omron Corporation and Smiths Group plc. Companies are involved in collaboration agreements for R&D to exploit maximum potential.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 09:27:01
Short-Term Loan in Aggregate Value of EUR 200,000,000 Concluded between the Digi Group and a Syndicate of Banks
For Digi Communications NV
Serghei Bulgac
Phone no: +4031 400 4444
ipo.relations@digi-communications.ro
investor.relations@rcs-rds.ro
The Company informs the market and its investors that, on 13 October 2017, RCS & RDS S.A. (the Companys subsidiary in Romania RCS&RDS), DIGI Tavkozlesi es Szolgaltato Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag (RCS & RDS S.A.s subsidiary in Hungary Digi Kft.), as the borrowers, the Company, as a guarantor, and Citibank N.A., London Branch and ING Bank N.V. as the arrangers, have concluded a short-term loan with two facilities in the aggregate amount of EUR 200,000,000 (the 2017 Bridge Loan).
One facility, in amount of EUR 140,000,000, was concluded for the purpose of financing the acquisition by Digi Kft. of the Hungarian telecommunications operator Invitel Tavkozlesi Zrt., with respect to the terms of which we have informed the market and the investors on 21 July 2017.
The other facility, in amount of EUR 60,000,000, was concluded for general corporate purposes.
The 2017 Bridge Loan has a maturity of 12 months. It can be extended for an additional period of up to 6 or 12 months.
For details regarding the current report, please access the official websites designated of Digi: http://investors.rcs-rds.ro and www.digi-communications.ro.
About Digi Communications NV
Digi is the parent holding company of RCS & RDS, a leading provider of pay TV and telecommunications services in Romania and Hungary. In addition, RCS & RDS provides mobile services as an MVNO to the large Romanian communities living in Spain and Italy.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201710160055
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 23:39:23
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FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Stans Energy Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - Stans Energy Corp. (TSX Venture:HRE). has issued a press release with the following headline:Stans Energy Receives Favourable Jurisdiction RulingTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Stans Energy Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Stans Energy Corp.Source: Stans Energy Corp. (TSX Venture: HRE, OTCQB: HREEF, WKN: A0RD0N, ISIN: CA8547221058)Date: October 16, 2017Time: 5:39 PM EDT--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Stans Energy Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 14:03:01
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 16, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment, Inc. (ASSIA). ASSIA and Telefonica announce widespread deployment of ASSIA's GPON Expresse software across countries in South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru. GPON Expresse manages gigabit optical broadband networks with diagnostics for improved network performance and service delivery to Telefonica's fiber-based subscribers.
GPON Expresse adds to the suite of ASSIA software products currently deployed at Telefonica in Latin America: DSL Expresse for diagnostics and optimization of high speed DSL networks, and ClearView for precise network analysis and recommendations for customer care agents and field technicians.
With the GPON Expresse deployment, Telefonica can now benefit from ClearView support across both copper and fiber networks. By also incorporating ClearView support for Wi-Fi, operators can have complete end-to-end management across their access and in-home networks.
Eduardo de Santos, Director of Customer Service Operations at Telefonica Global CTIO has recently informed that "Telefonica has deployed ASSIA Expresse and ClearView products to effectively manage our high speed copper networks while providing exceptional customer care support. With the addition of GPON Expresse, we now have a set of unified subscriber care tools that seamlessly support our network transformation to fiber, further enhancing our ability to deliver excellent subscriber care across our entire Telefonica network."
John Cioffi, ASSIA Inc. Chief Executive Officer, Redwood City, California has also explained that "ASSIA has been supporting Telefonica in Latin America since 2010 with its DSL Expresse solution. The recent incorporation of GPON Expresse is a step forward to have a comprehensive and real time view of the subscriber loop that will improve Telefonica capabilities at their Assistance Centers. Expresse solutions provide access-network Quality of Experience monitoring, which is critical for reducing proactive maintenance and service-operation center costs."
About Telefonica
Telefonica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world by market capitalization and number of customers with a comprehensive offering and quality of connectivity that is delivered over world class fixed, mobile and broadband networks. As a growing company it prides itself on providing a differential experience based both on its corporate values and a public position that defends customer interests.
The company has a significant presence in 21 countries and 346 million accesses around the world. Telefonica has a strong presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy.
Telefonica is a 100% listed company, with more than 1.5 million direct shareholders. Its share capital currently comprises 5,192,131,686 ordinary shares traded on the Spanish Stock Market and on those in London, New York, Lima, and Buenos Aires
About ASSIA
ASSIA is a trusted partner with the leading market share of management and optimization software solutions for global broadband and residential Wi-Fi networks. ASSIA's Expresse broadband system enables Internet Service Providers to save significant money on subscriber care while increasing customer satisfaction and adoption of additional revenue-generating service tiers. ASSIA's ClearView software provides both broadband access and Wi-Fi connection analysis and recommends appropriate steps for call-center agents and field technicians to effectively and efficiently resolve network issues. ASSIA's CloudCheck Wi-Fi optimization software enables service providers and enterprises to deliver quality digital experiences over residential Wi-Fi networks. ASSIA has more than 100 million broadband households under contract worldwide. For more information, visit www.assia-inc.com.
Expresse, ClearView, and CloudCheck are registered trademarks of ASSIA.
"ASSIA" is an acronym for "Adaptive Spectrum and Signal Alignment, Incorporated."
Media Contact:
Kevin Mukai
ASSIA
(650) 654-3400
pr@assia-inc.com
This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: ASSIA Inc. via Globenewswire
Telemedicine involves the use of information technology and telecommunication for the delivery of healthcare services such as health assessments or consultations over the telecommunications infrastructure.
Telemedicine Market
PR-Inside.com: 2017-10-16 12:38:03
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Telemedicine involves the use of information technology and telecommunication for the delivery of healthcare services such as health assessments or consultations over the telecommunications infrastructure. It helps the healthcare professional to diagnose, evaluate and treat patients without the need for an in-person visit and are also very useful to save lives at time of critical care and emergency situations. Telemedicine is of great help for distant rural areas as they help in overcoming the distance barriers to avail medical services at the time of requirement. Telemedicine enables the doctors to be connected through a variety of electronic means, including video conferencing, email and electronic messaging platforms. This reduces the overall cost of medical care for patients and increase healthcare accessibility.Seeing the potential that the telemedicine provides, the World Health Organization (WHO) established global observatory for eHealth (GOe) to analyze the benefits that information and communication technologies can bring to healthcare supporting patients wellbeing. In 2009, the global observatory was assigned to determine the status of telemedicine at the national, regional and global level. The survey examined the four fields of telemedicine which includes telepathology, teledermatogy, telepsychology and teleradiology along with four mechanisms that will help in the development of telemedicine across all nations.The conventional form of telemedicine that involved the use of telephone and radio have improved by the involvement of videotelephony, advanced diagnostic methods supported by various applications and tele medical devices to support in-home care.Request For Sample Copy@Telemedicine market taxonomy:On the basis of services provided, the telemedicine market is classified into:Tele-monitoring,Tele-education,Tele-consultation,Tele-training,Tele-care,Tele-surgeryOn the basis of application, the telemedicine market is classified into:Neurology,Orthopedics,Emergency care,Cardiology,Dermatology,Internal medicine,OthersOn the basis of end user, the telemedicine market is classified into:Hospitals,Clinics,OthersBurgeoning growth of the internet infrastructure and smartphone proliferation creates a conducive environment for growth of the global telemedicine market. Also, the rise in demand for personalized healthcare augments market growth. In 2013, American Telemedicine Association (ATA) stated the cost effectiveness of telemedicine through various research outcomes. For instance, a research was conducted in 2011 with implementation of Health Buddy Program which integrated a telehealth tool for chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries. It was found that patients who used this telemedicine had significant savings than patients who did not use it. A similar study was done in 2012 in New Mexico, which proved that costs in Hospital at Home were 19% lower compared to care in hospitals for similar inpatientsMore than 15 million Americans received medical care through telemedicine in 2016, according to American Telemedicine Association (ATA). This number is expected to grow further by 30% in 2017. Alongside ATA also issued several acts such as CHRONIC Care Act and CONNECT for Health Act in 2017 to support the growth of telemedicine across all nations. The Assembly Health Committee of New Jersey recently in 2017 legally defined the practice of telemedicine, user eligible for it and technology that can be used. This is expected to boost the telemedicine market in the region significantly during the forecast period. Another development in North Carolina allows professionals to video monitor and collect data on every far flung ICU patient through TeleICU. Furthermore, telemedicine developments are also observed in Latin America. The Government of Paraiba, Brazil introduced a telemedicine project for remote screening of hearth defects in children in 2015.Alongside there are various medical policies available that support the telemedicine services. For instance, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) expanded its Medicare coverage for services like consultation, individual psychotherapy and pharmacologic management on 18th May 2017.Lack of resources, infrastructure and high technological cost may hamper the market growth in emerging economies such as India, Brazil, and African countries.Strategies implemented by market players to tap the emerging markets:Key players in telemedicine market are Siemens Healthcare, McKesson, Cardio Net Inc., Cerner, IBM Corporation, Medtronic, Inc, Philips Healthcare Honeywell Life Care Solutions, GE Healthcare, AMD Telemedicine and Cisco Systems. Market players are implementing various strategies to gain share in the telemedicine market. For instance, Doc+, a Russian digital health company combined telemedicine with digital-enabled house calls through which doctors can offer consultations, sick notes, prescriptions, and a number of diagnostic tests over electronic platform in 2016.Furthermore, in 2017, ZH healthcare collaborated with Curavi Health Telemedicine Company to deliver workflow and electronic health records (EHR) solutions that will help deliver telemedicine solutions and physician care to the nursing-home bedside.Get More Details On this Report:About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@ coherentmarketinsights.com
The Event Manager, IPAD Nigeria Mining and Quarrying Forum, Elodie Delagneau, says no fewer than 600 mining investors are expected to attend the second Nigeria Mining Week beginning from Tuesday in Abuja.
Mr. Delagneau disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
The Mining Week is being organised by the Miners Association of Nigeria, in collaboration with the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and IPAD Nigeria.
The event, which commenced on Monday as a pre-conference, will end on October 18.
The high level conference and expo would also provide the industry with access to the latest mining technologies and services.
A new feature event, called the Dragons Den, would give small scale miners and junior mining licence holders the opportunity to pitch their prospective investors at todays event.
She said that 20 countries from Europe, including South Africa, Ghana and Germany have registered to attend this years event.
She explained that more than 120 investors had arrived and were attending the pre-conference, adding that it was a good omen that the event would was more promising, compared to the first edition.
The event is for Nigerian mining professionals such as mining operators, service providers; we also have exhibitors and mining investors that came from South Africa to invest in the Nigeria mining.
This years mining week will be different from 2016 edition because of the turnout and calibre of people that have registered today; investors now trust the Nigerian mining sector as a place to invest, she said.
She said Nigerias new mining roadmap and regulations had brought tremendous development to the Nigerian economy, adding that some investors had been able to access funds through the ministry.
Todays event is the Dragons day, where mining investors present their projects to a panel of judges, financiers and consultants on how they can get partnership and financial assistance to boost their businesses.
She said the week would not just be only presentations but round-table, where mining investors could meet and discuss how to assist one another.
The Chief Executive Officers, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, and the Miners Association of Nigeria would meet at the event to tackle challenges facing the sector.
There are exhibition stands where both local and foreign investors, consultants and financial institutions would showcase their products, equipment and expertise among others.
(NAN)
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The Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Sunday evening hosted a well attended special Lagos
Jump event at the New Afrika Shrine to round off Felabration 2017 in honour of the 79th posthumous birthday of Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
The governor, who had earlier in the day unveiled an effigy of the late Afrobeat legend erected at the Allen Avenue Roundabout, led top officials of the State Government and other special guests of honour to grace the Special Lagos Jump to climax the 2017 Felabration.
Giving an opening remark, Felas daughter, Yeni Kuti thanked the Lagos State Government for supporting this years edition of the event, saying that it was an honour done to the entire Fela family.
She specifically thanked Governor Ambode for personally gracing the Special Lagos Jump at the Afrika Shrine, noting that he was the first sitting Governor to do so in official capacity.
I sent the Governor an email requesting for support for Felabration 2017 and he responded immediately. I was shocked. I met him (Governor) for the first time two weeks ago, but he has proved that he is an action Governor, she said.
Also speaking, Afrobeat star and son of the late icon, Femi Kuti, thanked the governor for the honour done to the family, just as he urged him to continue the developmental strides and purposeful leadership in the State.
Your Excellency, we wish you good governance, we wish you prosperity in your leadership and we do hope this State can be satisfactory to all citizens because I believe that is your ambition, Femi said.
The Guinness Book of Records holder, who got a standing ovation for his dexterity on the saxophone, thrilled the audience with some of his hit songs as well as a special rendition of Felas hit song Water No Get Enemy, to the excitement of the guests.
He also invited the Governor and members of the top table to the floor to try out some dance steps
Other artistes who performed include the Osinachi crooner, Humblesmith, Nneka, Felas youngest son, Seun, among others.
Among those who graced the event include the Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, ace movie producer, Kunle Afolayan, lawyer and rights activist, Femi Falana, former Lagos State Deputy Governor, Femi Pedro, Pat Utomi, Managing Director, Terra Kulture, Mrs. Bolanle Austen-Peters, among other dignitaries.
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Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on Monday accused the Kenyan police of killing 33 people in the capital during a crackdown following elections in August.
In a report, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said that excessive force by police against protesters and residents in strongholds of opposition leader Raila Odinga caused the deaths in Nairobi.
President Uhuru Kenyatta defeated Mr. Odinga in the August 8 election and days of protests followed.
The Supreme Court last month voided the election citing procedural irregularities and ordered a re-run, which is to be held on Oct. 26.
Researchers found that although police behaved appropriately in some instances, in many others they shot or beat protesters to death, the report said.
The report is likely to bolster the case of Kenyan activists and rights groups who accuse police of brutality and extrajudicial killings but say few officers are charged and convictions are extremely rare.
Police spokesman Charles Owino did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police have said only looters and thugs were killed or injured in the violence.
The report said a nine-year-old was shot dead while standing on a balcony and a woman who was eight months pregnant fainted from inhaling teargas and was trampled to death.
The parents of a six-month-old baby told Reuters during the violence their child was clubbed by police in her home and died from brain trauma at a hospital several days later.
Mr. Odinga withdrew last week from the re-run saying the vote would not be fair, leaving Mr. Kenyatta as the only candidate. The president said the election would proceed.
Political uncertainty has blunted growth in Kenya, a Western ally that has East Africas richest economy.
For the past two weeks, police used tear gas to disperse opposition demonstrations held twice weekly in the countrys three biggest cities.
The protesters had been calling on the election board to make reforms to ensure a fair poll.
On Thursday the government banned demonstrations in the central business district of Nairobi, the coastal city of Mombasa and the western city of Kisumu.
A group of UN human rights experts called for the governments ban on protests to be lifted and denounced a pattern of police brutality in response to recent demonstrations.
The report brings the nationwide number of killings by police after the August 8 vote to more than 45. Human Rights Watch last month documented 12 killings by police in western Kenya, the main opposition stronghold.
The country receives substantial financial support for its security services from the United States, Britain and other international donors. (Reuters/NAN)
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A Federal High Court Lagos, on Monday, overruled a no-case submission by former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Patrick Akpobolokemi, charged with N2.6 billion fraud.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had on December 4, 2015, arraigned Mr. Akpobolokemi alongside five others, for allegedly diverting N2.6 billion from the coffers of NIMASA between December 2013 and May 2015.
EFCC claimed the funds were approved by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan for the implementation of a security project.
Also charged along with Mr. Akpobolokemi are: Ezekiel Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche, Governor Juan, Blockz and Stonz Ltd and Al-Kenzo Logistic Ltd.
The accused had pleaded not guilty to the 22 charges pressed against them.
The prosecution had then opened its case and during trial, called a total of 12 witnesses and tendered 77 exhibits in a bid to establish its case.
After the prosecution closed its case, the accused, through their lawyers, filed no-case submissions, contending that the prosecution failed to established a prima facie case against them to warrant their entering any defence.
They had urged the court to uphold the no case submission and discharge the accused.
Delivering his ruling on Monday, the trial judge, Justice Ibrahim Buba noted that a plethora of cases had been cited by learned counsel in arguing their application for a no case submission.
Mr. Buba, however, pointed out that in delivering ruling on such no case submission the court is enjoined to keep its ruling as short as possible.
He said: There are a plethora of cases listed by counsel, but the court is enjoined not to write its ruling as if it is writing its final judgment, but must keep its ruling as short as possible.
Mr. Buba held that the charge was before the court and its ingredients are clear.
The court therefore, cannot see the fuse in the argument that the prosecution has not made out a prima facie case against the defendants.
When a judge is faced with a ruling on a no case submission, it is permissible for the ruling to be brief and simply read: you have a case to answer.
Consequently, the no case submission fails and is hereby overruled.
The court therefore, adjourned the case to Oct. 30, Nov. 7 and Nov. 9 for the defence to open its case.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that in arguing Mr. Akpobolokemis no-case submission, his lawyer, Joseph Nwobike, had contended that the EFCC failed to link his client with the alleged diversion of funds from NIMASA.
He added that his signature to such effect was never shown to the court, as such the first accused could not be held liable because he did not approve the security project and money disbursed.
Mr. Nwobike had also described the evidence given against the accused by prosecution witness, as mere hearsay with no legal weight.
He, had therefore, urged the court to come to the conclusion, that the first accused cannot be called upon to enter any defence, because no prima facie case had been established against him.
Other defence counsels had also made their arguments on their no case submission.
In response, the prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo, maintained that the testimonies of the 12 witnesses and 77 exhibits tendered had successfully linked Mr. Akpobolokemi to the alleged fraud.
He had argued that being the head and chief accounting officer of NIMASA at the time of the alleged fraud, Mr. Akpobolokemi could not by any stretch of imagination, claim to be innocent.
The prosecutor had further argued that even if it was the former president that approved the security project, Mr. Akpobolokemi was the head of NIMASA at the time, and constituted a committee to handle the project and also approved its funds.
He further submitted that the prosecution had established that, rather than its intended purpose, the funds were illegally converted to the personal use of the accused.
In the 22 count charges, the EFCC alleged that the accused induced the Federal Government to approve and deliver to NIMASA the sum of N795 million under false pretence and that the sum represented the cost for the implementation of the Security Code in Nigeria.
The alleged offence contravened the provisions of Section 8 (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
(NAN)
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Top officials at Royal Dutch Shell have been charged in Italy for their alleged roles in the $1.3 billion Malabu Oil scandal, Italian prosecutors said Friday.
Although the full list of the newly-charged suspects has not been disclosed, Global Witness quoted Milan Prosecutors Office as confirming that it included Malcom Brinded, second most senior official at Shell when the controversial deal was struck in 2011.
Barnaby Pace of the UK-based Global Witness told PREMIUM TIMES that the Shell executives would be arraigned alongside others that have been identified by Italian prosecutors as co-conspirators in the Malabu fraud.
Although Shell acknowledged it had prior knowledge that the deal involved a convicted money launderer, the company denied its officials directly participated in any bribery scheme.
In December 2016, prosecutors indicated their interest to charge 13 persons for their alleged roles in the oil deal, which was approved by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.
A former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum and ex-convict, Dan Etete, was amongst those the prosecutor sought to charge last December, but their trials have not commenced.
Weve heard that the final preliminary hearing to rule on the prosecutors request for trial is at the end of this month so thats the earliest we could have that decision, Mr. Pace told PREMIUM TIMES Monday.
Milan prosecutors have investigated the Malabu deal since 2012 when suspicion began to mount over the deal.
Also in December 2016, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission filed charges against Mr. Etete and a former Attorney-General Bello Adoke, both of whom remained at large in foreign countries.
The duo had long maintained wrongdoing, saying the Nigerian and Italian authorities were on a witchhunt.
Mr. Jonathan has also been identified as a person of interest in the deal, with the FBI revealing that the former president probably received over $200 million in bribes to authorise the deal.
We wish to make it clear that former President Jonathan was not accused, indicted or charged for corruptly collecting any monies as kickbacks or bribes from ENI by the Italian authorities or any other law enforcement body the world over, Mr. Jonathan said in a statement in January.
About $520 million was alleged to have been shared between Mr. Jonathan and officials in his government, including Mr. Adoke.
This could be the biggest corporate bribery trial in history, and a watershed moment for the oil industry, Mr. Pace said in a statement.
The top brass of the UKs largest company is in the dock after it finally admitted dealing with a convicted money launderer.
There can be no clearer sign that wholesale change is needed. Shell must first apologise to the Nigerian people, then take clear steps to reassure investors and the broader public that this wont happen again, Mr. Pace added.
In his reaction, a Nigerian anti-corruption activist, Olanrewaju Suraju, said, These charges are a clear signal that it is no longer business as usual for oil companies in Nigeria. Its now time for the Dutch and British authorities to follow Italys lead and hold their biggest company to account.
One of the victims of the viral disease, monkeypox, has committed suicide, the Bayelsa State government said on Monday.
The victim allegedly took his own life on Monday at the quarantine centre in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, located in the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state.
Addressing journalists on Monday evening in Yenagoa, the state capital, the Commissioner for Health, Ebitimitula Etebu, said the deceased was among the 21 suspected cases of the virus that were being managed at the teaching hospital.
Mr. Etebu was joined at the conference by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the Chief Medical Director of the NDUTH, Dimie Ogoina, and other senior health officials.
He expressed regret that the patient took his own life despite impressive progress to stem the outbreak by the government. He said the deceaseds medical history did not suggest any mental illness or features of depression.
The health commissioner maintained the patient did not die from the disease, adding that the police and his family had been duly informed and all due diligence was being followed to ensure the safe burial of victim.
Mr. Etebu said that a committee had been put in place to evaluate the deceaseds clinical and social history to shed more light on the tragedy.
He also formally confirmed the outbreak of monkeypox in the state following laboratory evidence from samples sent to the World Health Organisation in Dakar, Senegal.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how the health minister, Isaac Adewole, earlier on Thursday, confirmed that three of samples from Bayelsa tested positive to monkeypox.
Mr. Etebu, however, assured the general public again that the government was doing everything to contain the outbreak.
Mr. Iworiso-Markson on his part urged residents to continue to use preventive measures and ensure they avoid bush meat.
At least 27 out of 29 persons reportedly killed in early morning attacks at Nkyie-Doghwro community of Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State have been given a mass burial.
The President, Irigwe Development Association, Sunday Abdu, said the victims were hacked to death in a classroom.
Twenty-seven out of the 29 people were buried in one grave. We later found two other dead bodies. It is worrisome because the 27 people already buried were murdered in a classroom, given security cover by soldiers, where they supposedly sought refuge, he said.
Mr. Abdu said this on Monday evening in Jos at the Nigeria Union of Journalists press centre during a press conference on the killings in Bassa Local Government.
The killings in the council have continued despite a dusk to dawn curfew declared there on Friday by the state government.
Mr. Abdu said seven communities have been attacked within one month adding that 41 persons have been killed in the attacks.
The community leader expressed disappointment that the dusk to dawn curfew imposed on Bassa by the state government was not effective as the killings occurred within the period of curfew.
In his reaction, President Muhammadu Buhari said that he received with deep sadness and regret, news of the recent killings which have been described as a reprisal attack perpetrated by suspected herdsmen.
Mr. Buhari in a statement by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, on Monday said he believes that this madness has gone too far.
Mr. Shehu said the president has instructed the military and the police to not only bring the violence to an instant end, but to draw up a plan to ensure that there are no further attacks and reprisal attacks by one group against the other.
President Buhari is devoted to the sanctity of Nigerias unity, and he encourages Nigerians of all groups to learn to live together in peace and harmony, Mr. Shehu said.
It also said the president commiserates with the governor and people of Plateau State, and with those who lost their loved ones, friends and family.
May God comfort them as only He can, he said.
In his reaction, the Northern chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria CAN, Yakubu Pam, described the Monday attack as one, too many.
He sued for peace among warring factions, urging community leaders to intervene to stem the violence.
Reacting to the development, the commander of Operation Safe Heaven, a military task force on Jos crisis, Anthony Atolagbe, said the Nigerian Army will investigate alleged involvement of soldiers in the killings.
According to the commander, who visited the scene, the affected soldiers have been redeployed to the taskforce headquarters in Jos for questioning.
The Irigwe Development Association had accused soldiers on guard of negligence.
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President Muhammadu Buhari has hosted three of his young supporters in his office at the presidential villa, Abuja.
Nicole Benson, from Lagos, Maya Jamal from Abuja and Aisha Gebbi from Bauchi have all professed their support for the president in different ways.
Ms. Benson, a 12-year-old pupil of Greensprings School Lekki in Lagos, made headlines prior to the 2015 presidential election when she donated her N5,785 lunch ticket to then candidate Buhari as her contribution to his presidential campaign.
Maya Jammal, the three-year-old daughter of a popular social media user, White Nigerian was seen in a 10 second video praying for the quick recovery of Mr. Buhari while he was in London receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment.
Aisha, who is a 10-year-old from Bauchi, penned a letter seeking a face-to-face meeting with the president, which was posted by her niece, Huseini Gebi, asking for a retweet to make her dream a reality.
Her wish was granted as the three kids spent about 30 minutes with the president Monday morning.
I am very impressed by what the children have been able to do, President Buhari said, I can see Maya is shy. I watched her video where she was praying for my recovery when I was ill.
The president attributed his victory at the polls to the contributions of good-hearted Nigerians, like young Nicole, who is from Lagos State, and showed her support by sending her personal savings.
Nicole, I congratulate you, and myself for being here today. Your contribution made a great impact. As you can see, I am here in the Presidential Villa. Thank you, he said.
An elated President Buhari told Aisha that her letter was heart-warming, noting that he felt re-assured knowing he had fans amongst the children.
Thank you very much for the letter, he said.
The president said he looked forward to more visits from the children.
I am hoping that it will not be the first and last time we will be meeting while I am here. We will continue to meet even after I have left here.
Speaking on behalf of all the parents of the kids, Aliyu Gebbi, said the presidents gesture of inviting the children to the presidential villa was a dream come true.
Mr. Gebbi said the invitation also added to the presidents long-standing record of good-heartedness and fairness.
In a nation with few legends and accuracy of truth, we look up to you, Mr. President, and our children are looking up to you, he said.
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The president of the Nigerian Senate, Bukola Saraki, has called on world leaders to join forces to eliminate terrorism, which he described as the greatest enemy.
At during a bilateral meeting with the Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, Ali Larijani, at the 137th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in St. Petersburg, Russia on Monday, Mr. Saraki said it is the collective responsibility of world leaders to combat the menace of terrorism and reaffirmed Nigerias commitment to the fight.
When we were younger, the world was not at this level in the fight against terrorism, so we owe the generations after us the duty to do our best to eradicate it. We must all work closely against this common enemy, he said.
Advocating strengthening of bilateral relations between Nigeria and Iran in the area of oil and gas, the Senate President said a strong relationship would be to the mutual benefits of both countries.
He emphasised the importance of collaboration and exchange of ideas for both countries to be able to do more business in the oil and gas sector.
Mr. Saraki said his meeting with Mr. Larijani was a step towards establishing parliamentary relationship between Nigeria and Iran.
He commended the hard work of the Iranian embassy in Nigeria as well as the ambassador and hoped that a closer relationship between the two parliaments can be encouraged after the meeting.
Expressing gratitude to Mr. Larijani for the opportunity of the meeting, Mr. Saraki said he was optimistic that there would be more meetings to strengthen the relationship between the Nigerian and Iranian parliaments.
In his remarks, Mr. Larijani said he called for the meeting to be able to establish a relationship with the Nigerian parliament, reiterating the need for concerted effort by heads of states in the fight against terrorism in view of its escalating nature.
Laying emphasis on Nigerian-Iranian relation, Mr. Larijani said both countries need to find ways of expanding both trade and parliamentary relations.
He assured Nigeria of Irans readiness to develop a relationship with it in the area of oil and gas and other beneficial areas and urged Mr. Saraki to visit Iran as a step towards consolidating the relationship between both parliaments.
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The Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, on Monday confirmed that there was a fire incident at his Abuja residence as circulated on social media, but said it was nothing serious.
It was a mere power surge that was contained immediately, Mr. Kachikwus spokesperson, Idang Alibi, told PREMIUM TIMES at 5:00 p.m. Monday.
The spokesperson said no one was hurt during the incident, which he said occurred between Sunday night and Monday morning and blamed on a faulty electric cable in his principals bedroom.
Mr. Kachikwu was not at home during the outbreak. It was contained within a few minutes by police guard and others who were at the property located in the highbrow Asokoro neighbourhood.
The development comes amidst raging controversy over the October 3 leakage of a memo which Mr. Kachikwu addressed to President Buhari about alleged infractions at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
No foul play was suspected in the fire incident, Mr. Alibi said.
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A delegation from the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions, ECONEC, led by its President and Chairman of Nigerias Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mahmood Yakubu during the weekend met with the management of the Commission Electorale Independante of Cote dIvoire, CEI, in Abidjan.
ECONEC is the umbrella organisation of Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) in West Africa and was founded in 2008 to promote free, fair and credible elections.
The commission took to its twitter official handle today to disclose this.
The needs assessment meeting took place at the CEIs instance and was intended to among others, ascertain the specific areas where the regional body could intervene to assist the CEI realise its objectives.
The consultation is also coming on the heels of Liberias general elections held October 10, where ECONEC played a significant role, having carried out an assessment tour several weeks before the polls.
Mr. Yakubu, in his capacity as the president of the network, was in Monrovia with an INEC team to observe the conduct of the polls.
Officials say ECONECs theory of change is anchored on its belief that if West African election managers are able to learn from the experiences of one another, continuously develop their capacities through training, pool their resources and support each other, then their ability to deliver fair and credible polls will be increased and the quality of elections in West Africa will be improved.
Besides this, the network seeks to, among others, promote the concept of independent and impartial election organisations and administrators, strengthen public confidence in the electoral process through free, credible electoral procedures and develop professional election officials with integrity, a strong sense of public service and commitment to democracy.
Mr. Yakubu emerged ECONEC President in March, 2017 after a keen contest.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, has asked an Abuja Division of the Federal High Court to determine the constitutionality of President Muhammadu Buhari serving as petroleum minister and president at the same time.
The application is one of the reactions to the controversy trailing a recent confrontation between top officials of the Nigerian oil industry: the minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibeh Kachikwu and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Maikanti Baru.
In a letter dated August 30, Mr. Kachikwu accused Mr. Baru of a frivolous award of contracts without recourse to due process and also insubordination.
According to the letter addressed to the President Muhammadu Buhari, which leaked to the public, Mr. Kachikwu said the NNPC boss awarded multi-million dollar contracts without following due process.
Mr. Baru, however, denied the allegation, saying he sought the approvals of the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, in the processes criticised by Mr. Kachikwu.
The vice president after a period of silence later responded, saying he approved the contracts. A statement by presidential spokesperson, Laolu Akande, had said Mr. Osinbajo approved the loan arrangements in his capacity as acting president in July.
In the statement issued from Mr. Agbakobas media aide, Niyi Odunmorayo, on Monday the lawyer said the decision of the president to also serve as minister of petroleum negates sections 138 and 147 (2) of the constitution.
The lawyer argued that according to section 138 of the constitution, the president is not supposed to take up any paid employment as a public servant, which includes that of the minister of petroleum.
He further said Mr. Buharis role as petroleum minister was not ratified for confirmation by the Senate, as required by section 147 (2) of the constitution, thereby rendering unconstitutional for Mr. Buhari to remain in office since as minister, he ought to be screened by the lawmakers.
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West African Virus Epidemiology (WAVE), the body in charge of addressing diseases of root/tuber crops, on Monday raised alarm over two emerging cassava diseases in Nigeria.
Justin Pita, Executive Director of WAVE, at the second Annual General Meeting of stakeholders from the West African sub-region in Abuja, identified the two new diseases as begomovirus and brown streak viruses.
He said that the diseases, which originated from East Africa, were moving toward Central Africa and West Africa, adding that Nigeria was not, therefore, immune to its effects.
He said that these viruses had negatively affected cassava production in sub-Saharan Africa, adding that it would be disastrous if the federal government failed to initiate urgent measures to forestall their outbreak in Nigeria.
The diseases are not yet in West Africa or Nigeria, in particular, but we have to create tangible awareness on its existence and its possible impact on the nations cassava production if eventually it happens, Mr. Pita said.
We dont have it yet in Nigeria; that is a blessing but we have to prevent it from entering the country and that is the reason why we are working on this project.
One of the key roles which WAVE plays is to address the fact that effective fight against viruses requires a strong understanding of how the disease in question spreads, which allows us to plan ahead for its control.
WAVE also recognises that even if the viruses are existing in the region for decades, they can explode suddenly into large-scale threats if they are not well monitored and controlled.
Mr. Pita, therefore, urged the federal government to be aware of existence of the diseases, while striving to train more food scientists to tackle them.
He said that WAVE was working to monitor and predict the emergence, evolution and spread of these viruses by bringing together 10 research institutes, universities in seven countries in West and Central Africa.
Also speaking, Joseph Ukpabi, a professor and Acting Executive Director, National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, said that the institute was statutorily mandated to conduct research into the genetic improvement, production, processing and storage of root crops in the country.
According to him, the marketing of root and tuber crops such as cassava, yam, sweet potato and cocoyam, among others, also constitute areas of priority for the institute.
Mr. Ukpabi noted that the WAVE project was aimed at increasing productivity and yield stability of root and tuber crops in Nigeria, adding that the institute would partner with the body to achieve these aims.
While declaring the forum open, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, lauded the WAVE project team for its concern over Nigerias agricultural growth.
Mr. Ogbeh, who was represented by Segun Ageni, Director of Root Crops in the ministry, commended WAVE for its numerous achievements within the two years of its operations in the West African sub-region.
He assured WAVE of the federal governments commitment and collaboration in the nascent efforts to combat the newly discovered diseases and prevent them from coming into the country.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the forum was attended by stakeholders from some African countries and food scientists from Europe.
(NAN)
The wife of the President, Aisha Bihari, on Monday paid an unscheduled visit to the State House Clinic in Abuja.
Mrs. Buhari had last week attacked the management of hospital for their inability to provide basic drugs and equipment despite billions of naira proposed for the hospital in successive budgets.
She said instead of providing badly needed essentials, the management chose to be constructing new building blocks.
The Permanent Secretary in the State House, Jalal Arabi, said in a statement on Sunday that the hospital received only N1.2 billion within the last three years.
Mrs. Buhari who arrived the hospital on Monday at about 2:30 p.m. was accompanied by some of her personal aides and was received by the Medical Director, Hussaini Munir.
A source, who was at the hospital when Mrs. Buharis team arrived, informed PREMIUM TIMES that the management took her round the Hospital showing her both the new and old buildings.
Our source also said Mrs. Buhari had a short interaction with some of the staff before leaving the complex.
Mrs. Buhari last week said she had to use the services of a private clinic owned by non-Nigerians after she was told that the X-Ray machine at the Aso Clinic is not functional.
In the wake of the attack by the wife of the president, Mr. Arabi had said in a separate statement that the management is considering commercialising the hospital.
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Residents of Nkiedonwhro area in Irigwe, a community in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State have reported a fresh attack in the early hours of Monday.
PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately confirm the incident or about 27 persons reported dead from the attack.
One of the residents, Paul Agwomo, told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview that the incident occurred early on Monday.
The spokesperson of the Nigerian Police in the state, Terna Tyopev, could also not confirm the casualty or the fresh incident, but said he will investigate through the police officials in the area.
Mr. Tyopev, in a telephone interview, said combined efforts by security agencies have commenced to restore permanent peace in Bassa, and other parts of Plateau State.
Meanwhile, Mr. Agwomo said survivors of Nkiedonwhro community have deserted their abode for fear of more violence.
The state government through the director of press and public affairs, Emmanuel Nanle, in a recent press release imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on Bassa following persistent crises in the council.
Late on Saturday, at least six persons were killed and another five injured in two villages of the same local government area.
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The police in Ebonyi State have confirmed the rescue of a Catholic priest, Timothy Nwanja, abducted by gunmen in Okpokueze Nkomoro community, Imoho Development Centre, Ezza North Local Government Area of the State.
Also rescued was the cook to the priest who was abducted with her boss.
The priest escaped after his captors allegedly drank Holy Communion wine they stole from his house and slept off.
This is even as the police said that they arrested one of the suspected kidnappers.
Two of the kidnappers escaped but the police vowed to track them down.
According to sources, the cleric, who serves at St. Marys parish, was kidnapped by three gunmen at about 8:30 p.m. on Sunday night in his residence.
The police spokesperson in the state, Loveth Odah, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, who conformed the rescue, said that the police acting on tip-off, raided the criminals hideout.
She narrated that the kidnappers sneaked into the priests room on Sunday while he was having his dinner and took him and his cook away.
She said that the priests cook who had gone upstairs to get water from the refrigerator was first captured.
When the priest heard the loud screaming, he ran upstairs to know what was going on and they also captured him. One of them was familiar with the area.
They took him away in his own vehicle. They blindfolded him and tied his ears so that he would not be able to listen to their interaction.
At a point, they separated the cook and the priest. They allowed the cook to go but it was a plot, she narrated.
Mrs. Odah disclosed that the cleric had jumped out through the window of the uncompleted building where he was taken to after his three captors took Holy Communion wine and slept off.
She said that the criminals had planned to request the sum a N100 million ransom from the Bishop of Abakaliki Diocese in the morning before they ran out of luck.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.
Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.
Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.
to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.
Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.
View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.
Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.
Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.
"The Mile High City is already home to unique, world-class museums, rich culture, abundant street art, a burgeoning music scene and more, which is reason enough to celebrate during Denver Arts Week," says Richard Scharf, president and CEO of VISIT DENVER, The Convention & Visitors Bureau. "And, within the next year, the momentum will continue. Denver will host several internationally renowned exhibitions, become home to various visual arts displays from famous domestic and international artists and be on stage as a chosen city for some of the country's top touring Broadway shows putting the city's vibrant arts and culture scene in the spotlight around the U.S. and the world."
In addition to citywide events, live performances, special exhibitions and more during Denver Arts Week, there will also be excellent deals on local art, hotel packages and discounts throughout the week. Below are just a few highlights; for even more on Denver Arts Week, go to the Denver Arts Week website.
Signature Events
Know Your Arts First Friday, November 3
Denver Arts Week kicks off with citywide First Friday Art Walks in all of Denver's art districts. More than 100 galleries and venues stay open late for a night of art, food, drink and fun. Know Your Arts First Friday provides a way for people to meet local artists, peruse art in a creative and causal way and even find great deals on original artwork, with prices starting at a "mile-high" $52.80 price tag at many participating galleries. This year, RiNo (River North) Art District and the new Drink RiNo group will sponsor a free shuttle from 5pm-12am that has multiple stops at galleries, studios, breweries and eateries throughout RiNo. For more information of the arts districts and neighborhoods, check out VISIT DENVER's Neighborhood Guides.
Free Night at the Museums, November 4
Continuing the Denver Arts Week kickoff weekend, many of Denver's top museums stay open late on the first Saturday of the annual event. Free admission and shuttle buses between neighborhoods make it easy to explore several spots throughout the course of the evening. From historic landmarks and reenactments to world-class art and technology exhibitions, there is a museum for every interest, and Free Night at the Museums is a once-a-year opportunity to experience Denver's cultural institutions in an exciting, unique way.
Breakin' Convention, November 4-5
Breakin' Convention is the world's biggest festival of hip hop dance theater showcasing the very best from around the world. Curated and hosted by UK hip hop pioneer, Jonzi D, Breakin' Convention is an awe-inspiring weekend of exceptional performances from world champion b-boy crews to cutting edge street dance companies. The event will also feature dance workshops, graffiti artists, DJs and freestyle sessions that create an unforgettable experience.
40th Annual Denver Film Festival, November 1-12
The Denver Film Festival is the largest premier film celebration in the Rocky Mountain Region. Hosted by Denver Film Society, which works to promote film as both an art form and a civic forum, The Denver Film Festival showcases blockbusters, documentaries, shorts and independent films at a variety of venues around the city.
Blockbuster Exhibitions
Nature's Amazing Machines, through January 1, 2018
Denver Museum of Nature & Science's exhibition, Nature's Amazing Machines, uses real objects, scientific models and hands-on elements to showcase the marvels of natural engineering. Discover how a giraffe's heart pumps blood up its long neck, how a toucan stays cool in the jungle and how it might feel to fly. Visitors will also see modern designs inspired by natural adaptations, like Velcro, wind turbines and chainsaws.
Her Paris: Women Artists in the Age of Impressionism, October 22, 2017 January 14, 2018
Denver Art Museum will host Her Paris: Women Artists in the Age of Impressionism, a traveling exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts that surveys the artistic contributions of women in Paris during the second half of the 19th century, revealing the breadth and strength of their achievements. The exhibition will feature more than 80 paintings by 37 women artists from across Europe and America, who migrated to Paris to further their artistic careers. They range from well-known artists such as Berthe Morisot (French), Mary Cassatt (American) and Rosa Bonheur (French), to painters who are lesser-known in the United States, including Anna Ancher (Danish) and Paula Modersohn-Becker (German).
Ultimate Dinosaurs, through January 15, 2018
This Denver Museum of Nature & Science exhibition will go beyond familiar dinosaurs to showcase some of the most spectacular fossils unearthed in recent years. Evolving in isolation, the new discoveries from Africa, South America and Madagascar are among the strangest creatures ever on display. The exhibit will feature dozens of life-size fossils and casts alongside augmented reality displays of the creatures in lifelike settings.
Backstory: Western American Art in Context, through February 11, 2018
Artists of the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries captured the landscapes and people of a rapidly changing West as events set in motion dynamics that still shape the region today. Backstory: Western American Art in Context at History Colorado Center pairs nearly 50 masterpieces from the Denver Art Museum's renowned collection with History Colorado's wealth of artifacts to tell the stories beyond the art.
Ai Weiwei's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, through October 17, 2018
In his first major public sculpture project, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, internationally acclaimed Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei has reinterpreted twelve bronze animal heads representing the traditional Chinese zodiac that once adorned the famed fountain-clock of the Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat in Beijing. The bronze pieces will surround the Sea Lions Fountain on the north end of Civic Center Park in downtown Denver, and a complementary educational exhibit, Ai Weiwei: Art & Social Change will be housed in the McNichols Civic Center building, adjacent to the sculptures.
Denver on Stage
David Sedaris Live, November 10
Bestselling author and humorist, David Sedaris, will be at Denver's Paramount Theatre for a one-night engagement of all-new readings, a question and answer session and a book signing of his new book, "Theft by Finding Diaries (1977-2002)."
The Snowy Day, through November 18
Inspired by Ezra Jack Keats' acclaimed children's books including the 1963 Caldecott Medal winner The Snowy Day as well as Goggles, A Letter to Amy and Whistle for Willie follow the adventures of young Peter as he explores the world around him. From the joys of a first snowfall and learning how to whistle to thrilling encounters delivering a precious invitation, the delightful moments of childhood are perfectly captured in this medley of simple, sweet stories. The production kicks off the new Theatre for Young Audiences program through Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which focuses on performances especially tailored for youth audiences.
Smart People, through November 19
This biting comedy follows four Harvard intellectuals struggling to understand why the lives of so many people including their own continue to be undermined by race. But no matter how hard they research, question and confront the issue, their own problems with self-awareness make it difficult to face the facts of life.
About VISIT DENVER, The Convention & Visitors Bureau
Celebrating 108 years of promoting The Mile High City, VISIT DENVER is a nonprofit trade association that contracts with the City of Denver to market Denver as a convention and leisure destination, increasing economic development in the city, creating jobs and generating taxes. A record 17.3 million visitors stayed overnight in Denver in 2016, generating $5.3 billion in spending, while supporting nearly 57,000 jobs, making Tourism one of the largest industries in Denver. Learn more about Denver on the VISITDENVER website and at TOURISMPAYSDENVER or by phone at 800 2 Denver. Denver International Airport (DEN; flydenver.com) connects The Mile High City to more than 180 destinations worldwide including nonstop service to 24 international destinations in 10 countries. Follow Denver's social media channels for up-to-the-minute updates at: Facebook.com/visitdenver; Twitter.com/visitdenver; Instagram.com/visitdenver; and YouTube.com/visitdenver.
With press or photo inquiries, please contact:
Jesse Davis: (303) 571-9450 or [email protected]
Ashley Taufen: (303) 571-9451 or [email protected]
Rochelle Jones: (303) 571-9418 or [email protected]
SOURCE VISIT DENVER, The Convention & Visitors Bureau
Related Links
http://www.visitdenver.com
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Effective January 1, 2018, Lockton Affinity will be the exclusive program administrator for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance for firms with 1-19 attorneys in California, Kansas, Missouri and Texas.
The program is led by an A+ rated carrier with over $3.3 billion is reserves and over 40 years of experience creating insurance specifically tailored for lawyers.
Key benefits of the Lockton Affinity Lawyers program include:
Competitive pricing
Quick and easy applications
Free CLE credits and robust risk management
Auto renewal
Retirement tail
Deductible reduction mechanism
Outstanding claims team
First and third party cyber coverage options
Agents looking to place firms should contact Jeff Hewitt at 913.652.7572 or [email protected].
About Lockton Affinity: Lockton Affinity, an affiliate of Lockton Companies, was formed in 1987 to meet the dynamic, specialized insurance needs of affinity groups, non-profits, associations and franchises. Today, Lockton Affinity is one of the nation's leading program administrators, serving a wide array of industries ranging from small business, financial institutions and franchise businesses to fraternal organizations and common-cause groups.
SOURCE Lockton Affinity
GREAT FALLS, Va., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Abaxx Associates, LLC today announced its membership with the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (ACFCS), and sponsorship of the 2017 Financial Crime Conference. ACFCS, a BARBRI professional association, is a leading provider of practical tools, knowledge, and networking opportunities that help professionals achieve quality results in financial crime detection and prevention.
The partnership with ACFCS provides Abaxx employees ongoing training, certifications, and information pertaining to emerging trends within the industry. Abaxx employees will have exclusive access to ACFCS resources, articles, webinars, and industry best practices related to financial crime threats and methodologies. Plus, as members of ACFCS, employees will have the ability to connect with thousands of members in the ACFCS global community, including financial crime compliance professionals with subject-matter expertise in money laundering, terrorism financing, fraud, bribery and anti-corruption, sanctions, and other areas.
Abaxx is a professional services firm offering comprehensive expertise in strategy management and consulting, data exploitation and analysis, training and capacity building, and operations and mission management. Abaxx customizes and executes innovative solutions for their clients to deliver superior, actionable results. To learn more visit www.abaxx.us.
"We are proud to be a part of ACFCS given its stature in the financial crime prevention arena, and the wealth of resources it offers financial crimes specialists around the world whether here in the U.S. or overseas," said Michael Bombace, Abaxx director of legal and emerging technologies, who also is an executive member for the Washington, D.C. area ACFCS chapter. "Our community of professionals is growing by leaps and bounds. We look forward to contributing to the best practice-oriented nature of the overall industry discussion and direction. We are also excited to help foster an open dialogue and joint effort between public and private professionals in the financial crime space."
Abaxx is a member of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, and several other public and private sector working groups focused on combatting financial crimes, developing data analysis, and financial technologies.
"The positive impact and support of organizations such as Abaxx are integral in our collective journey to stamp out financial crime," added ACFCS Executive Director Garry Clement, CAMS, CFE, CFCS. "Their addition to our conference and our membership will serve to strengthen the overall profession. We look forward to a long and productive relationship."
The 2017 ACFCS financial crime conference will be October 16-17 at The Hyatt Regency, Boston. The conference was designed for the new reality of financial crime detection and prevention. Now in its sixth year, the conference has become a gathering place for subject matter experts, thought leaders and seasoned professionals in all fields fighting financial crime compliance, law enforcement, regulatory and civil society. Registration is now open and more information can be found at: www.financialcrimeconference.com.
About ACFCS
The Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (ACFCS), a BARBRI Professional Association, is a worldwide organization for professionals who work in diverse financial crime prevention disciplines. ACFCS awards the Certified Financial Crime Specialist (CFCS) certification to qualified candidates who pass a proctored examination. Professionals in financial crime prevention from more than 50 nations have already obtained the CFCS certification.
Contact:
Cindy Parks
913-526-6912
[email protected]
SOURCE Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists (ACFCS)
Related Links
http://www.acfcs.org
CHICAGO, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Research and Education Foundation has selected six individuals to participate in its Visiting Scholars Program for 2017-2018.
Launched in 2014, the one-year, part-time program facilitates scholarly projects relevant to physician certification that support early career physicians and scientists in their pursuit of improving patient care and furthering medical education. The program also exposes the scholars to the fields of professional assessment and education, health and public policy, and quality improvement (QI), as well as provides leadership development. For the third consecutive year, the class includes a Visiting Scholar sponsored by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS).
"The Visiting Scholars Program facilitates research and continues to be a wonderful opportunity to engage young physician leaders and researchers in the Boards Community," noted ABMS President and Chief Executive Officer Lois Margaret Nora, MD, JD, MBA. "The research conducted by our scholars has helped inform physician assessment and professional development. In addition, the program exposes the scholars to mentors in the Boards Community and offers them the opportunity to further develop their own leadership capabilities, expand their professional network, and further their career growth."
The 2017-2018 class members and their research projects are:
Regan Bergmark , MD, Gliklich Healthcare Innovation Scholar, Harvard Medical School , Massachusetts Eye and Ear Standardized Health Outcomes Measures: Utilization by Specialty
Johnathan Bernard , MD, MPH, Attending, Sports Medicine and Shoulder Surgery, National Sports Medicine Institute, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions The Role of Orthopaedic Surgery Milestones in Assessing Competency of Technical and Arthroscopic Skill of Residents; Development of a Cadaveric Surgical Model on Meniscal Injuries using Arthroscopic Video and Surgeon Point of View Recording (ABMS/ABOS Visiting Scholar)
(ABMS/ABOS Visiting Scholar) Martin Casey , MD, MPH, Resident, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Elmhurst Hospital Variation in Charges and Revisit Rates for Emergency Department Asthma Visits
Souvik Chatterjee , MD, Pulmonary Critical Care Fellow, National Institutes of Health, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions The Human Dx Project: An Objective Assessment of Diagnostic Reasoning (Project supported by a grant to the ABMS REF from the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.)
(Project supported by a grant to the ABMS REF from the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.) Brian Garibaldi , MD, Associate Program Director, Osler Medical Residency Program, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine A New Bedside Tool to Assess the Physician Exam Skills of Practicing Physicians (Project supported by a grant to the ABMS REF from the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.)
(Project supported by a grant to the ABMS REF from the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.) Shannon Martin , MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago - Understanding Associations of Maintenance of Certification on Resource Utilization and Physician-Reported Knowledge and Experience in Consultation
"We are excited about the research being undertaken by our Visiting Scholars and the impact this program continues to have within the Boards Community," explained David Price, MD, FAAFP, FACEHP, Senior Vice President, ABMS Research and Education Foundation. "We also are thrilled that ABOS will again sponsor a Visiting Scholar, whose research will support improvement in orthopaedic practice and performance. In addition, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation has generously provided a grant that will support two Visiting Scholars' research focusing on ways to improve physician diagnostic accuracy."
For more information about the ABMS Visiting Scholars Program, visit the ABMS website at www.abms.org.
About ABMS Research and Education Foundation
The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) Research and Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) not-for- profit organization that supports the ABMS mission of improving health care quality and the continuous professional development of physician specialists through a variety of research and education initiatives.
About ABMS
Established in 1933, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) continues to be the leading not-for-profit organization overseeing physician certification in the United States. ABMS establishes the standards its 24 Member Boards use to develop and implement educational and professional evaluation, assessment, and certification of physician specialists. More than 880,000 physicians are certified in one or more of the approved 39 specialties and 86 subspecialties offered by the ABMS Member Boards. For more information about ABMS, visit abms.org or call (312) 436-2600.
SOURCE American Board of Medical Specialties
Related Links
http://www.abms.org
HOUSTON, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Accudata Systems, Inc., Texas' leader in IT consulting and systems integration, ranked 9th among 24 finalists in the large business category for the Houston Business Journal's (HBJ) 2017 Best Places to Work at Thursday's awards ceremony that honored 104 Houston-based organizations. The finalists were selected based on direct feedback from employees in an online survey facilitated by HBJ partner Quantum Workplace. The survey evaluated 10 core areas of engagement, including teamwork, retention, alignment with goals, trust with coworkers, individual contribution, manager effectiveness, trust in senior leaders, feeling valued, job satisfaction and benefits.
"At Accudata, we work hard every day to cultivate a fulfilling, healthy work environment for our team. One that makes them excited to come to work every day. And, while that may sound cliche, it's the truth. We spend more time with our co-workers than with our own families, so it is incredibly important that people feel comfortable, motivated, challenged, and valued. We are extremely grateful to be recognized as one of the 2017 Best Places to Work and realize that we wouldn't be where we are today without our outstanding team," said Accudata's CEO, Patrick Vardeman.
With more than 160 employees and growing, Accudata is extremely passionate about maintaining its family-like culture, promoting employee satisfaction, and overall job fulfillment. This recognition comes in the company's 35th year in business and immediately following a move to a new, state-of-the-art corporate headquarters .
To learn more about our organization and employment opportunities, please visit us on Glassdoor - https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Accudata-Systems-Inc-EI_IE130666.11,31.htm
About Accudata Systems, Inc.
Accudata Systems is a leader in IT consulting and systems integration. For more than 35 years, we have helped strengthen organizations by solving their toughest IT challenges with a commitment to partnership, flexibility, and guaranteed results. The vastness of our expertise, paired with our proven methodology, enables a true partnership as we help our clients secure, modernize, and grow.
To learn more about Accudata and our leading-edge technology solutions, visit www.accudatasystems.com.
Media Contact:
Jessica Stenklyft
Director of Marketing
Accudata Systems, Inc.
281.897.5033
[email protected]
SOURCE Accudata Systems
Related Links
http://www.accudatasystems.com
CHICAGO, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- InfoReach, Inc. has announced support for Actionable IOIs (AIOIs) in its flagship Trade Management System (TMS) product. Now InfoReach clients will have greater access to liquidity through exposure to AIOI streams from multiple counterparties. Request a demo at https://www.inforeachinc.com/request-a-demo/1.
As noted by InfoReach Director of Operations Nick Halvorsen, "Our clients regularly inquire about new ways to access liquidity with their counterparts." The IOI functionality is very important to monitoring and accessing available liquidity and helps achieving best execution, which becomes more important as the MiFID II directive starts being enforced in 2018.
IOIs have been available in TMS for a long time and support for Actionable IOIs is a new feature released this year. In a short period of time the InfoReach team has been able to engage, certify and move to production multiple integrations to date, with more on the way. This environment utilizes the global connectivity network InfoReach has in place with industry leaders.
In line with all InfoReach solutions, the IOI functionality is built to be customizable and scalable. InfoReach IOI Hub has been reliably channeling all IOI traffic and is now handling AIOIs. AIOIs are deployed to multiple clients already with vastly different setups. The functionality offers several visibility tools:
popup alerts
separate IOI blotters
IOI data embedded in various parts of trader dashboard
IOI liquidity on any of the trading blotters
InfoReach continues their commitment to providing the features and integrations their clients need to stay competitive in the modern trading environment.
About InfoReach
InfoReach is an independent provider of multi-asset broker-neutral software solutions for electronic trading, including OMS and EMS platforms for global equities, futures, options, forex, and fixed income. InfoReach team delivers high-performance technology with high-touch support. The buy-side and sell-side client systems are tailored to accommodate current and future needs. They are configurable to deliver unique adaptations without adding development time and costs.
For more than 20 years, InfoReach has helped clients to improve their trade execution process and performance with efficient design and support of consolidated trading tools and global connectivity network.
InfoReach is a privately-held company headquartered in Chicago, with offices in New York and Amsterdam. For more information, visit www.inforeachinc.com.
Media Contact: Nick Halvorsen, InfoReach, Inc.
312 332-7740 ext2018
[email protected]
SOURCE InfoReach, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.inforeachinc.com
Digital marketing is getting an extreme makeover. Adext explains some of AI's most outstanding contributions to the field. They will inevitably transform the way the industry works.
1) Because AI Enhances and Customizes The User Experience: Artificial intelligence offers unique solutions that help businesses identify the preferences of their consumers in real time. Imagine knowing what users are thinking when they visit your website; wouldn't that be a tremendous advantage? Knowing the needs, desires, and preferences of your users before they visit your website gives you the chance to harness your resources wisely and efficiently, and create much more effective communication strategies.
One of the things that will determine whether they like your brand or not is the level of customization you decide to implement. Perhaps this isn't something new, but with the support of AI it's possible to customize the user experience in real time, offering each user a unique experience, based on their previous behaviours, demographic information, etc.
2) Conversions are a crucial component of an effective digital marketing strategy: If your techniques and effort aren't generating any sales for your business or aren't converting your visitors into leads and your leads into customers, it's time to incorporate AI into your sales strategy. Long gone are the days when you needed to turn to the phone book to look for customers. Or go knocking on doors without any notice, offering people a product or service they weren't interested in. Which is even worse. Fortunately, those days are over and the processes are much faster and effective now.
With the overwhelming number of digital and non-digital media around today, you can have an impact on consumers and influence them from many different angles. But that doesn't mean that all of them are right for all the businesses. In order to achieve this impact, AI technologies manage CRM services, showing sale offers to your prospects right when they are looking for them and on the platform they are using.
One example of an AI platform that does this is Adext. It creates, manages and optimizes ads campaigns on the most popular digital media platforms like Google, Facebook, Instagram and many more. And it does it automatically. What's more, with its intelligent algorithms, it's capable of analyzing Big Data in real time to detect trends and successful patterns from the campaigns of businesses similar to yours, and then implement them. This way, as time passes, it optimizes your campaigns on an ongoing basis.
With this platform, businesses don't need to decide which media platform to target. Adext will identify the most profitable ones for the business and redirect the budget towards them.
3) AI Gives You The Benefit Of Accurate Recommendations: A lot of companies are already using AI to generate recommendations or suggestions based on actions users have previously performed. But what is significant is that as artificial intelligence advances, the amount of data is also increasing, making the experience much more personalized. Machines are getting way better at their jobs and are predicting preferences, needs and desires more accurately.
4) AI Advanced Security Inspires Much More Confidence: Online shopping is definitely a trend that's here to stay. And reinforcing security in this context is crucial to make the experience more reliable and enticing. It is not enough to simply request a username and a password in order for customers to feel happy about making transactions that involve confidential information anymore.
In these kinds of situations, AI becomes really important. Its advanced programming can alert businesses when it detects any kind of fraud, suspicious breaches or unstructured data. But AI not only identifies impending threats, but also determines risks and amends errors in real time.
About Adext Corp.
With more than 1,000 customers in over 29 countries, Adext offers superior AI performance and Machine Learning (ML) for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). It is the first platform entirely automated, using AI and ML to create, deploy and optimize online advertising campaigns on Google, Facebook, Instagram and thousands of websites to increase the sales of SMEs that have limited resources for the activities. commercialization.
1 Forbes 2017.
Follow us in our social networks:
Facebook: Powered by ADEXT AI
LinkedIn:ADEXT
Twitter: @PoweredbyAdextAi
YouTube: Powered by Adext
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
LOURDES PIQUE HUGUET
[email protected]
Tel. + 52 (551) 4188 0895
GPS Imagen y Comunicacion Mexico
SOURCE ADEXT
Related Links
http://adext.com
MADISON, Wis., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliant Energy Corporation (NYSE: LNT) announced today that quarterly dividends on common stock were declared by the Board of Directors.
The quarterly common stock dividend is $0.315 per share payable on November 15, 2017, to shareowners of record on close of business October 31, 2017.
Dividends on common stock have been paid for 288 consecutive quarters since 1946.
Alliant Energy Corporation (NYSE: LNT), headquartered in Madison, Wis., provides regulated electric and natural gas service to 960,000 electric and 410,000 natural gas customers across Iowa and Wisconsin. Alliant Energy's mission is to deliver the energy solutions and exceptional service customers and communities count on safely, efficiently and responsibly. Interstate Power and Light Company and Wisconsin Power and Light Company are Alliant Energy's two public utility subsidiaries. Alliant Energy Corporation is a component of the S&P 500. For more information, visit alliantenergy.com.
SOURCE Alliant Energy Corporation
Related Links
http://www.alliantenergy.com
HOUSTON, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- alliantgroup Senior Vice President and former U.S. Congressman Rick Lazio was interviewed by Bloomberg Radio last Friday to discuss the tax reform framework released by the administration and the tax-writing committees.
During the interview, Lazio laid out the plan's main policy proposals, highlighting a number of provisions designed with the intent of simplifying the tax code and stimulating economic growth. Specifically, the former congressman elaborated on core elements of the plan such as reducing corporate and business tax rates, collapsing marginal tax rates from seven to four brackets, and the impact of a territorial tax system and repatriation in driving business investment.
Additionally, Lazio discussed the various trade-offs that would be needed to pay for the rate reductions, such as the removal of a number of incentives and deductions. However, during the interview he emphasized the importance of certain incentives, such as the Research and Development Tax Credit, that would remain part of the tax code and encourage business investmentand by extension, broader economic growth.
"The major culprit, in my belief, is that business investment has been holding down productivity and GDP growth," said Lazio. "The best way to get at this is to incentivize more business investment. That's partly through things like the Research and Development Tax Credit and other business incentives as well as expensing equipment, factories and the kind of things we want businesses to invest in that ultimately lead to hiring more people and paying their workers more in salary."
"Rick is a leading expert in the areas of economics and tax policy and has always been a true champion for small businesses and American enterprise," said Dhaval Jadav, alliantgroup CEO. "I encourage everyone to listen to his insights on policy and on what we can expect from our elected officials in the next few months."
alliantgroup is a premier tax consultancy and the nation's leading provider of specialty tax services. The firm specializes in helping U.S. businesses and their CPA advisors properly identify and claim the federal and state tax incentives designed for their benefit. Headquartered in Houston and with offices in Chicago, New York, Irvine, Sacramento, Orlando, Indianapolis and Washington, D.C., alliantgroup has helped over 12,000 American businesses claim more than $6 billion in government-sponsored tax credits and incentives. For more information, please follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
SOURCE alliantgroup
Related Links
https://www.alliantgroup.com
NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Online purchases accounted for 17.9 percent of transactions made by 13 to 18-year-old Current customers during the month of September, twice the rate at which the general population shops online. The most recent U.S. Census Bureau reports online purchases represent 8.6 percent of all U.S. retail transactions. Current makes a debit card and companion smartphone app for teen (and parents) that helps families with teenagers safely and conveniently manage money.
Spending on digital content accounted for 54 percent of online spending by 13 to 18-year-olds in September. Video games represented 39.3 percent, with streaming and online services representing 14.6 percent of online spending. The remaining 46 percent of purchases were a more traditional mix of consumer goods, including clothing, cosmetics, novelty items and accessories.
Teen confidence in online shopping for consumer goods extends across the retail landscape. It should come as no surprise that Amazon.com is the most frequented site, capturing 38 percent of teen online spending, excluding digital content.
Teens also purchase directly from brand sites, especially when shopping for clothing and cosmetics. The web sites of clothing brands -- led by Forever 21, Nike, Victoria's Secret, PacSun and Vans -- accounted for 9.1 percent of online sales to teens, excluding digital content.
Cosmetics account for 7.7 percent of teen online spending in September, excluding digital content. The category was dominated by Sephora, which captured 5.4 percent of online purchases of cosmetics by teens.
Teens are also frequenting specialty retailers looking for discounts and unique items -- sites their parents may not be familiar with. Online discount retailers such as wish.com, fashionnova.com and a host of online discount retailers that ship direct from China accounted for 13.8 percent of teen online transactions, excluding digital content. Wish.com was the clear leader, capturing 7.8 percent of online spending, second only to Amazon.com.
About Current
Current is a financial technology company that enables people to more effectively manage their money with family and friends. The company's initial focus is a debit card and companion smartphone app for teens (and parents). Current's flexible, API-based platform adapts to the needs of each user, allowing parents to transfer money, automate allowances, set up and reward chores, put spending controls in place, and maintain visibility into their children's spending with real-time alerts.
Media contact:
David Lowey
[email protected]
SOURCE Current
HOUSTON, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: APC) will host a conference call on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017, at 8 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. EDT) to discuss its third-quarter 2017 financial and operating results. Earnings will be released after close of market on Tuesday, Oct. 31. The full text of the release will be available on the company's website at www.anadarko.com.
Third-Quarter 2017 Results
Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017
8 a.m. CDT (9 a.m. EDT)
Dial-in number: 877-883-0383
International dial-in number: 412-902-6506
Confirmation number: 2812178
Individuals who would like to participate should dial the applicable dial-in number listed above approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled conference call time, and enter confirmation number 2812178 when prompted.
To access the live audio webcast and related presentation materials, please visit the investor relations section of the company's website at www.anadarko.com. A replay of the conference call will also be available on the website for approximately 30 days following the call.
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141103/156201LOGO
Anadarko Contacts
Robin Fielder, [email protected], 832.636.1462
Andy Taylor, [email protected], 832.636.3089
Pete Zagrzecki, [email protected], 832.636.7727
SOURCE Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
Related Links
http://www.anadarko.com
LONDON, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Adrian Binks, chairman and chief executive of leading global energy and commodity news and price reporting agency Argus Media Group, was honoured last week with the prestigious EY Entrepreneur Of The Year award in the international category.
Binks bought a partnership in a small newsletter business called Europ-Oil Prices in 1984 from its founder Jan Nasmyth. Taking management control that year he proceeded to adopt the Argus name, develop an international business and expand services continuously over the next three decades without the use of leverage.
The first debt on the business was raised in September 2016, when Argus was sold to global growth equity firm General Atlantic for almost 1bn, enabling the Nasmyth family to exit the business. Binks kept his entire shareholding in the business as did many other employees.
Today, Argus has offices in 20 countries and employs more than 850 staff in all the key commodity trading, producing and consuming centres. Argus has customers in more than 140 countries and produces over 23,000 price assessments on a daily basis covering energy, fertilizer, petrochemical and metal markets.
In presenting the UK award, the EY judges praised Binks for his integrity, vision and perseverance in building an international business over many years, primarily through organic growth.
Adrian Binks said: "I am particularly pleased to win the award in the international category. The commodity business is truly global and we have only been able to succeed as a company because we committed to that vision and expanded internationally to provide the services our customers need." He added: "I would like to acknowledge and thank the highly skilled and loyal colleagues who have been with me at Argus over the years. They have all worked tirelessly on our mission to bring transparency to opaque global commodity markets."
Contact Information
London
Seana Lanigan
+44 20 7780 4272
[email protected]
Houston
Scott Berg
+ 1 713 968 0000
[email protected]
Singapore
Pierre Lever
+65 6496 9960
[email protected]
About Argus Media
Argus is an independent media organisation with more than 850 staff. It is headquartered in London and has 20 offices in the world's principal commodity trading and production centres. Argus produces price assessments and analysis of international energy and other commodity markets, and offers bespoke consulting services and industry-leading conferences.
Companies in 140 countries around the world use Argus data to index physical trade and as benchmarks in financial derivative markets as well as for analysis and planning purposes.
Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company. It is owned by employee shareholders and global growth equity firm General Atlantic.
ARGUS, the ARGUS logo, ARGUS MEDIA, ARGUS DIRECT, ARGUS OPEN MARKETS, AOM, FMB, DEWITT, JIM JORDAN & ASSOCIATES, JJ&A, FUNDALYTICS, METAL-PAGES, METALPRICES.COM, Argus publication titles and Argus index names are trademarks of Argus Media Limited.
SOURCE Argus Media
Related Links
http://www.argusmedia.com
LENEXA, Kan. and KANSAS CITY, Mo., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Associates Solutions, Inc., a leading ERP solutions provider in the greater Midwest, is now an Acumatica partner. From the beginning of 2017, Associates Solutions has invested time and resources into Acumatica, from completing internal processes to training and certifying consultants. Associates Solutions is pleased to partner with Acumatica, offering consumers a born on the cloud, fully functional and easy to integrate ERP system.
Founded in 1998, Associates Solutions, Inc. is a large regional VAR that specializes in ERP software implementation, support, and customization. The highly skilled consultants at ASI can assist with a wide range of issues, from technical support calls and multi-step integrations to customized integrations and coding. Associates Solutions has a superior customer service focus, with the desire to provide the best solution for any business. Combined with the technical expertise of each consultant, ASI has been an industry leader with ERP software for almost two decades.
Acumatica Cloud ERP system enables a real-time view of your business anytime and anywhere. A full suite of business management applications and financials, Acumatica allows you to unlock your business potential by streamlining your processes through one single software. Manage your business with secure mobile access, and grow at your pace with flexible cloud architecture. Acumatica Cloud ERP is the perfect solution for businesses in search of a complete, up to date and modern cloud software.
Acumatica Cloud ERP won the 2016 PC Mag Editors' Choice Award, with an "excellent" rating. PC Mag notes Acumatica's shining features like ease of navigation, flexible deployment, and excellent reporting. Acumatica's unique flexible licensing model alleviates the hassle of purchasing licenses to add new users to an existing ERP system. PC Mag's review raves that Acumatica is "a good choice for growing small to midsize enterprises (SMEs)." Acumatica also won the 2016 CODiE Award for the Best Supply Chain Management Solution. A peer-reviewed award judged by independent industry experts, the CODiE Award acknowledges and highlights companies in educational technology and business.
With ease of functionality, a simplified pricing structure, customization options, and compatibility with every browser, Acumatica is the premier choice for business and financial management solutions. The cutting-edge cloud technology of Acumatica combined with the years of technical experience of Associates Solutions makes for a winning combination. Contact Associates Solutions today to learn more or to schedule a product demo. Associates Solutions is ready to escort you on the path to the cloud.
Contact:
Helen Jones
(913) 210-1300
[email protected]
PRLog ID: www.prlog.org/12670555
SOURCE Associates Solutions, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.associates-solutions.com
OTTAWA, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - The Athena Sustainable Materials Institute, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada and with a US affiliate in Pennsylvania, is a leading pioneer in the Green Building Sector and proud to have been on the forefront of sustainability metrics for two decades. This small non-profit has had significant industry impact over the past decades in the following ways:
The Athena Institute started a revolution in green building design with its free tools for true cradle-to-grave environmental impact measurement of new construction.
As pioneers of life cycle assessment (LCA) for the built environment, the Athena Institute is transforming tactics and accountability in green design.
Thousands of design professionals, sustainability consultants and students are using the Athena Impact Estimator for buildings the first, most comprehensive, and the only free LCA tool for the North American design and construction sector.
Countless building and roadway projects can claim quantified environmental impact reductions thanks to the data and tools provided to the public by the Athena Institute see some examples at www.athenasmi.org
Two decades of work at the Athena Institute enables the LCA incentives and embodied carbon calculations in green building programs like LEED v4, the Living Building Challenge, the International Green Construction Code, and the Canada Green Building Council's Zero Carbon Building Standard.
Twenty years of Athena Institute collaboration with the manufacturing sector has spurred sustainability leadership by the makers of construction materials. For example, Portland -limestone cement, a reduced-carbon version of cement, is gaining acceptance and clearing regulatory hurdles thanks to LCA performance data from the Athena Institute.
We welcome media inquiries and hope you will share our story through your outlet. For ease of use, we have included an extensive media backgrounder and sample story/blog text, on our website:
BACKGROUNDER: http://www.athenasmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/AthenaBackgrounder2017.pdf
SAMPLE STORY: http://www.athenasmi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/AthenaSampleStory.pdf
SOURCE Athena Sustainable Materials Institute
ATLANTA, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) celebrates more than 8 million downloads of its award-winning podcast Breakdown. Launched in 2015, the popular series also begins its new season.
The AJC's Breakdown applies meticulous reporting and expert storytelling to true-crime journalism, taking listeners behind the headlines of fascinating Georgia cases.
"The mission of Breakdown is to bring meaning and context and balance to the legal complexities and raw emotion of crime and punishment," said Richard Halicks, Breakdown's producer and an editor at the AJC. "And quite often, to spotlight the many ways in which the criminal justice system breaks down."
In Season 5 of Breakdown, the AJC's Bill Rankin and Craig Schneider examine the case against powerful and wealthy Atlanta lawyer Tex McIver, whose murder trial is set to begin Oct. 30. McIver says he shot his wife accidentally as the two rode in their SUV through Midtown Atlanta last September. The district attorney says it was murder with malice.
Binge on Breakdown through iTunes and discover previous seasons at AJCBreakdown.com.
About The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the leading source both in print and online of news, information and advertising for metropolitan Atlanta, reaching a total print and online audience of 1.6 million people each week. Every month, nearly 8.4 million unique visitors access the newspaper's websites, including AJC.com, myAJC.com and accessAtlanta.com. Our newsroom is the largest in Georgia with more than 150 journalists. We report on a metro area that has more than 5 million people and cover five core counties and more than 20 city governments. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is part of Cox Media Group, a publishing, digital media and broadcasting subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises.
About Cox Media Group
Cox Media Group is an integrated broadcasting, publishing, direct marketing and digital media company. The company's operations currently include 14 broadcast television stations and one local cable channel, more than 60 radio stations, seven daily newspapers and 11 non-daily publications; and more than 100 digital sites and services, like Rare.us, Clark.com, Dawg Nation, SEC Country, Hookem.com, Mundo Hispanico, Southern Kitchen and All22. Additionally, CMG operates the National Advertising Platform businesses of CoxReps - the country's biggest television rep firm - Gamut, and Videa. CMG currently operates in more than 20 media markets and reaches approximately 52 million Americans weekly, including more than 31 million TV viewers, more than 3.5 million newspaper readers, and nearly 15 million radio listeners. For more information about Cox Media Group, please check us out online at www.coxmediagroup.com.
SOURCE Cox Media Group
Related Links
http://www.coxmediagroup.com
"Autotrader invented online car shopping and constantly strives to re-imagine the category," said Brian Geitner, president of Cox Automotive Media Solutions. "The transformation of our brand and the car shopping experience go hand-in-hand, and we'll continue to adapt and enhance Autotrader as consumer behaviors and appetites change."
Autotrader's beginning coincides with the rise of the Internet era and its impact on how consumers received information. Paper-based vehicle listings were steadily eclipsed by a more convenient and up-to-date online inventory experience for both the buyer and the seller. Video and editorial content, along with user-generated reviews and the introduction of Autotrader's mobile app soon followed, helping better educate consumers looking to find and buy their next car.
"We've always tried to stay ahead of the curve", said Chuck Nasiadka, Director of Pre-Owned Operations, Baglier Automotive in Butler, Pennsylvania. "We went online with Autotrader using a laptop and dial up service somewhere between 2000 and 2001. I've placed my faith in the fact they were there first, they have the most knowledge in the space and shoppers still mention Autotrader the most."
Fulfilling its mission to be the leading resource of automotive consumer insights, Autotrader unveiled its annual Cox Automotive Car Buyer Journey study in 2016, designed to inform dealers on consumer car-shopping behavior and preferences. The study also provides perspective on the overall perception of the dealer experience and the importance of having a best-in-class online presence.
Over the last 20 years, Autotrader has hosted more than 2 billion car shoppers and featured over 350 million vehicle listings on Autotrader.com. The 10 Most-Searched Cars on Autotrader include:
Note: Based on search history on Autotrader from July 2009 to July 2017.
According to Autodata Corp., three of the five most searched cars on Autotrader also have been top sellers in the U.S. Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 1500.
For more information and news from Autotrader, view our What A Ride Anniversary video, or visit www.autotrader.com, or follow us on Twitter (@autotrader), Instagram (@autotrader_com), Facebook (Autotrader) and Snapchat (Autotrader_com).
About Autotrader
Autotrader connects with more actual car buyers than any other third-party listing site, with the most engaged audience of in-market shoppers. As the foremost authority on automotive consumer insights and expert in online and mobile marketing, Autotrader makes the car shopping experience easy and fun for today's empowered consumer looking to find or sell the perfect new, used or Certified Pre-Owned car. Using technology, shopper insights and local market guidance, Autotrader's comprehensive marketing solutions guide dealers to personalized digital marketing strategies that grow brand, drive traffic and connect the online and in-store shopping experience.
Autotrader is a Cox Automotive brand. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises. For more information, please visit http://press.autotrader.com.
About Cox Automotive
Cox Automotive Inc. is transforming the way the world buys, sells and owns cars with industry-leading digital marketing, financial, retail and wholesale solutions for consumers, dealers, manufacturers and the overall automotive ecosystem worldwide. Committed to open choice and dedicated to strong partnerships, the Cox Automotive family includes Autotrader, Dealer.com, Dealertrack, Kelley Blue Book, Manheim, NextGear Capital, vAuto, Xtime and a host of other brands. The global company has 32,000-plus team members in more than 200 locations and is partner to more than 40,000 auto dealers, as well as most major automobile manufacturers, while engaging U.S. consumer car buyers with the most recognized media brands in the industry. Cox Automotive is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises Inc., an Atlanta-based company with revenues exceeding $20 billion and approximately 60,000 employees. Cox Enterprises' other major operating subsidiaries include Cox Communications and Cox Media Group. For more information about Cox Automotive, visit www.coxautoinc.com.
SOURCE Autotrader
Related Links
http://www.autotrader.com
SAO PAULO, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Azul S.A. (B3: AZUL4, NYSE: AZUL) announced today that it will hold its conference call to discuss third quarter 2017 financial results on November 9th, 2017 at 9:00 a.m. EST. The Company will release on the same date its financial results before the market opens.
3Q17 Earnings Release Schedule
Thursday, November 9th, 2017 (before the market opens)
Conference call and webcast
Thursday, November 9th, 2017
9h00 (EST)
12h00 (Brasilia time)
USA: +1-786-924-6977 | +1-646-828-8246 | +1-888-700-0802 | +1-800-492-3904
Brazil: +55-11-3193-1001 | +55-11-2820-4001
Code: AZUL
Webcast: www.voeazul.com.br/ir
Replay
+55 (11) 3193-1012 | +55 (11) 2820-4012
Code for English: 4058980#
Code for Portuguese: 0487927#
About Azul
Azul (B3: AZUL4, NYSE: AZUL), the largest airline in Brazil by number of cities served, offers 755 daily flights to 104 destinations. With a fleet of 118 aircraft and more than 10,000 crewmembers, the company has a network of 197 non-stop routes as of September 30, 2017. Among other awards, Azul was named third best airline in the world by TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice in 2017, best low cost carrier in South America for the seventh consecutive time by Skytrax in 2017, and was also considered the best regional leader in 2016 by Flight Airline Business. For more information visit www.voeazul.com.br/ir.
Contact
Investor Relations
Andrea Bottcher
Tel: +55-11-4831-2880
[email protected]
Media Relations
Tel: +55-11-4831-1245
[email protected]
SOURCE Azul S.A.
Related Links
http://www.voeazul.com.br/ir
NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading commercial litigation funder Bentham IMF is launching a new bankruptcy litigation funding platform to help debtors, creditors and other stakeholders involved in commercial disputes. The initiative will be led by New York bankruptcy lawyer Ken Epstein, who joins the company as an investment manager and legal counsel. Mr. Epstein was formerly a managing director in the restructuring group at MBIA, a financial guarantor. He started his career in the financial restructuring group at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.
At the same time, Bentham announced the appointment of experienced in-house corporate and financial services lawyer Christopher Young as Corporate Counsel, helping structure and negotiate the company's growing portfolio of investments.
With its new platform, Bentham will provide non-recourse funding to debtors-in-possession, creditors and official committees, chapter 11 trustees and post-confirmation estates. Funding proceeds can be used by individual litigants to defray the cost of expensive and lengthy litigation, or to hedge against an adverse judgment or appeal ruling. For undercapitalized trust estates, money can be made available immediately for distribution to creditors, to meet administrative and operating costs of professionals, or for costly pre-litigation or pre-confirmation claims analyses.
"While we've funded bankruptcy-related matters before at Bentham, we felt an opportunity existed to create a focused unit to cover the broader waterfront of corporate insolvencies and financial restructurings," said Allison Chock, Bentham's U.S. Chief Investment Officer. "Today's bankruptcy matters are among the most complex and expensive to litigate due to the multitude of claims, the time to resolution and the number of competing interests involved. And they're frequently the source of contentious litigation, which can be burdensome for bankruptcy estates and litigation trusts to carry. Bentham has substantial capital to commit to assist claimants and counsel in maximizing the value of potential recoveries in bankruptcy cases."
Bentham also provides funding to law firms that take matters on contingency, an arrangement increasingly popular among clients and generally accepted by bankruptcy judges. Law firm funding helps provide clients with access to high-quality counsel and trial experts. Lawyers taking cases on contingency can share their fee risk with Bentham, positioning them to win more engagements and increase financial returns.
"Bentham is one of the world's premier commercial litigation funders," Mr. Epstein said. "I'm excited to help launch and lead this new platform, which should attract great interest in the bankruptcy community as an important source of capital for debtors and creditors alike, as well as trustees, estate representatives and their law firms. It's all about maximizing the value of the bankruptcy estate, and leveling the playing field in litigation against well-heeled defendants."
Mr. Epstein has extensive debtor and creditor-side restructuring experience across multiple industries both in the U.S. and abroad. A graduate of Brooklyn Law School, he has taught bankruptcy law at Cardozo Law School, advised and served on distressed company boards, authored numerous articles and spoken on panels about bankruptcy-related topics. He is also certified as an insolvency and restructuring advisor by the AIRA.
The new bankruptcy offering adds a key target for funding as Bentham continues to broaden its U.S. presence. Earlier this year, its parent company IMF Bentham Limited, one of the world's oldest and most successful commercial litigation funders, launched a $200 million vehicle expressly to finance its growing portfolio of U.S. cases and investments. More recently, the Company launched A$150 million of additional investment vehicles to fund investments in Australia, Asia, Canada and Europe.
Charlie Gollow, Bentham's U.S. Chief Executive, said, "We think this is an excellent time to devote more resources and capital to restructurings. Despite the health of the U.S. economy, there are stresses in numerous sectors from retail and energy to healthcare and technology. We've fielded frequent opportunities in the past several years to fund law firms and claimants involved in insolvency disputes with the addition of Ken Epstein and a dedicated platform, we expect to see bankruptcy matters become a more prominent part of our U.S. portfolio. At the same time, we welcome new corporate counsel Chris Young to help serve our in-house legal needs as we continue to grow our American business."
Background on Christopher Young
In his new role as Corporate Counsel, Christopher Young will advise and represent Bentham's investment team in the U.S. as well as IMF's international staff on U.S. corporate legal issues. He is a seasoned corporate and commercial lawyer with experience handling investment contracts, distressed loan and bankruptcy claim trades, leveraged credit facilities and corporate restructurings. He also has experience on employment matters and strategic initiatives.
He previously spent over five years as Vice President and Counsel with Royal Bank of Scotland, where he advised RBS' U.S. Financing & Risk Solutions and UK Commercial & Private Banking franchises, while covering general U.S. corporate matters. Before joining RBS, he held positions an associate at the firms of Andrews Kurth LLP and Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP. A graduate of Yale University, Mr. Young earned his JD from Cardozo Law School and received an LLM in Taxation from New York University.
ABOUT BENTHAM
Bentham IMF is the U.S. arm of IMF Bentham Limited (ASX: IMF), one of the most successful litigation funding companies in the world, with a portfolio that has a total claim size value of $3.8 billion AUD. The companies have 11 offices throughout the world and provide funding to clients in the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. They have funded to completion more than 162 cases in the past 16 years, generating over $2.1 billion AUD in recoveries and achieving a 91% success rate, with their clients retaining an average of 62% of all case proceeds.
Contacts: Allan Ripp | 212-262-7477 | [email protected]
Gretchen Lyn Koehler, Chief Marketing Officer | 212-488-5331 | [email protected]
SOURCE Bentham IMF
Related Links
http://www.benthamimf.com
GLENDALE, Calif., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Beyond Limits, an artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing company, today announced it has appointed Dr. Shahram Farhadi as the Head of Oil and Gas Technologies. Shahram will lead Beyond Limits as the company continues to develop next generation artificial intelligence powered solutions for the energy industry.
Beyond Limits has appointed Dr. Shahram Farhadi as the Head of Oil and Gas Technologies.
"I am very happy to be at the helm of our exciting efforts in the oil and gas sector," said Dr. Shahram Farhadi. "There is no shortage of challenging problems to solve and we are well positioned to address many of them in a big way. I look forward to working closely with our scientists and industry leaders to push O&G technologies way beyond the conventional.'"
Dr. Farhadi brings his deep domain knowledge of the oil and gas industry and is an expert in adapting cutting edge technology with current operational and technological resources within the energy sector. Before joining Beyond Limits, Dr. Farhadi worked with Occidental Petroleum Corporation on many high-profile projects including unconventional exploration and chemical flooding. Most recently he worked on simulations of a propulsion component for the Orion project. Dr. Farhadi has also developed many software solutions including "Digital Rock Physics Platform" and "Fast Fracture Analysis," and has been published in many leading journals on topics including porous media characterization and flow modeling. He holds a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Southern California.
AJ Abdallat, CEO of Beyond Limits, said "Beyond Limits has developed deep partnerships with key players in the oil and gas industry, and will continue to work on developing cutting edge solutions that will benefit everything from exploration to operation. With his deep industry knowledge and research experience, Dr. Farhadi is ideally poised to drive the adaptation and adoption of our proprietary technology to the oil and gas sector."
Launched in 2014, Beyond Limits is a leader in AI and cognitive computing, created to commercialize cutting edge IP developed by the team after over 20 years of success supporting NASA and the space program. Earlier this year, the company secured $20 million in Series B funding from BP Ventures, the corporate investment arm of global energy business British Petroleum. The investment will accelerate the delivery of Beyond Limits' industrial-grade AI software to provide the energy sector with new levels of operational insight, business optimization and process automation across all operations.
About Beyond Limits
Beyond Limits is transforming proven space and defense technologies from NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense into innovative solutions to address large and emerging markets. These technologies were developed at Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) over the last two decades and were funded by NASA and the Department of Defense to address their complex and far-reaching problems. Beyond Limits leverages this existing R&D investment along with many of its own technologies to produce commercial products and solutions that are capable of addressing the emerging problems of AI today and beyond. For more information, please visit our website at www.beyond.ai.
Media Contact:
Edward M. Yang
Firecracker PR
[email protected]
1-888-317-4687 (ext. 702)
SOURCE Beyond Limits
Related Links
http://www.beyond.ai
CARLSBAD, California and BERLIN, October 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
How can partnering and collaboration break down walls in biotech? What are the latest developments in curing pediatric and orphan diseases? How can digital medicine advance innovative treatments? These and many more industry-relevant questions will be addressed at the 23rd annual BIO-Europe , a global life science partnering event starting on November 6.
This year's conference is also part of Berlin Science Week 2017 , an international gathering that brings people from the world's most innovative scientific institutions together in Berlin, taking place November 1-10 with events all over the city.
Leaders in the life sciences will meet at BIO-Europe to develop partnerships that propel global drug development. High-level executives from pharma, biotech, the investment sector and patient groups are confirmed to attend, and will lead program panels and discussions relevant to the industry.
Featured speakers:
Kate Bingham - Managing Partner and EU Deal Team, SV Life Sciences Advisers
- Managing Partner and EU Deal Team, SV Life Sciences Advisers Johnston Erwin - VP, Strategy and Operations, Corporate Business Development, Eli Lilly and Company
- VP, Strategy and Operations, Corporate Business Development, Eli Lilly and Company Nicholas Franco - Executive VP and CBO, Actelion
- Executive VP and CBO, Actelion Zaki Hosny - Senior Advisor, Albright Stonebridge Group
- Senior Advisor, Albright Stonebridge Group Oscar Izeboud - Managing Director, NIBC Bank
Managing Director, NIBC Bank Claudia Karnbach - Head, Business Development and Licensing, Specialty Medicine, Pharmaceuticals Division, Bayer
- Head, Business Development and Licensing, Specialty Medicine, Pharmaceuticals Division, Bayer Richard Mason - Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, EMEA
- Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, EMEA Ron Newbold - VP, Global Scouting, External R&D Innovation at Pfizer
- VP, Global Scouting, External R&D Innovation at Pfizer Amy Schulman - CEO, Lyndra Inc ., Polaris Partners
- CEO, ., Polaris Partners Dieter Weinand - Member of the Board of Management and President Pharmaceuticals, Bayer AG
Hot topics
Breaking down walls : Keeping collaboration at the center of biotech
: Keeping collaboration at the center of biotech Next wave immunotherapy : The future including and beyond checkpoints
: The future including and beyond checkpoints Targeting the microbiome : From scientific evidence to regulatory approval
: From scientific evidence to regulatory approval The innovation drivers that work
A day in the life of experienced dealmakers
Navigating Brexit
Program Highlights
Startup Slam: Berlin
Startup Slam is a pitching competition offering emerging entrepreneurs a chance to pitch their innovative technologies to a panel of leading investors, pharma dealmakers, and biotech key opinion leaders.
Digital Medicine Track
Sessions in this emerging field include Big Data solutions, advancing precision medicine via novel digital solutions, SMEs pitching their innovation projects facilitated by PERMIDES EU funding, and the digitization of chronic condition management.
Registration and event information is available online .
Watch video coverage from previous events, interviews with executives and thought leaders in the life science industry and premier content related to the biopharma industry on EBD Group's Partnering Insight
Additional links and information:
Follow BIO-Europe on Twitter: @EBDGroup (hashtag: #BioEurope).
About EBD Group
EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global life science industry. Since 1993, biotech, pharma and medical device companies have leveraged EBD Group's partnering conferences, technology and services to identify business opportunities and develop strategic relationships essential to their success.
EBD Group's conferences are run with the support of leading corporations and international trade associations and include:
EBD Groups sophisticated web-based partnering service, partneringONE, is used as the partnering engine at numerous third-party events around the world. Tune into EBD Group's Partnering Insight for timely coverage of news that influences the business strategies of the life science industry.
EBD Group is an Informa company. Informa is the largest publicly-owned organizer of exhibitions, conferences and training in the world.
EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.
For more information please visit www.ebdgroup.com
Contact:
Kari Bennett
EBD Group
+1-760-930-0500
[email protected]
SOURCE EBD Group
ZUG, Switzerland, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BLOCKv, a blockchain-based development platform for the creation of smart, secure and dynamic virtual objects, announced a partnership with Storj Labs, a decentralized cloud storage provider, to host virtual assets using blockchain technology. The partnership enables developer communities to leverage both companies' innovative technology: BLOCKv to build virtual items called vAtoms embedded with an "experiential layer," and Storj to host these items on a decentralized cloud storage platform that incorporates encryption, sharding and a large network to secure data.
This partnership will enable the next generation of digital objects, which will be smart, experiential micro-apps that store real-world value and interact with their 'owners,' other digital objects, social media platforms and even IoT devices. As the demand for digital assets rapidly expands, driven by the rapid rise of digital tickets, coupons, games like Pokemon GO and Counterstrike, electronic identity and medical records, and devices such as tablets, smart TVs, and e-readers, there is an increasing need for more capacity to store information about the objects, their graphics and video assets. The Storj peer-to-peer, decentralized storage solution has been tested with enterprise-scale clients and enables the effective delivery of any digital asset. Storj will enable BLOCKv's developers to securely store their vAtom's multimedia, commerce, data and code in the cloud, and quickly stream the desired content or data to the vAtom's front-end in real-time. The result will be a self-contained, interactive digital object that is secure, dynamic and multimedia-rich yet small enough to be stored on, and shared via, mobile devices.
"Storj is pioneering a revolutionary new way to not only securely store files but cache them nearby and have immediate availability," said BLOCKv CEO Reeve Collins. "BLOCKv will make consumer-facing blockchain-linked virtual goods available to the world, and Storj will enable us to do it more securely and cost effectively. We're excited to offer BLOCKv's platform to the Storj community of developers and users, and look forward to offering Storj's decentralized solution as an upcoming storage option for our developers."
BLOCKv's platform promises to usher in the next generation digital goods economy through the creation of a user interface layer that mitigates the complexity of blockchain development to unlock exponential growth. The partnership with Storj will create an additional layer of security for its developers. Storj encrypts, shreds, and distributes data pieces across its global network and provides only the customer with an encrypted access key. This process, along with a large decentralized network, prevents security breaches and maintains vAtom integrity.
"As businesses become ever more digital, they need solutions that rethink how we manage digital assets and innovate the capabilities within these objects, while not sacrificing security and performance in the process," said John Quinn, Storj Labs co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer. "BLOCKv is a key partner, and by combining Storj's encrypted, decentralized cloud storage platform with their virtual asset management technology, we are jointly creating new opportunities for businesses and the developer ecosystem through our interconnected, complimentary technology. We are happy to welcome BLOCKv users to the growing Storj community and we will be there to support BLOCKv and help its developers achieve this vision."
BLOCKv is releasing the V Token (Ticker: VEE) which will allow developers to access the platform, publish vAtoms and fund their long running processes. The V token, built on the ERC20 standard, is a key part of the BLOCKv open-source development and operational environment. V provides the essential utilities of access, power, and incentive to the global community of creators and developers. BLOCKv will make V Tokens available through an upcoming Token Generation Event on October 19, 2017. Anyone interested in learning more about the tokens and BLOCKv technology can download the BLOCKv whitepaper at https://blockv.io.
About BLOCKv
Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, BLOCKv provides a development platform and community for the creation and distribution of dynamic, intelligent, experiential digital objects called vAtoms that bridge the gap between digital and physical worlds. Built on secure blockchain technologies, BLOCKv's 'smart' digital objects work on any digital platform, are obtainable anywhere, store actual transactional value and are immune to fraud. When combined with the power and name-recognition of major brands, vAtoms have the power to transform the landscape of physical, digital and social advertising, micro-transacting, ticketing, gifting, coupons, promotions, and more. For more information, please visit https://blockv.io/.
PRESS CONTACT:
Jeff Koo, Sparkpr for BLOCKv
[email protected]
(415) 321-1866
SOURCE BLOCKv
Related Links
http://blockv.io
FOSHAN, China, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited ("Bright Scholar," the "Company," "we" or "our") (NYSE: BEDU), the largest operator of international and bilingual K-12 schools in China*, today announced that it is scheduled to attend J.P. Morgan's 5th Global TMT Conference on November 13 and 14, 2017 at the Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong.
Ms. Dora Li, Chief Financial Officer of Bright Scholar, will attend the conference and meet investors in the form of one-on-one and group meetings.
For further information, please visit the investor relations page of the Company's website at http://ir.brightscholar.com.
About Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited
Bright Scholar is the largest operator of international and bilingual K-12 schools in China*. The Company is dedicated to providing quality international education to Chinese students and equipping them with the critical academic foundation and skillsets necessary to succeed in the pursuit of higher education overseas. It also complements its international offerings with Chinese government-mandated curriculum for students who wish to maintain the option of pursuing higher education in China. As of May 31, 2017, Bright Scholar operated 52 schools covering the breadth of K-12 academic needs of its students across seven provinces in China. In the first nine months of the 2017 school year ended May 31, 2017, Bright Scholar had an average of 29,613 students enrolled at its schools.
* In terms of student enrollment as of September 1, 2016, according to an industry report commissioned by Bright Scholar and prepared by Frost & Sullivan in 2017.
Safe Harbor Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the Company's business plans and development, can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue," "is/are likely to" or other similar expressions. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control, which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under law.
IR Contact:
FleishmanHillard
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +852 2586 7825
SOURCE Bright Scholar Education Holdings Ltd.
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- With a long history in real estate development, the Brodsky family announced today its launch of BEB Capital, a privately-held, Port Washington-based real estate and investment company. This new entity reflects not only the real estate business the Brodsky family has built over the past five decades, but also its financial investments in several other corporate sectors, including healthcare, technology, and hospitality.
The Brodsky family, headed by patriarch Bert E. Brodsky, is involved in many facets of real estate, including the investment, development, operation, and management of commercial and residential properties in New York and along the Eastern seaboard. Through the years, the business has greatly evolved, and what was once a family-run real estate entity has grown dramatically both in terms of its investments and professional team. BEB Capital will now serve as the entity overseeing all aspects of the business.
"We have grown organically from a small real estate business with a strong foundation and vision to a successful multi-faceted company with an outstanding management team that continues to propel us forward," says Bert E. Brodsky, founder and chairman of BEB Capital. "I am extremely proud of all that we have accomplished to date and am confident that BEB Capital will thrive in the coming years under the direction of our forward-thinking management team."
In addition to Bert E. Brodsky, the senior management team includes Lee J. Brodsky, chief executive officer; Keyvan Ghaytanchi, chief operating officer and general counsel; Thomas Landherr, chief financial officer; Craig Miller, director of acquisitions and asset manager; and Jeffrey and David Brodsky, leaders of the firm's property management team.
"Our leadership team has extensive experience and knowledge, and is well equipped to build on our business successes of the past while looking ahead to new opportunities in the marketplace, whether that is in real estate or in other promising business sectors," says Lee Brodsky.
BEB Capital has a broad foundation in the emerging technology, healthcare, marketing, and food and beverage sectors, having significant investments in Sandata Technologies, Mobile Health Management Services, Inc., Didit, and City Cellar. The company has recently invested in several other forward-thinking businesses, including Raden, Eleven James, Hello Alfred, and Snaps.
"Although our primary business is in the real estate sector with a focus on New York City, BEB Capital is always interested in investing in innovative companies that have the potential to prosper in a fast-moving and ever-changing world," states Lee Brodsky.
BEB Capital has launched a new website, www.bebcapital.com, which provides in-depth information about the firm's projects and services, investments, affiliates and team of professionals. "We are at an exciting time in our business's growth and encourage those in the real estate industry and other sectors to take a fresh look at who we are today," adds Lee Brodsky. "We have taken proactive steps to grow our business so that it's stronger and more dynamic than ever before."
About BEB Capital
BEB Capital is a privately-held company based in Port Washington, New York. The company has a real estate and investment portfolio consisting of mixed-use developments, parking facilities and restaurants totaling over $340 million in assets throughout the East Coast. In addition, it is an investor in several other businesses.
SOURCE BEB Capital
Related Links
http://www.bebcapital.com
Building Energy, multinational company operating as a Globally Integrated IPP in the Renewable Energy Industry, announces the Inauguration of the Tororo Solar Plant, its first photovoltaic system in Uganda. With a capacity of 10 MWp, this plant is among the largest in Eastern Africa. Building Energy was also responsible for the development of the project, arranging the financing, as well as the construction and commissioning of the plant. The beginning of operations has been celebrated on the occasion of the ribbon cutting ceremony in Tororo, in the presence of Matteo Brambilla, MD Africa and Middle East at Building Energy, and Attilio Pacifici, EU Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Uganda.
(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/582879/Building_Energy_Solar_Plant.jpg )
The Tororo solar plant will generate around 16 GWh of energy annually, catering to the energy needs of more than 35,838 people. In addition, the plant will foster clean industrial development in the town of Tororo and at the same time save atmospheric emissions of more than 7,200 tonnes of CO2 per year. Community Development initiatives are also underway.
The Solar Park was developed under the Global Energy Transfer Feed in Tariff ("GET FiT"), a dedicated support scheme for renewable energy projects managed by Germany's KfW Development Bank in partnership with Uganda's Electricity Regulatory Agency (ERA) and funded by the EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund, the governments of Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund has provided funds through the GET FiT Solar Facility in the form of a top-up payment per kWh of delivered electricity over 20 years. This financing fills the gap between the generation costs and the feed-in tariff set by Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
The overall $19.6 million construction investment at Tororo was financed by FMO, the Dutch development bank which, as Mandated Lead Arranger, coordinated the provision of a $14.7 million term loan facility. Fifty percent of the funding was syndicated to the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), while the overall equity contribution of the shareholders was $4.9 million.
Contacts:
Building Energy
Maria Grazia Tiballi
+39-02-49527730
[email protected]
buildingenergy.it
SOURCE Building Energy
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, October 18, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will join a coalition of national and local American Muslim and civil rights organizations at the #NoMuslimBanEver rally and march outside the White House in Washington, D.C.
The event is designed to protest discriminatory policies that unlawfully target and hurt American Muslim and immigrant communities across the country and are part of the administration's xenophobic, white supremacist agenda.
October 18 is the date on which the latest iteration of the Trump administration's "Muslim ban" goes into effect.
WHAT: #NoMuslimBanEver Rally and March
WHEN: Wednesday, October 18, 11:30 a.m. [MEDIA NOTE: Members of the media should sign in by 10 a.m. at the press risers in Lafayette Square.]
WHERE: Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C.
11:30 a.m. - March begins at Lafayette Square with speeches by a member of Congress, American Muslim leaders and impacted individuals
1:30 p.m. - March to the Trump International Hotel via Pennsylvania Avenue
3:30 p.m. - Program will end with march up to the doorstep of the enforcers of the Muslim ban, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]
SEE: https://www.nomuslimbanever.com/
The #NoMuslimBanEver campaign, a coalition of national and local civil rights and Muslim advocacy groups, is mobilizing and organizing events around the country to help lead the fight against President Trump's latest unconstitutional Muslim ban, as well as other discriminatory immigration policies that criminalize and negatively impact American Muslim communities across the country.
Earlier this month, CAIR announced the filing of a federal lawsuit on behalf of six individuals challenging the lawfulness of President Trump's most recent attempt to implement a Muslim ban. A federal court hearing on that and other related lawsuits took place today in Maryland.
VIDEO: CAIR Joins Other Civil Rights Organizations at News Conference Outside Federal Court in Maryland
https://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational/videos/10155231767967695/
That lawsuit was the latest CAIR legal filing challenging the Trump administration's efforts to implement its Muslim Ban.
In September, CAIR -- with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and Profeta & Eisenstein -- filed an amicus brief with U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of seven American Muslims.
READ Amicus Brief
https://www.cair.com/images/pdf/170918_-_Trump_v_Hawaii_-_Amicus_Brief_FINAL.PDF
These groups also filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit in August.
Read CAIR's Amicus Brief
https://www.cair.com/images/pdf/17-16426-Hawaii-v-Trump---Brief-of-Amici-Adam-Soltani-et-al.pdf
In January, just days after Trump signed the first Muslim ban executive order, CAIR filed suit.
SEE: CAIR Files Federal Suit Challenging Constitutionality of Trump's 'Muslim Ban' Executive Order
http://www.cair.com/press-center/press-releases/14069-cair-files-federal-suit-challenging-constitutionality-of-trump-s-muslim-ban-executive-order.html
CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
La mision de CAIR es mejorar la comprension del Islam, fomentar el dialogo, proteger las libertades civiles, capacitar a los musulmanes estadounidenses, y construir coaliciones que promuevan la justicia y la comprension mutua.
CONTACT: CAIR National Litigation Director Lena Masri, 248-390-9784, [email protected]; CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas, 720-251-0425, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]
SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Related Links
http://www.cair.com
BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), a national network of five hospitals headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla., ranked third in the US Hospitals category of YouGov's 2017 Brand Health rankings. The 2017 ranking derived from respondents' rating of 42 nationally-recognized hospitals and hospital systems on six important brand metrics: quality, value, impression, satisfaction, reputation and willingness to recommend. CTCA ranked behind only Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins, and ahead of Cedars-Sinai, Cleveland Clinic and Memorial Sloan-Kettering, among others. The results were based on a national survey of 13,207 adults over 18 years of age polled between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017.
"This ranking reflects the expertise of our more than 4,600 clinicians and fellow Stakeholders (employees), and their commitment to deliver the exceptional quality of care for which CTCA is renowned," said Peter Yesawich, Chief Growth Officer of CTCA.
"Cancer Treatment Centers of America continues its work against a disease that touches so many Americans," said YouGov BrandIndex CEO Ted Marzilli. "The brand's high rating reflects its commitment to providing high quality care to patients from around the US."
About YouGov BrandIndex
YouGov BrandIndex (www.brandindex.com) is the only daily consumer perception research service of brands, taking more than 4,800 interviews every day from a representative US population sample, and more than 1.5 million interviews per year. Respondents are drawn from an online panel of more than 1.8 MM US adults aged 18+.
About Cancer Treatment Centers of America
Cancer Treatment Centers of America Global, Inc. (CTCA) is a national network of five hospitals in Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Tulsa specializing in the treatment of adult patients with cancer. CTCA offers an integrative approach to care that combines advancements in genomic testing and precision cancer treatment, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, with supportive therapies designed to manage side effects and enhance quality of life both during and after treatment. Our patient satisfaction scores consistently rank among the highest for all cancer care providers in the country. CTCA is also rated one of the most admired hospital systems in the U.S. in national consumer surveys. Visit cancercenter.com, Facebook.com/cancercenter and Twitter.com/cancercenter for more information.
Contact:
Abigail Obre
[email protected]
(561) 923-3198
SOURCE Cancer Treatment Centers of America
Related Links
http://www.cancercenter.com
AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vinson & Elkins has bolstered its Environmental and Natural Resources practice with the addition of new counsel Carrick Brooke-Davidson, who brings to the firm more than three decades of experience as a private practitioner and as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice handling a wide range of environmental litigation, compliance and regulatory matters.
Brooke-Davidson, who comes to V&E from environmental law boutique Guida, Slavich & Flores, P.C., is based in the firm's Austin office.
"Carrick is a welcome addition to the firm whose experience and knowledge will immediately benefit V&E and its clients," said V&E Environmental & Natural Resources Practice Group Leader Larry Nettles. "He is an outstanding attorney whose ability to provide top-shelf client service is a major asset."
Brooke-Davidson has significant experience in all areas of environmental litigation, counseling and representation, especially in civil environmental litigation under the major environmental statutes, including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and their Texas counterparts.
He also has more than a decade of experience working for the United States Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division, which he joined through the Attorney General's Honors Program upon graduating from law school in 1985.
Brooke-Davidson served as a trial attorney, senior attorney and assistant section chief (acting) over the course of his 11-year career with the DOJ. As a government attorney, Brooke-Davidson served as a trial attorney or supervisor for civil enforcement litigation originated by several EPA offices, with the primary focus on Region 6 (Dallas).
Among his notable matters, Brooke-Davidson was lead counsel for the federal government in U.S. v. Vineland Chemical Co., which resulted at the time in one of the highest civil penalties under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. He also received several awards while at DOJ, including a Special Commendation for Outstanding Service.
Prior to joining Guida, Slavich & Flores as a shareholder in 2008, Brooke-Davidson was a senior attorney with Jenkens & Gilchrist, PC from 1997 to 2002 and a counsel at Andrews Kurth, LLP from 2002 to 2008.
"V&E is a natural fit for me and my clients," said Brooke-Davidson. "The firm is home to many of the top energy and environmental lawyers in the country and has a strong global platform. I am very happy to be a part of V&E and am ready to continue in the firm's tradition of providing outstanding legal service."
In addition to his active law practice, Brooke-Davidson serves as Co-Chair of the American Bar Association's Section of Environment, Energy and Resources Environmental Enforcement and Crimes Committee. Brooke-Davidson holds a bachelor's degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics as well as a master's degree in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1985.
V&E's Environmental and Natural Resources practice is among the best in the United States, receiving national recognition in Chambers USA (2017) and Legal 500 U.S. (2017). The firm counsels a wide array of clients on state and federal environmental laws and represents them in complex environmental litigation as well as administrative, civil and criminal enforcement matters in state and federal courts and regulatory agencies.
Celebrating its 100th year, Vinson & Elkins LLP is an international law firm with approximately 700 lawyers across 16 offices worldwide. For more information, please contact Jeremy Heallen at +1.713.758.2079.
2801 Via Fortuna
Suite 100
Austin, TX 78746-7568
Tel +1.512.542.8400
www.velaw.com
This communication may be considered advertising under law regulating the use of e-mail. This communication is provided by Vinson & Elkins LLP for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended, nor should it be construed, as legal advice.
SOURCE Vinson & Elkins LLP
Related Links
http://www.velaw.com
LONDON, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CCTV cameras offer a secure medium to monitor and record images and video. The demand for CCTV cameras for the purpose of surveillance has soared globally.
Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5143259
This demand is attributed to the rising threat to public security due to criminal and terrorist attacks. Apart from public security surveillance CCTV cameras are used to monitor areas such as shopping malls, hotels, streets, banks, and government buildings.
CCTV cameras vary on the basis of technology and model type. The CCTV camera market consists of a large number of software and hardware providers. The CCTV camera market value chain is characterized by system integrators and service providers. The CCTV camera market is highly competitive since it has a large number of hardware, software, and technology providers.
Intense competition in the market affects the pricing strategy adopted by the players in the CCTV market. Investments in research and development initiatives is largely prevalent in the CCTV camera market.
Global CCTV Camera Market: Regional Segmentation
Based on geographical regions, the report segments the global CCTV camera market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America, which are analyzed in terms of revenue generation. The report provides country level revenue for CCTV camera market.
The U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, India, China, Japan, GCC, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina are the countries covered in the report. The report also provides the country level data of each of the market segments for all the countries mentioned above.
North America is expected to lead the CCTV camera market during the forecast period. The region houses a large number of CCTV camera system and solution providers. The Asia Pacific region is expected to witness the highest growth rate of 14.6 percent during the forecast period.
The Middle East and Africa and South America are in the early phases of large scale installation of CCTV cameras. The anticipated growth of tourism sector of the Middle East and Brazil is expected to support the market growth of the CCTV camera market of these regions during the forecast period. The CCTV camera market comprises large number of medium and large players.
Product innovation, mergers and acquisition, and research & development investments are the key growth strategies adopted by the players in the CCTV camera market. The market is expected to be hit by a huge wave of mergers and acquisitions in the coming years.
Global CCTV Camera Market: Segmentation
This research report provides an in-depth analysis of the global CCTV camera market based on model type, technology, end-use application, and geography. The global CCTV camera market is categorized based on model type into PTZ camera, box camera, dome camera, bullet camera, and others (hybrid, etc.). The technology segment for the global CCTV camera market consists of analog CCTV systems, wireless CCTV systems, IP-based CCTV systems, and hybrid CCTV systems.
The end-use segment is classified into retail, hospitality, BFSI, home security, government, and others (transportation, healthcare, etc.). The report analyzes each of these segments for the various geographies considered under the scope of the study.
Global CCTV Camera Market: Competitive Landscape
The report includes analysis of the factors that drive and restrain the growth of the CCTV camera market. It discusses the prevailing market trends and prospective growth opportunities in the global CCTV camera market.
It provides market estimates and forecasts for all the segments in terms of revenue. Also provided in the report is the market positioning of the companies in the CCTV camera market.
Major business strategies adopted by key players, their SWOT analysis, and competition matrix has also been identified in the research report. Axis Communications AB, Bosch Security Systems, Inc., Geovision Inc, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co Ltd, Hanwha Techwin Co. Ltd, Honeywell International Inc., Panosonic System Network Co. Limited, Pelco Inc, Toshiba Corporation, and Zhejiang Dahau Technology Co.
Ltd. are major players profiled in the global CCTV camera market report.
Global CCTV Camera Market
By Model Type
PTZ camera
Box camera
Dome camera
Bullet camera
Others (Hybrid, etc)
By Technology
Analog CCTV Systems
Wireless CCTV Systems
IP-based CCTV Systems
Hybrid CCTV Systems
By Application
Retail
Hospitality
BFSI
Commercial Infrastructure
Home Security
Government
Others (Transportation, Healthcare, etc.)
By Geography
North America
The U.S.
Canada
Rest of North America
Europe
Germany
The U.K.
France
Rest of Europe
Asia Pacific
China
India
Japan
Rest of Asia Pacific
Middle East & Africa
GCC Countries
South Africa
Rest of Middle East & Africa
South America
Brazil
Argentina
Rest of South America
Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5143259
About Reportbuyer
Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers
https://www.reportbuyer.com
For more information:
Sarah Smith
Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 208 816 85 48
Website: www.reportbuyer.com
SOURCE ReportBuyer
Related Links
http://www.reportbuyer.com
INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Celadon Group, Inc. ("Celadon" or the "Company") (NYSE: CGI) today announced the appointment of Thom Albrecht as Executive Vice President Chief Financial and Strategy Officer, effective today. Mr. Albrecht was unanimously appointed by the Company's Board of Directors (the "Board").
Appointment of Mr. Albrecht
Mr. Albrecht has been a transportation industry financial analyst since 1988 and currently serves as President of Sword & Sea Transport, LLC, a consulting company focusing on market research, growth strategies, and capacity overviews for freight transportation carriers and shippers. Prior to joining Sword & Sea Transport, he served as a Managing Director at BB&T Capital Markets for 12 years. Mr. Albrecht's coverage included truckload and LTL carriers, intermodal, selected equipment companies, freight brokerage, and freight forwarding. He has been quoted on the industry by the national media, including the Wall Street Journal, Logistics Management, Transport Topics, and the Journal of Commerce and he has been a featured speaker at several industry events. Before rejoining BB&T in 2009, Mr. Albrecht was a Managing Director at Stephens Inc. and has also followed the sector at ABN AMRO, Inc., and A.G. Edwards. He has provided advice and insight to numerous companies, including public and private carriers' teams and their boards of directors, as well as shippers' teams and has been involved with approximately 40 IPO, follow on, and secondary public stock offerings. He repeatedly has been recognized as a Wall Street Journal All-Star, per its analyst rankings, and as the best analyst in his sector among regional/boutique firms by Institutional Investor magazine. Mr. Albrecht was designated a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds a B.S. in business administration with a Finance major from the University of Central Missouri. He is on the Federal Reserve Beige Book committee and also on the Board of Directors for Forward Air Corporation (FWRD), a transportation and logistics company servicing the air freight and expedited LTL industry.
Mr. Albrecht succeeds Bobby Peavler as Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Peavler will continue to be a resource for the Company.
Paul Svindland, Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are pleased and excited to have Thom join our team. Thom's knowledge of our industry and the challenges and opportunities we face is extensive. In addition, he brings deep understanding of the operating performance that drives financial results. I am confident that Thom's expertise will be invaluable as we seek to improve our results, refinance our capital structure, shed non-core assets, and more effectively deploy capital in our core business units. I look forward to working with him and the rest of the management team as we seek to continue to execute our strategic initiatives and begin a new chapter for Celadon."
Mr. Svindland continued, "I would like to thank Bobby Peavler for his dedicated service as Celadon's CFO and Principal Accounting Officer over the last several years. We very much appreciate his help in transitioning the CFO role to Thom."
Mr. Albrecht said, "Having covered Celadon and its peers for nearly three decades, I feel uniquely positioned to impact key challenges facing the Company. My three main areas of focus will be business strategy, profitability, and timely and transparent financial reporting. In relation to the latter, Celadon is conducting a search for an experienced chief accounting officer to supplement our team. As I have become acquainted with the Board, Paul, and the rest of the management team, I am confident that we have the focus on the future and the necessary tools to reclaim Celadon's status as a leader in the truckload and logistics business."
Credit Facility Update
On October 2, 2017, the Company entered into a Sixth Amendment to Amended and Restated Credit Agreement which, among other things, required the Company to obtain non-binding indications of interest from one or more lenders seeking to refinance the Company's existing revolving credit facility. The Company has received the required indications of interest, satisfying this provision of the Sixth Amendment. Mr. Svindland commented: "We were pleased to receive multiple indications of interest from both asset-based revolving lenders and term lenders to provide the required financing. In particular, two members of our current bank group proposed asset-based revolving credit or similar facilities consistent with our requested terms. This strong support from our current lenders is much appreciated and will be instrumental to our refinancing process. In addition, we received indications from multiple term lenders to accompany the revolving facility, with terms being consistent with our range of expectations. Based on these indications of interest, which are non-binding, we continue to expect to refinance our existing facility with a more appropriate long term capital structure."
Inducement Award
The Company also announced the grant of certain equity awards to Mr. Albrecht in connection with his appointment. The equity awards were approved by the Board's Compensation Committee in reliance on the employment inducement exception to stockholder approval provided under New York Stock Exchange Listing Rule 303A.08, which requires public announcement of inducement awards. The terms of the equity awards are as follows:
75,000 shares of restricted stock, which are fully vested but subject to a holding period that will lapse upon the earliest to occur of (i) the second anniversary of the grant date, (ii) the termination of Mr. Albrecht by the Company without "Cause" (as defined in his employment agreement), and (iii) Mr. Albrecht terminating his employment for "Good Reason" (as defined in his employment agreement) within 12 months following a "Change in Control" (as defined in his employment agreement).
50,000 shares of time vesting restricted stock, which will vest in equal quarterly installments beginning on the second anniversary of the grant date, with all shares fully vesting on the fourth anniversary of the grant date.
50,000 shares of performance vesting restricted stock, which will vest upon the first to occur of the following: (i) a sale of the Company at a price per share in excess of the price per share on the date of issuance of the award, (ii) a consolidated operating ratio for any fiscal year equal to or lower than 95%, and (iii) the closing price of the Company's common stock is $8.00 or greater for twenty consecutive trading days. Unvested shares will expire and be forfeited upon the earlier of (x) termination of employment and (y) five years after the date of issuance.
or greater for twenty consecutive trading days. Unvested shares will expire and be forfeited upon the earlier of (x) termination of employment and (y) five years after the date of issuance. Non-qualified stock options covering 50,000 shares, with an exercise price of the closing market price on the date of issuance. The options vest in one-third installments on each of the second, third, and fourth anniversaries of the grant date and may not be exercised until vested.
If Mr. Albrecht's employment is terminated by the Company without Cause or by Mr. Albrecht for Good Reason, and such termination occurs within six months prior to, or within twelve months following, a Change in Control, all unvested equity awards will automatically vest.
The other terms and conditions of the awards are generally consistent with those in the Company's 2006 Omnibus Incentive Plan, as amended.
About Celadon
Celadon Group, Inc. (www.celadongroup.com), through its subsidiaries, provides long haul, regional, local, dedicated, intermodal, temperature-protect, and expedited freight service across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Company also owns Celadon Logistics Services, which provides freight brokerage services, freight management, as well as supply chain management solutions, including logistics, warehousing, and distribution.
This press release contains certain statements that may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such statements are subject to the safe harbor created by those sections and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Such statements may be identified by their use of terms or phrases, including "expects," "expected," "will," "would be," "intends," "believes," and similar terms and phrases. Forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified, which could cause future events and actual results to differ materially from those set forth in, contemplated by, or underlying the forward-looking statements. In this press release, statements relating to the Company's efforts to improve results, refinance its capital structure, shed non-core assets, and more effectively deploy capital, Mr. Albrecht's anticipated areas of focus, the potential appointment of a chief accounting officer, and the Company's future status in the truckload and logistics business, among others, are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Readers should review and consider factors that could impact results as provided in various disclosures by the Company in its press releases, stockholder reports, and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
For more information :
Joe Weigel
Director of Communications
(317) 972-7006 Direct
[email protected]
SOURCE Celadon Group, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.celadongroup.com
MALVERN, Pa., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CertainTeed Roofing is pleased to announce that it will be making its debut appearance at METALCON - the metal construction industry's largest international tradeshow and conference October 18-20 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV.
"METALCON 2017 is where you will find the best of the best exhibiting metal building products and we are excited to showcase our architectural metal roofing systems and supporting contractor credential programs," said Dale Walton, CertainTeed Metal Product Manager.
A proud member of the Metal Roofing Alliance and Metal Construction Association, CertainTeed Roofing encourages attendees to visit booth #501 to learn more about the following:
Architectural Metal Roofing Award-winning, hyper-realistic options in Shake, Slate and Tile from CertainTeed enhance roof architecture with less maintenance, cost and worry than traditional materials. Made from high-performance deep draw steel, these metal roofing solutions provide a combination of durability and authentic design which are ideal for both residential and light commercial applications.
Metal Credential Program Built in the spirit of CertainTeed's well-respected programs for asphalt roofing contractors, the CertainTeed MetalContractor and CertainTeed MetalMaster credentials are designed to provide pros with tools to enhance application skills, business acumen and in-home selling efforts. Contractors are encouraged to stop by and learn about the different credential requirements and numerous benefits available as part of this exciting new program.
CertainTeed Roofing has a wide array of solutions that meet the needs of specific regions throughout the country. To learn more about CertainTeed Roofing and additional product offerings, visit www.certainteed.com.
About CertainTeed
Through the responsible development of innovative and sustainable building products, CertainTeed, headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, has helped shape the building products industry for more than 110 years. Founded in 1904 as General Roofing Manufacturing Company, the firm's slogan "Quality Made Certain, Satisfaction Guaranteed," inspired the name CertainTeed. Today, CertainTeed is a leading North American brand of exterior and interior building products, including roofing, siding, fence, decking, railing, trim, insulation, drywall and ceilings.
A subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, one of the world's largest and oldest building products companies, CertainTeed has more than 6,300 employees and more than 60 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and Canada. The company had total sales of approximately $3.4 billion in 2016. www.certainteed.com.
For more information, contact:
Victoria Gallagher, CertainTeed
(610) 893-6002
[email protected]
www.certainteed.com/pressroom
SOURCE CertainTeed
Related Links
http://www.certainteed.com
1. Chicago 26. Sacramento Stockton (+6) 2. New York 27. Kansas City (+3) 3. Los Angeles (+1) 28. Charlotte (-1) 4. San Francisco Oakland (+1) 29. Norfolk Portsmouth Newport News (-5) 5. Washington, DC (-2) 30. Buffalo (-1) 6. Philadelphia (+1) 31. Columbus, OH (+6) 7. Detroit (+2) 32. St. Louis (-4) 8. Baltimore (-2) 33. Raleigh Durham (-11) 9. Seattle Tacoma (+2) 34. Grand Rapids Kalamazoo (-1) 10. Dallas Ft. Worth (+4) 35. San Diego (+12) 11. Denver (-1) 36. Albany Schenectady (-10) 12. Minneapolis St. Paul (-4) 37. San Antonio 13. Cleveland Akron (+2) 38. Tampa St. Petersburg (-7) 14. Atlanta (+2) 39. Rochester, NY (-4) 15. Boston (-3) 40. Nashville (-1) 16. Hartford New Haven (+1) 41. Champaign Springfield Decatur 17. Portland, OR (+3) 42. Greenville Spartanburg (-2) 18. Miami Ft. Lauderdale (-5) 43. Memphis 19. Indianapolis 44. Phoenix (+1) 20. Houston (+1) 45. Syracuse 21. Milwaukee (+2) 46. West Palm Beach (-10) 22. Pittsburgh (-4) 47. Orlando Daytona Beach (-1) 23. New Orleans (+15) 48. Madison (+1) 24. Cincinnati (+10) 49. Flint Saginaw (-8) 25. Richmond Petersburg 50. Green Bay Appleton (-6)
Fall is the start of rodent season. As the weather gets colder, unwanted pests like rats and mice seek out food, water and shelter to survive the winter. According to the National Pest Management Association, more than 20 million rodents invade homes each year.
"Rats and mice begin looking for warmer, more insulated places to get through the winter, and these too often happen to be our homes or businesses," said John Kane, entomologist and Technical Director of Orkin's Midwest Region. "Rodents like to chew on wood and electrical wires, increasing the fire danger behind your walls and potentially damage to your home." Kane added it's not hard for rodents to get inside a home or business.
"Rats can squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter, while mice can fit through a hole the size of a dime," Kane said. "Even if they can't find an opening, they can often chew their way in."
Rodents chew on many materials, including wood and the insulation around wires. It's estimated approximately 25 percent of unexplained wildfires start from rodent chewing. If rodent issues go unrecognized or ignored, their chewing can damage wires in the attic, basement or even in vehicles. Rodent burrowing can also cause cracks in a home's foundation. "Beyond property damage, there are other important reasons to prevent, notice and eliminate rodent infestations. They can contaminate food and transmit pathogens through urine, feces and bites that affect health."
To help people avoid the health and safety risks that are possible with these pests, Orkin recommends the following tips to help prevent rodents around the home:
Inspect both inside and outside the home for rodent droppings, burrows and rub marks along baseboards and walls. The more quickly rodents are detected, the better.
Look for possible entry points outside the home and seal cracks and holes if any are found. Think, "where would YOU hide or enter if you were a rodent?" It'll be hidden, dark, probably warm, and difficult to reach!
Install weather strips around entryways, especially under doors, to help block rodents from sneaking inside.
Store food properly by keeping it sealed tightly in rodent-proof containers like plastic bins or metal canisters. Otherwise, rodents may smell food and break into weaker containers.
Clean up crumbs and spills as soon as they happen to avoid leaving food residue or sugary substances that can attract rodents.
Cut back trees and bushes to at least three feet away from homes to avoid giving rodents a "jumping off" point to access the gutters, roof or other hidden openings.
Using the tips above, homes across the nation can be better equipped to keep rodents out. If there is ever a time when a rodent infestation is suspected, contact a local pest management expert as soon as possible.
For more information about rodent prevention, visit Orkin.com/rodents.
About Orkin, LLC
Founded in 1901, Atlanta-based Orkin is an industry leader in essential pest control services and protection against termite damage, rodents and insects. The company operates more than 400 locations with almost 8,000 employees. Using a proprietary, three-step approach, Orkin provides customized services to approximately 1.7 million homeowners and businesses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, Central America, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Asia, the Mediterranean and Africa. Orkin is committed to studying pest biology and applying scientifically proven methods. The company collaborates with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and eight major universities to conduct research and help educate consumers and businesses on pest-related health threats. Learn more about Orkin at Orkin.com. Orkin is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rollins Inc. (NYSE: ROL). Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
SOURCE Orkin
Related Links
https://www.orkin.com
During the visit, Verma facilitated a round-table discussion and sought input from a range of experts on their experiences with the agency and ideas for improvement. Specifically, participants discussed developing more consistent quality measures, facilitating care integration, enabling faster adoption of new technologies and treatments, strengthening support for Medicaid, and addressing the opioid crisis in Connecticut.
Administrator Verma was greeted by several leaders from Hartford HealthCare, including Chief Executive Officer Elliot Joseph; Dr. Rocco Orlando III, senior vice president and chief medical officer; Bimal Patel, senior vice president and Hartford region president; and Kimberly Harrison, vice president of public policy and government affairs.
"We were pleased to host Administrator Verma for an engaged discussion about the state of healthcare today," said Elliot Joseph, chief executive officer of Hartford HealthCare. "It is extremely important to have an open dialogue about the issues facing our patients, our providers and our health system. Administrator Verma listened intently to our concerns and we know she is committed to making positive changes at CMS."
Verma was nominated for the CMS Administrator position in 2016 and was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 13, 2017. Under Verma's leadership, CMS has launched an initiative to make it easier for providers to spend less time trying to comply with complex regulations and more time delivering high-quality care.
About Hartford HealthCare
Hartford HealthCare is Connecticut's most comprehensive health care network. Our fully integrated health system includes a tertiary-care teaching hospital, an acute-care community teaching hospital, an acute-care hospital and trauma center, two community hospitals, the state's most extensive behavioral health network, a large multispecialty physician group, a regional home care system, an array of senior care services, a large physical therapy and rehabilitation network and an accountable care organization. The Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute provides coordinated care across five cancer centers, and is the charter member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance.
SOURCE Hartford HealthCare
Related Links
https://hartfordhealthcare.org
WALPOLE, Mass., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, a coalition of community and labor groups will launch a public awareness campaign calling on multinational manufacturing giant Siemens AG to respect workers and residents in the Massachusetts town of Walpole. The "Siemens: Be A Good Neighbor" campaign will call attention to the concerns from area residents that the company will fail to create enough safe and family-sustaining jobs during their ongoing plant expansion in Walpole, a primarily residential town located about 13 miles from Downtown Boston. The campaign will also raise concerns held by Walpole residents about massive tax breaks handed to Siemens, and the problem of traffic congestion the expansion is expected to create.
The coalition will hold a major rally in Walpole on Thursday, October 19 and has begun to reach out to community members via phone-bank and canvasses in the affected neighborhoods. In addition, the campaign will include an informational website (SiemensBeAGoodNeighbor.com), supported by significant ad buys, and active grassroots petitions gathering.
There is growing frustration among many Walpole residents who see the town as getting the short end of the stick when it comes to the Siemens' expansion deal. The company will receive $21 million in tax breaks from Walpole (an average savings of 75 percent on its property tax for 20 years), plus another $4.2 million in tax breaks from the state. Many are now calling for slowing down the slated expansion for further community input and review.
"There's going to be new truck traffic, choking already congested roads. Yet, Siemens is off the hook. Walpole residents will bear the brunt of it, in terms of both our money for road repairs and updates, and the inconvenience and headaches it will create," said Walpole resident Brian Hart. "If Siemens isn't hiring locally and they're not investing in the local community, what exactly are we getting out of this huge tax giveaway?"
The Siemens expansion will include an additional 250,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space in the heart of a key commercial and residential area in Walpole. The area slated for Siemens' expansion, located on Coney Street between I-95 and US-1 suffers from serious traffic congestion and includes a nearby daycare, public schools, multiple local businesses, and a mall, as well as residential communities. Residents wonder what the construction and a potential huge influx of trucks moving Siemens products from the facility to locations across the region will mean for local traffic and the quality of life for Walpole residents in the area immediately surrounding the expanded facility.
"There are plenty of Walpole area residents who are eager to find good jobs in construction and manufacturing. We are calling on Siemens to hire locally and to select contractors who support our community by providing fair wages and benefits, and access to certified training programs that lead to career pathways while improving safety. Residents are also calling on Siemens to provide more detailed plans on how they'll avoid creating traffic problems and how they will better support the community after receiving these massive tax breaks," said Brian Doherty, General Agent of the Building and Construction Trades Council of the Metropolitan District (MetroBTC) whose jurisdiction includes Walpole. MetroBTC is one of the protest sponsors. "Hiring more workers locally and increasing their community benefit support is the least Siemens can do for the taxpayers and residents of Walpole. Siemens will benefit enormously from more than $25 million in tax breaks, money that could be going to schools and public safety in Walpole. It would be sad and ironic if the residents who gave the tax breaks don't see some of the benefits, too. It's time for Siemens to be good neighbor."
Siemens has yet to commit to hiring more local workers or union labor to either build or staff the massive Walpole expansion, where Siemens will manufacture high-end medical diagnostic equipment. The Walpole location provides Siemens with unparalleled access to the incredibly lucrative Boston metro biotech and medical markets. Some wonder whether it was necessary to allow Siemens, a German multinational corporation with profits of $94 billion in 2016, to receive a $21 million tax break to close the expansion deal in Walpole.
SOURCE Building and Construction Trades of the Metropolitan District
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX) will issue its third quarter earnings release at 6:45 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, October 31. This will be followed by a conference call at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time. A live webcast will be available on the 'Investor Relations' page of the company's website, www.consolenergy.com. Also, earnings call slides will be available at 6:45 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, October 31, on the 'Investor Relations' page of the company's website.
CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX) is a Pittsburgh-based energy producer, and one of the largest independent natural gas exploration, development and production companies, with operations centered in the major shale formations of the Appalachian basin. The company deploys an organic growth strategy focused on developing its substantial resource base. As of December 31, 2016, CONSOL Energy had 6.3 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves. CONSOL Energy is a member of the Standard & Poor's Midcap 400 Index. Additional information may be found at www.consolenergy.com.
SOURCE CONSOL Energy Inc.
Related Links
http://www.consolenergy.com
This project has gathered a group of world-class jazz musicians from both home and abroad, and Chinese opera artists, who have been working together and have finally come up with this amazing and significant music performance. After the successful debut in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province of China on May 26th, 2017, Golden Jazz has been invited by UTA (University of Texas at Arlington) to the United States for academic exchange in a symposium held on Oct 12th, 2017 as well as for the overseas premiere which was held at 19:30 local time on Oct 13th, 2017 at Texas Hall on UTA campus.
Golden Jazz has provided a platform for numerous Chinese well-known opera artists and jazz musicians from both home and abroad and they have jointly presented a refreshing and stunning concert which brings a music cultural clash between the ancient and the modern. Ms. QI Aiyun, a National Level I performer, the famous Qin Qiang opera artist as well as the winner of Plum Performance Award in the 21st Chinese Opera, participated in the concert and sang the classic opera pieces 'The Sole of Straw Sandals' (Ma Xie Di), 'The White Snake' (Bai She Zhuan)and 'Peach Blossoms in March' (Sanyue Taohua). And the well-known US composer, conductor and saxophonist as well as the arranger of the music, Drew Zaremba has adapted traditional opera pieces such as "The Arraignment of Su San" (Susan Qi Jie), "Farewell, My Concubine" (Ba Wang Bie Ji), "The Execution of Shan Tong" (Zhan Shantong), "Qinchuan New Song" (Qinchuan Xin Ge), and "In the Deep Night" (Ye Shenchen) has successfully brought out the essence of both Chinese opera and jazz and has made the musical blending great.
The audience were impressed and amazed by the unique music expression. They gave rounds of sincere and warm applauses to every piece of music in the concert and they even stood up when the concert came to the end, applauding and reluctant to leave. All performers and musicians in the hall were gratified to feel the audience's enthusiasm for their performance. The concert at UTA has attracted the attention of the local Chinese media and the music media. A large number of Chinese overseas students attended the concert, being curious about the effect of the mix between Chinese opera from their own culture which they are familiar with and jazz from the American culture. After the concert, these students shared their views and felt a positive feeling from the event - they were able to understand both musical cultures better.
Exciting news is that the project of Crossing Chinese Opera with Jazz has been selected as a key cultural communication project by Department of Culture, Guangdong Province and submitted to the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. This project is not only for a performance work on the stage, but also aimed to make the most use of values by such musical innovation and cultural blending.
During the symposium, professors from the music department of UTA were deeply impressed by the profound Chinese culture and endless charm of Chinese opera arts, in which they have showed their strong interest. The professors thought this meaningful and wonderful art form should be recognized by more Americans. Therefore, right after the concert, the producer of the project Ms. ZHOU Jing and all the performance artists were invited for a further discussion on a serial of issues in relation to the development of Crossing Chinese Opera with Jazz. For example, issues like how to make this type of music form more naturally and how to recompose more refreshing music pieces by blending the two music forms have been brought up in the symposium.
The trip of Crossing Chines Opera with Jazz to the USA has created more values in cultural communication, academic research and educational innovation. Combining the essence of Chinese traditional opera and jazz music, the new form of world music will unquestionably bring a better understanding of Chinese culture to the world.
SOURCE Zhuhai Golden Jazz Cultural Industry Management Co., Ltd.
RALEIGH, N.C., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cure AHC, Inc. has awarded a grant of $33,000 to Karin Lykke-Hartmann, Ph.D., of Aarhus University in Denmark for her project "Neuroelectrophysiological Study of D801Y Mouse Model, Cognition and Learning Focus." The 4 month project will involve understanding how the plasticity of the neurons contribute towards the cognitive performance in the D801Y mutation of the gene ATP1A3. Findings from this study may be useful for future pharmacological treatments.
"We are hopeful that this project will fill in some key gaps in knowledge about AHC and propel us forward with candidates for treatment," said Dr. Lykke-Hartmann.
"Cure AHC recognizes that cognition/learning poses one of the biggest barriers to those with AHC functioning fully in society. We are hopeful this research will go a long way towards eliminating this symptom of AHC," said Cure AHC Co-Founder and President Jeff Wuchich. Cure AHC plans to fund several other collaborative and complementary research projects in 2017 and 2018, with an aim to raise $600,000 USD.
Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC) is a currently incurable, rare and painful neurological disorder that causes episodes of temporary paralysis that last minutes or even days. AHC is often mistaken for cerebral palsy or epilepsy, which impairs the ability to learn and communicate. AHC also affects muscle control, causing shallow breathing and difficulty walking and swallowing. Researchers discovered the gene that causes Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood (AHC) in 2012 and they continue to make progress in their understanding of the disease, which aids in better treatment and ultimately a cure for AHC sufferers, as well as potential benefit to more mainstream diseases such as epilepsy, stroke, and heart disease.
Cure AHC is a global 501 (c) 3 Non-profit organization created to raise awareness and research funds to develop a treatment and discover the cure for Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood. Donations to Cure AHC can be made online through the www.cureahc.org donation page or a check may be sent to Cure AHC, Inc. at 8480 Honeycutt RD, #200 Raleigh, NC 27615. Please visit www.cureahc.org or email [email protected] for more information. To reach Karin Lykke-Hartmann, email Karin at [email protected].
SOURCE Cure AHC
Related Links
http://www.cureahc.org
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Yurman is an American jewelry designer and founder of his eponymous house. In a creative partnership with his wife, Sybil, who is a painter, Yurman, himself a sculptor, launched his namesake jewelry company in 1980. Yurman's jewelry is carried by luxury and specialty stores around the world including New York, Beverly Hills, Toronto, Paris, Moscow and Dubai - and in thirty-eight solely owned boutiques.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS: Paul Greenhalgh is a published author and director of the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, U.K. He is the former director and president of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.C. William Norwich is a writer, fashion and interior design editor, and video and television reporter. Carine Roitfeld is a legendary fashion stylist, former editor in chief of French Vogue, and founder of CR Fashion Book.
Credit line for the book must read: David Yurman Cable David Yurman 2017. Select press images will be made available and are to be credited on a case-by-case basis, but no images may be used, in print or digitally, without written consent from the author. Serial rights are available, please contact Jessica Napp @ 212 387 3436 or [email protected] to secure your selection.
DAVID YURMAN CABLE
By David Yurman
Contributions by Paul Greenhalgh, William Norwich, and Carine Roitfeld
Hardcover / 12" x 12" /216 pages / 150 color and b&w photographs
$95.00 US / ISBN: 978-0-8478-6091-3 / Rizzoli New York / November 2017
www.rizzoliusa.com
ABOUT DAVID YURMAN
David Yurman is the premier American luxury jewelry brand with a mission to share in life's exceptional moments. Founded by two artists, David and Sybil Yurman, in New York in 1980, artistic inspiration, craftsmanship and unconventional yet elegant designs are at the core of the brand. The marriage of David's background in sculpture with Sybil's natural understanding of color and art yields signature jewelry designs; diamond, pearl, and gemstone jewelry and Swiss-crafted timepieces that are renowned for capturing the essence of relaxed American luxury. David Yurman collections are available at 47 retail and concession locations throughout the United States, Canada, and France, and at over 350 locations worldwide, through their exclusive authorized fine jewelry and timepiece network of retailers, including in the US, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, the UK, Russia and the UAE.
Media Contact:
Michelle Shores
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 646-264-7553
Media Contact:
Adrienne Houdmont
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 646-460-8928
SOURCE David Yurman
NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Denihan Hospitality, an independent owner and operator of boutique hotels in New York and Chicago, announced that Patrick Horstmann has joined as Managing Director of The James New York NoMad and James New York SoHo. Patrick's luxury boutique hotel experience will be instrumental in successfully leading these two properties and further developing The James brand.
He joins the Denihan team shortly following the soft opening of The James New York - NoMad, located at 29th street and Madison Avenue. Acclaimed designer Thomas Juul-Hansen transformed the 344 room property with today's modern traveler in mind. Later this year, LDV Hospitality's signature restaurant Scarpetta along with a new cocktail bar concept is arriving to the newest property.
Through a mindfully modern lens, The James New York - NoMad embraces the brand's core identity through Connection, Consciousness and Community, in both its design and guests experience.
"We are elated to announce the appointment of Patrick Horstmann as our new Managing Director for The James New York NoMad and James New York - SoHo. He is a seasoned and accomplished professional who will help us achieve great results for our properties and continue to build The James Hotels brand. Patrick joins Denihan Hospitality with vigorous knowledge of the luxury hotel industry that will strengthen and grow our company," said Vera Manoukian, President/COO, Denihan.
Mr. Horstmann has a dynamic and strong background with over 20 years' experience in lifestyle, 5 star/5 diamond luxury hotels. His previous positions have been General Manager of the W New York Downtown, The Roger New York, The Nolitan New York, and Hotel Gansevoort New York, as well as Director of Operations and Rooms Division Manager at The Shore Club Miami Beach. He has opened five properties, and most recently was part of the opening team of the Hudson Valley Montreign Hotel and Casino Complex (Empire Resorts). Additionally, as General Manager of the W New York Downtown, lead the renovation and re-launch of The Living Room Bar & Terrace.
Horstmann attended Cologne University for Business Administration. He received training from hotel management apprenticeship positions at Intercontinental Cologne in Germany and Hotel Plaza Athenee New York.
About Denihan Hospitality
Denihan is a privately-held, full service hotel management and development company. The company owns and/or operates boutique hotels in major urban markets throughout the U.S. For over 50 years, Denihan has built a world-class lodging investment platform within the boutique/lifestyle hotel space, creating value by acquiring, repositioning and managing independent assets.
The Denihan portfolio includes properties operating under The James and Affinia Hotel Collection brands, as well as several Manhattan independent boutique hotels, including The Surrey, voted best US city hotel and best New York City hotel in Travel + Leisure 'Readers' Choice Awards for 'World's Best Awards 2017' and The Benjamin. The Denihan portfolio also includes an impressive list of chef-driven restaurants and bars.
The company's uniquely guest-centric approach, refined through three generations of Denihan leadership, has made it an industry leader in hospitality, property and restaurant development, as well as hotel operations, management and marketing. More details can be found at www.denihan.com.
About The James Hotels
The James Hotels, with ideally situated locations in Chicago and New York, are culturally conscious, locally obsessed hotels that deliver a unique blend of exquisite hand-crafted design surrounded by warmly sophisticated touches. The James' core mindfully modern philosophy is evident in the properties' social, residential, environment and personal, always present, service.
For more information, follow us on Instagram @jameshotels or find us on Facebook . To learn more about our best rate guarantee, visit http://www.jameshotels.com/new-york/nomad and http://www.jameshotels.com/new-york/soho.
SOURCE The James Hotels
Related Links
http://www.jameshotels.com
LONDON, October 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Dmitry Leus of East-West Connect wrote an article which was published in EU Today, responding to two senior business figures who have spoken out in recent days about the need for clarity for the banks regarding a transition deal between the UK and the EU, in order to prevent firms moving jobs and business out of the UK.
Mr Leus wrote: "Both Sam Woods, a deputy governor at the Bank of England, and Howard Davies, Chairman at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have emphasised the need for speed, but they differ on just how long the UK government has got before more significant numbers of banking jobs start to leave London."
Mr Leus added: "Sam Woods said in a speech at London's Mansion House that firms would activate their Brexit contingency plans if there was no deal on a transition period by Christmas (December 2017) which would lessen the impact of a hard Brexit in March 2019. He also repeated his concern about the likely strain on the Bank of England's ability to supervise the financial sector as a result of the changes firms needed to make."
Mr Leus said: "Howard Davies of RBS seems to think the government has slightly longer to agree the transition deal, with the date he states being in five months time, taking us into March 2018. He may be slightly more generous in his timeline, but he was still very clear in his interview on Sky News that there will be growing consequences if no deal is reached soon."
Mr Leus went on to explain: "One of the major challenges for banks is London is an EU rule that allows a bank to locate a fully regulated entity on one EU member state and operate across other states without the need for additional local regulation in the other countries. This is commonly called 'passporting.' This practice allowed London to be very much the financial hub for the rest of Europe. Indeed, a large proportion of Europe's hedging, foreign exchange, lending and securities transaction have taken place in London. The big challenge facing banks is how to manage the future of their European business once London is no longer a part of the EU. This is a key issue the banks are planning for and want precise information about."
He concluded: "Howard Davies and Sam Woods are of course right to warn that clarity is needed quickly before more banking jobs leave London. But we are still talking about relatively small numbers. To date, no single European city has quite emerged as a replacement for London. The banks are varying in where they choose to move these operations. Yes Frankfurt has been successful in luring quite a few banks, but not without a healthy showing from other cities. We still should not overplay these comments and other announcements by the banks. None of these institutions are abandoning London. They are just planning for the possibility that certain, specific operations could have to be conducted elsewhere. The fact that Citigroup's 'move' actually only entails a mere 150 of its 6000 strong UK workforce shows that there really is still no exodus and nor is there likely to be."
About East-West Connect
East-West Connect is a London-based forum focused on investment risk and opportunity in Central and Eastern Europe. We provide news and analysis about the investment and economic climate of the region.
East-West Connect was founded by Dmitry Leus, an entrepreneur and banking and financial services professional. He started his career as FOREX specialist at Russia's Lesprombank in the mid-90s. He later became Head of International Settlements of the bank, and in 2000 began running the South-West section of Lesprombank. In 2002, he was appointed Chairman of the Russian Depository Bank. In 2006 he founded Zapadny bank, where he worked as Chairman until late 2013. Since 2014, the e-commerce market of Europe and the UK is of special interest for him and he actively invests in the European and CIS financial sector. In parallel, he works as an expert in business development and helps large corporate companies build effective management and improve the quality of the services provided.
http://eastwest-connect.org/
SOURCE East-West Connect
ALBANY, N.Y., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Donate Life New York State (DLNYS), formerly New York Alliance for Donation, in partnership with Governor Cuomo and the State of New York, today unveiled a new, easy-to-use organ and tissue donor registry. The new registry, located at www.donatelife.ny.gov, establishes a simple and fast organ and tissue donor registration process, which will improve participation rates statewide, a primary factor in the number of lives that can be saved and improved.
For years, New York State has languished far behind other states in terms of enrollment in their organ and tissue donor registry. Thanks to DLNYS, Governor Cuomo and the launch of the new and improved New York State Donate Life Registry, New Yorkers can now simply go to www.donatelife.ny.gov and register to be organ, tissue and eye donors in a matter of minutes. The new registry brings New York State in-line with the rest of the nation in providing a dedicated website, which will reduce the number of people waiting for lifesaving transplants.
"We thank Governor Cuomo, our state legislators, and the Department of Health for their leadership and commitment to making a difference in the lives of thousands of New Yorkers who are awaiting a lifesaving organ, tissue and eye transplant," said Aisha Tator, Executive Director of Donate Life New York State. "We are grateful that our team was able to play a key role in building and launching this important registry for the State of New York."
DLNYS was selected by the State of New York to transform and champion the New York State Donate Life Registry in 2014. Along with its member organizations, who represent all New York State organ procurement organizations and state-licensed tissue and eye banks, this registry will be an effective lifesaving tool that successfully facilitates transplantation for New Yorkers in need. The New York State Donate Life Registry is the culmination of the organization's partnership with Governor Cuomo and the State.
Mike Thibault, Executive Director of the Albany-based Center for Donation and Transplant and DLNYS Board Chair, said, "The launch of the new New York State Donate Life Registry represents a strong partnership among our member organizations, state and legislative champions and community leaders taking needed action to increase the number of NY State residents enrolled in the registry. This critical program simplifies the registration process and allows for more New Yorkers to make known their desire to help others by being an organ, eye and tissue donor. As a result, more patients will receive the life-saving or life-enhancing transplant they need."
The organ and tissue donation community, legislators, donor families and recipients will formally celebrate the launch at a November 14 event at Facebook Headquarters in New York City.
Important organ and tissue donor stats to consider:
Only 28 percent of people in New York are registered to donate organs, compared with more than 54 percent nationally.
are registered to donate organs, compared with more than 54 percent nationally. Every 17 hours, a New Yorker dies waiting for a life-saving transplant.
One organ donor can save up to eight lives, while tissue donated by one person can positively impact the lives of more than 75 people.
On average, 22 people die each day in the United States from causes that could have been treated with a donated organ.
About Donate Life New York State:
Donate Life New York State (DLNYS), formerly the New York Alliance for Donation, is a not-for-profit with a mission to increase organ, eye and tissue donation in New York State through collaborative advocacy, education, promotion, and research. Its goal is to ensure a transplant for every New Yorker in need. DLNYS is comprised of the four organ procurement organizations, three eye and tissue banks and/or processors, and affiliates, including dedicated donation and transplantation professionals.
Additional Quotes from Donate Life New York State Members
"92% of New Yorkers support organ donation, but just 30% are registered. Giving New Yorkers a simpler, easier way to sign-up will lead to many more registered organ donors, which will lead to many more lives saved through organ donation," said Helen Irving, Executive Director, LiveOnNY, New York, NY. "So, at LiveOnNY, we celebrate the launch of this state-of-the-art registry. And, we thank the numerous organizations, community leaders, cause volunteers, and elected officials who joined together with NYAD and LiveOnNY over many years to bring this important, and ultimately lifesaving tool to fruition."
"The Donate Life New York State Registry is an important step in allowing New York residents to easily register their desire to save and heal lives through organ, eye and tissue donation. New York lags far behind every other state in the country for donor registrations, and we are confident the new DLNYS registry will help us turn that situation around," said Martha Anderson, Executive VP of MTF Biologics, which operates tissue donation agencies in Albany, Syracuse and Rochester.
"We are pleased the new New York State Donate Life Registry is now operational and the process to enroll made easier," said Victoria Adler, RN, BSN, CPTC, CEBT, executive director, Lions Eye Bank at Albany / Rochester. "We are optimistic the launch of the new registry will help to increase the number of people enrolling as eye, organ and tissue donors as a result, more lives healed and saved every year."
Mark Simon, President & CEO of Unyts in western New York, said, "The launch of the new online registry marks a great day for New York State and a great day for the healthcare industry. We at Unyts have high hopes that this new channel for enrollment will help in encouraging people to say "yes" to donation, and will boost the number of organs available to the over 116,000 people currently waiting."
"The Eye-Bank of New York encourages New Yorkers to use their smartphones to sign up to become donors in the NYS Donate Life Registry. We now have the power to change lives right in the palm of our hands," says Patricia Dahl, Executive Director of The Eye-Bank in New York, NY.
Mike Thibault, Executive Director of the Albany-based Center for Donation and Transplant and DLNYS Board Chair, said, "The launch of the new Donate Life New York Registry represents a strong partnership among our member organizations, state and legislative champions and community leaders taking needed action to increase the number of NY State residents enrolled in the registry. This critical program simplifies the registration process and allows for more New Yorkers to make known their desire to help others by being an organ, eye and tissue donor. As a result, more patients will receive the life-saving or life-enhancing transplant they need."
Rob Kochik, Executive Director of Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network, said, "The new registry makes it easier for every New Yorker to document their wish to give the Gift of Life. By taking a few minutes to enter our personal information, we can save up to eight lives!"
SOURCE Donate Life New York State
Related Links
http://www.donatelife.ny.gov
"I am deeply honored to be included among the members of the National Academy of Medicine and grateful to the many partners who applied my team's research to innovations that achieved reductions in traffic crashes and injuries," says Dr. Winston. "I hope to bring this research-action-impact approach to deliberations at the National Academies to help accelerate benefit from research discoveries and technology, to narrow the chasm between discovery and value. I want to see scientific and engineering breakthroughs, big and small, become life-saving discoveries, especially for children and youth."
Dr. Winston holds a Distinguished Chair in the Department of Pediatrics at CHOP and serves as the Scientific Director of the National Science Foundation Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies (CChIPS). Her research includes improving child passenger safety, preventing teen and young driver crashes, and addressing posttraumatic stress after injury, a field where medicine, engineering and public health intersect. Dr. Winston's work has led to patents and a startup company, Diagnostic Driving, Inc., which provides virtual driving assessments to corporate fleets, universities, and is being used in driver licensing centers in the state of Ohio.
"Dr. Winston is a preeminent international scholar who has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of mechanisms of child and teen road-traffic injury and who has had enormous impact on prevention of traffic-related morbidity and mortality in children," says Joseph W. St. Geme, MD, physician-in-chief and chairman of the Department of Pediatrics. "She is highly deserving of this recognition."
Since 1970, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has elected a select group of doctors and researchers each year who have made important contributions to health, medicine, and science. Dr. Winston is the tenth CHOP physician to be elected into the NAM.
About Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 546-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu
Contact: Camillia Travia
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
(267) 426-6251 (office)
(425) 492-5007 (cell)
[email protected]
SOURCE Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Related Links
http://www.chop.edu
AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TPSynergy, a leader in cloud-based supply chain solutions announced further customer adoption and a new release of its E-Kanban System. This new generation of cloud solution supports demand driven operations, reduced inventories and real-time collaboration.
Two Bin Kanban Exchange system by TPSynergy
One of TPSynergy's customers, Aditya Auto Products, designs and manufactures components and systems for leading global automobile brands, including door systems and driver control systems. It is critical that they operate successfully with just-in-time systems both on the customer and supplier side.
Aditya's President, Suresh Sethu Raman described their challenge. "We searched for a solution to optimize our inventory and improve collaboration with suppliers on timely delivery. We found TPSynergy's E-Kanban system to be a simple and very effective solution to automate supplier communication and the replenishment process."
One of Aditya's primary requirements for the system was rapid implementation and, according to Sethu, "TPSynergy got us up and running in a couple of weeks, with less effort than we expected."
TPSynergy's solution provides mobile apps on iOS and Android as well as a cloud portal to inform suppliers when bins become empty. It allows Aditya and its suppliers to continuously monitor transactions in the portal and download regular reports for reconciliation with their ERP systems.
Background - E-Kanban for Inventory Management
E-Kanban is a Just in Time (JIT) manufacturing system introduced by Japanese manufacturing companies to optimize inventory management. It is also known as the Two Bin System. The basic principle of E-Kanban is - "Produce or Buy only what is needed and when it is needed."
In a traditional manual Kanban process, when a bin becomes empty, an email is typed or a phone call is made to the supplier to start the replenishment process. But in an electronic version, a bar code is scanned producing an instant replenishment message to each supplier.
More Details
More details are available in the TPSynergy website: https://www.tpsynergy.com/e-kanban
This short video on E-Kanban explains the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwgzpzUpn8E&feature=youtu.be
About TPSynergy.com
TPSynergy.com is an Austin, Texas based software technology vendor with deep roots in manufacturing and supply chains. It provides rapid and robust business solutions for some of the toughest supply chain challenges. Its order and inventory processing software connects to customers using Electronic Data Integration (EDI) and provides a simple platform for collaboration.
Media Contacts:
Company Name: TPSynergy.com
Full Name: Srini Raja
Phone: 5128277407
Email Address: [email protected]
Website: www.tpsynergy.com
SOURCE TPSynergy
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http://www.tpsynergy.com
MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- As millions of Americans retire over the next decade, financial crimes and abuse against the elderly are occurring at an alarming rate, according to the results of a survey released today by the Cooperative Credit Union Association (CCUA), a trade group representing not-for-profit credit unions. And even as all Americans encounter scams with increasing regularity, few financial consumers are taking steps to improve their financial literacy in the digital age.
Sixty-seven percent of those identifying themselves as a caretaker reported an elder being targeted with fraud; more than a quarter of elders, at 28%, had also fallen victim to at least one financial scam.
The survey was conducted between September 12 and September 18, 2017, delivering its findings after a wave of high-profile breaches of personal information, just days after credit reporting giant Equifax announced a massive breach of its systems.
The survey of 1,171 Americans found that of those targeted, most were contacted by email (53%), while 49% were contacted by telephone, 16% via text message and 16% by postal mail.
"These findings starkly illustrate the need to get tough on criminals who target seniors in the belief that they are easy victims," said Paul Gentile, President and CEO of CCUA. "Protecting the elderly is a top priority of credit unions, and we're proud to work with state regulators on new initiatives, such as training manuals and measures to combat underreporting."
Last year, 33 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico addressed financial exploitation of elderly and vulnerable adults in their legislative sessions, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.
Close to half of caregivers, at 44%, said their elders had no response plan in place in case of a fraud or identity theft incident. In fact, a quarter of respondents said that they had not even discussed financial abuse with their elder relative or friend. More than one third (39%) said they would characterize the elder they assist as "not at all" or only "somewhat" financially literate.
"While regulators are working hard to address the scourge of financial fraud, education is key, particularly with hundreds of millions of Americans' personal information readily available to criminals," Gentile added. "All financial consumers need to take steps to protect themselves financially and digitally, including by being aware of the latest trends in frauds and scams."
Few Americans Working To Improve Financial Knowledge
The troubling findings extend to financial consumers more generally. Nearly a third of all Americans are worried about encountering financial fraud within the next five years. But despite widespread news coverage of cybercrime, only 17% of respondents said they had taken a financial literacy course themselves in the past five years, and only four percent said the elder in their care had taken such a course.
"Members of credit unions can utilize our counseling services to learn how to protect against the targeting of the elderly, as well as to learn about common threats such as false charities, credit company impostors or supposed IRS collectors," said Gentile. "Unlike big banks who 'write off' a certain level of fraud as the cost of doing business, member-owned credit unions know that every dollar counts, especially for members on fixed incomes, and none should be ceded to criminals."
ABOUT CCUA:
The Cooperative Credit Union Association advocates for its member credit unions throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Delaware. Its primary responsibility is to represent the interests of credit unions before Congress and state legislatures, regulatory bodies and the public. In addition, the Association provides excellent learning opportunities for credit union volunteers and professionals and a steady stream of quality information through its Daily CU Scan and various other channels. The Association also works with a select group of businesses that serve the credit union community through its CU Connect program as well as a number of Credit Union System Partners.
SOURCE Cooperative Credit Union Association
Related Links
http://www.ccua.org
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ensono, a leading hybrid IT services provider, appoints Norman Smagley as its new Chief Financial Officer. In his new role, Smagley will call on his previous experience scaling global businesses in fast-growing environments to support the financial and operational requirements at Ensono.
With more than 20 years of experience and leadership in finance and operational strategy, Ensono will leverage Smagley's background of successfully confronting a broad array of financial and operational challenges within a variety of industries to continue the company's expansion. He will work with Ensono to scale the organization to support long-term growth and profitability objectives.
"Norm has extensive experience and expertise leading financial operations," said Jeff VonDeylen, CEO of Ensono. "Ensono has seen a lot of recent growth, including two global acquisitions. As we continue our global expansion, adding people like Norm to our team ensures that we maintain a high level of financial performance and sophistication, and we have no doubt Norm will succeed in his new role."
Prior to joining Ensono, Smagley was the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Gogo, the leading global provider of broadband connectivity products and services for aviation. There, he was responsible for managing the company's growth from 300 employees and revenue of $95M in 2010 to more than 1,100 employees and revenue of approximately $600M in 2016. Before his time at Gogo, he was the Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer for Rand McNally & Company.
"Ensono's recent growth is impressive, and I'm delighted to join an innovative company with a great strategic vision that puts its clients above everything else," said Smagley. "I look forward to joining the Ensono team and helping drive the company's continued global expansion and success.
Smagley holds an MBA, as well as a Bachelor's degree in Finance from The Wharton School.
To learn more about Ensono, please visit www.ensono.com.
About Ensono
For business leaders managing lots of complexity or disrupting the status quo, Ensono delivers complete Hybrid IT services and governance, from cloud to mainframe, tailored to each client's journey. Whether you're leveraging the power of the cloud or modernizing legacy technologies, you'll be on track to operate for today and optimize for tomorrow. Named a Top 15 Sourcing Service Provider by ISG, some of the world's most successful companies rely on us to help them be great at what they do. Ensono has over 1,000 associates across North America and Europe and is ranked 21st in The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For. Our offices are headquartered in greater Chicago. Visit us at www.ensono.com.
Media Contact:
Bridget Devine
312-561-2492
[email protected]
SOURCE Ensono
Related Links
http://www.ensono.com
BASEL, Switzerland, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Enzyvant, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative treatments for patients with rare diseases, today announced the initiation of the Farber Disease Natural History Study.
The primary aim of the study is to establish the natural history and phenotypic spectrum of Farber disease through the collection and analysis of data from patients diagnosed with the condition. All patients with a confirmed diagnosis of Farber disease are eligible for participation in the study. Data from deceased patients will also be collected for retrospective analysis. Trial sites around the world are being initiated in anticipation of global enrollment of approximately 40 patients. For more information, please refer to ClinicalTrials.gov (ID: NCT03233841) or contact Senior Medical Director Alexander Solyom, MD, at [email protected].
"The collection of data from past and current patients with Farber disease will prove invaluable in providing information on disease presentation, prognosis, and impact," said Alvin Shih, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Enzyvant. "It is our hope that the participation of patients, families, and physicians in this study will yield a better understanding of the natural history of this rare and frequently misdiagnosed disease and lay the groundwork for a therapeutic trial in Farber disease."
Enzyvant is simultaneously conducting preclinical studies for RVT-801, a recombinant form of human acid ceramidase (rhAC), to enable a clinical trial of rhAC as an enzyme replacement therapy in patients with Farber disease. Subject to regulatory review, the company intends to initiate a clinical trial of RVT-801 in 2018.
About Farber Disease
Farber disease is a rare lysosomal storage disease caused by mutations in the ASAH1 gene, resulting in deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme acid ceramidase. This deficiency leads to the accumulation of the pro-inflammatory sphingolipid ceramide, and a macrophage-driven inflammatory process causing the development of typical clinical symptoms.
Farber patients typically present with the cardinal symptoms of:
Joint contractures or arthritis
Subcutaneous nodules
Weak or hoarse voice
Patients may also present with systemic inflammation (including fever), severe pain, peripheral osteolysis, failure to thrive, and developmental delay. Like other lysosomal storage diseases, Farber disease has a broad phenotypic spectrum and is likely underdiagnosed.
About RVT-801
RVT-801 is a recombinant form of human acid ceramidase (rhAC) that Enzyvant is developing for potential use as an enzyme replacement therapy in acid ceramidase deficiency, manifesting as Farber disease. Enzyvant is currently conducting preclinical studies to enable a clinical trial of rhAC in patients with Farber disease. Orphan drug designation for RVT-801 has been granted by regulatory agencies in the United States and the European Union.
About Enzyvant
Enzyvant is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative treatments for patients with rare diseases. Enzyvant is conducting a natural history study of patients with Farber disease to better define the natural course of disease and the relationship between specific symptoms, biomarkers, and prognosis. Enzyvant is simultaneously preparing a clinical trial of RVT-801, an investigational enzyme replacement therapy for the treatment of Farber disease.
Enzyvant is also advancing the development of RVT-802, an investigational tissue-based biologic therapy for the potential treatment of primary immune deficiency associated with complete DiGeorge Syndrome. RVT-802 has been granted orphan drug designation, Breakthrough Therapy designation, Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designation, and pediatric rare disease designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Enzyvant anticipates a potential BLA filing for RVT-802 in the first half of 2018. Enzyvant plans to develop treatments for additional rare diseases with high unmet need. For more information, please visit www.enzyvant.com.
Related Links
http://www.enzyvant.com
CONTACT: Paul Davis, 1-646-495-5310, [email protected]
SOURCE Enzyvant
Related Links
http://www.enzyvant.com
LOS ANGELES, October 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
USA News Group- Lithium is in the spotlight again as the Electric Vehicle (EV) market seems to be producing near unstoppable demand for the white metal to power its future.
Companies in the lithium mining and production sector are likely to be some of the biggest winners in the space including Orocobre Ltd. (OTC: OROCF), FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC), Lithium X Energy Corp. (TSX-V: LIX) (OTC: LIXXF) and NRG Metals Inc. (TSX-V: NGZ) (OTC: NRGMF).
The recent rise in demand was first triggered by Tesla and now by virtually every major auto manufacturer and power storage company - even the likes of Dyson have thrown their hats in the ring.
Investors keen on profiting from this massive push that appears to be creating a shortfall in lithium supplies are scanning the up and coming lithium companies looking for solid growth capacity and near-term production.
Obviously the big producers have the upper hand now, but smaller companies are using the market momentum to rapidly get into the space.
A participant that is earning praise for its position in a likely source for lithium is NRG Metals Inc. (TSX-V: NGZ.V) (OTCQB: NRGMF), with its potentially huge lithium brine project in South America's well known "lithium triangle".
Lithium miners already seeing the share strength and solid future lithium value include Australia's Orocobre Ltd. (OTC: OROCF), which just rallied after announcing its maiden year profits, FMC (NYSE: FMC), the large and the diversified chemical company that continues to win praise for its lithium interests in South America, and Lithium X Energy Corp. (TSX-V: LIX.V) (OTCQX: LIXXF), which is also an emerging company that has significant lithium interests in both Argentina and Nevada, USA.
Time Tells
Lithium's climbing price and the immense demand have been forming up for the last two years. Only now, they are coming to a focal point as the industry sets mandates and some nations, especially China's new mandate, have sent the expected demand for lithium soaring.
China states flat out that it will end the use of petroleum engines altogether. Of course there is no deadline attached, but based on the location of major EV auto factories there and the EV production levels forecast, China will be a force to be reckoned with in lithium demand.
The estimates can hardly keep pace with the shift in demand for lithium and markets are reeling as they try to figure just how much lithium is going to be needed over the next decade.
Leading consultants Roskill estimate 785,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent a year will be needed by 2025, amounting to a 26,000-tonne shortfall from anticipated supply, compared to 217,000 tonnes of demand versus 227,000 tonnes of supply this year.
The pundits say that's really conservative and that we are going to need a lot more.
The major producers of lithium are lapping this up and increasing their production and refining capabilities, but even all of those efforts are just not going to be enough to fulfill the massive global requirements for the lithium needed to power new and emerging markets.
Room for Near-term Producers
Besides gearing up the large producers, analysts say that one new lithium mine will need to come on-line every single year through 2025 to meet the rapidly increase in demand.
Again those estimates may fall short as new applications and new manufacturers pile on.
About two-thirds of proven reserves of lithium are concentrated in a small area of South America known as the "Lithium Triangle". This highly productive area is located at the intersection of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.
Statistically speaking there are just four companies that account for roughly 86% of global lithium production, with over 70% of lithium production based in South America, mostly in or around the Lithium Triangle.
This has created a significant opportunity for smaller producers to concentrate on the region.
NRG Metals has begun putting its lithium strategy to work in the Puna Region of Argentina, considered one of the most productive of all regions in a country that produces about 50% of the world's lithium.
NRG Metals Solid Position
NRG is a Canadian based mining company that has really become a stand out among the near term lithium mining companies. What makes them so attractive is their property and their management.
This small, but well-run company has put itself right at the heart of the lithium trend.
They have great property in the Argentina lithium triangle. These include options in Salar Escondido, which is massive at 29,180 hectares (112 square miles) and Hombre Muerto, which consists of 3287 hectares (12.7 square miles).
Basically, the company has used sophisticated technology to outline what it is like a salt lake, about 4 kilometers by 6 kilometers in size located at depths from 70 to 300 meters below the surface.
NRG Metals has been approved to drill and define the actual lithium resources on their property.
The Hombre Muerto property alone is a good reason to consider this company, because it shares the same salar as a lithium carbonate production facility owned by FMC. However, Salar Escondido is what could propel this company to "great heights". NRG's management team has high expectations for the salar, and drilling is in progress now to prove its value.
Reviewers of the company made particular note of the impressive management onboard early.
The COO of NRG, Jose Gustavo de Castro, was country manager for Orocobre in Argentina until 2015. He helped to grow the operation of that company from 10 employees to 800 in construction and about 200 people in operations. He is also credited with the exploration and development of the Orocobre Oraloz lithium project into commercial production.
Others on the management team come from Lithium Americas and Galaxy Resources.
With management of this caliber involved, the goal of becoming a lithium producer appears very attainable in the near term. They clearly have the experience to move a project from exploration stage to production.
While it is one of the relatively new entries to South American lithium development, NRG Metals has rapidly advanced two significant projects, making it one of the best bets.
As lithium turns into the new oil, there are opportunities to retire early of this situation given the appetite for reasonable risk, and getting in early enough. By compasrison, companies like NRG Metals are still at that relatively early stage.
POTENTIAL COMPARABLES
Orocobre Ltd. (OTC: OROCF)
Orocobre Limited operates primarily in Argentina in the mining industry. The Company engages in the production ramp up of its Olaroz Lithium Facility and the operation of Borax Argentina S.A. (Borax Argentina). Its segments include Corporate, the Olaroz project, South American Salars and Borax Argentina. Its primary focus is on exploration for and development of lithium, potash and salar mineral deposits. The Company's assets also include boron mines and processing facilities of Borax Argentina and a portfolio of brine exploration projects. Its Olaroz Lithium Facility is located in the Puna region of Jujuy Province in northern Argentina, over 230 kilometers northwest of the capital city of Jujuy.
FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC)
FMC Corp. is a Philadelphia-based chemical company which is swiftly ramping up its lithium production. Last year, FMC said it was planning to triple lithium hydroxide production capacity by 2019. The first phase of the plan has already started. FMC management also said that it was not ruling out the possibility to spin-off FMC's lithium segment as a separate publicly owned company. BofAMerrill Lynch recently upgraded FMC stock to 'Buy' from 'Underperform,' increasing the price target to $103.00 from $66.
Lithium X Energy Corp. (TSX-V: LIX.V) (OTCQX: LIXXF)
Lithium X Energy Corp. is a lithium exploration and development company with a goal of becoming a low-cost supplier for the burgeoning lithium battery industry. On July 11th, the company announced that further to its news release of June 29th, 2017, the Company has closed the definitive agreement with Aberdeen International Inc. for the purchase of Aberdeen's remaining 50% interest in Potasio y Litio de Argentina S.A., which controls 100% of the Sal de los Angeles Project. The project consists of 8,154 hectares covering 95% of Salar de Diablillos, and has an NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate of 1.037 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent in the indicated category and 1.007 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent in the inferred category.
For a more in-depth look into NRG Metals you can view the in-depth report at USA News Group: http://usanewsgroup.com/2017/10/10/how-south-americas-lithium-triangle-is-gearing-up-to-feed-our-battery-addiction-1-3/
http://usanewsgroup.com
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SANTA ROSA, Calif., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Family-owned California poultry producer Foster Farms today donated $100,000 to the Redwood Empire Food Bank (REFB) to help meet the critical needs of families displaced by the Northern California fires. REFB, based in Santa Rosa, serves communities that are among the most affected by the fires, with thousands of homes destroyed and tens of thousands of residents evacuated.
Foster Farms also pledged to deliver 10,000 pounds of poultry products to REFB once they resume their ability to accept and distribute perishable food donations.
"Foster Farms has served the communities of Northern California for decades, and we are committed to helping our neighbors whose lives have been devastated by the raging wildfires," said Laura Flanagan, CEO of Foster Farms. "Helping those in need is a year-round priority for Foster Farms, and we hope that our donations will give a ray of hope to those who have lost so much. We encourage other Northern California businesses and individuals to support REFB in its efforts to help those displaced by the fires."
"We are so grateful for the support and generosity of Foster Farms," said David Goodman, CEO of REFB. "Their donation of $100,000 not only helps with immediate needs of fire victims but also longer-term efforts that continue as part of the disaster recovery and rebuilding. Protein donations are extremely valuable and critical to our ability to provide for the families who rely on our services."
Every November, Foster Farms donates whole turkeys to food banks in California, Oregon and Washington to help make the holiday season a little brighter for those in need. This year, Foster Farms will deliver 1,000 turkeys to REFB, which will help the food bank provide 20,000 holiday meals.
About Foster Farms
Since 1939, West Coast families have depended on Foster Farms for premium quality chicken and turkey products. Family-owned and operated, the company continues its legacy of excellence and commitment to quality established by its founders, Max and Verda Foster. Foster Farms specializes in fresh, all-natural chicken and turkey products free of preservatives, additives or injected sodium enhancers. Based in California's Central Valley, with ranches in the Pacific Northwest, the company's fresh chicken and turkey are produced in or near each region served. Foster Farms also produces delicious pre-marinated, ready-to-cook and fully cooked products that meet the quality and convenience needs of today's home cooks, retailers, warehouse clubs and foodservice customers. The company's commitment to excellence, honesty, quality, service and people is a source of great pride, and, a longtime family tradition.
Food safety is Foster Farms' highest priority and the company would like to remind consumers to always follow safe handling, preparation and storage guidelines for the preparation of fresh poultry products. All fresh poultry products should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit as measured by a meat thermometer to ensure safety. Visit www.fosterfarms.com to learn more.
SOURCE Foster Farms
Related Links
http://www.fosterfarms.com
NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Freshly, a weekly subscription service delivering healthy, prepared meals, is expanding their partnership with Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization, to further help fight hunger in the U.S. with the launch of Feed It Forward. The new initiative launches today, on World Food Day, to kick off National Food Bank Week, which runs from October 16 through October 22.
Through their existing partnership, Freshly donates excess meals, produce and fresh ingredients to a Feeding America member food bank located near their kitchen. With this expanded program, Freshly has pledged to donate 1.25 million meals* to Feeding America over the next year through a meal-for-meal model. The Feed It Forward initiative will run for the duration of National Food Bank Week and commence again at the beginning of November leading up to Giving Tuesday, November 28. Additionally, during the month of November, Freshly employees will volunteer at Feeding America member food banks to help prepare and pack food ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday for people in need.
"Feeding America's work in the fight against hunger in this country is truly remarkable, and we're proud to continue supporting the impact they have on millions of lives," said Michael Wystrach, CEO of Freshly. "This partnership not only delivers fresh food to Americans in need, but it also raises awareness around the eye-opening number of people and children who struggle with hunger each day."
In the U.S., 41 million people are food insecure, 13 million of which are children. Yet, 72 billion pounds of food go to waste each year in the U.S., which could help feed people in need. The partnership between Freshly and Feeding America seeks to address and combat both of these issues.
"We are thrilled to have an incredible partner in Freshly to help generate awareness of the one-in-seven people who turn to Feeding America member food banks for assistance," said Nancy Curby, Senior Vice President, Corporate Partnerships & Operations at Feeding America. "With Freshly's commitment, we will be able to provide more meals to people struggling with hunger."
Freshly first partnered with Feeding America in 2016, and to-date, has donated more than 160,000 pounds of fresh meals, produce and ingredients to a local Feeding America member food bank located where Freshly operates. Freshly is working closely with Feeding America to ensure that their expanded partnership, which will continue throughout most of 2018, provides support and resources where it's needed most.
For more information on this partnership, visit https://get.freshly.com/feeditforward/. Also, follow along on social media via #FreshlyFoodFight to receive updates on programs and how you can get involved, and join in on the conversation to fight hunger by using #ZeroHunger and #NationalFoodBankWeek
________________
* For Food Bank Week, October 1622, Freshly has committed to a minimum donation of 50,000 meals and a maximum donation of 200,000 meals. For every 10 meals ordered during this time, Freshly will donate a dollar to Feeding America, the cost for them to deliver 10 meals to those in need within the Feeding America Food Bank Network. Furthermore, Freshly has committed to partnering with Feeding America over the next 12 months, and during select campaigns, will donate at least a cumulative total of 1.25 million meals (or $125,000).
About Freshly
Freshly is a weekly subscription service delivering healthy and fully prepared meals directly to a customer's doorstep. The rotating weekly menu offers 30 different flavorful preparations and combinations that are made by chefs with the highest quality, 100% all natural ingredients that meet industry-leading standards. Each deliciously healthy meal is packed with key nutrients and cooked fresh to order with no artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, refined sugars, artificial preservatives or hydrogenated oils. In addition to providing free shipping, Freshly uses advanced eco-friendly packaging technology to ensure that meals maintain freshness in transit. Freshly makes embracing a healthier lifestyle deliciously simple, one box at a time. For more information, visit www.freshly.com.
About Feeding America
Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the Unites States. Through a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, we provide meals to more than 46 million people each year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry. Individuals, charities, businesses and government all have a role in ending hunger. Donate. Volunteer. Advocate. Educate. Together we can solve hunger. Visit www.feedingamerica.org, find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Contact
Jenna Hoops
646-362-4690
[email protected]
SOURCE Freshly
Related Links
http://www.freshly.com
LAKEWOOD, Colo., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- General Moly, Inc. (the "Company") (NYSE MKT and TSX: GMO), the only western exchange listed, pure-play molybdenum mineral development company, and its largest shareholder AMER International Group ("AMER") announced the closure of the second tranche of the parties' three-tranche financing agreement, originally announced in 2015.
At the close of Tranche 2, General Moly issued 14,634,146 shares to AMER, priced at the volume weighted average price ("VWAP") for the 30-day period ending August 7, 2017 (the date of the parties' Amendment No. 2 to the Investment and Securities Purchase Agreement) of $0.41 per share for a private placement of $6.0 million by AMER. The equity sale proceeds of $5.5 million will go to general corporate purposes, while $0.5 million will be held in the loan procurement account to cover costs related to the Mt. Hope Project financing and other jointly sourced business development opportunities.
With the previous closure of Tranche 1 and the issuance of 13,333,333 million shares in November 2015, and the closure of Tranche 2 and the issuance of 14.6 million shares, AMER now holds an approximately 22% outstanding interest. The closure of these two investment tranches with AMER is part of a broader financing agreement. AMER has committed to provide to General Moly $20.0 million in three tranches of private placements in addition to a $700.0 million Chinese bank loan for the development of the Company's Mt. Hope Project in Nevada that AMER will source and guarantee when there are improved molybdenum prices over a sustained period coupled with the receipt of water permits and Record of Decision for the Mt. Hope Project.
The third tranche is a $10.0 million private placement for 20 million shares, priced at $0.50 and conditioned upon the reissuance of water permits for the Mt. Hope Project or the earlier completion of a joint business opportunity involving issuance of more than 10.0 million shares of GMI common stock. Tranche 3 may be subject to General Moly stockholder approval.
Bruce D. Hansen, General Moly's Chief Executive Officer said, "We are extremely pleased to close Tranche 2, reinforcing the commitment of General Moly and AMER to our long-term strategic partnership. We value our relationship with AMER as we work together to achieve full financing for the development of the Mt. Hope Project, upon increasing molybdenum prices and achievement of the water permits and Record of Decision. In the interim, along with AMER, we continue to evaluate mutually beneficial business development opportunities."
About General Moly
General Moly is a U.S.-based molybdenum mineral development, exploration and mining company listed on the NYSE MKT and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol GMO. The Company's primary asset, an 80% interest in the Mt. Hope Project located in central Nevada, is considered one of the world's largest and highest grade molybdenum deposits. Combined with the Company's wholly-owned Liberty Project, a molybdenum and copper property also located in central Nevada, General Moly's goal is to become the largest pure-play primary molybdenum producer in the world.
Molybdenum is a metallic element used primarily as an alloy agent in steel manufacturing. When added to steel, molybdenum enhances steel strength, resistance to corrosion and extreme temperature performance. In the chemical and petrochemical industries, molybdenum is used in catalysts, especially for cleaner burning fuels by removing sulfur from liquid fuels, and in corrosion inhibitors, high performance lubricants and polymers.
Contact:
Scott Roswell
(303) 928-8591
[email protected]
Website: www.generalmoly.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements herein that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, anticipated, expected, or implied by the Company. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to metals price and production volatility, global economic conditions, currency fluctuations, increased production costs and variances in ore grade or recovery rates from those assumed in mining plans, exploration risks and results, political, operational and project development risks, including the Company's ability to obtain a re-grant of its water permits and Record of Decision, ability to maintain required federal and state permits to continue construction, and commence production, ability to raise required project financing, ability to respond to adverse governmental regulation and judicial outcomes, and ability to maintain and/or adjust estimates related to cost of production, capital, operating and exploration expenditures. For a detailed discussion of risks and other factors that may impact these forward-looking statements, please refer to the Risk Factors and other discussion contained in the Company's quarterly and annual periodic reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K, on file with the SEC. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements.
SOURCE General Moly, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.generalmoly.com
LONDON, October 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Nanomechanical, Optical, Electrochemical, Thermistor/Calorimetric, Patient Monitoring, Diagnostics, Therapeutics, Wearable, Implantable, Strip, Hospitals & Clinics, Home Diagnostics, Diagnostic Centres, Research Laboratories
The global next-generation multi-purpose biosensors market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.0% in the first half of the forecast period. In 2016, the electrochemical biosensors submarket held the largest market share at 35%, followed by the optical biosensors submarket at 28%.
(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/523989/Visiongain_Logo.jpg )
How this report will benefit you
Read on to discover how you can exploit the future business opportunities emerging in this sector.
In this brand new 424-page report you will receive 66 tables and 89 figures- all unavailable elsewhere.
The 424-page report provides clear detailed insight into the global next-generation multi-purpose biosensors market. Discover the key drivers and challenges affecting the market.
By ordering and reading our brand new report today you stay better informed and ready to act.
Report Scope
Global Next-Generation Multi-Purpose Biosensors market forecasts from 2017-2027
This report also breaks down the revenue forecast for the global next-generation multi-purpose biosensors market by type:
Nanomechanical Biosensors
Optical Biosensors
Electrochemical Biosensors
Thermistor/Calorimetric Biosensors
Other Biosensors
This report also breaks down the revenue forecast for the global next-generation multi-purpose biosensors market by application:
Patient Monitoring
Diagnostics
Therapeutics
Other Applications
This report also breaks down the revenue forecast for the global next-generation multi-purpose biosensors market by placement type:
Wearable Biosensors
Implantable Biosensors
Strip Biosensors
Other Placement Type Biosensors
This report also breaks down the revenue forecast for the global next-generation multi-purpose biosensors market by end user:
Hospitals & Clinics
Home Diagnostics
Diagnostic Centres
Research Laboratories
This report provides individual revenue forecasts to 2027 for these regional and national markets:
North America:
- US
- Mexico
- Canada
Europe:
- UK
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Spain
- Russia
- Rest of Europe
Asia-Pacific:
- India
- China
- Japan
- Australia
- Rest of Asia-Pacific
Rest of the World:
- Latin America
- Middle East
- Africa
Our study gives qualitative analysis of the next generation multi-purpose biosensors market. It includes discussions on government regulations, patent analysis, and other factors that affect the market.
This report also provides a list of 1041 patents related to biosensors.
Our study discusses the selected leading companies that are the major players in the next-generation multi-purpose biosensors industry:
- Koninklijke Philips N.V.
- Abbott Laboratories
- Universal Biosensors Inc.
- Bayer Healthcare AG
- GE Healthcare
- Biosensors International Group. Ltd.
- Medtronic plc
- Nova Biomedical Corporation
- Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc.
- Sphere Medical Holding plc
Visiongain's study is intended for anyone requiring commercial analyses for the global next-generation multi-purpose biosensors market. You find data, trends and predictions.
Buy our report today Global Next-Generation Multi-Purpose Biosensors Market 2017-2027: Nanomechanical, Optical, Electrochemical, Thermistor/Calorimetric, Patient Monitoring, Diagnostics, Therapeutics, Wearable, Implantable, Strip, Hospitals & Clinics, Home Diagnostics, Diagnostic Centres, Research Laboratories.
To request a report overview of this report please email Sara Peerun at [email protected] or call Tel: +44-(0)-20-7336-6100
Or click on https://www.visiongain.com/Report/2020/Global-Next-Generation-Multi-Purpose-Biosensors-Market-2017-2027
List of Companies Mentioned in the Report
Abbott Diabetes Care Inc.
Abbott Laboratories
Abionic Sa
Acon Biotech (Hangzhou ) Co., Ltd.
Agamatrix, Inc.
Arkray, Inc.
Ascensia Diabetes Care Holdings Ag
Avails Medical, Inc.
Aviana Molecular Technologies, Llc
Axela Inc
Axion Biosystems, Inc.
Bayer Healthcare Ag
Beijing Zhonglongyicheng Technology Co., Ltd.
Biomarque B.V.
Biomicro Pte. Ltd.
Bionime Corporation
Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc.
Biosensors International Group. Ltd.
Bosh Biotechnologies, Ltd.
Brains Online Holding B V
Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
Changshu Weichen Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd.
Chromedx Corp.
Cilag Gmbh International
Concentris Gmbh
Conmed Corp.
Cook Group Incorporated
Corindus Vascular Robotics, Inc.
Coway Co., Ltd
Dainippon Printing Co Ltd
Davos Diagnostics Ag
Dentsply Sirona, Inc.
Deroyal Industries Inc.
Dexcom, Inc.
Diagnostic Biochips LLC
Diagnostic Biochips, Inc.
Diagnostica Stago
DNA Electronics Ltd
Eastman Chemical Company
Echo Therapeutics, Inc.
Education Instrument Co., Ltd.
Edwards Lifesciences Corp.
Elixir Medical Corporation
Fujifilm Corporation
Ge Healthcare
Gen Electric
Genalyte Inc
General Electric Company
Genia Technologies, Inc.
Georgia Tech Research Corporation
Guilin Zhonghui Technology Development Co., Ltd.
Haemonetics Corp.
Hangzhou Bikang Investment Management Co., Ltd.
Heartware International, Inc.
Hee Sung Metal Ltd.
Henan Saiwosi Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
Henry Schein, Inc.
Highland Biosciences Limited
Hoffmann La Roche
I Sens Inc
Icu Medical, Inc.
Imricor Medical Systems Inc.
Infopia Co., Ltd.
Inspiremd, Inc.
Intel Corporation
I-Sens, Inc.
Jenavalve Technology Inc.
Joinsoon Medical Technology Co., Ltd.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Kanagawa Prefecture
Kawasumi Laboratories, Inc.
Konica Minolta Laboratory U.S.A., Inc.
Koninklijke Philips N.V.
Laurus Corp
Leadway Hk Ltd
Lemaitre Vascular, Inc.
Lepu Medical Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
Lg Electronics Inc.
Lifescan Scotland Ltd
Lifescan, Inc.
Maquet Inc.
Mauna Kea Technologies Sa
Medical Components Inc.
Mediomics Llc
Medline Industries Inc.
Medtronic Minimed, Inc.
Medtronic Plc
Medtrum Tech. Co., Ltd.
Medtrum Technologies Inc.
Menarini Farma Ind
Merck Patent Gmbh
Merit Medical Systems, Inc.
Merry X-Ray Chemical Corporation
Mico Co., Ltd
Micobiomed Co., Ltd.
Microport Scientific Corp.
Mindray Medical International Ltd.
MRI Interventions, Inc.
Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Mutualink, Inc.
Myriad Genetics, Inc.
Nanob2a Group
Nantong Minichip Micro-Electronics Company
National Health and Medical Research Council
National Research Council of Canada
Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.
NDD, Inc.
Neurometrix, Inc.
Neurosky Inc
Nipro Diabetes Systems Inc.
Nitto Denko Corp
Nonin Medical, Inc.
Nova Biomedical Corporation
Noviosense B V
Ohmx Corporation
Onset Medical Corporation
Optoelectronics Systems Consulting, Inc.
Orbusneich Medical Company Limited
Osang Healthcare Co. Ltd.
Panasonic Healthcare Holdings Co., Ltd.
Phillips
Pioneer Corporation
Piramal Entpr Ltd
Polymer Technology Systems Inc.
Precision System Science Co., Ltd.
Profusa Inc.
Promega Corporation
Protein Technologies Ltd
Resmed, Inc.
Roche Diagnostics Gmbh
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Sarissa Biomedical Ltd
Seiko Instruments Inc
Sequent Medical Inc.
Shandong Weigao Group Medical Polymer Co. Ltd.
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc.
Siemens Healthcare Gmbh
Sivantos Gmbh
Sk Innovation Co., Ltd
Smartcare Technologies Ltd
Sony Corp
Sotera Wireless Inc.
Sphere Medical Holding Plc.
Stanley Electric Co Ltd
Stentys Sa
Stereotaxis, Inc.
Straumann Holding Ag
Stryker Corp.
Sumitomo Electric Industries
Surmodics, Inc.
Syntheticmr Ab
Sysmex Corp.
Systagenix Wound Management Limited
T2 Biosystems, Inc.
Taidoc Technology Corp.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K.
Tascom Co., Ltd.
Teleflex, Inc.
Tempo Bioscience Inc.
Terumo Corp.
The Bio Co. Ltd
The Francis Crick Institute Limited
The Optical Society of America Incorporated
Theranos Inc.
Thoratec Corporation
Thorlabs Inc.
Toray Ind Inc
Transgenex Therapeutics, Llc
Ulisse Biomed S.R.L.
Universal Biosensors Inc.
Varian Medical Systems, Inc.
Vascular Solutions, Inc.
Vitalconnect
Vivachek Biotech (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd
Volcano Corporation
Wellcome Trust Gp Limited
Wuxi Hengyu Medical Devices Co., Ltd.
Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd.
Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc.
To see a report overview please email Sara Peerun on [email protected]
SOURCE Visiongain
RESTON, Va., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- GTL today announced the release of the next version of its Offender Management System (OMS)version 5.5in a continuing effort to improve efficiency and security for correctional facilities.
"This latest release further solidifies OMS as the most robust inmate management solution in the nation," said John Lowry, Senior Product Manager, Product Management at GTL. "Our steady evolution of OMS ensures customers have a product that keeps moving forward and adapting as necessary to fit the needs of their correctional facilities."
GTL released three new versions of OMS in 2017, which combined to bring nearly 500 enhancements to customers. Periodic software releases, such as OMS v5.5, keep GTL customers at the forefront of the latest in technology and enhanced product functionality. The release of v5.5 brought several enhancements, including:
Added configurability to allow or restrict storing property from more than one inmate in one location
Added the ability to record future work schedules for inmates in work release programs
Added the ability to display or redact identification numbers so data is only shared on a need-to-know basis
Increased the speed of checking security threat group keep separates
Increased capability to connect with inmate criminal history databases by integrating OMS with another industry middleware provider
Expanded support for Michigan sentencing requirements
The scores of other enhancements contained in this release can be found in the product release notes available on the OMS Customer Forums webpage for current OMS customers.
To learn more about OMS or for a product demonstration, contact GTL today.
About GTL
GTL leads the fields of correctional technology, education, and government payment services with visionary solutions and customized products that integrate seamlessly to deliver security, financial value, and operational efficiencies while aiding inmate rehabilitation and reducing recidivism rates. With the recent acquisition of Telmate, GTL has strengthened its suite of solutions for the corrections industry and expanded its community corrections portfolio with Telmate Guardian, a smartphone-based GPS monitoring solution. As a trusted industry leader, GTL provides services to over 2 million inmates in more than 2,500 correctional facilities in the United States and Canada, including 33 U.S. departments of corrections, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and many large city/county/provincial facilities. GTL is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with an employee presence throughout North America. To learn more about GTL, please visit www.gtl.net or social media sites on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Press Contact: Vinnie Mascarenhas
703-955-3894
[email protected]
SOURCE GTL
Related Links
http://www.gtl.net
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 36% of Americans have not gone to the dentist in over a year, increasing their risk of later-stage health complications. The most common cited reason for not using their benefits is the hassle of travel time, work hours lost, and finding a trustworthy dental professional. It is estimated that 196 million work hours are lost every year due to traveling to the dentist. The debut of HENRY aims to provide a modern and accessible approach to dentistry by providing a high-end experience right at the patient's place of work.
"HENRY is on a mission to deliver an elevated brand experience directly to our patients, reimagining dentistry to fit the needs of busy working professionals," said Justin Joffe, Founder and CEO of HENRY. "We know many people feel intimidated about going to the dentist, so we spent over a year with our team designing a clinic that's modern and welcoming. We've been thoughtful about every element of the patient experience, to provide an atmosphere that is unexpected from the moment you walk in."
The $125b dental industry is largely an unbranded market, with little or no innovation in the patient experience, which is why HENRY teamed up with renowned architect and design agencies to produce a high-tech service experience inside. Each HENRY clinic is outfitted with a panoramic x-ray, massage dental chairs, Apple TVs with access to Netflix and HBO, and a team of world class dental professionals. HENRY offers its patients a wide array of services including x-ray, exam, cleaning, filling, night guard, teeth whitening, and Invisalign. HENRY is in-network with most major dental carriers, including Delta Dental, Metlife, Guardian, Aetna, Cigna, United, and Horizon.
"Good health starts with oral hygiene, and we want to provide patients with access to the highest quality of professional care," said Dr. Jeffrey Rappaport, Dental Director of HENRY. "We brought together a full-time team of experienced dentists and hygienists for each clinic, ensuring that all our patients receive continuity of care from the same highly-trained dental professionals at every visit."
To date, HENRY has raised $2 million in capital, including from its lead investors Trailmix VC and Brand Foundry Ventures. HENRY plans to have 3 clinics operational in New Jersey by 2018 to meet the high demand from companies. HENRY is currently serving companies throughout New Jersey, with key markets in Parsippany, Florham Park, Livingston, Hoboken, Cherry Hill, and Jersey City.
To learn more or to book HENRY at your office, visit www.HENRYthedentist.com.
About HENRY The Dentist
HENRY The Dentist (HENRY) brings a state-of-the-art mobile dental clinic to corporate offices, offering employees convenient in-network access to their dental benefits in a high-end brand environment. Currently available across New Jersey, HENRY works with HR teams to schedule its clinics onsite at employer offices, delivering an elevated brand experience right downstairs. For more information, visit HENRYthedentist.com or follow via Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.
CONTACT: Chelsea Martineau, (212) 691-2800, [email protected]
SOURCE HENRY The Dentist
Related Links
https://www.henrythedentist.com
BEIJING, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Huaneng Power International, Inc. ("HPI", the "Company") (NYSE: HNP; HKEx: 902; SSE: 600011) today announced its power generation for the first three quarters of 2017.
According to the preliminary statistics of Huaneng Power International, Inc., (the "Company"), in the third quarter of 2017, the Company's total power generation by power plants within China on consolidated basis amounted to 107.592 billion kWh, representing an increase of 24.36% over the same period last year. Total electricity sold by the Company amounted to 101.092 billion kWh, representing an increase of 23.79% over the same period last year. For the first three quarters of 2017, the Company's total power generation by the power plants within China on consolidated basis amounted to 294.271 billion kWh, representing an increase of 26.52% over the same period last year. Total electricity sold by the Company amounted to 277.212 billion kWh, representing an increase of 26.16% over the same period last year. In the first three quarters of 2017, the Company's average on-grid electricity sales price for its power plants within China amounted to RMB408.96 per MWh, representing an increase of 3.68% over the same period last year.
The substantial increase in the Company's power generation was mainly attributable to the following factors: (1) The acquisition of the power assets in areas like Heilongjiang, Jilin and Shandong by the Company contributed to the substantial increase in power generation of the Company; and (2) The thermal power generation in central China, eastern China and Guangdong increased year on year.
The power generation (in billion kWh) in each region of the Company's domestic power plants are listed below:
Region Power Generation Electricity Sold July to September 2017 Change January to September 2017 Change July to September 2017 Change January to September 2017 Change *Heilongjiang Province 3.420 4.71% 9.837 5.65% 3.190 4.55% 9.204 5.71% *Coal-fired 3.207 2.91% 9.188 4.21% 2.987 2.89% 8.576 4.31% *Wind-power 0.213 42.06% 0.649 31.31% 0.202 37.08% 0.629 29.42% *Jilin Province 2.259 8.32% 6.242 10.58% 2.135 8.20% 5.887 10.87% *Coal-fired 1.992 5.62% 5.408 7.42% 1.881 5.55% 5.092 7.45% *Wind-power 0.187 56.36% 0.613 53.09% 0.180 53.19% 0.591 56.26% *Hydro-power 0.017 -26.22% 0.062 15.04% 0.017 -25.61% 0.061 15.52% *PV 0.0065 - 0.0068 - 0.0065 - 0.0067 - *Biomass power 0.056 -0.28% 0.152 -2.53% 0.051 -0.52% 0.136 -2.41% Liaoning Province 6.078 13.05% 14.649 2.55% 5.686 12.77% 13.699 2.13% Coal-fired 5.968 12.50% 14.339 2.18% 5.577 12.18% 13.392 1.73% Wind-power 0.067 20.53% 0.236 12.75% 0.066 20.76% 0.235 12.69% Hydro-power 0.015 70.24% 0.029 -10.90% 0.014 69.74% 0.028 -11.18% PV 0.0287 283.50% 0.0458 342.56% 0.0283 283.55% 0.0449 349.86% Inner Mongolia 0.042 16.87% 0.154 -0.93% 0.041 16.63% 0.152 -1.24% Wind-power 0.042 16.87% 0.154 -0.93% 0.041 16.63% 0.152 -1.24% Hebei Province 3.854 6.91% 10.621 3.99% 3.615 7.00% 9.978 3.83% Coal-fired 3.803 6.10% 10.443 3.13% 3.567 6.10% 9.824 3.08% Wind-power 0.041 216.84% 0.147 84.62% 0.039 223.17% 0.126 66.99% PV 0.0100 31.41% 0.0309 289.22% 0.0094 88.58% 0.0290 481.86% Gansu Province 2.085 1.31% 7.195 0.59% 1.975 0.19% 6.819 -0.28% Coal-fired 1.603 -5.42% 5.999 -1.69% 1.506 -7.21% 5.663 -2.88% Wind-power 0.483 32.63% 1.195 13.89% 0.469 34.62% 1.155 14.80% Ningxia 0.0067 - 0.0071 - 0.0064 - 0.0068 - PV 0.0067 - 0.0071 - 0.0064 - 0.0068 - Beijing 1.021 -42.88% 4.368 -22.00% 0.980 -41.69% 4.129 -20.90% Coal-fired 0.121 -81.91% 1.207 -49.05% 0.102 -82.50% 1.047 -49.22% Combined Cycle 0.900 -19.68% 3.161 -2.17% 0.878 -19.98% 3.082 -2.42% Tianjin 2.222 21.72% 5.467 6.57% 2.096 21.27% 5.145 6.31% Coal-fired 1.691 38.40% 4.381 18.06% 1.578 38.64% 4.087 18.27% Combined Cycle 0.531 -12.13% 1.085 -23.52% 0.517 -12.39% 1.057 -23.61% PV 0.0008 - 0.0008 - 0.0008 - 0.0008 - Shanxi Province 2.009 -22.35% 7.417 -13.81% 1.849 -23.43% 6.946 -14.03% Coal-fired 1.926 -20.60% 5.370 -22.74% 1.781 -21.16% 4.966 -23.27% Combined Cycle 0.064 -60.25% 2.028 22.58% 0.062 -60.25% 1.973 22.82% PV 0.0185 - 0.0188 - 0.0060 - 0.0060 - Shandong Province 25.367 104.60% 67.219 104.45% 23.710 111.51% 62.927 112.78% Coal-fired 25.232 103.51% 66.772 103.09% 23.576 110.32% 62.492 111.31% *Wind-power 0.065 6.23% 0.322 12.44% 0.062 9.54% 0.312 12.12% *PV 0.0695 271.48% 0.1242 221.86% 0.0687 229.60% 0.1233 233.68% Henan Province 5.409 -11.18% 16.281 2.46% 5.069 -4.35% 15.326 11.37% Coal-fired 5.056 -7.95% 14.919 3.30% 4.724 -10.86% 13.993 1.68% *Combined Cycle 0.328 -44.99% 1.298 -10.29% 0.321 -45.01% 1.270 -10.32% Wind-power 0.018 - 0.056 - 0.018 - 0.056 - PV 0.0063 - 0.0077 - 0.0062 - 0.0076 - Jiangsu Province 11.659 -4.90% 33.044 3.81% 10.950 -5.75% 31.243 3.36% Coal-fired 9.599 -12.10% 28.541 -1.34% 9.032 -12.36% 26.950 -1.59% Combined Cycle 1.807 48.10% 3.819 52.68% 1.682 40.59% 3.656 48.88% Wind-power 0.235 97.81% 0.654 63.40% 0.218 87.45% 0.606 56.70% PV 0.0186 - 0.0306 - 0.0184 - 0.0301 - Shanghai 5.317 11.22% 14.083 2.08% 5.015 11.10% 13.327 1.95% Coal-fired 4.798 14.06% 12.636 1.76% 4.509 13.94% 11.914 1.58% Combined Cycle 0.519 -9.64% 1.447 4.92% 0.506 -9.12% 1.413 5.18% Chongqing 2.469 -17.74% 6.680 -8.27% 2.278 -18.38% 6.191 -8.43% Coal-fired 2.120 -8.85% 5.602 -6.41% 1.939 -9.11% 5.141 -6.48% Combined Cycle 0.349 -48.32% 1.078 -16.89% 0.340 -48.42% 1.049 -16.89% Zhejiang Province 7.090 -0.18% 20.534 12.67% 6.791 -0.20% 19.706 12.82% Coal-fired 6.901 -0.11% 20.105 12.41% 6.605 -0.13% 19.287 12.56% Combined Cycle 0.174 -5.37% 0.390 20.58% 0.169 -5.68% 0.380 20.30% PV 0.0157 45.30% 0.0384 150.28% 0.0164 49.03% 0.0382 148.93% Hubei Province 4.513 3.02% 11.045 6.76% 4.220 3.06% 10.331 6.52% Coal-fired 4.327 2.26% 10.559 5.67% 4.040 2.01% 9.859 5.24% Wind-power 0.072 27.57% 0.218 90.21% 0.071 59.92% 0.214 111.71% Hydro-power 0.112 20.18% 0.266 11.72% 0.109 20.91% 0.258 12.15% PV 0.0020 - 0.0020 - 0.0003 - 0.0003 - Hunan Province 2.646 9.92% 6.554 18.91% 2.474 9.48% 6.128 18.32% Coal-fired 2.455 10.80% 5.874 21.56% 2.285 10.38% 5.457 21.05% Wind-power 0.121 1.14% 0.410 4.10% 0.119 1.11% 0.406 4.08% Hydro-power 0.062 -15.22% 0.260 -9.26% 0.060 -15.33% 0.255 -9.28% PV 0.0092 - 0.0107 - 0.0091 - 0.0105 - Jiangxi Province 5.633 14.81% 14.621 17.10% 5.365 14.57% 13.955 17.19% Coal-fired 5.558 13.75% 14.451 16.39% 5.306 13.79% 13.810 16.63% Wind-power 0.075 277.37% 0.170 144.71% 0.059 203.71% 0.145 112.93% Anhui Province 1.530 -6.72% 4.376 -1.64% 1.458 -6.73% 4.182 -1.04% Coal-fired 1.462 -5.94% 4.199 -1.55% 1.390 -5.91% 4.007 -1.32% Wind-power 0.035 8.73% 0.093 91.00% 0.034 8.82% 0.093 194.30% Hydro-power 0.034 -38.26% 0.083 -38.06% 0.033 -38.36% 0.083 -38.16% Fujian Province 3.258 19.00% 7.283 18.82% 3.070 18.93% 6.863 18.87% Coal-fired 3.254 18.83% 7.278 18.75% 3.068 18.87% 6.861 18.84% PV 0.0045 - 0.0048 - 0.0015 - 0.0015 - Guangdong Province 5.767 23.72% 15.001 19.87% 5.484 23.29% 14.321 19.78% Coal-fired 5.760 23.63% 14.984 19.76% 5.477 23.18% 14.304 19.65% PV 0.0072 200.51% 0.0172 621.99% 0.0071 319.66% 0.0172 907.76% Yunnan Province 0.867 -0.51% 2.747 -7.89% 0.795 -0.50% 2.538 -7.50% Coal-fired 0.808 -1.69% 2.439 -11.98% 0.739 -2.49% 2.239 -12.13% Wind-power 0.058 19.09% 0.309 45.61% 0.057 35.57% 0.299 52.77% Guizhou Province 0.009 6.64% 0.043 31.24% 0.009 5.68% 0.042 63.54% Wind-power 0.009 6.64% 0.043 31.24% 0.009 5.68% 0.042 63.54% Hainan Province 3.059 3.62% 8.801 -11.03% 2.831 3.43% 8.166 -11.32% Coal-fired 2.985 6.25% 8.576 -11.18% 2.758 6.18% 7.945 -11.52% Combined Cycle 0.006 -87.43% 0.013 -84.11% 0.005 -87.23% 0.013 -83.70% Wind-power 0.014 6.77% 0.067 12.72% 0.014 6.40% 0.065 12.57% Hydro-power 0.043 -46.41% 0.124 39.10% 0.043 -46.59% 0.122 39.66% PV 0.0110 201.41% 0.0211 476.52% 0.0109 202.58% 0.0208 477.91% Total 107.592 24.36% 294.271 26.52% 101.092 23.79% 277.212 26.16%
Note: The remark * represented the regional companies or power plants involved in the new acquisition by the Company at the end of 2016. They had been incorporated in the Company's financial statements since 1 January 2017, and the year-on-year data of which is for information only.
For the thrid quarter of 2017, the power generation of Tuas Power Limited in Singapore, which is wholly-owned by the Company, accounted for a market share of 22.4% in Singapore, representing an increase of 1.2 percentage points compared to the same period last year. In the first three quarters of 2017, the accumulated power generation accounted for a market share of 21.8%, representing an increase of 0.3 percentage point compared to the same period last year.
In addition, Units 1 and 2 of Huaneng Jiangsu Suzhou Gas Turbine Combined Cycle Thermal Power (452 MW), part of the wind turbine units (24 2) of Huaneng Jiangxi Linghuashan Wind Turbine (48 MW), Huaneng Liaoning Jianchang Bashihan Photovoltaic (22.03 MW), Huaneng Liaoning Jichang Bashihan Photovoltaic Phase II (22.03 MW), Huaneng Liaoning Xiaode Yingzi Photovoltaic (15.56 MW), Huaneng Liaoning Chaoyang Heiniu Yingzi Photovoltaic (18.79 MW), part of the photovoltaic power generation units of Huaneng Hubei Suizhou Zengdufu River Terrestrial Photovoltaic (16.7 MW) (each being wholly owned by the Company), as well as part of the wind turbine units (20 5 +24 4) of Huaneng Jiangsu Rudong Offshore Wind Power (196 MW) (which is 75% owned by the Company) and part of the photovoltaic power generation units of Huaneng Hainan Haikou Power Plant Ash Field (12.5 MW) (which is 91.8% owned by the Company) have been put into operation in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the installed capacity of certain power plants invested by the Company also changed. As of 30 September 2017, the Company had a controlled installed capacity of 102,502 MW and an equity-based installed capacity of 91,138 MW.
About Huaneng Power International, Inc.
Huaneng Power International, Inc. is one of China's largest listed power producers with controlled generation capacity of 102,502 MW and an equity-based installed capacity of 91,138 MW. Its power plants are located in 25 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. It also has a wholly-owned power company in Singapore.
For Enquires, Please Contact
Huaneng Power International, Inc.
Ms. MENG Jing / Ms. ZHAO Lin
Tel: (86 10) 6608 6765 / 6322 6596
Fax: (86 10) 6322 6888
E-mail: [email protected]
Wonderful Sky Financial Group Limited
Wonderful Sky Financial Group Limited
Ms. Iris OUYANG / Ms. Crystal RUAN
Tel: (852) 2851 1038
Fax: (852) 2865 1638
Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
SOURCE Huaneng Power International, Inc.
BETHESDA, Md., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hull Street Energy, LLC ("Hull Street Energy") announced today that it has agreed to purchase nine hydroelectric power facilities in New Hampshire from Eversource through a special purpose affiliate. The $83 million transaction is expected to close by late December or early 2018, subject to approval by the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (NHPUC), FERC, and other required approvals.
The hydroelectric assets purchase agreement with Hull Street Energy consists of nine facilities with approximately 68.2 MW of power generation capacity. The plants are located in Manchester, Bristol, West Stewartstown, Franklin, Bow, Gorham, Hooksett, Hillsborough and Berlin, New Hampshire.
Hull Street Energy, a private equity firm that invests in power generation assets and related businesses, plans to acquire the facilities as part of its strategy to build a significant presence in the North American power sector. Upon completion of this transaction, Hull Street Energy affiliates will own approximately 531 MW of power generation assets in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Western United States. Earlier this year the firm acquired five hydroelectric facilities in Massachusetts that had once been owned by Eversource's predecessor, Northeast Utilities. With the addition of the New Hampshire Eversource fleet, Hull Street Energy's hydroelectric plant portfolio will exceed 85 MW.
"The acquisition of the Eversource hydroelectric fleet is an important step in enhancing our presence in the northeast renewable power sector," said Sarah Wright, Managing Partner at Hull Street Energy. "We look forward to partnering with the experienced workforce and other regional stakeholders as we build a leading regional renewable generation business and supply a variety of products to regional electricity customers."
The sale of the hydroelectric plants was part of an agreement between Eversource and other parties to implement New Hampshire's Electric Restructuring Law, with a goal of achieving a competitive electric energy marketplace. The transaction was conducted via an auction process established by the NHPUC and managed by J.P. Morgan.
Manatt Phelps and Phillips, LLP and Hogan Lovells acted as legal counsel to Hull Street Energy on the transaction.
About Hull Street Energy, LLC
Hull Street Energy is a private equity firm that acquires, optimizes and grows middle market power businesses through the application of industry-leading risk management, efficiency enhancements and commodity contract structuring. Hull Street Energy was established by a team with extensive, long-standing expertise in the power industry. They bring to the firm's investments a unique combination of deep technical and commercial knowledge of the electricity industry, and top-tier financial investment expertise. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, the team leverages its decades of experience and unique knowledge of North American electricity infrastructure, including fuel inputs, renewable and fossil powered generation assets, transmission and distribution systems, and electricity demand-side businesses to build value for its investors and stakeholders. For further information about Hull Street Energy, please see http://www.hullstreetenergy.com.
Media Contact:
Zach Kouwe/Shree Dhond
Dukas Linden Public Relations
212-704-7385
[email protected]
SOURCE Hull Street Energy, LLC
Related Links
https://www.hullstreetenergy.com
NEW YORK and TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Illusive Networks, the leader in deception-based cybersecurity, today introduced Mainframe Guard which enables the inclusion of mainframe systems into an integrated deception solution architecture to protect critical business services from Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) and other high-impact attacks. Illusive Networks is debuting Mainframe Guard this week at Sibos, the world's premier financial services conference organized by SWIFT.
According to IBM, their mainframe systems currently support 87% of all credit card transactions and nearly $8 trillion payments a year; 29 billion ATM transactions equating to $5 billion per day and more than 30 billion transactions per day. Ninety-two of the world's top 100 banks rely on the IBM mainframe because of its ability to efficiently process huge volumes of transactions. While IBM's latest mainframe models encrypt transactional data, the vast majority in the field expose significant vulnerabilities.
The need to secure innovations such as mobile applications, cloud-based services and smart devices is getting a lot of attention these days, but mainframes remain an essential element in many of these critical service chains," said Andrew Howard, CTO at Kudelski Security, who has extensive experience remediating mainframe systems in the wake of cyber breaches. "Organizations are sometimes reluctant to upgrade legacy applications and databases on these enterprise servers, particularly in today's always-on economy. But unless you address every link in the end-to-end process, you haven't secured it."
Mainframe security is often overlooked by in-house teams due to misperceptions that the platform is inherently more secure than others. Furthermore, tools and talent to configure security controls on mainframes or implement upgrades are scarce. Monitoring of these systems is both challenging and time consuming, plus they are often viewed as 'untouchable' for fear of the business disruption that could be caused by configuration changes.
"We've seen a trend toward more direct attacks on applications and transactions. As attackers go after higher-value targets, we expect financial institutions and global enterprises will incur more attacks directed at their mainframes," says Ofer Israeli, Founder & CEO of Illusive Networks. "Beyond data theft, organizations should consider mainframes as a target for espionage because they're a nerve center for vast volumes of transactional data. From a single location, an attacker could gather significant competitive or strategic intelligence. Even data encryption can be bypassed as the more sophisticated attackers will impersonate other users to conceal their actions and gain access to sensitive data. Organizations committed to providing the utmost protection against cyber attacks need to consider whether their mainframes have become a weak, forgotten link at the heart of their core operations."
When attackers breach a mainframe, the results can be devastating. In 2011, the mainframe of banking industry behemoth Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) was hacked. Alongside a carefully timed multi-million dollar ATM heist, the attackers touched nearly every part of Fidelity National's vast network, spanning over 100 countries, exposing data from around 100 financial institutions. Prior to this attack, nearly 60,000 employees of luxury eyewear group Luxottica had their personal information stolen by a mainframe breach.
Leveraging Illusive's Deceptions Everywhere approach, Mainframe Guard works by detecting malicious movement toward the mainframe, providing a non-intrusive method of protecting the systems themselves, the data they host and the services they support from advanced attacks. The solution is comprised of:
A new "family" of deceptions for mainframe environments and clients
The ability to display mainframe assets along with other sensitive assets in the Illusive Attacker View component of the management console, which enables security personnel to see potential attack paths to reach mainframes, and track the proximity and progress of attackers toward these assets
Purpose-built views of the mainframe environment to monitor unexpected connections to mainframe servers
An interactive layer added to the Illusive Trap Server that mimics mainframe behavior and login screens, tricking attackers into believing they are interacting with an actual mainframe computer.
Illusive Network's Mainframe Guard is the latest addition to its award-winning, agentless, distributed deception platform that blankets a company's entire network with information that deceives attackers. Deceptions are placed on every endpoint and server to mimic application, data, network and system components that an attacker would use to further attack efforts.
Automatically generated and AI-driven, Illusive Networks' deceptions are tailor-made for the customer's environment to appear realistic and authentic to attackers. As soon as attackers attempt to use the deceptive data, Illusive detects and alerts enterprise security teams, providing real-time, contextual forensic data from the source host that enable informed, targeted and timely incident response operations.
At the vanguard of the next evolution of cyber defense, Illusive Networks recently received recognition by Momentum Partners as one of ten cybersecurity companies on their Watch List, by The Wall Street Journal in its inaugural Tech Companies to Watch and was named as one of CRN's '25 Coolest Network Security Vendors'.
About Illusive Networks
Illusive Networks is pioneering deception-based cybersecurity with its patented Deceptions Everywhere technology that focuses on neutralizing targeted attacks and Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) by creating a deceptive layer across the entire network. By providing an endless source of false information, Illusive Networks can disrupt and detect breaches with real-time forensics and without disruption to business.
For more information, please visit www.illusivenetworks.com or follow on LinkedIn, @illusivenw on Twitter and Facebook.
SOURCE Illusive Networks
Related Links
http://www.illusivenetworks.com
Based in Washington, D.C., the ILPA is the leading U.S. trade organization representing a diverse group of online lending and service companies serving small businesses. United by a shared commitment to the health and success of small businesses, the ILPA and its members are dedicated to advancing best practices and standards that support responsible innovation and access to capital for America's small businesses.
In his prior role at the Financial Services Roundtable, Mr. Stewart developed and implemented collaborative programs between technology companies and financial institutions, personally recruiting major technology partners to participate. The programs were designed to help financial institutions and technology companies find common ground for partnership on technical issues and public policy. Mr. Stewart will be based at the ILPA's offices in Washington, D.C.
"I look forward to joining a strong team committed to furthering The American Dream for small businesses across our great country," said Scott Stewart. "The ILPA is the voice for responsible innovation and access to capital for small business owners, and I'm delighted to be part of that vital mission moving forward."
"On behalf of the ILPA, we are very happy to welcome Scott to the team. Scott has gained incredible experience over his career, and we are confident that he will help lead our organization to become an even greater advocate for this country's small business owners," said Cory Kampfer, President and Director, Innovative Lending Platform Association. "We all look forward to working closely with Scott on behalf of American entrepreneurs."
About the ILPA
The Innovative Lending Platform Association (ILPA) is the leading trade organization representing a diverse group of online lending and service companies serving small businesses. United by a shared commitment to the health and success of small businesses in America, the ILPA is dedicated to advancing best practices and standards that support responsible innovation and access to capital for small businesses. The ILPA, in partnership with the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, launched a model small business pricing disclosure called the SMART (Straightforward Metrics around Rate and Total cost) Box. The SMART Box is a first-of-its-kind model pricing disclosure and comparison tool focused on empowering small businesses to better assess and compare finance options. The SMART Box is available for broader adoption by lending platforms. Additional information about the ILPA and the SMART Box initiative is available at: www.innovativelending.org
SOURCE Innovative Lending Platform Association
Related Links
http://innovativelending.org
BEDFORD, Mass., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Instrumentation Laboratory (IL) today announced the 510(k) clearance of the HemosIL AcuStar HIT-IgG (PF4-H) Assay and HemosIL AcuStar HIT Controls by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The HemosIL AcuStar HIT-IgG (PF4-H) Assay is the first on-demand, fully automated, chemiluminescent reagent on a hemostasis testing system for the qualitative detection of platelet factor 4 (PF4)-heparin complex IgG antibodies associated with Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia (HIT). It provides enhanced detection of HIT antibodies on ACL AcuStar Hemostasis Testing Systems in specialty and hospital Hemostasis laboratories. Chemiluminescent technology offers analytical excellence through an expansive working range for high analytical sensitivity and precision.
"Now hospitals and specialty labs can perform HIT testing 24/7 on the ACL AcuStar Testing System with no special training required," said Giovanni Russi, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Service at IL. "The HemosIL AcuStar HIT-IgG (PF4-H) assay is an important complement to our latex-based HemosIL HIT-Ab (PF4-H) assay, expanding the IL portfolio for this critically important test. These assays enable faster and more effective patient management, reducing expensive and unnecessary therapeutic changes."
HIT is a severe immunologic adverse reaction to a Heparin complex that paradoxically causes blood clots to form, leading to venous and/or arterial thrombosis, and can be fatal. Diagnosis of HIT is key to positive patient outcomes and may prompt initiation of alternative anticoagulants. Unlike existing manual processes, HemosIL HIT-IgG (PF4-H) is a liquid, ready-to-use IgG antibody isotype specific immunoassay that delivers results in minuteson-demand, 24/7allowing clinicians to make timely, well-informed therapeutic decisions, essential in critical scenarios.
HemosIL HIT-IgG (PF4-H) joins the HemosIL HIT-Ab (PF4-H) assay, which received 510(k) clearance for use on the IL ACL TOP Family of Hemostasis Testing Systems in 2016.
About ACL AcuStar Hemostasis Testing Systems
ACL AcuStar Systems bring full automation to specialty testing that, until now, has required time-consuming manual processes and highly technical skills. Chemiluminescent technology, designed specifically for the Hemostasis lab, allows superior range and analytical sensitivity compared to ELISA or immunoturbidimetric assays. Advanced assay technology, complemented with end-to-end automation, provides a quantum leap in simplicity and throughput, while ensuring uncompromised results.
About HIT
HIT is one of the most common of all adverse drug effects, due to the sheer volume of patients receiving heparin therapy. Approximately 0.22.0% of patients treated with heparin (over 12 million patients/year in the US, alone) develop HIT. In most cases HIT is caused by IgG antibodies specific to PF4-Heparin complexes binding and activating platelets. If HIT is untreated, risk for serious sequelae (eg, stroke, pulmonary embolism, death) increases significantly. Positive outcomes depend on early and accurate diagnosis and prompt initiation of alternative anticoagulants.
Instrumentation Laboratory (www.instrumentationlaboratory.com), founded in 1959, is a worldwide developer, manufacturer and distributor of in vitro diagnostic instruments, related reagents and controls for use primarily in hospitals and independent clinical laboratories. The Company's product lines include Critical Care, Hemostasis and Patient Blood Management products and services. The IL Critical Care portfolio, includes the new GEM Premier 5000 system with Intelligent Quality Management 2(iQM2), GEM Premier 4000 and 3500 analyzers with iQM, GEMweb Plus 500 Custom Connectivity, Hemochron, VerifyNow and Avoximeter systems. The IL Hemostasis portfolio includes new ACL TOP Family 50 Series Hemostasis Testing Systems and the original ACL TOP Family of Systems, fully automated, high-productivity analyzers. IL also offers the ACL AcuStar, ACL Elite, and other Hemostasis analyzers, along with the comprehensive HemosIL line of reagents. In Patient Blood Management, IL offers the ROTEM product line. IL is based in Bedford, Massachusetts, USA.
The Instrumentation Laboratory logo, GEM, Premier, GEMweb, iQM, HemosIL, ACL, ACL TOP, ACL Elite, ACL AcuStar, ReadiPlasTin, RecombiPlastin, SynthASil, Synthafax, ROTEM, Hemochron, Avoximeter and VerifyNow are trademarks of Instrumentation Laboratory Company and/or one of its subsidiaries or parent companies, and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other jurisdictions. All other product names, company names, marks, logos, and symbols are trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE Instrumentation Laboratory
Related Links
http://www.instrumentationlaboratory.com
In 2015, Patron and LALIQUE released, to great acclaim, the first in this landmark series, Patron en LALIQUE: Serie 1. That limited edition crystal decanter was influenced by Rene Lalique's early Art Nouveau style, which he pioneered in the late 19th th century. In the 1920s, Rene was one of the moving spirits and principal influencers of Art Deco. Following that progression, for Patron en LALIQUE: Serie 2, LALIQUE's master artisans have created a stunningly elegant crystal decanter inspired by Lalique's signature Art Deco design and avant-garde vision. Both France and Mexico share a claim to the Art Deco movement, and this extraordinary bottle captures that collective design sensibility.
"Both Patron and LALIQUE are likeminded in our steadfast dedication and commitment to quality and craftsmanship. It's what first brought us both together two years ago to create this first-of-its-kind collaboration, and those bonds are just as strong today as we proudly introduce the second release in this groundbreaking series," says Ed Brown, President and CEO of Patron Spirits International.
Silvio Denz, Chairman and CEO of LALIQUE, says, "We are proud to partner with Patron again on this second edition. Our two brands share strong and mutual values of creativity, and artistry, both striving for uncompromising quality and excellence. Creating such an exceptional decanter is very challenging and represents countless hours of work due to the finesse of the design. Our master craftsmen put all of their savoir-faire and passion into producing each bottle, signifying their unwavering commitment to mastery and beauty."
Only 299 bottles of Patron en LALIQUE: Serie 2 have been created, each skillfully handmade and individually numbered at LALIQUE's glass factory in Wingen-sur-Moder, in Alsace, France. In this region of tremendous glassmaking tradition, LALIQUE's dedicated glassmakers combine an exceptional mastery of modern techniques and traditional skills throughout the complex crystal making process. Each piece is blown, pressed, fashioned, cut, engraved, polished and signed.
The bottle is characterized by straight lines and the graceful contrast between clear and frosted finishes, emblematic of LALIQUE's iconic, signature style. Its simple yet refined design was inspired by Mexico's indigenous Weber Blue Agave plant from which tequila is produced. The decanter's rounded crystal stopper is amber in color, to marry with the hue of the extra anejo tequila inside the bottle, and features Patron's iconic bee emblem, detailed in pure gold enamel. The bottle is presented in an equally elegant display case, which rotates to reveal the bottle and stopper, making for a truly dramatic presentation, whether at home or in a bar or fine restaurant.
It's not just the bottle that's a work of art. For Patron en LALIQUE: Serie 2, Patron's Master Distiller Francisco Alcaraz and his talented team created an exceptional blend of extra anejo tequilas, aged in the barrel room at the Hacienda Patron distillery in the Highlands of Jalisco, Mexico, for an average of more than seven years. Tequila from three different types of barrels was carefully hand selected to create the perfect balance of agave and oak for this release: American oak, French oak, and Spanish Sherry. Patron en LALIQUE: Serie 2 extra anejo tequila is marked by its bright crystalline color, with a sweet aroma and taste of fruit (apple, banana and pear), vanilla, light agave, raisin, and pecans. The finish is long and pleasing, with notes of oak, agave, caramel, and fruit.
Patron en LALIQUE: Serie 2 (750ml) retails for the suggested price of US$7,500 at fine spirits retailers and in select duty free stores across the world.
About Patron Tequila
From hand-harvesting the highest-quality 100 percent Weber Blue Agave, to the traditional, time-honored distillation process and individual labeling, numbering, and inspection of each bottle, Patron tequila is crafted with meticulous precision and care. Though Patron has grown to become one of the most-recognized and respected luxury spirits brands in the world, it is still exclusively produced in the Highlands of Jalisco, Mexico, in the same small batches and with the same commitment to quality and craftsmanship. For more information about Patron tequilas and liqueurs, please visit www.patrontequila.com.
About LALIQUE
Founded in 1888, LALIQUE is one of the crown jewels of France's crystal glass industry. Rene Lalique, renowned as the inventor of modern jewelry, went on to become a master in the art of glassmaking. Over time, his name has become the powerful symbol of a unique expertise, a synonym for luxury, excellence, creativity and for a widely celebrated artistic style. Through its contemporary work in six areas, LALIQUE revives and pursues the creative, eclectic work of its founder: jewelry, decorative items, interior design, fragrances, art and hospitality. LALIQUE enters into exclusive collaborations with luxury brands, artists and designers to create stunning objects and exclusive collections based on both partners' know-how and expertise. All crystal items are handcrafted in the company's sole manufacturing site, which has been located in the Alsace region in France since 1921. LALIQUE continues to thrive as a truly timeless lifestyle brand. For more information please visit www.lalique.com.
SOURCE Patron Tequila
Related Links
https://www.patrontequila.com
Silicon Valley immediately comes to mind when one thinks of a high-tech life full of imagination yet within reach, such as the well-known autonomous driving, Mars mission and Iron Man armed with high-tech to safeguard the world, are mentioned. In a sense, Stanford University is the heart of Silicon Valley that provides a ceaseless impetus. Many outstanding entrepreneurs with epoch-making achievements in modern high-tech world including Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg have delivered inspirational speeches in Stanford University.
Jay Wei holds an in-depth understanding of calligraphy. During his global circuit speech in the University of Hong Kong, National University of Singapore, Seoul National University and the University of Tokyo, he elaborated on the relationship between "world" and "I" and interpreted the implication of Chinese characters "Taoism", "Loving" and "Heaven".
Jay Wei believes that "there are overwhelming successful stories and business models. But mere imitation of others' success will never make your own success. The most important thing is to find your own way and your own ideas." As a top entrepreneur from China, he expects young Chinese to find their own place and energy to assume the mission for Chinese and carry on the civilization that already has a long history of five thousand years on this planet.
No matter how well-developed technology is, modern society is known for its craziness and quirkiness. Pioneer Jay Wei triggers more in-depth thinking concerning the continuation of Chinese civilization and the development of human civilization, which in turn, will inspire thoughts abreast of the times and open a new era.
After this, Jay Wei will take his global circuit speech "WORLD, I" to University of Oxford, National Taiwan University and Peking University. His global tour will cover eight countries and regions around the world from Asia to America and then to Europe.
JC Group eagerly encourages the young generation who are ready to undertake the unshakable duty to knock open the door of a new history together with Jay Wei.
SOURCE JC Group
Now Chef Walter has decided to extend Kaori's hours and has curated a brand new executive lunch menu and will open from 12:00-3:00PM, Monday to Friday. Fueled by his passion to ignite all fives senses Walter has created a presentation that features appetizer options which include prosciutto rolls with fine imported ham from Italy, tomato bruschetta or guests can try the vegetable tempura made in a light low calorie batter. For the main guests can choose from gnocchi alla sorentina, vegetable risotto sourced locally for freshness, and our famous Mediterranean octopus. Kaori desert suggestions include their light and creme Tiramisu or the flaky puff pastry Mille-Feulle, or their panna cotta Nutella. All three courses for $23.00. "Opening for lunch is an opportunity to introduce our concept to new guests," says Walter Martino, executive chef and owner of Kaori. "While we offer a more in-depth menu in the evening, lunch provides us with a platform to showcase our unique fusion menu and an opportunity for new guests to experience our brand." " For current customers it is a great time to revisit Kaori during the day and try something different on our new lunch menu. Along with serving his guests from this delectable three-course fusion menu Kaori will provide delivery of this unique fair in a bento box for one or two people and can accommodate any catering requests or larger parties with 24-hour notice.
JAKARTA, Indonesia, October 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
KinerjaPay Corp., (OTCQB: KPAY), a digital payment and eCommerce platform, ("KinerjaPay" or the "Company") today announced its partnership with Uber Technologies, Inc., ("Uber") the global smartphone-enabled 'Ride-Hailing' service.
Uber presently operates in 77 countries and 633 cities, with 40 million riders and 2 million drivers worldwide. Since its launch in 2012, Uber has become the most recognized alternative to traditional taxi cabs, opening up more possibilities for riders and more business for drivers. Indonesia's ride-hailing sector is expected to grow to US$5.6 billion in 2025 from US$800 million in 2015, according to a report by Google and Singapore's state-investment firm Temasek Holdings.
Edwin Witarsa Ng, Chief Executive Officer of KinerjaPay Corp. commented, "Uber is changing the way the world moves people in urban areas internationally. Our partnership with Uber will give our users/clients a convenient and safe transportation alternative to driving their own car or taking taxis, while our smartphone Uber app will give riders the ability to pay for their ride service using our smartphone app, without the need for a credit card or cash. Our payment platform will provide our Indonesian customers with the ability to use the Uber technology the way it was meant to be, payment without having to use cash or credit card."
Under the terms of the partnership, Uber will grant KinerjaPay users an exclusive promotion code for first-time users, valid for four rides. Users can initially redeem the Uber/KinerjaPay promotion code by creating a new account on the Company's eCommerce platform or meeting a certain spending threshold with KinerjaPay's proprietary KinerjaMall service. User/clients can then redeem their unique code directly in their KinerjaPay smartphone app to use the Uber service.
Mr. Ng went on to say, "This new Uber relationship represents a substantial advancement in our growth plan. Not only will we generate new users and increase sales transactions on the KinerjaPay platform, we also have the opportunity to cross market our KinerjaPay services to Uber's established user-base. We expect to benefit from the vast experience of Uber's world-wide team and leverage their success in expanding their global presence and adding value to their core service in our rapidly growing eCommerce business in Indonesia."
About KinerjaPay
KinerjaPay enables consumers to "Pay, Play and Buy" through its secure web portal and mobile applications. Based in Indonesia, the Company provides easy and convenient payment solution while shopping online at its marketplace platform. With its current omni-channel platform, users can perform various payment services such as credit card bill payment, utility, phone bill, healthcare insurance and direct transfer to anyone at their convenience. KinerjaPay is also planning to launch other eCommerce verticals such as travel market, delivery services, and online gaming in the near future. The Company's services are available through its mobile applications and on its website at http://www.kinerjapay.com.
Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements, about KPAY's expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding, among other things, its product development efforts, business, financial condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects. In addition, from time to time, KPAY or its representatives have made or may make forward-looking statements, orally or in writing. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "plan," "may," "should" or "anticipate" or their negatives or other variations of these words or other comparable words or by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or current matters. These forward-looking statements may be included in, but are not limited to, various filings made by KPAY with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases or oral statements made by or with the approval of one of KPAY's authorized executive officers. Forward-looking statements relate to anticipated or expected events, activities, trends or results as of the date they are made. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause KPAY's actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Many factors could cause KPAY 's actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the factors summarized in KPAY 's filings with the SEC. In addition, KPAY operates in an industry sector where securities values are highly volatile and may be influenced by economic and other factors beyond its control. KPAY does not undertake any obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Please see the risk factors associated with an investment in our securities which are included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 11, 2016.
For more information, please visit our website http://www.kinerjapay.co. There you will find access to all of our past press releases and SEC filings regarding the activities discussed in this letter.
Media Contact:
KinerjaPay Corp.
Email: [email protected]
+62-8229-777-0098
SOURCE KinerjaPay Corp
JAKARTA, Indonesia, October 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
KinerjaPay Corp., (OTCQB: KPAY), a digital payment and eCommerce platform, ("KinerjaPay" or the "Company") today announced its partnership with Uber Technologies, Inc., ("Uber") the global smartphone-enabled 'Ride-Hailing' service.
Uber presently operates in 77 countries and 633 cities, with 40 million riders and 2 million drivers worldwide. Since its launch in 2012, Uber has become the most recognized alternative to traditional taxi cabs, opening up more possibilities for riders and more business for drivers. Indonesia's ride-hailing sector is expected to grow to US$5.6 billion in 2025 from US$800 million in 2015, according to a report by Google and Singapore's state-investment firm Temasek Holdings.
Edwin Witarsa Ng, Chief Executive Officer of KinerjaPay Corp. commented, "Uber is changing the way the world moves people in urban areas internationally. Our partnership with Uber will give our users/clients a convenient and safe transportation alternative to driving their own car or taking taxis."
Under the terms of the partnership, Uber will grant KinerjaPay users an exclusive promotion code for first-time users, valid for four rides. Users can initially redeem the Uber/KinerjaPay promotion code by creating a new account on the Company's eCommerce platform or meeting a certain spending threshold with KinerjaPay's proprietary KinerjaMall service. User/clients can then redeem their unique code directly in their KinerjaPay smartphone app to use the Uber service.
Mr. Ng went on to say, "This new Uber relationship represents a substantial advancement in our growth plan. Not only will we generate new users and increase sales transactions on the KinerjaPay platform, we also have the opportunity to cross market our KinerjaPay services to Uber's established user-base. We expect to benefit from the vast experience of Uber's world-wide team and leverage their success in expanding their global presence and adding value to their core service in our rapidly growing eCommerce business in Indonesia."
About KinerjaPay
KinerjaPay enables consumers to "Pay, Play and Buy" through its secure web portal and mobile applications. Based in Indonesia, the Company provides easy and convenient payment solution while shopping online at its marketplace platform. With its current omni-channel platform, users can perform various payment services such as credit card bill payment, utility, phone bill, healthcare insurance and direct transfer to anyone at their convenience. KinerjaPay is also planning to launch other eCommerce verticals such as travel market, delivery services, and online gaming in the near future. The Company's services are available through its mobile applications and on its website at http://www.kinerjapay.com.
Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements, about KPAY's expectations, beliefs or intentions regarding, among other things, its product development efforts, business, financial condition, results of operations, strategies or prospects. In addition, from time to time, KPAY or its representatives have made or may make forward-looking statements, orally or in writing. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "plan," "may," "should" or "anticipate" or their negatives or other variations of these words or other comparable words or by the fact that these statements do not relate strictly to historical or current matters. These forward-looking statements may be included in, but are not limited to, various filings made by KPAY with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases or oral statements made by or with the approval of one of KPAY's authorized executive officers. Forward-looking statements relate to anticipated or expected events, activities, trends or results as of the date they are made. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause KPAY's actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Many factors could cause KPAY 's actual activities or results to differ materially from the activities and results anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the factors summarized in KPAY 's filings with the SEC. In addition, KPAY operates in an industry sector where securities values are highly volatile and may be influenced by economic and other factors beyond its control. KPAY does not undertake any obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Please see the risk factors associated with an investment in our securities which are included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 11, 2016.
For more information, please visit our website http://www.kinerjapay.co. There you will find access to all of our past press releases and SEC filings regarding the activities discussed in this letter.
Media Contact:
KinerjaPay Corp.
Email: [email protected]
+62-8229-777-0098
SOURCE KinerjaPay Corp
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LBC Credit Partners ("LBC"), a leading provider of financing solutions to middle market companies, provided a secured global term loan facility to support the acquisition of Hufcor, Inc. ("Hufcor" or the "Company") by OpenGate Capital, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm.
LBC served as Sole Agent for the secured global term loan facility and worked with a major commercial bank which provided a revolving credit facility.
Founded in 1900 with headquarters in Janesville, Wisconsin, Hufcor is the most installed brand of operable partitions worldwide. Hufcor offers its customers a global solution through dedicated manufacturing facilities in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, China and Malaysia. With its vast distribution network, the Company's products have been installed in hotels, convention centers, schools, universities and places of worship throughout the world.
About LBC Credit Partners
LBC Credit Partners is a leading provider of middle market financing solutions including senior term, unitranche, second lien, junior secured and mezzanine debt and equity co-investments supporting sponsored and non-sponsored transactions. With over $2.9* billion of capital commitments, LBC has made investments in companies located throughout North America across a wide range of industries and is committed to a long-term approach to debt investing. LBC is headquartered in Philadelphia, with offices in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. To learn more, visit www.lbccredit.com.
*Information as of September 2017
MEDIA CONTACT:
Lisa Rubano-Volansky
Tel (724) 979-4293
Email [email protected]
SOURCE LBC Credit Partners
Related Links
http://www.lbccredit.com
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TPT Global Tech (OTCBB:TPTW) announced today that its Smartphone division, LION Universe www.lionuniverse.com signed a distribution deal with La Chachara Distribution Mexico (www.lachachara.com.mx). Founded in 2012 in Mexico, La Chachara has evolved from the sale of "used" Global products into Mexico through the internet to the distribution of new products. Key sales come from electronic products, renewable energy and manufacturing equipment for small businesses. In September 2017, Mercado Libre (www.mercadolibre.com), Latin America's leading e-commerce company and Endeavor (www.endeavor.org), headquartered in New York City, promoter of high-impact entrepreneurship in emerging growth markets, selected Oscar Isaias Garcia Torres, La Chachara's founder, as the most inspirational business story in Latin America. La Chachara will receive significant financial, marketing and consulting support from Mercado Libre and Endeavor to continue to support its growth strategies.
This Latin American deal along with its recent Nigerian and Gambian West Africa distribution deals allow the company to produce and distribute high-quality and easy-to-use cellular phones with wide appeal for consumers looking for portable and affordable cutting edge technology. LION Universe's first generation phones come equipped with full high definition resolution screen for better viewing. The LION smart phone is perfect for watching movies, playing games, editing photos, playing music, emailing or surfing the web. No glasses are required to enjoy 3D viewing with the naked eye.
"When looking for Global Distribution partners either in our Phone, Network, Content or SaaS divisions we strive to find entrepreneurs with great futures ahead of them. Oscar Isaias Garcia Torres and his company La Chachara fit the bill in every way possible," said CEO TPT Global Tech Stephen Thomas.
About TPT Global Tech
TPT Global Tech Inc. based in San Diego, California, is a Technology/Telecommunications Media Content Hub for Domestic and International syndication and provides Technology solutions to businesses domestically and worldwide. TPT Global offers Software as a Service (SaaS), Technology Platform as a Service (PAAS), Cloud-based Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS). Its UCaaS services allow businesses of any size to enjoy the latest voice, data, media and collaboration features in today's global technology markets. TPT's also operates as a Master Distributor for Nationwide Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) and Independent Sales Organization (ISO) as a Master Distributor for Pre-Paid Cellphone services, Mobile phones, Cellphone Accessories and Global Roaming Cellphones.
SOURCE TPT Global Tech Inc.
Related Links
http://www.tptglobaltech.com
NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Logicalis US, an international IT solutions and managed services provider (www.us.logicalis.com), today announced the appointment of Mike Houghton to the newly created position of Chief Sales Officer. With more than 25 years of technology and channel experience, Houghton has a proven track record of building successful teams, growing business and increasing shareholder value. Most recently, Houghton served as the Senior Vice President of Sales for Tech Data. Prior to Tech Data's February 2017 acquisition of Avnet's Technology Solutions business, Houghton held a variety of executive-level sales and solution-focused positions with Avnet as well as Revana (formerly Direct Alliance), Zones and Insight. Working from Logicalis' Tempe, Arizona, office, Houghton will be responsible for developing and executing the Logicalis US consultative sales strategy, driving growth through new customer acquisitions and the movement of current clients to additional services and solutions.
"As organizations work to become more digitally enabled, they often struggle to balance legacy infrastructure and tight budgets with the need to partner with an experienced solution provider like Logicalis to help them create a roadmap for future success. We believe Mike is perfectly positioned to overcome these challenges by sharing valuable insights and lessons learned from other successful client engagements," says Vince DeLuca, CEO of Logicalis US. "With his background in channel sales and his unique ability to forge and grow new customer relationships, Mike will be an important asset and a strong leader for the Logicalis US sales team as he creates and executes a robust go-to-market strategy that benefits our customers and helps them achieve their digital transformation goals."
"Now is the perfect time for customers to develop a plan of action that will enable them to respond in a more agile way to their most pressing business challenges," Houghton says. "I am thrilled to be joining an organization like Logicalis that has a stellar reputation, an experienced and seasoned team of sales and marketing professionals, and a vision that can take its customers from where they are today to where they want to be tomorrow."
Houghton attended Arizona State University where he earned two Bachelor's degrees one in Marketing and one in Logistics, Materials and Supply Chain Management. He also sits on the board for the Arizona State University Professional Sales Advisory Group which works to create awareness and interest in professional sales among outstanding undergraduate students and to encourage these students to prepare for and pursue careers in this dynamic field.
Want to Learn More?
To learn more about Logicalis US, explore recent blog posts from Logicalis' top IT experts, then read the company's latest news here: http://ow.ly/Skhx30fHpMu.
Want to know more about digital transformation? Watch a brief video, then take our two-minute quiz to see where your organization stands along the path toward becoming digitally enabled: http://ow.ly/trde30fHnKh.
Do you have a blueprint for IT transformation yet? Hear Logicalis' CEO, Vince DeLuca , explore the difference between next-gen IT departments and how they are changing, the steps in the IT evolution process, and what the future holds in this SmartPros WatchIT video: http://ow.ly/Rsnv30fHpH5.
About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international multi-skilled solution provider providing digital enablement services to help customers harness digital technology and innovative services to deliver powerful business outcomes.
Our customers cross industries and geographical regions; our focus is to engage in the dynamics of our customers' vertical markets including financial services, TMT (telecommunications, media and technology), education, healthcare, retail, government, manufacturing and professional services, and to apply the skills of our 4,000 employees in modernizing key digital pillars, data center and cloud services, security and network infrastructure, workspace communications and collaboration, data and information strategies, and IT operation modernization.
We are the advocates for our customers for some of the world's leading technology companies including Cisco, HPE, IBM, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware and ServiceNow.
The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of over $1.5 billion from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa. It is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the AIM market of the LSE, with revenues of over $6.5 billion.
For more information, visit www.us.logicalis.com.
Business and technology working as one
To learn more about Logicalis activities through a variety of social media outlets, click here.
Media Contacts:
Karen Franse, Communication
Strategy Group for Logicalis US
[email protected]
866-997-2424 x222
www.gocsg.com
Arthur Germain,
Communication Strategy Group
for Logicalis US
[email protected]
866-997-2424 x101
www.gocsg.com
SOURCE Logicalis US
Related Links
http://www.us.logicalis.com
(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/584055/Magic_Software_Logo.jpg )
(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/584057/Sanjay_Kabra.jpg )
(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/584059/Rajesh_Kachroo.jpg )
Acky Kamdar, CEO of Magic Software says, "Magic has been on a transformation journey, substantially investing in enhancing its competencies to build new gen digital learning products for its clients in education segment. We are extremely delighted to have Rajesh and Sanjay join our leadership team to further grow and strengthen its market presence and its delivery capabilities."
Rajesh is an industry veteran, having incubated and grown businesses in Tier-1 technology organizations, built profitable enterprises and also helped transform services organizations into business solution providers. He brings with him a diverse background of implementing emerging digital technologies to enable rapid growth in digital revenues in media, publishing and HigherEd industry. Rajesh adds, "First, I believe education as a cause and as a career is gratifying, especially when technology is bridging the divides in the societies, worldwide. The education industry at the same juncture is where music or newspaper industry was a decade back. Personalization and outcome-driven learning experience is the key to survival for established players. I joined Magic because it has 26 years of subject matter expertise in the digital education and its ability to play a pivotal role in this shift."
Sanjay brings deep understanding of global enterprise functions, outsourcing and managing large strategic engagements in complex mission critical environments in IT industry. With strong business acumen, Sanjay has a track record of building a high-performance global team delivering value to the businesses. He has helped various customers (including FileNet (an IBM Company), Oracle, Microsoft, Intel, Salesforce) across North America and Europe realize business benefits through products implementation and solutions strategy.
Sanjay says, "It is exciting to be in Magic at this juncture when Magic's customers are in need of a partner that can help them with their digital transformation programs. The key challenge in the industry is to blend technology engineering with content to create new exciting digital learning products that will have shorter product life cycles (PLC), and also lower cost footprint. Magic has a lead in K-12 digital learning because of its expertise in English, Science, Math, Humanities subjects combined with its in-house product engineering and an extensive library of reusable components. Magic is extending its capabilities to build new adaptive learning solutions using assessment analytics and immersive learning technologies like AR, VR, and digital accessibility. This will allow Magic to cater to a wider market including HigherEd and professional skills business. Magic will partner with its clients on revenue sharing models to build new gen digital learning content and platforms."
Magic Software (http://www.magicsw.com) was founded to serve digital learning content almost 26 years back, and has served over 80 clients worldwide and has built long standing relationship with some of its clients for over a decade. Magic's cloud based digital learning content distribution and learning platform MagicBox (http://www.getmagicbox.com) is widely used in North America, Australia and a few countries in Asia - with over 1.5 MM users.
Solmark (http://www.solmark.com) a Private Equity firm recently invested in Magic Software to support its growth and also bring in a leadership that has global business experience in the digital content and technology space. Solmark considers Magic Software Inc to be one of its anchor investment in the education technology space, besides the potential to leverage Magic's digital technology and content expertise for other industries like financial services and health care.
Contacts: Sonia Gupta, +91-120-3054587
SOURCE Magic Software Pvt Ltd
"Mallinckrodt is doing important work for patients across the country and world. I am pleased to welcome the Specialty Brands office to Bedminster as well as to meet the team of professionals who are tasked with this critical work," said Congressman Lance . "The life sciences sector in New Jersey is shaping 21 st Century health care advancements around the world. Work done at Mallinckrodt's office will help address the unmet medical needs of countless patients in our communities. We need this expertise in New Jersey up and running."
Mallinckrodt's investment in the buildout of its Specialty Brands office includes a complete renovation of 190,000 square feet of office space, with the company occupying more than 80 percent of the building, and design of an open, light-filled work environment that offers employees multiple ways to work and collaborate. In all, the company has added 330 new jobs in Somerset County, N.J., and has designed the site to accommodate potential growth over time.
"Bedminster has proved to be an excellent setting for Mallinckrodt, allowing us to build out a collaborative work space for our New Jersey-based employees, and meet the needs of our fast-transforming business," said Mark Trudeau, Mallinckrodt President and Chief Executive Officer.
The company also announced a $100,000 donation to support the Princeton University Preparatory Program (PUPP), which prepares high-achieving, low-income high school students for admission to, and ongoing success within, higher education. Mallinckrodt's support will fund math-related curriculum and college admission testing preparation, while also enabling university and college site visits and tours for approximately 44 students.
"Mallinckrodt believes strongly in supporting STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) initiatives, so as to create a diverse pipeline of science professionals in areas that are in high demand, within our industry and beyond," said Trudeau.
"We are honored to receive this new support from Mallinckrodt. This gift will directly impact our intensive math curriculum in the summer and provide our PUPP scholars a critical opportunity to visit some of the best colleges in the northeast this fall," said Jason R. Klugman, Ph.D., Director, Princeton University Preparatory Program. "For low-income, first-generation college students, the campus visit is an important part of the college search process and an experience that their families are typically unable to provide. The PUPP college tour helps our scholars see themselves as undergraduates at some of our nation's top colleges and universities."
College visits also foster community among current PUPP Scholars and program alumni who are current undergraduates at a range of institutions, including many that will be visited this fall, such as Colgate University, Middlebury College, Mt. Holyoke College, Trinity College, Union College and Yale University, Klugman said.
To learn more about Mallinckrodt or to explore career opportunities with the company, visit www.mallinckrodt.com.
ABOUT MALLINCKRODT
Mallinckrodt is a global business that develops, manufactures, markets and distributes specialty pharmaceutical products and therapies. Areas of focus include autoimmune and rare diseases in specialty areas like neurology, rheumatology, nephrology, pulmonology and ophthalmology; immunotherapy and neonatal respiratory critical care therapies; and analgesics and hemostasis products. The company's core strengths include the acquisition and management of highly regulated raw materials and specialized chemistry, formulation and manufacturing capabilities. The company's Specialty Brands segment includes branded medicines and its Specialty Generics segment includes specialty generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients and external manufacturing. To learn more about Mallinckrodt, visit http://www.mallinckrodt.com/.
Mallinckrodt uses its website as a channel of distribution of important company information, such as press releases, investor presentations and other financial information. It also uses its website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the company in advance of or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing the same information. Therefore, investors should look to the Investor Relations page of the website for important and time-critical information. Visitors to the website can also register to receive automatic e-mail and other notifications alerting them when new information is made available on the Investor Relations page of the website.
CONTACTS
Media
Rhonda Sciarra
Senior Communications Manager
908-238-6765
[email protected]
Meredith Fischer
Chief Public Affairs Officer
314-654-3318
[email protected]
Government Affairs
Mark Tyndall
Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy
202-459-4141
[email protected]
Investor Relations
Coleman N. Lannum, CFA
Senior Vice President, Investor Strategy and IRO
314-654-6649
[email protected]
Daniel J. Speciale, CPA
Director, Investor Relations
314-654-3638
[email protected]
SOURCE Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals
Related Links
http://www.mallinckrodt.com
KELOWNA, British Columbia, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Marapharm Ventures Inc. (MDM.CN) (OTCQB: MRPHF) (CSE: MDM.CN) (FSE: 2M0) ("Marapharm" or the " Company") (http://www.marapharm.com/) "Marapharm" invites shareholders and investors to attend an open house in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 17, 2017, 4 to 8 pm.
"The open house is an appreciation and information event where we will showcase the construction in process and tell our story. How did we start, where we are now and where we are going and what are our plans for profitability? Marijuana Business Daily pegs the US cannabis industry as a $44 billion dollar business. Las Vegas is the largest market in the United States. Marapharm is the largest owner of marijuana licenses in Las Vegas. There will be an outdoor fire and appetizers. Transportation via a free bus service from the strip will be provided. Register online for your invitation." Linda Sampson, Marapharm CEO.
Directions and updated information will be posted on www.marapharm.com
ABOUT MARAPHARM VENTURES INC.
www.marapharm.com
Marapharm is a publicly traded company primarily investing in the medical and recreational cannabis space, with corporate operations based in British Columbia, Canada. Since 2016 they have rapidly expanded their footprint to include production locations in the key North American states of Washington, Nevada, and California. They actively seek expansion opportunities worldwide.
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook: facebook.com/marapharm
Twitter: twitter.com/marapharm
STOCK EXCHANGES:
Marapharm trades in Canada, ticker symbol MDM on the CSE, in the United States, ticker symbol MRPHF on the OTCQB, and in Europe, ticker symbol 2Mo on the FSE. Marapharm also trades on other recognized platforms in Europe including Stuttgart, Tradegate, L & S, Quotnx, Dusseldorf, Munich, and Berlin.
Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB has approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
FORWARD - LOOKING STATEMENTS:
Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", 'may", "will", "project", "should", 'believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumption but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and the forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
www.marapharm.com or Linda Sampson, CEO 778-583-4476 email [email protected]
SOURCE Marapharm Ventures Inc.
Related Links
http://www.marapharm.com
WALLOPS ISLAND, Va., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Media are invited to view Vector's Vector-R launch vehicle at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 19, at MARS Pad 0B on NASA Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The Vector-R (Rapide) is an emerging small launch vehicle designed for frequent nanosat payload launches weighing up to 66 kg.
Vector is exploring the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and NASA Wallops as a launch site, and will be executing technical operations featuring the Vector-R launch vehicle as part of that endeavor.
Attending the viewing will be:
Aubrey Layne, Virginia Secretary of Transportation
John Garvey, Chief Technology Officer, Vector
Bill Wrobel, Director of the Wallops Flight Facility
Dale Nash, Executive director of Virginia Space
To attend this event, media must apply for accreditation by contacting Keith Koehler at [email protected] by 4p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18. Accreditation is open only to media who are U.S. citizens.
On event day, media will check in at the registration site located at the N-1 NASA Badging Office located on Atlantic Road, just south of the main base gate between 11:45 AM and 12:10 PM. Transportation to MARS Pad 0B will be provided and due to security protocol, all media must ride the provided bus transportation.
There will be media availability with VA Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne and Vector's John Garvey following the pathfinder operation.
Members of the media must present a valid photo ID for event access.
For more information about Vector, visit: https://vectorspacesystems.com/
For more information about Virginia Space, visit: http://www.vaspace.org/
For more information about NASA WFF, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/home
SOURCE NASA
Related Links
http://www.nasa.gov
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Federated Investors, Inc. today announced that monthly fund composition and performance data for Federated Premier Municipal Income Fund (NYSE: FMN) and Federated Premier Intermediate Municipal Income Fund (NYSE: FPT) as of September 30, 2017, are now available in the Products section of FederatedInvestors.com. To order hard copies of this data or to be placed on a mailing list, call 800-245-0242 x5587538, email [email protected] or write to Federated Investors, 1001 Liberty Avenue, Floor 23, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.
Federated Investors, Inc. (NYSE: FII) is one of the largest investment managers in the United States, managing $360.4 billion in assets as of June 30, 2017. With 122 funds and a variety of separately managed account options, Federated provides comprehensive investment management to more than 8,500 institutions and intermediaries including corporations, government entities, insurance companies, foundations and endowments, banks and broker/dealers. For more information, visit FederatedInvestors.com.
###
SOURCE Federated Investors, Inc.
Related Links
http://FederatedInvestors.com
CHICAGO, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Two leading religious scholars will explore how Christian identity is shaped by the current culture in a North Park University-sponsored forum this Friday, Oct. 20th.
Princeton University Professor Dr. Robert P. George, dubbed "the country's most influential conservative Christian thinker" by the New York Times, will kick off the conversation by addressing what it means to be a Christian "in a culture that is forced upon us today." Dr. George, who holds Princeton's McCormick Chair in Jurisprudence, will also discuss whether or not Christians can express their faith in public places of employment without violating the law.
Dr. Edith Humphrey to respond
Following his remarks, Dr. Edith Humphrey, of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, will engage Dr. George's presentation. A professor of New Testament, Dr. Humphrey has published extensively on topics ranging from C.S. Lewis to human sexuality. North Park Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies, Dr. Bradley Nassif, will moderate the event, which will be followed by an audience-participation question and answer session.
The event, to be held at 7:30 in Anderson Chapel, is the second in NPU's Engaging Orthodoxy series, made possible by the John C. Kulis Foundation. This event is free and open to the public.
ABOUT NORTH PARK UNIVERSITY
North Park University is a city-centered, intercultural, and Christian university located in Chicago.
https://www.northpark.edu/
SOURCE North Park University
Related Links
http://www.northpark.edu
BERLIN and LAS VEGAS, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --Next-generation fiber technologies such as NG-PON2 represent a paradigm shift in the access space and a more certain path towards long-term success, according to Vincent O'Byrne, Director of Technology at Verizon.
This viewpoint is among others that will be explored by the Broadband Forum's Access Summit, which features operators and manufacturers, as well as industry insight from Light Reading, IHS and the Fiber Broadband Association.
Taking place at Broadband World Forum, at the Messe Berlin, on Tuesday, October 24, the agenda features O'Byrne who will explain how the fiber access space is constantly evolving, with emerging PON technology providing solutions to some of the issues around cost and reliability.
"Technologies such as NG-PON2 present exciting new opportunities for vendors, such as delivering residential and business services on multiple wavelengths over the same fiber," said O'Byrne. "Not only does NG-PON2 parse business and residential customer traffic to isolate and resolve potential problems in the network, it can also scale to achieve speeds of 40 Gbps and above."
Delegates attending the summit will hear how some of the Broadband Forum's current projects relate to this need, with its NG-PON2 Council working to accelerate adoption of the technology.
Additional topics that will be covered include Gfast, the gigabit society, Access 4.0, Fiber to the Distribution Point and the role virtualization has to play in the next generation of networks.
Bernd Hesse, Chair of the Broadband Access Summit Event and Senior Director Technology Development at Calix, said: "We will be exploring NG-PON2 in depth and the use cases that underpin the decisions to deploy them. I look forward to the debate, hearing from the experts in the industry and welcoming the community to these new Forum events."
The full list of companies taking part in the summit is as follows: Calix, IDATE, ADTRAN, Sckipio, Corning, UNH-IOL, Go! Foton, PIC Advanced, Commscope, BiFrost Communications, Nokia, Altice Labs, Telebyte, Fiber Broadband Association, BT, Verizon, AT&T, Portugal Telecom, DT, Vodafone and CYTA. For more information about the event at Broadband World Forum, please see: https://goo.gl/PWwcgq.
A second event will be held in Las Vegas on Sunday, October 29, with the following companies participating: Calix, Fiber Broadband Association, DSL Prime, Sckipio, BiFrost Communications, Commscope, Go! Foton, HiSense Broadband Multimedia, PIC Advanced, Telebyte, Corning, Ericsson, EXFO, Nokia, ARRIS, Ovum, IHS, AT&T, Lumos Networks, Momentum Telecom, CenturyLink, Digital C and Verizon. To register to attend, please visit: https://goo.gl/gTxwFZ
About the Broadband Forum
Broadband Forum, a non-profit industry organization, is focused on engineering smarter and faster broadband networks. Our work defines best practices for global networks, enables service and content delivery, establishes technology migration strategies, engineers critical device & service management tools, and is key to redefining broadband. Our free technical reports and white papers can be found at broadband-forum.org.
For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information, please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or [email protected] or Jayne Brooks on +44 (0) 1636 704888 or [email protected].
SOURCE Broadband Forum
Related Links
http://broadband-forum.org
EMPORIA, Kan., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Community colleges fill an important gap in the realm of education. They cater to a broader audience, cost easily 1/3rd of what a student would pay at a four-year institution, and they offer a greater degree of flexibility. Many students that attend community college are working or have family obligations that only allow them to go part-time. Over half of all the students enrolled at community colleges or technical schools are considered to be part-time; the structure of the curriculum allows them that freedom to maintain their lives without putting their dreams on hold.
The most important thing about community colleges, though, is the incredible affordability. The ratio of high socioeconomic status students to low socioeconomic status students at four-year universities is 14:1. Financial barriers shouldn't stand in the way of anyone who has a desire to learn to be able to do so; and with lower costs, campuses even in rural areas, and the vast opportunities for financial aid assistance, community colleges are the first step in taking down those barriers. Because of that, OnlineCollegePlan.Com has created a ranking that features the Top 50 Best Online Community Colleges for Financial Aid Assistance. You can read it here:
https://www.onlinecollegeplan.com/community-college-financial-aid/
Over half of the United States is represented in this ranking that features community colleges in 26 different states. Research editor Derek Graham gathered data on the freshman retention, graduation, and student financial aid rates at every institution and then ranked them according to a composite score that could be as little as 3 (1% per criterion) and as high as 300 (100% per criterion).
All of the ranked schools have 50% or more students that receive financial aid assistance from the federal government, the state or local government, as well as institutional grants and scholarships. Many of the community colleges that have made the list also provide students each with a personal financial aid advisor. This is more important than many people realize because students who attend a public two-year college are exponentially less likely to fill out a FAFSA form. Given the fact that many of these students come from low-income families, almost all of them are eligible to receive the Pell grant. A Pell Grant is a subsidy that students can receive if they meet certain requirements, and they're not obligated to pay it back. This is a huge help for many students, who could receive as much as $5,918 per academic year.
Here are the Top 20 Best Online Community Colleges for Financial Aid Assistance (see https://www.onlinecollegeplan.com/community-college-financial-aid/ for the full ranking and methodology):
20. College of Eastern Idaho (Idaho Falls, ID)
19. Northeast Mississippi Community College (Booneville, MS)
18. Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College (Superior, WI)
17. East Mississippi Community College (Scooba, MS)
16. West Kentucky Community and Technical College (Paducah, KY)
15. Western Wyoming Community College (Rock Springs, WY)
14. Rend Lake College (Ina, IL)
13. Eastern Wyoming College (Torrington, WY)
12. Vermont Technical College (Randolph, VT)
11. North Dakota State College of Science (Wahpeton, ND)
10. State University of New York at Delhi (Delhi, NY)
9. Northeast Community College (Norfolk, NE)
8. Olney Central College (Olney, IL)
7. Pennsylvania College of Technology (Williamsport, PA)
6. Southern Arkansas University Tech (Camden, AR)
5. Alexandria Technical and Community College (Alexandria, MN)
4. Lincoln Trail College (Robinson, IL)
3. Penn State Beaver (Center Township, PA)
2. Marion Technical College (Marion, OH)
1. Flint Hills Technical College (Emporia, KS)
Contact:
https://www.onlinecollegeplan.com/
Derek Graham, Research Editor
[email protected]
864-245-0751
SOURCE OnlineCollegePlan.Com
Related Links
https://www.onlinecollegeplan.com
LONDON, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Forecasts, Segmentation And Analysis by Type (Non-Alcoholic Drinks, Ready Meals, Instant Noodles, Nuts, Soups, Baby Food, Potato Chips, Breakfast Cereals, Baked Goods, Pasta, Cheese, Biscuits, Yogurts, Sauces, and Ice Cream) & by Region plus Analysis of Leading Companies
Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5144705
Visiongain's comprehensive new 144 page report reveals that the packaged food & drinks market will achieve revenues of $2.89 Tn in 2017 and is on course for a strong growth trajectory.
Packaged food & drink includes food items which are ready for consumption, partially cooked or require slight heating right before eating.
Factors such as increasing awareness regarding the multiple benefits of healthy packaged food & drink and organized retailing are fostering the growing demand of packaged food. However, growing awareness towards the use of harmful preservatives, stringent government regulations imposed on the food industry and the possibilities of food contamination are some of the challenges, which are likely to be restraining factors for growth of the packaged food & drink market.
Visiongain comprehensively assesses the prospects for the packaged food & drink market by application and by region.
Reasons why you must order and read this report today:
99 Tables, Charts, And Graphs Reveal Market Data Allowing You To Target Your Strategy More Effectively
Global, Regional And Packaged Food & Drink Submarket Forecasts And Analysis From 2017-2027 Illustrate The Market Progression
Packaged Food & Drink Applications Submarket Forecasts From 2017-2027
- Non-Alcoholic Drinks Forecast 2017-2027
- Ready Meals Forecast 2017-2027
- Instant Noodles Forecast 2017-2027
- Nuts Forecast 2017-2027
- Soups Forecast 2017-2027
- Baby Food Forecast 2017-2027
- Potato Chips Forecast 2017-2027
- Breakfast Cereals Forecast 2017-2027
- Baked Goods Forecast 2017-2027
- Pasta Forecast 2017-2027
- Cheese Forecast 2017-2027
- Biscuits Forecast 2017-2027
- Yogurts Forecast 2017-2027
- Sauces Forecast 2017-2027
- Ice Cream Forecast 2017-2027
Regional Packaged Food & Drink Market Opportunities From 2017-2027?
- Focused regional forecasts and analysis explore the future opportunities
North America Packaged Food & Drink Market 2017-2027
- US Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Canada Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Mexico Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
Europe Packaged Food & Drink Market 2017-2027
- Germany Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- UK Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- France Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Italy Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Spain Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Rest of Europe Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
Asia-Pacific Packaged Food & Drink Market 2017-2027
- China Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Japan Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- India Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Australia Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Korea Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Rest of Asia Pacific Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
Latin America Packaged Food & Drink Market 2017-2027
- Brazil Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Argentina Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Chile Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Rest of South America Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
Middle East & Africa Packaged Food & Drink Market 2017-2027
- GCC Packaged Food & Drink Forecast -2027
- South Africa Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Turkey Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
- Rest of Middle East & Africa Packaged Food & Drink Forecast 2017-2027
Profiles of the Leading Packaged Food & Drink Companies
- Examination of competitive positioning, capabilities, product portfolios, R&D activity, services, focus, strategies, M&A activity, and future outlook.
- Nestle S.A
- Tyson Foods, Inc.
- Kraft Heinz Company
- General Mills, Inc.
- ConAgra Foods, Inc.
- Smithfield Foods
- Kellogg Company
- JBS S.A.
- Hormel Foods Corporation
- Maple Leaf Foods
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ABBOTT PARK, Ill., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced the U.S. launch of the company's Proclaim DRG Neurostimulator System, a new device designed to deliver stimulation to the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and alleviate pain in patients suffering from complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) of the lower limbs. With the Proclaim DRG system, Abbott has added new, patient-centric benefits to a device capable of delivering the company's sustained and superior pain relief for patients battling CRPS.
Using Bluetooth wireless technology, iOS software and a more intuitive Apple iPod touch mobile digital device as the system's controller, the Proclaim DRG system is designed to provide patients new benefits over traditional neurostimulation systems. The Proclaim DRG platform is magnetic resonance (MR)-conditional and recharge-free, offering upgradeability and increased battery capacity over Abbott's previous generation systems.
"Both clinical and real world data have shown that DRG stimulation produces long-term, meaningful pain relief for patients with complex regional pain syndromes like those resulting after total knee arthroplasty, foot surgery or hernia surgery," said Timothy Deer, M.D., an interventional pain physician, president and chief executive officer of the Spine and Nerve Center of the Virginias in Charleston, West Virginia, and co-principal investigator of the ACCURATE study. "The ability to offer DRG stimulation on the Proclaim platform is a very exciting advancement for those of us who treat patients with these debilitating conditions and want to provide relief from hard-to-treat neuropathic conditions."
According to the National Pain Foundation, one in four people in the world suffers from chronic pain and the condition is a key driver of visits to physician offices and a reduction in quality of life. CRPS is a type of chronic pain caused by a malfunction of the peripheral and central nervous systems due to injury, disease or trauma. The condition is one of the most difficult types of pain to treat because of its complexity in intensity and location.
Since Abbott's DRG therapy originally launched in the U.S. in 2016, adoption of the therapy has accelerated quickly and has been well received by patients in need of targeted stimulation that can address pain associated with CRPS. To date, implants have been performed by more than 540 physicians in all 50 states.
Patients who receive the Proclaim DRG system can undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in MRI scanners up to 1.5 Tesla and will not have to recharge their battery over the life of the device. Abbott has also made the Proclaim DRG system upgradeable and has increased the battery capacity over Abbott's previous generation systems.
To provide the most user-friendly experience, the Proclaim DRG Neurostimulator System also utilizes an iPod touch mobile digital device as the system's patient controller communicates wirelessly via Bluetooth wireless technology. The first generation DRG system, known as the Axium Neurostimulator System, used a larger controller that did not have Bluetooth wireless technology.
The Proclaim DRG Neurostimulator System supports Abbott's focus on helping physicians manage patients with difficult-to-treat chronic pain in specific areas of the lower body, such as the foot, knee, hip or groin. Clinical research, such as the ACCURATE study, has demonstrated that DRG stimulation can provide superior pain relief in patients with CRPS compared to traditional spinal cord stimulation therapy. The study also found patients receiving DRG stimulation reported better therapeutic targeting and a reduction in paresthesia (the tingling feeling common to traditional SCS) compared to traditional tonic SCS.
Note: Indicates a third party trademark, which is property of its respective owner.
Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
About Abbott's Chronic Pain Portfolio:
Chronic pain affects approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide, more than heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined. The condition can negatively impact personal relationships, work productivity and a patient's daily routine. Abbott is a global leader in the development of chronic pain therapy solutions and the only medical device manufacturer in the world to offer radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and spinal cord stimulation (SCS) therapy solutions including BurstDR stimulation and stimulation of the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) for the treatment of chronic pain.
About Abbott:
At Abbott, we're committed to helping people live their best possible life through the power of health. For more than 125 years, we've brought new products and technologies to the world in nutrition, diagnostics, medical devices and branded generic pharmaceuticals that create more possibilities for more people at all stages of life. Today, 94,000 of us are working to help people live not just longer, but better, in the more than 150 countries we serve.
Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Abbott and on Twitter @AbbottNews and @AbbottGlobal.
SOURCE Abbott
Related Links
http://www.abbott.com
LAS VEGAS, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Standing in the way of our own success is something that almost all people subconsciously do. The problem is that because it is a suppressed action, they have no idea that they are even doing it. When they are given a way to look into themselves and recognize old belief systems, traumatic events and negative thought processes that are holding them back, they are able to address them, and begin a process to move forward. Dale Halaway has mastered a system for recognizing these blockages and clearing them, making way for a life and career that are more in alignment with one's true purpose, success and happiness.
An Evening with Dale Halaway, Las Vegas Nevada, October 25th, 2017. www.SageTeachingsThatInspire.com
Dale will be hosting a complimentary event in Las Vegas, his previous home, for his former students, their guests and for anyone in the area that is interested in pursuing a better life and a more successful career path for themselves. It is Dale's dream to help awaken and evolve humanity in a quest for inner peace and prosperity. This 'Evening with Dale Halaway' is his opportunity to give back to the community that Dale still holds dear to his heart, though he now resides in San Diego, California. Mr. Halaway's corporate office, Sage Teachings That Inspire, and part of his staff are located in Henderson, NV. He has a large community of local students that attend ongoing seminars, with various themes, but that all tie together in creating empowerment that touches every aspect of personal life and business. His students have had amazing success in their path of attaining a life, career and goals they never thought possible.
"Dale has been my teacher, mentor, and guide and has become like a father to me. He is the real deal, and a true inspiration to so many. I recently left my career in IT at a high stress, high end corporation to work for Dale full time. My life and my work are now less stressful and more fulfilling for me and I am assisting Dale in his work of helping others to take their power back and achieve internal peace."
- TJ Beatty, student of Dale Halaway and Manager of Operations for Sage Teachings That Inspire
On Wednesday, October 25th, at 6:30 pm Dale will open the doors to Las Vegans for a three hour presentation on the "3 Energetic Keys to Personal Empowerment." Attendees of this free community event will learn: 1. Why they are becoming depleted or energetically drained. 2. The significance and transformative power of healing their subconscious body. 3. Three life changing questions (that will have them thinking for days) 4. The Seven Energy Centers and their relationship to them, and more.
"Dale is a Master Teacher and gently guides us to know and better understand ourselves. His teachings throughout the years continue to enrich my life and everyone that I have met in his classes. It's amazing and so empowering! - Darlene K.
Everyone can achieve personal empowerment and free themselves from the subconscious chains that are keeping them enslaved and unhappy
The Evening with Dale Halaway is Wednesday, October 25th from 6:30pm 9:30pm, with registration at 6:15pm in Henderson, NV.
Further details can be found at http://sageteachingsthatinspire.com/an_evening_with_dale_halaway_10-2017
About Dale Halaway: Dale is a Master Teacher of the Soul and Transformationalist based out of San Diego, CA. Mr. Halaway has been empowering CEO's, Entrepreneurs, business owners, employees and private sector individuals, for over 30 years. Dale's practical teachings and tools for personal empowerment are based upon the Universal Laws. His patented method for removing energy blockages that stop one's progress and flow have helped thousands of people all over the world. Dale is also an author, with his new book "Being Called to Change" releasing in Feb 2018.
For more information, contact Mycki Manning, Director of Public Relations at (805) 390-2810 or email at [email protected]
Press Contact:
Contact Mycki Manning, Director of Public Relations Direct (805) 390-2810 Office (702) 983-3363 Email [email protected] Website www.SageTeachingsThatInspire.com
SOURCE Sage Teachings That Inspire
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http://www.sageteachingsthatinspire.com
"PTCB applauds Staff Sergeant Johnson for her successful initiatives to implement best practices and standardize opioid policy improvements to advance patient care. We are pleased to honor her as PTCB CPhT of the Year," said Everett B. McAllister, MPA, RPh, Executive Director and CEO of PTCB. "She is an advocate for rigorous technician certification by demonstrating the value and high level of responsibility of CPhTs in leadership roles."
In her position, SSgt Johnson faces the unique challenge of filling prescriptions from providers in Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. "International prescription practices vary in different countries, and verifying prescriptions can be complex," she said. "Understanding the range of standards overseas and effectively communicating US standards ensures our pharmacy provides safe care abroad." She took action to standardize prescription requirements for 55 international providers by creating a template identifying the specific US requirements for a military treatment facility.
"One of our pharmacy's patient safety goals is to reduce referrals of patients off the base because this can delay their proper treatment," explained SSgt Johnson. She issued US prescription requirements in Dutch and German to her network providers to ensure accuracy. As a result, 14,000 prescriptions were translated and filled correctly in the course of a year and more than 200 patient off-base referrals were avoided. SSgt Johnson procures unique medications through the pharmacy's special order program to enable more patients to fill prescriptions on base. These efforts have prevented referral of 34 patients and saved the clinic $42,000. She established 24-hour care for dental emergencies and a protocol for after-hours dispensing, thereby decreasing referrals for emergencies and saving $20,000 the first 4 months.
SSgt Johnson authored and presented 'European Prescription Regulations and Standards Compared with Federal Guidelines in the US' at the 2016 Joint Federal Pharmacy Seminar to 2,000 pharmacy personnel across DoD. An abstract of her paper was published in the January-February 2017 issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.
"I am deeply honored to be PTCB CPhT of the Year," she said. "My advice to CPhTs would be to commit yourself to the highest standards of excellence in all that you do." SSgt Johnson said she would welcome new opportunities for civilian and military pharmacy technicians to interact and share experiences. "We each have so much to gain from the other. Creating an environment for civilian and military technicians to get together on social media or in person would help us learn new ways to tackle our challenges."
PTCB's CPhT of the Year Program honors and recognizes individual achievement in patient care, leadership, and innovation as a way to encourage excellence among all pharmacy technicians. Hundreds of CPhTs were nominated for the 2017 CPhT of the Year from across pharmacy settings. Finalists included CPhTs Adam King, Amanda Kuzma, Glen Gard, Leslie Jackson, Nicole Bernabe, and MSgt Robert George.
http://www.ptcb.org/about-ptcb/news-room/news-landing/2017/10/16/ssgt-mary-johnson-is-named-2017-ptcb-cpht-of-the-year
The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board is the leading certifying body for pharmacy technicians in the US. The organization has granted more than 615,000 certifications since its founding in 1995. PTCB was established by the American Pharmacists Association; American Society of Health-System Pharmacists; Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists; and Michigan Pharmacists Association; and joined in 2001 by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. PTCB advocates a single national standard for pharmacy technician certification that is recognized and supported by the pharmacy profession. PTCB's national Certification Program services more than 280,000 active Certified Pharmacy Technicians nationwide. PTCB's mission is to advance medication safety by certifying technicians who are qualified to support pharmacists and patient care teams in all practice settings. www.ptcb.org
SOURCE Pharmacy Technician Certification Board
Related Links
http://www.ptcb.org
DALLAS, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pollo Campero, which specializes in traditional fried, grilled and extra crunchy flavorful chicken meals, announced the opening of its newest restaurant in Nevada. The restaurant is located at 4521 East Charleston Boulevard in Las Vegas.
The new opening marks the second Pollo Campero for GSK 3 Investments, which is owned by franchisees Maria Enamorado and her sons, Gurpaul and Gurdev Kular. In April, GSK 3 Investments opened Nevada's first ever Pollo Campero restaurant in North Las Vegas, which was met with large crowds of excited Pollo Campero fans. Now, six months later, the family is eager to expand Pollo Campero's Nevada footprint.
"Las Vegas has truly welcomed Pollo Campero with open arms," said Gurpaul Kular, Director of Operations for GSK 3 Investments. "We are thrilled to be opening our second restaurant and are honored to be able to share Pollo Campero's incredible flavors with even more people throughout this wonderful city."
As part of its franchising agreement, GSK 3 Investments is also scheduled to open a third Las Vegas Pollo Campero restaurant. All three restaurants will feature Pollo Campero's deliciously flavorful menu, which stars Pollo Campero's traditional fried chicken and grilled chicken recipes. Both are prepared using chicken that is fresh, never frozen, and Pollo Campero's proprietary blend of herbs, spices and essential oils a prized, secret recipe Pollo Campero has been honing since 1971. The brand is set to launch its third chicken recipe, Extra Crunchy, in the coming months.
This latest restaurant opening is part of Pollo Campero's strategic development plan focused on strengthening its footprint in existing markets and opening new restaurants in key cities in the United States through corporately owned and franchised units.
Pollo Campero's new Las Vegas restaurant is open for service from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Sunday.
ABOUT POLLO CAMPERO
Pollo Campero is a family owned chicken restaurant brand founded in 1971 in Guatemala. It first opened its doors with the goal of delighting family and friends with its prized fried chicken recipe which has since been passed down from generation to generation. Today, Pollo Campero continues to specialize in flavorful high-quality fried, grilled and extra crunchy chicken recipes in its more than 350 locations in 10 different countries. To learn more about Pollo Campero or for franchise information, visit campero.com. Follow the flavor on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @CamperoUSA.
SOURCE Pollo Campero
Related Links
http://www.campero.com
FLOWER MOUND, Texas, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ProTom International Holding Corporation announces that it has signed a contract for the purchase and installation of a proton therapy system at the Boao Evergrande International Hospital in China's Hainan Province.
ProTom will equip the hospital with its Radiance 330 Proton Therapy System three-room configuration, including two gantry-rooms and one fixed-beam room.
Using FidelityTM Beam Scanning, Radiance 330 delivers vanguard proton therapy treatment with the precision of pencil-beam scanning and the power of integrated imaging. Radiance 330's compact and modular design has the smallest synchrotron footprint on the market, making it fully adaptable and customizable. The novel design of Radiance 330's synchrotron also enables the system to produce fewer neutrons, and to run more efficiently, generating less heat and electricity than other proton beam therapy systems. With the lowest capital and operating costs of any proton therapy technology, Radiance 330 delivers the industry's fastest return on investment.
Boao Evergrande International Hospital, scheduled to open in 2018, is located within the Hainan Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone. The hospital will focus on cancer treatment and prevention and will leverage the zone's unique policies to bring advanced tumor treatment therapy, equipment, technology, and talent to China.
The Chinese Central Government has given approval for the Boao Evergrande International Hospital to establish a proton therapy center. Scheduled to open in late 2019, the proton therapy center will be the first in Hainan Province.
It is anticipated that more than 2,000 patients each year will be treated with cutting-edge proton therapy treatment at Boao Evergrande International Hospital's proton therapy center.
"With the installation of our Radiance 330 system in China's new oncology hospital, we are excited to expand the availability of proton therapy treatment to patients in China, and to those traveling to Hainan for cancer treatment," said Stephen Spotts, CEO of ProTom International Holding Corporation.
About ProTom International Holding Corporation
ProTom International Holding Corporation is a leading device manufacturer of proton therapy technology. ProTom is steadfast in its mission to transform cancer treatment by expanding the accessibility of proton therapy and by developing proton tomography technology. Learn more: https://www.protominternational.com/
About Boao Evergrande International Hospital
Hainan Boao Evergrande International Hospital LTD is a 100% subsidiary company of Evergrande Health Group.
Media contact: [email protected]
SOURCE ProTom International Holding Corporation
Related Links
https://www.protominternational.com/
NEW YORK and COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- QIC, a global diversified alternative investment firm, recently marked the fifth anniversary of CampusParc, which operates all aspects of The Ohio State University's parking system. Formed by QIC Global Infrastructure in 2012 through a 50-year lease, known as a parking concession, CampusParc operates one of the largest university parking systems in the U.S., with 16 garages, 196 lots and more than 36,000 spaces, and is the only campus-wide parking concession in the U.S.
QIC Global Infrastructure is a long-term infrastructure investor with an established global platform, an active management approach and a proven track record over more than a decade. With a global team of 38, including in New York, QIC Global Infrastructure manages $7.4 billion[1] across 12 global direct investments and has realized a further $5.4 billion[2] of investments for its clients.
Ross Israel, Head of QIC Global Infrastructure, said, "The milestones that CampusParc has achieved are testament to our collaborative approach to managing the parking system to serve the best interests of all of its stakeholders. We are proud to be building the long-term value of this asset, working closely with the CampusParc management team, LAZ Parking, and The Ohio State University to deliver the best possible experience for customers and create enduring benefits for the university and its community."
CampusParc focuses on investing in major capital improvements and integrating new technologies into its facilities to deliver a high-quality customer experience, act on its responsibility to the environment and build community. To that end, over the past five years, CampusParc has:
Invested more than $24 million in major facility repair projects to ensure that the parking system will be maintained and optimized over a 50-year period.
in major facility repair projects to ensure that the parking system will be maintained and optimized over a 50-year period. Introduced new lane equipment for faster entry and exit, a GarageTracker capability to help customers decide where to park by making garage occupancy levels available live on their cell phones, a cell phone payment system and new Pay-by-Plate machines.
Installed NuPark software, to be linked with TIBA gate equipment now being put in place, in the first full integration of these smarter parking technologies on a large campus system. This initiative will enable CampusParc to better learn from and connect with its customers to develop tailored offerings.
Replaced lighting in parking lots and garages with energy-efficient induction and LED fixtures and installed solar panels to run pay and display parking meters to reduce energy consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Launched a comprehensive program for gathering customer feedback to ensure that CampusParc understands and can be responsive to its customers.
Developed a preventive maintenance schedule for all equipment to extend the life of gates, elevators and vehicles, decrease downtime and minimize equipment failures.
Sarah Blouch, President & CEO of CampusParc, said, "Our focus, working side by side with QIC, our operator LAZ Parking, and the university, is to operate an effective, flexible parking system that is highly responsive to our customers. We are pleased with our achievements to date and will build on our progress to ensure that we continue to meet the parking needs of the 100,000 individuals that come to campus every day.
"Beyond our attention to customer service and the environment, we partner with the Ohio State community on projects of importance to all of us, actively seeking opportunities for faculty and university departments to use our parking facilities as learning labs. As just one example, we are currently working with an Engineering professor and his students to explore how advances in reinforced concrete construction can mitigate the impact of increased freeze/thaw cycles related to climate change."
As a result of the parking concession, the university received a one-time, up-front payment of $483 million. The university has invested the proceeds into its endowment to support student scholarships, faculty positions, and improvements to the Arts District and its Campus Area Bus Service. (Details are available at innovativefunding.osu.edu.)
About QIC:
QIC is a global diversified alternative investment firm offering infrastructure, real estate, private equity, liquid strategies and multi-asset investments. It is one of the largest institutional investment managers in Australia, with A$82.0 billion (US$62.9/48.4 billion)[3] in funds under management, offering infrastructure, real estate, private equity, liquid strategies and multi-asset investment services. QIC has over 700 employees and serves more than 110 clients including governments, pension plans, sovereign wealth funds and insurers, spanning Australia, Europe, Asia, Middle East and the US. Headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, QIC also has offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Sydney, and Melbourne. For more information, please visit: www.qic.com.
About QIC Global Infrastructure:
QIC is a long-term infrastructure investor with an established global platform. We currently manage A$9.7 billion (US$7.4 billion/5.7 billion)[4] across 12 global direct investments, having realized a further A$7.0 billion (US$5.4 billion/4.1 billion)[5] of investments for our clients. Our sector centric investment strategy deconstructs risk across sector value chains identifying relative value for investment. This drives a targeted origination approach, which has seen us build diversified portfolios for our clients, protecting their capital while delivering strong total returns since 2006.
About CampusParc:
CampusParc is responsible for the operation of The Ohio State University's parking system, including management of the permit system, parking enforcement, customer service, motorist assistance, event parking management, and parking facility maintenance, including major renovations. The parking system, one of the largest of its kind, is comprised of 5 million square feet and 13,000 spaces within 16 garages, and 7 million square feet and 23,591 spaces within 196 surface lots, for a total of 36,591 system spaces.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
QIC Limited ACN 130 539 123 ("QIC") is a wholesale funds manager and its products and services are not directly available to, and this document may not be provided to any, retail clients. QIC is a company government owned corporation constituted under the Queensland Investment Corporation Act 1991 (Qld). QIC is regulated by State Government legislation pertaining to government owned corporations in addition to the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) ("Corporations Act"). QIC does not hold an Australian financial services ("AFS") licence and certain provisions (including the financial product disclosure provisions) of the Corporations Act do not apply to QIC. QIC Private Capital Pty Ltd ("QPC"), a wholly owned subsidiary of QIC, has been issued with an AFS licence and other wholly owned subsidiaries of QIC are authorised representatives of QPC. QIC's subsidiaries are required to comply with the Corporations Act. QIC also has wholly owned subsidiaries authorised, registered or licensed by the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA"), the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and the Korean Financial Services Commission.
For more information about QIC, our approach, clients and regulatory framework, please refer to our website www.qic.com or contact us directly.
The statements and any opinions in this document (the "Information") are for commentary purposes only and do not take into account any investor's personal, financial or tax objectives, situation or needs. The Information is not intended to constitute personal legal or investment advice and it does not constitute, and should not be construed as, an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, securities or any other investment, investment management or advisory services. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
[1] As of 30 June 2017
[2] As of 30 June 2017
[3] As of 30 June 2017
[4] As of 30 June 2017
[5] As of 30 June 2017
SOURCE QIC
Related Links
http://www.qic.com
CHICAGO, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Quick Leonard Kieffer is pleased to announce that Courtney Lada has been promoted to Managing Partner. Roger Quick, President and CEO of Quick Leonard Kieffer, commented, "During her decade-long career with us, Courtney has played a critical role in the firm's success and growth."
Known for her candid and resolute style, Courtney has led many of the firm's most notable and highest-billed searches, including the recent placement of several senior executives for Providence St. Joseph Health, a $23 billion, 50-hospital health system headquartered in Washington State. PSJH CEO Rod Hochman, MD, stated, "Courtney and QLK have made the difference for us in helping to achieve Healthcare 2.0 as we sought leaders with varied experience outside of traditional health care. We attribute a good portion of our success to our leaders, and Courtney has helped us find those individuals."
During her tenure, Courtney has successfully closed more than 100 C-level searches, with particular expertise in the not-for-profit sector. She has also gained significant exposure to large, for-profit, Fortune 500 companies such as global airlines, financial services providers, tech giants, and pharmaceutical companies as her clients, like PSJH, take a more progressive and unconventional approach to crafting their leadership teams.
As Managing Partner the senior-most role within the firm Courtney will be responsible for business development, strategic planning, project management, and team member training and advancement.
Courtney holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from The University of Illinois at Chicago. Prior to joining QLK, she worked for a special education cooperative on Chicago's South Side, assisting with counseling sessions for children in grades K-12. Her background in applied psychology, with a focus on behavioral interviewing and counseling, has given her a unique perspective and advantage in executive search.
Longtime residents of the northwest side of Chicago, Courtney and her husband, Erik, are active in the arts and with child advocacy initiatives. Courtney currently serves on two local, non-profit boards.
About QUICK LEONARD KIEFFER
Founded in 1999 by President and CEO Roger Quick and Chairman Michael Kieffer, Quick Leonard Kieffer is one of the country's leading retained executive search firms specializing in the healthcare, life sciences/medical device, academic, association and non-profit industries. For more information please visit http://www.qlksearch.com.
SOURCE Quick Leonard Kieffer
Related Links
http://www.qlksearch.com
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130912/638839 )
Newgen experts will share insights into reinventing banking strategy at #Booth 514. The experts will also demonstrate ways to deliver an omnichannel customer experience. Schedule a meeting with Newgen, a Jack Henry VIP member, to learn more about its comprehensive banking solutions. Bankers can gain insights into Newgen offerings for banking automation, commercial lending, consumer lending, customer on-boarding, online account opening, trade finance, digital and mobile customer experience strategy.
Speaking on the participation, Anand Raman, Vice President - Sales & Marketing, Newgen Software Inc. said, "The banking industry is taking a leap towards automation, driving digitization in business. Automating business processes will not only pave the way for banks to make massive transactions across enterprises, but also make banking processes safe, secure and compliant. Newgen's banking solutions enable banks to increase efficiency, enhance productivity and generate higher business volumes. The solutions offer enhanced customer experience through automated and well-structured touchpoints resulting in a better ROI."
During the course of the event, Newgen experts will showcase how banks are transforming businesses by modernizing their commercial loan origination process, leveraging proven technologies and expertise of trusted domain experts. They will also share information about solutions, which can integrate with core banking systems and other applications for processing all loan types, including commercial and retail loans, commercial and institutional loans (C&I), commercial real estate loans (CRE) and small business administration (SBA) loans.
Newgen banking solutions are built on its scalable BPM platform, which can augment profitability and business growth. The trade finance solution enables banks to automate end-to-end processing and gain the competitive edge to be ahead of the competition. Its wide array of solutions speed-up onboarding process, improve compliance adherence and provide agility across business processes.
Jack Henry Annual Conference 2017, a premier banking event by Jack Henry Banking, will offer a host of educational sessions, product demonstrations, training classes, and third-party solutions. It will also provide an opportunity to network with peers.
About Newgen Software Inc.
Newgen Software Inc. is a provider in banking process automation with more than 200 leading banks and financial services institutions as its clients. Newgen's banking process management framework automates critical business processes for banking institutions across commercial lending, consumer lending, customer on-boarding, on line account opening, trade finance, digital and mobile customer experience strategy. Newgen offers flexible on premise and cloud-based solutions to its banking customers.
For More information, please visit: http://www.newgensoft.com.
Media Contact:
Asif Khan
[email protected]
SOURCE Newgen Software Inc.
MIDLAND, Mich., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- RightAnswer.com has been awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The two-year, $999,922 grant will fund the research and development of a mobile application that offers information about the risks of medications during pregnancy.
The application, being developed in partnership with content and technology experts from the University of Washington, will help healthcare providers counsel pregnant patients who have concerns about the possible effects of prescription and over-the-counter drugs on their developing babies.
RightAnswer.com, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application development company based in Midland, Mich., received a $150,000 grant for the Phase I exploration of the feasibility of the application in October of 2015. The company's principals, siblings Glenn and Ellen Hallett, say they were extremely excited to receive the Phase II award.
"The grant process becomes more involved at each stage," says Ellen Hallett, RightAnswer.com's chief operating officer and VP for business development. "Only a portion of Phase I projects are successful in getting Phase II grants, so we think this is a testament to how valuable this application can be in supporting the CDC's initiatives."
Reliable information about teratogens, or substances that can cause malformations of a developing embryo, are typically only offered through subscriptions purchased by large medical institutions and academic libraries for their healthcare providers. "Many healthcare providers don't have ready access to this information," says Glen Markham, RightAnswer.com's corporate business development executive and product director, "especially at the time when they are with their patients. This application would be a major shift, putting teratogenic information about medications at a physician's fingertips."
According to CDC figures, in the past 30 years first-trimester use of prescription medications has increased more than 60 percent. Today, nine out of 10 women take at least one medication during pregnancy.
"This increased usage has high impact, both financially and emotionally," says Markham. "Each year approximately 40,000 infants are born with birth defects directly attributed to prenatal medication exposure, and birth defects and prematurity alone cost the U.S. about $29 billion a year. This application has the potential to address a huge unmet need."
Withholding or discontinuing medications, even those with known risks to a developing infant, is not always feasible, Markham says, because many are medically necessary. "This application will help providers and pregnant women weigh the potential risks and benefits of medications immediately. It will also help them consider potential alternative therapies and routes of administration."
The mobile application is being designed to draw information from the TERIS (Teratogen Information System) database, located in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington. "This database provides up-to-date, authoritative information regarding the effects of drugs and chemicals on the developing embryo," Markham says, "as well as evidence-based information on the developmental toxicity of more than 1,600 agents." He notes that the database addresses 95 percent of the most frequently prescribed drugs.
"The University of Washington's TERIS database is really a gold standard of teratogenic information," says Glenn Hallett, president and chief technology officer. "It's much better than what many healthcare providers have access to today if they have access to an applicable database at all. We believe our unique collaboration with the University of Washington supports the CDC's vision of delivering gold standard information with advanced technology."
"This application has the potential to enhance the knowledge and awareness of clinical management options for pregnant women in ways that have not been possible before," says Ellen Hallett, "and the support for this Phase II grant by the CDC provides RightAnswer.com with tremendous momentum to deliver this very important work."
"The application dovetails nicely with RightAnswer.com's business plans and product strategies," says Glenn Hallett. "Our key focus is designing integrated data and technology solutions targeted to specific audiences to support the workflow of experts when and where they need it most."
SBIR grants help U.S. small businesses complete the often-expensive research and development behind new products and technologies that support health promotion and disease prevention. This grant is funded over two years at $499,961 per year. Year-two funding is subject to the availability of funds and satisfactory progress.
About RightAnswer.com
RightAnswer.com, Inc., established in 1996, is an industry leader in providing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to meet knowledge and document requirements for the Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) market, including pharmaceutical manufacturers, chemical manufacturers, first responders, research laboratories, and educational institutions. RightAnswer.com's Knowledge Solutions include perhaps the most comprehensive integrated collection of information supporting the management of reproductive risk available from any single resource, and includes current and continually-updated information from proprietary, licensed and government publications. RightAnswer.com is based in Midland, Michigan, with additional locations in Washington, Colorado, Illinois, and Florida plus over 20 international distributors. Learn more about RightAnswer.com at rightanswer.com.
Disclaimer Required by Federal Law
Supported by the Grant or Cooperative Agreement Number, DD001127, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.
Financial Disclosure Required by Federal Law
Percentage of the total costs of the program or project which will be financed with Federal money (100%). Dollar amount of Federal funds for the project or program is $999,922 , which is funded annually ( $499,961 per year, year two is subject to availability of funds and satisfactory progress). Percentage and dollar amount of the total costs of the project or program that will be financed by non-governmental sources (0% and $0 ).
SOURCE RightAnswer.com
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Shareholder rights law firm Johnson Fistel, LLP has launched an investigation into whether the board members of Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE: RT) ("Ruby Tuesday") breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the proposed sale of the Company to NRD Capital. Ruby Tuesday engages in the ownership, development, operation, and franchise of casual dining restaurants under the Ruby Tuesday name in the United States and internationally.
On October 16, 2017, Ruby Tuesday announced that it had signed a definitive merger agreement with NRD Capital. Terms of the deal call for shareholders to receive $ 2.40 per share for each share of Ruby Tuesday stock they own.
The investigation concerns whether the Ruby Tuesday board failed to satisfy its duties to the Company shareholders, including whether the board adequately pursued alternatives to the acquisition and whether the board obtained the best price possible for Ruby Tuesday shares of common stock. Nationally recognized Johnson Fistel is investigating whether the proposed deal price represents adequate consideration, especially given one Wall Street analyst has a $5.00 price target on the stock. Ruby Tuesday's 52 - week high was $3.67.
If you are a shareholder of Ruby Tuesday and believe the proposed buyout price is too low or you're interested in learning more about the investigation or your legal rights and remedies, please contact lead analyst Jim Baker ( [email protected] ) at 619-814-4471. If emailing, please include a phone number.
About Johnson Fistel, LLP:
Johnson Fistel, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonfistel.com . Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
Contact:
Johnson Fistel, LLP
Jim Baker, 619-814-4471
[email protected]
SOURCE Johnson Fistel, LLP
Related Links
http://www.johnsonfistel.com
RACINE, Wis., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- SC Johnson today announced that the funds raised from its 2017 acre-for-acre match challenge will be used to kick off the world's largest tropical reforestation project in the Brazilian Amazon. Through a partnership with Conservation International (CI) earlier this year to support the virtual reality film Under the Canopy, SC Johnson enlisted the public to help protect 10,000 acres of the Amazon rainforest through its acre-for-acre match campaign.
"With a manufacturing plant in Manaus at the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the issue of deforestation is personal to us, and we're committed to helping protect this critical resource for future generations," said Kelly M. Semrau, Senior Vice President Global Corporate Affairs, Communication and Sustainability at SC Johnson. "We are proud that the funds from our match campaign will help Conservation International and its partners commence this impressive reforestation effort."
"A new chapter is being written for the Brazilian Amazon. The Amazon is our greatest asset and vital to the well-being of people not just in Brazil but across the entire planet. Protecting the Amazon is not something we should think about in future terms we have to do it now," said Rodrigo Medeiros, Vice President of CI Brazil. "The task is challenging but we are working in partnership with SC Johnson and other organizations, connecting different objectives toward the same goal: the Amazon."
SC Johnson's acre-for-acre match campaign garnered donations from all 50 U.S. states and 31 countries through CI's website. The funds raised will support CI and its partners as they embark on the world's largest tropical forest restoration project. The multimillion-dollar, six-year project, which is the result of a partnership between Conservation International, the Brazilian Ministry of Environment, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the World Bank and Rock in Rio, will restore 73 million trees in the Brazilian Amazonia region by 2023. The endeavor will also help Brazil move toward its Paris Agreement target of reforesting 12 million hectares of land by 2030.
SC Johnson, Deforestation and Brazil
SC Johnson has been operating in Brazil for more than 80 years. In that time, the company's manufacturing plant in Manaus has achieved zero landfill status, a protocol estimated to keep some 91 tons of refuse out of Brazilian landfills each year. In the 1990s, SC Johnson contributed to the protection of two reserves in Brazil's Caatinga ecoregion. Since then, as part of the company's work with and contributions to CI, more than 100,000 acres of land have been conserved much of that in the Amazon region.
The Johnson family has a long personal connection to Brazil. In 1935, third-generation company leader H.F. Johnson, Jr. led an expedition up the Amazon in search of the Carnauba palm, whose wax was the principle ingredient in the company's products at the time. In 1998, fourth-generation leader Sam Johnson and his sons, including fifth-generation leader Fisk Johnson, retraced the historic expedition made by H.F. Johnson, Jr.
Under the Canopy
Under the Canopy is an immersive 360-degree virtual reality film that allows viewers to experience the wonder of the Amazon through the eyes of the indigenous people who inhabit the region and are essential to its protection. The film, which has received more than 700,000 views worldwide, highlights why people need Amazonia to thrive, from its role as the world's largest watershed to the fact that its trees absorb carbon and help regulate climate. The film has been screened to international audiences at events including Sundance Film Festival, South by Southwest, GreenBiz and the Tropical Forest Alliance General Assembly 2020 meeting in Brazil.
Experience the wonder of the Amazon in 360-degree virtual reality online at www.conservation.org/canopy, and those with VR headsets can experience the powerful VR version via the JauntVR app.
About SC Johnson
SC Johnson is a family company dedicated to innovative, high-quality products, excellence in the workplace and a long-term commitment to the environment and the communities in which it operates. Based in the USA, the company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of household cleaning products and products for home storage, air care, pest control and shoe care, as well as professional products. It markets such well-known brands as GLADE, KIWI, OFF!, PLEDGE, RAID, SCRUBBING BUBBLES, SHOUT, WINDEX and ZIPLOC in the U.S. and beyond, with brands marketed outside the U.S. including AUTAN, TANA, BAMA, BAYGON, BRISE, KABIKILLER, KLEAR, MR MUSCLE and RIDSECT. The 131-year-old company, which generates $10 billion in sales, employs approximately 13,000 people globally and sells products in virtually every country around the world. www.scjohnson.com
About Conservation International
Conservation International (CI) uses science, policy and partnerships to protect the nature people rely on for food, fresh water and livelihoods. Founded in 1987, CI works in more than 30 countries on six continents to ensure a healthy, prosperous planet that supports us all. Learn more about CI and its groundbreaking "Nature Is Speaking" campaign, and follow CI's work on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
SOURCE SC Johnson
Related Links
http://www.scjohnson.com
NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a boutique securities firm headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating Spark Networks, Inc. ("Spark" or the "Company") (NYSE: LOV) relating to the merger of the Company with Affinitas GmbH. As a result of the merger, Spark shareholders will only own approximately 25% of the combined company and are only anticipated to receive a number of American depositary shares ("ADS"), subject to an Adjustment Ratio, with each ADS representing 0.1 ordinary shares of combined entity, New Spark.
Click here for more information: http://monteverdelaw.com/investigations/m-a/. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.
The investigation focuses on whether Spark and its Board of Directors violated securities laws and/or breached their fiduciary duties to the Company's stockholders by 1) failing to conduct a fair process; 2) whether and by how much this proposed transaction undervalues the Company; 3) whether all material financial information has been disclosed related to the shareholder meeting on Nov. 2, 2017.
Monteverde & Associates PC is a boutique class action securities and consumer litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders and consumers from corporate wrongdoing. Monteverde & Associates lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions, whereby they protect investors by recovering money and remedying corporate misconduct. Mr. Monteverde, who leads the legal team at the firm, has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013 and 2017, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field.
If you own common stock in Spark and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.
Contact:
Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.
MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC
The Empire State Building
350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405
New York, NY 10118
United States of America
[email protected]
Tel: (212) 971-1341
Attorney Advertising. (C) 2017 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.
SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC
Related Links
http://www.monteverdelaw.com
AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Shepherd - A Fixer Company today announced its launch in Austin, Texas, forging a strategy-first model that applies a "fixer" mentality to help clients with challenging branding issues and campaigns. Award-winning Co-Founders Dean McBeth (former Head of Integrated Strategy at Crispin Porter + Bogusky), Dave Burg (former Group Director, Brand Strategy at R/GA) and Dan Walsh (Former Managing Director, Roundhouse) bring a powerhouse of digital, branding and strategy expertise to the agency startup. Walsh will be based out of Shepherd's Portland, Oregon office, while McBeth and Burg lead its Austin headquarters.
Shepherd - A Fixer Agency
"Shepherd takes its inspiration from Pulp Fiction's Winston Wolfe character, who was an unapologetic fixer and problem solver," says Co-Founder/Managing Strategist McBeth. "CMOs at many brands are fed up with the antiquated and slow-moving agency structure. Shepherd uses digital tools and integrated methodology to streamline cumbersome marketing and testing processes so that we can bring them compelling and measurable results -- quickly."
Shepherd launches with no Creative Director on staff, allowing the principals to collaborate with an array of elite creative talent in the industry. This unique model frees up the founders so that they're not beholden to one creative vision or style. Designed to fix creative challenges, Shepherd assembled a 'SWAT team' of strategists, comms planners, analytics experts, data scientists, developers, social media specialists and user experience experts tailored to each project and brand. This model is built on success stories the agency's seasoned strategists have spearheaded at top international agencies.
Co-founders With A Strategic Mission
Dean McBeth:
FOUNDER // DIGITAL STRATEGY
Dean McBeth is an award-winning strategist, creative director, social media pioneer, marketer and speaker. From Old Spice to Nike, Formula 1 to Domino's, his work is instantly recognizable in the ad industry, as well as taught at many well-renowned communications schools. He's left behind a string of executive strategy & creative posts at Wieden+Kennedy, Barton F. Graf, Ketchum, Circuit of the Americas and Crispin, Porter+Bogusky to co-found Shepherd.
Dave Burg:
FOUNDER // BRAND STRATEGY
Dave Burg is a strategist, creative, and lecturer. He's led some of the most awarded integrated campaigns in advertising. From Domino's Pizza, to P&G's global "Thank You, Mom," to interactive Super Bowl campaigns for Coca-Cola, to helping Fruit of the Loom become Walmart's preferred apparel partner with "The Professional's Collection." Dave held director roles at Wieden+Kennedy, Crispin, Porter+Bogusky, and R/GA prior to co-founding Shepherd.
Dan Walsh:
FOUNDER // BUSINESS STRATEGY
Dan Walsh is an expert at entrepreneurship, and connecting top-notch creative and digital talent. He scaled a 3-person web development shop in Portland, Oregon to become the integrated indie powerhouse, Roundhouse Agency building a client roster of many of the world's hottest brands. From Xbox to Fender, Yeti, Red Bull, KIND, and Adidas, he's adding his business smarts and category-breaking experience as a co-founder at Shepherd.
About Shepherd - A Fixer Company
Shepherd is a fixer company. Since the world didn't ask for another agency, we started a consultancy focused on serving creativity. Based in Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon, we wrangle the best of advertising, PR, social media, digital, recruiting, design, analytics, content, production and business consulting in one syndicated model.
Media Contact:
Virginia Scripps
[email protected]
310-394-3900
SOURCE Shepherd - A Fixer Company
Related Links
https://weshepherd.com
SANDY, Utah, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- While many Americans identify with the term "Sunday Scaries," referring to the anxiety they feel before the start of the workweek, new survey data suggests the "Someday Scaries" could be an even bigger boogeyman.
Three in five Americans (60%) say they know someday they will need to be more financially secure, they just don't know how to get there. This number increases to 70% for those between the ages of 18-39, according to a new independent market survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults.
Compounding the problem, 61 percent of adults say they find investing in the stock market to be "scary or intimidating," again with data showing Millennials feeling significantly more intimidated than GenXers and Boomers. Over half of Americans (52%) agree that someday they will invest or invest more in the stock market, "but not right now."
"The paradox this survey data underscores is that people are scared about not being prepared for the future, so they put off thinking about it, but history has proven again and again that the key to achieving financial security is to start saving and investing early," said Rich Hagen, president of Ally Invest. "What people need most is to face the 'Someday Scaries' head on and get started, taking one small step at a time."
Ally Invest's Hagen offers four tips to address survey respondents' top fears when it comes to investing:
Scary #1. The thought of making a bad investment and losing money (50% of respondents)
Hagen: The way to mitigate risk is through diversification. Investors should look at investing offerings that provide a diversified portfolio with a balance based on their overall investing goals. In general, a portfolio that contains a variety of ETFs, bonds, and cash is a great place to start.
Scary #2. The amount of money required to invest (35% of respondents)
Hagen: What most people don't realize is that it's become very affordable to invest in the market. With online brokerage and wealth management offerings, you can buy and sell stocks for yourself for under $5/trade with no account minimums or hidden fees. And if you're someone who needs a little more guidance, there are automated portfolios of diversified ETFs that you can choose and follow online for a fraction of the cost of traditional financial advisors.
Scary #3. Not knowing whom to trust to help you invest (31% of respondents)
Hagen: It's safe to say that no one cares more about your money and future than you do. So take control it's never been easier thanks to technology. Start by doing your homework -- there are a number of highly-credible and impartial online sites that can help you find the right investment partner by comparing fees, ease of use, tools, and customer service.
Scary #4. Not knowing how to get started investing (24% of respondents)
Hagen: Take it step by step. Start with a savings account that will give you a competitive rate of return and pay yourself first by putting whatever you can, even if it's just a small amount, from each paycheck into that savings account. Even saving $10 a week starts to add up over time. Then when you've saved several months' worth, you can transition some of that into a low-cost, higher performing investment account to help you build wealth over time. Investment account fees and minimums have decreased significantly in recent years, making it easier and more affordable than ever to get invested.
Survey Methodology: This online survey was conducted by Regina Corso Consulting on behalf of Ally Financial between September 7 and 11, 2017 among 2,024 U.S. adults, aged 18 and older. Figures for age, gender, education, income, employment and region were weighted to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate, no estimates of sampling error can be calculated.
Results of the survey are for informational purposes only and not intended as investment advice. Investing involves risk. Thus, before investing you should consider what is suitable given your particular circumstances or seek professional advice.
For a copy of the full survey results, contact: [email protected].
About Ally Financial Inc.
Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) is a leading digital financial services company and a top 25 U.S. financial holding company offering financial products for consumers, businesses, automotive dealers and corporate clients. Ally's legacy dates back to 1919, and the company was redesigned in 2009 with a distinctive brand, innovative approach and relentless focus on its customers. Ally has an award-winning online bank (Ally Bank Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender) offering deposits, credit card and home loan products, one of the largest full service auto finance operations in the country, a complementary auto-focused insurance business, a growing wealth management and online brokerage platform, and a trusted corporate finance business offering capital for equity sponsors and middle-market companies.
The company had approximately $164.3 billion in assets as of June 30, 2017. For more information, visit the Ally press room at http://media.ally.com or follow Ally on Twitter: @AllyFinancial.
Securities products and services are offered through Ally Invest Securities LLC, member FINRA and SIPC. Investment advisory services are offered through Ally Invest Advisors Inc., an SEC registered investment adviser. Ally Invest Advisors Inc. and Ally Invest Securities LLC are wholly owned subsidiaries of Ally Invest Group Inc. Investments are NOT FDIC INSURED, NOT BANK GUARANTEED and MAY LOSE VALUE.
Contact:
Andrea Puchalsky
313-656-3798
[email protected]
Sue Parente at Tier One Partners
781-642-7788
[email protected]
SOURCE Ally Financial
"This transaction, which we anticipate completing by third quarter 2018, will strengthen the balance sheets of Southern Company Gas and Southern Company by reducing existing financing requirements," said Thomas A. Fanning, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company. "In addition to maximizing value for Southern Company shareholders, the transaction is beneficial to our company and aligns with our overall business strategy to drive growth and prosperity."
The transaction, which is expected to be operationally seamless to customers, is designed to ensure that Elizabethtown Gas and Elkton Gas will continue their customer-focused business model and strong commitment to safety, reliability, excellent customer service and giving back to the communities where they are privileged to serve.
South Jersey Industries is committed to providing the same level of service and reliability Elizabethtown Gas and Elkton Gas customers are accustomed to receiving today and will continue to provide service at New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) and Maryland Public Service Commission (MPSC) approved tariff rates. South Jersey Industries also will maintain commitments to Elizabethtown Gas and Elkton Gas employees, including honoring all collective bargaining agreements in place at the time of close and pension benefits.
The transaction will involve, among other things, approval by the NJBPU and MPSC (with respect to the Elkton Gas sale), the expiration or termination of any applicable waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 and certain limited approvals by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.
South Jersey Industries is an energy services holding company comprised of a natural gas utility, South Jersey Gas, which serves approximately 381,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in the seven southernmost counties of New Jersey. South Jersey Industries also operates several non-regulated businesses that promote efficiency, clean technology and renewable energy by providing customized wholesale marketing and field management services; acquiring and marketing natural gas and electricity for retail customers; developing, owning and operating on-site energy production facilities; and offering HVAC and other energy-efficiency related services.
Advisors
Goldman, Sachs & Co. LLC is serving as exclusive financial advisor and Baker Botts LLP is serving as legal counsel to Southern Company.
About Southern Company Gas
Southern Company Gas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE:SO), America's premier energy company. Southern Company Gas serves approximately 4.6 million natural gas utility customers through its regulated distribution companies in seven states and more than 1 million retail customers through its companies that market natural gas and related home services. Other nonutility businesses include investments in interstate pipelines, asset management for natural gas wholesale customers and ownership and operation of natural gas storage facilities. For more information, visit Southern Company Gas at www.southerncompanygas.com.
About Southern Company
Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is America's premier energy company, with 46,000 megawatts of generating capacity and 1,500 billion cubic feet of combined natural gas consumption and throughput volume serving 9 million customers through its subsidiaries. The company provides clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy through electric operating companies in four states, natural gas distribution companies in seven states, a competitive generation company serving wholesale customers across America and a nationally recognized provider of customized energy solutions, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications. Southern Company brands are known for excellent customer service, high reliability and affordable prices that are below the national average. Through an industry-leading commitment to innovation, Southern Company and its subsidiaries are inventing America's energy future by developing the full portfolio of energy resources, including carbon-free nuclear, 21st century coal, natural gas, renewables and energy efficiency, and creating new products and services for the benefit of customers. Southern Company has been named by the U.S. Department of Defense and G.I. Jobs magazine as a top military employer, recognized among the Top 50 Companies for Diversity by DiversityInc, listed by Black Enterprise magazine as one of the 40 Best Companies for Diversity and designated a Top Employer for Hispanics by Hispanic Network. The company has earned a National Award of Nuclear Science and History from the National Atomic Museum Foundation for its leadership and commitment to nuclear development and is continually ranked among the top energy companies in Fortune's annual World's Most Admired Electric and Gas Utility rankings. Visit our website at www.southerncompany.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This communication contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include statements concerning the pending transactions. These forward-looking statements are often characterized by the use of words such as "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "believe," "may," "should," "will," "could," "continue", "opportunity" and the negative or plural of these words and other comparable terminology. Although Southern Company and Southern Company Gas believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Certain material factors or assumptions are applied in making forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these expectations include, among other things, the following: the failure to receive, on a timely basis or otherwise, the required approvals by government or regulatory agencies (including the terms of such approvals); the risk that a condition to closing of the transactions may not be satisfied; and other risk factors relating to the energy industry, as detailed from time to time in Southern Company's and Southern Company Gas' reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurance that the transactions will in fact be consummated.
Additional information about these factors and about the material factors or assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements may be found under Item 1.A. in Southern Company's and Southern Company Gas' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016. The foregoing list of important factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning the transactions or other matters attributable to Southern Company or Southern Company Gas or any other person acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referenced above. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date hereof. Southern Company and Southern Company Gas undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, except as may be required by law.
SOURCE Southern Company
Related Links
http://www.southerncompany.com
STAMFORD, Conn., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Spruce Investment Advisors, the outsourced Chief Investment Officer for U.S.-based individuals, family offices, foundations and endowments, was nominated for performance excellence for the 2017 HFMWeek US Hedge Fund Performance Awards. The firm is nominated in the "Fund of Hedge Funds Long Term Performance (5 Years) Under $1 Billion" category.
"We are delighted to be shortlisted by HFMWeek for this award," said John Bailey, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Spruce. "Over the past sixteen years, hedged strategies have been a cornerstone of Spruce's ability to generate long term competitive results for our investors."
Nominees were selected by HFMWeek based upon performance through June 2017.
About Spruce
Spruce Investment Advisors, LLC, is an award-winning wealth management firm based in Stamford, CT that serves as a Chief Investment Officer for family offices, foundations and endowments. Spruce advises on broadly diversified portfolios, including traditional investment portfolios of global equities, fixed income, high income, liquid absolute return, currencies and commodities, and alternative investment portfolios featuring hedge funds, private equity, real estate and oil & gas. Since 2001, Spruce has helped families and investors benefit from a broad and sophisticated array of global investment opportunities, aggressive risk management, and objective investment advice.
Important Disclosures:
The United States HFMWeek performance award nominations are determined by an independent panel of judges comprised of hedge fund investors and investment consultants. Both quantitative and qualitative factors were considered including returns and risk-adjusted returns for the five years ending June 30, 2017, pedigree, structural criteria and reputation with investors. Spruce did not compensate HFMWeek for these nominations. Additional information about the 2017 HFMWeek Awards can be found here.
The judging process is rigorous and thorough to ensure that all the entries receive full consideration and that the true winners are chosen. Judges will take part in a judging conference call, where the winners will be decided, with one expert per category will be asked to summarize the judges comments and provide any additional input as required. Judges have discretionary power to move submissions into alternative categories that they think may be more suitable. All judges are required to sign a disclaimer form to keep information about entries and the final winners confidential. The judges are carefully selected for their wealth of experience and expertise, as well as their absence of conflicts of interest. PLEASE NOTE: Judges do not judge any categories that their company has been entered in and are obliged to declare that they have no conflicts of interest prior to judging.
SOURCE Spruce Investment Advisors
AMSTERDAM, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Staples Solutions B.V. ("Staples Solutions") today announced the appointment of Dolph Westerbos as Chief Executive Officer effective 1 November 2017. Mr. Westerbos joins Staples Solutions to build upon the progress made since its separation from Staples, Inc. following the sale of majority ownership to an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. ("Cerberus") earlier this year. He will be based in Staples Solutions' headquarters in Amsterdam.
Mr. Westerbos has spent the last 15 years in various executive management positions at large multi-national listed companies around the world, with a focus on B2B products and services: supply chain, logistics, technology, and asset management. Until its recent majority sale to SYNNEX Corporation, he was CEO of Westcon Group (trading as Westcon-Comstor), a global technology distributor providing solutions in cyber security, networking and communications. Prior to Westcon Group, Mr. Westerbos held executive management positions at Brambles-CHEP, Dell, and ModusLink.
"As CEO, Dolph will strengthen Staples Solutions' position as the leading provider of products, services, and solutions to small, mid-sized, and large businesses in Europe," said Olof Persson, Chairman of Staples Solutions. "With over 15 years of CEO and executive management experience, Dolph has a strong track record of successfully leading complex and large-scale business transformations and developing profitable, best-in-class organizations."
"Cerberus is excited to welcome Dolph to Staples Solutions. We believe that a world-class management team is essential to planning and implementing successful strategic and operational initiatives. Regardless of the industry or geography, our goal of maximizing value for all constituents starts with having great leadership. Dolph is an example of that philosophy, and we look forward to his direction as Staples Solutions strengthens its position as the partner of choice to provide products and services to the workspace of today and tomorrow," said Steven F. Mayer, Co-Head of Global Private Equity and Senior Managing Director of Cerberus. "Like Cerberus, Dolph understands the importance of both operational excellence and a laser focus on customer needs to ensure long-term success. We look forward to partnering with him and supporting his dedicated efforts on behalf of Staples Solutions and its customers, suppliers, and employees."
"I am excited to lead Staples Solutions in this next chapter as it seeks to capture additional market opportunities. I look forward to working with Olof and the entire Staples Solutions and Cerberus teams to better serve our customers, create a culture of entrepreneurship, increase our speed of execution, maximize the value of our B2B platform through strategic initiatives, and position the company for sustainable and profitable growth," said Mr. Westerbos.
About Staples Solutions B.V.
Staples Solutions B.V. is the leading provider of workplace products, services, and solutions to small, mid-sized, and large businesses in Europe. Through our integrated offering, Staples Solutions is the partner of choice to meet the diverse needs of the workplace of today and tomorrow. Headquartered in Amsterdam, we operate in 17 countries in Europe. You can learn more about Staples Solutions at www.staples.eu.
About Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.
Established in 1992, Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is one of the worlds leading private investment firms. Cerberus has more than US $30 billion under management invested in three complementary strategies: private equity; global credit opportunities (which includes non-performing loans, corporate credit and distressed debt, mortgage securities and assets, and direct lending); and real estate. From its headquarters in New York City and network of affiliate and advisory offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia, Cerberus has the on-the-ground presence to invest in multiple asset classes globally.
SOURCE Staples Solutions B.V.
Related Links
http://www.staples.eu
Highly regarded office leasing specialist will help expand the firm's footprint across the region
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Tim Convy, Principal of St. Louis Operations and Managing Director - Brokerage, Avison Young, announced today the strategic hiring of highly regarded office leasing specialist, Susan Finney.
Effective immediately, Finney becomes a Principal of St. Louis Operations. In this role, she will continue to focus on landlord and tenant representation while expanding Avison Young's footprint in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Finney will also coordinate the recruitment of the next generation of office leasing specialists in the local marketplace.
"We're delighted to have Susan come on board," comments Convy. "Susan's skill at integrating all aspects of portfolio management, including lease negotiation, tenant retention, marketing and budget forecasting, will be invaluable as we grow our office sales and leasing services in St. Louis. Through her specialized knowledge, she offers clients the key advantage of streamlining the real estate process as it intersects with property management, architectural services and construction management."
Convy continues: "Landlords, tenants, developers, investors and asset managers alike will benefit from Susan's strong negotiating skills, thorough closing methods and ability to develop creative real estate solutions. She is a standout in the industry and will be a vital asset to our firm."
Finney brings more than 30 years of commercial real estate experience to Avison Young. During her career, she has negotiated office leasing transactions spanning more than 10 million square feet on behalf of tenants and landlords. Her clients have included ASB Capital, Credit Suisse, Olymbec, BGK, Mastercard, Centene, GBA Architects/Engineers, The Crossing Church, American Cancer Society, University of Phoenix, Ascension Health, and Rabo AgriFinance.
During her 15 years with The Siteman Organization, a major developer, Finney served as Vice- President and was responsible for managing all aspects of a seven-building, 200-tenant office portfolio in the Clayton business district. Following her tenure with Siteman, she joined Insignia/ESG and, later, Colliers International, where she oversaw leasing and marketing for a wide range of suburban office portfolios for large national investors.
Finney is active in the industry as a member of Connecting and Promoting Women and Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW). In the community, she is a volunteer with Junior Achievement, Springboard to Learning, and Gateway to Dreams. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from DePauw University in Indiana.
"I'm excited to be part of the firm's collaborative culture and ongoing aggressive global expansion program," says Finney. "By experiencing all aspects of this industry from the inside out, I am fortunate to have a unique set of skills and rare perspective that give me the advantage while serving my clients. Consequently, over the years, I have been privileged to develop many long-term relationships and quality friendships in the business community. These relationships will be strengthened through Avison Young's client-centric approach to every transaction."
Over the past nine years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 80 offices and from 300 to more than 2,600 real estate professionals in Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Europe.
Avison Young is the world's fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Avison Young is a collaborative, global firm owned and operated by its principals. Founded in 1978, the company comprises 2,600 real estate professionals in 80 offices, providing value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management, financing and mortgage placement services to owners and occupiers of office, retail, industrial, multi-family and hospitality properties.
For further information/comment/photos:
Sherry Quan , Principal and Global Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young : 604.647.5098; cell: 604.726.0959
, Principal and Global Director of Communications & Media Relations, : cell: Tim Convy , Principal of St. Louis Operations and Managing Director - Brokerage, Avison Young : 314.862.5000
, Principal of St. Louis Operations and Managing Director - Brokerage, : Susan Finney , Principal of St. Louis Operations, Avison Young : 314.322.3882
, Principal of St. Louis Operations, : Mark Rose , Chair and CEO, Avison Young : 416.673.4028
Chair and CEO, : Earl Webb , President, U.S. Operations, Avison Young : 312.957.7610
www.avisonyoung.com
Avison Young was a winner of Canada's Best Managed Companies program in 2011 and requalified in 2017 to maintain its status as a Best Managed Gold Standard company.
Follow Avison Young on Twitter:
For industry news, press releases and market reports: www.twitter.com/avisonyoung
For Avison Young listings and deals: www.twitter.com/AYListingsDeals
Follow Avison Young Bloggers: http://blog.avisonyoung.com
Follow Avison Young on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/avison-young-commercial-real-estate
Follow Avison Young on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/AvisonYoungRE
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Editors/Reporters
Please click on link to view and download photo of Susan Finney:
http://www.avisonyoung.com/documents/20342/2631393/SusanFinney.jpg/f60f9e9c-23de-4646-88b4-054ac3d8721d?t=1507037080221
SOURCE Avison Young Commercial Real Estate (BC)
Related Links
www.avisonyoung.com
"Sometimes referred to as tots or potato gems, we like to call these golden nuggets of deliciousness Mexi-Fries and we've devoted an entire day to celebrating them," said Julie Hoefling, director of marketing for TacoTime. "Mexi-Friday is a chance for loyal customers and new visitors alike to get their hands on free Mexi-Fries and enjoy the fantastic flavor that has made them a customer favorite for years."
Free small size Mexi-Fries are available on Mexi-Friday, October 20, 2017, with the purchase of any sized drink, while supplies last.
About TacoTime
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz., TacoTime has been an industry leader in quality quick-service Mexican food for over 50 years. Founded in 1960, TacoTime has grown to nearly 400 franchised restaurants across the U.S. and Canada. In 2003, TacoTime became part of Kahala Brands, one of the fastest growing franchising companies in the world with a portfolio of 22 quick-service restaurant brands and approximately 2900 locations in 28 countries.
For more information about Kahala Brands, visit www.KahalaBrands.com.
SOURCE TacoTime
Related Links
http://www.tacotime.com
These three boutique hotels offer truly distinctive South Beach experiences for all travelers. Located in Miami's historic Art Deco district, Hotel Breakwater South Beach is an eclectic hotel offering a rotating art program and aquarium-style pool; the Casa Victoria Orchid property is situated on the legendary Espanola Way and features inspired European charm; the luxurious accommodations and breathtaking ocean views of Hotel Ocean are the perfect setting for a true beach escape.
Unique in their own right, the properties serve an essential role in the history of Miami Beach. The hotels, having roots in the 1930s, are an ideal stay for history seekers and modern travelers alike. The storied facades of Hotel Ocean and Hotel Breakwater South Beach are considered icons on Ocean Drive as they were originated during the colorful Art Deco epoch, affording travelers with a glimpse into the past while still maintaining modern amenities and charm. Tucked away in the stoned pathways of the Historic Espanola Way, Casa Victoria Orchid beckons its guests to take a journey back in time via its European-inspired stucco building with all the comforts of home.
"We are delighted to welcome these beautiful properties to the Ascend Hotel Collection, all of which embody the local authenticity and sophistication of South Beach. These hotels are a true representation of what the Ascend Hotel Collection is all about," said Janis Cannon, senior vice president of upscale brands for Choice Hotels. "South Beach is a hotspot for travelers seeking an experience that's reflective of the community, and now guests can immerse themselves in this vibrant South Florida city, all while having the benefits of booking through Choice Hotels and earning Choice Privileges loyalty rewards."
"We're excited to become an Ascend Hotel Collection member," said Reynaldo Ramirez, Director of Sales and Marketing. "Our hotels are each unique in their own way and being a part of the Ascend Hotel Collection allows the hotels to keep their identity, while at the same time, be a part of one of the largest international hotel companies."
Each property offers a range of amenities, including fitness centers, pools, complimentary breakfast and comfortable accommodations. As part of the introduction to the Ascend portfolio, the three properties are excited to offer guests 15% off for bookings made during the month of October 2017 utilizing booking code "LADVANTAGE."
The Hotel Breakwater South Beach, Casa Victoria Orchid and Hotel Ocean properties will participate in the award-winning Choice Privileges loyalty rewards program, rated no. 1 in USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards list. Membership in the program is free, offers fast rewards, instant perks, and exclusive member rates when booking directly at www.choicehotels.com. Members can redeem points towards free nights, airline miles and more while staying at any of Choice's global hotel properties.
Ascend Hotel Collection: let the destination reach you.
The Ascend Hotel Collection is a global portfolio of unique, boutique and historic independent hotels and resorts and is part of Choice Hotels International, one of the world's leading hotel companies. Recognized as the hotel industry's first "soft brand" concept, the Ascend Hotel Collection has more than 170 properties open and operating worldwide, including in France, the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Australia, Canada, and the Caribbean region. Membership with the Ascend Hotel Collection enables distinctive, independent properties to gain a global presence while maintaining their local charm. For more information, visit www.choicehotels.com/Ascend.
About Choice Hotels
Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of the world's largest hotel companies. With over 6,500 hotels franchised in more than 40 countries and territories, Choice Hotels International represents more than 500,000 rooms around the globe. As of June 30, 2017, 792 hotels were in our development pipeline. Our company's Ascend Hotel Collection, Cambria Hotels, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Sleep Inn, Quality, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn, and Vacation Rentals by Choice Hotels brands provide a spectrum of lodging choices to meet guests' needs. With more than 32 million members, our Choice Privileges rewards program enhances every trip a guest takes, with benefits ranging from instant, every day rewards to exceptional experiences, starting right when they join. All hotels and vacation rentals are independently owned and operated. Visit us at www.choicehotels.com for more information.
SOURCE Choice Hotels International, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.choicehotels.com
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In communities across the country, middle and high school students are making meaningful contributions through volunteering and The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards wants to shine a spotlight on their service.
The November 7 deadline is fast approaching for young volunteers in grades 5-12 to apply for local, state and national recognition and cash awards of up to $5,000 through the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. The application is available at http://spirit.prudential.com and www.nassp.org/spirit.
The program, sponsored by Prudential Financial in partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), was created in 1995 to recognize the exemplary volunteer work of middle level and high school students. Over the past 22 years, Prudential Spirit of Community Awards have been given to more than 120,000 middle and high school students across the country at the local, state and national level.
How to Apply
To apply for a 2018 Prudential Spirit of Community Award, students and certifiers must complete the following steps:
Students complete the online application by November 7, 2017 .
Then, students submit the application for certification to their principal or head of a local participating organization.
Certifiers review all applications for their school or organization, then select a Local Honoree to nominate for state-level judging by November 17, 2017 .
Applications can be certified by a middle or high school principal or head of a Girl Scout council, county 4-H organization, American Red Cross chapter, YMCA or an affiliate of Points of Light's HandsOn Network. (Students can request a paper application by calling 855-670-4787.)
The 2018 Awards Program
On February 6, 2018, the top middle level and high school volunteer from each state and the District of Columbia will be named State Honorees. They will receive $1,000, engraved silver medallions and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., with a parent or guardian for four days of recognition events from April 28-May 1, 2018.
In Washington, a distinguished national selection committee will name 10 of the 102 State Honorees as America's top youth volunteers of the year. These National Honorees will receive additional awards of $5,000, gold medallions, crystal trophies for their nominating schools or organizations, and $5,000 grants from The Prudential Foundation for nonprofit charitable organizations of their choice.
Several Distinguished Finalists in each state will receive bronze medallions, and runners-up will receive Certificates of Excellence. Local Honorees selected by schools and participating organizations for state-level judging will be presented with Certificates of Achievement; they will also receive President's Volunteer Service Awards if they have served the minimum number of volunteer hours to qualify (26 hours for age 10 and younger, 50 hours for ages 11-15 and 100 hours for older students).
About The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards
The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program is the United States' largest youth recognition program based solely on volunteer community service. The awards program also is conducted in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Ireland, India, China, Brazil and Poland, where Prudential has significant business operations.
The National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) is the leading organization of and voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals, and school leaders from across the United States. The association connects and engages school leaders through advocacy, research, education, and student programs. NASSP advocates on behalf of all school leaders to ensure the success of each student and strengthens school leadership practices through the design and delivery of high quality professional learning experiences. Reflecting its long-standing commitment to student leadership development, NASSP administers the National Honor Society, National Junior Honor Society, National Elementary Honor Society, and National Student Council. For more information about NASSP, located in Reston, VA, visit www.nassp.org.
Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential's diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management. In the U.S., Prudential's iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit www.news.prudential.com.
[Editors: The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program logo and other multimedia resources are available at http://spirit.prudential.com.]
SOURCE Prudential Insurance
Related Links
https://spirit.prudential.com
CARLSBAD, Calif., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Fisher Scientific today announced its Oncomine Dx Target Test has received a positive coverage decision by Regence BlueCross/BlueShield. The declaration makes the next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based companion diagnostic for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) available to members in four states.
Regence BlueCross/BlueShield coverage of the Oncomine Dx Target Test, which simultaneously evaluates 23 genes clinically associated with NSCLC, will be in effect in Oregon, Idaho, Utah and select counties of Washington. With this test, physicians can match patients to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved therapies in days instead of several weeks, which it often takes when screening samples one biomarker at a time.
"The decision to cover the Oncomine Dx Target Test marks an important milestone in the advancement of multi-biomarker-based tests. The benefits they can bring to patients by helping to get them on the right therapy more quickly without the cost and trauma of the trial and error associated with traditional single-gene testing is significant," said Joydeep Goswami, President of Clinical Next-Generation Sequencing and Oncology, at Thermo Fisher Scientific. "We look forward to seeing more health plans cover this test as they recognize the value of NGS-based companion diagnostics."
The Oncomine Dx Target Test received FDA approval in June, followed by a Proprietary Laboratory Analyses (PLA) code from the American Medical Association in August, leading to the posting of the positive coverage decision in the Regence BlueShield Medicare Advantage Policy this month.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., with NSCLC accounting for 85 percent of all lung cancers.1 According to the American Cancer Society, each year more people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined. It also estimates that there will be nearly 1.7 million new cases of cancer in 2017, 14 percent of which will be lung cancers.
More information about the Oncomine Dx Target Test is available at www.thermofisher.com/oncomine-dxtarget.
1. NonSmall Cell Lung Cancer: Epidemiology, Risk Factors, Treatment, and Survivorship; Julian R. Molina, MD, PhD, Ping Yang, MD, PhD, Stephen D. Cassivi, MD, Steven E. Schild, MD, and Alex A. Adjei, MD, PhD
About Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $20 billion and approximately 65,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive services. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.
Media Contact Information:
Mauricio Minotta
Thermo Fisher Scientific
+1 760 929 2456
+1 760 805 5266 (mobile)
[email protected]
or
Maurissa Messier
CG Life
+1 908 208 9254
[email protected]
SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
Related Links
http://www.thermofisher.com
AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Get your Guns Up, Lubbock! There's a new app in Towny. Now available for download, the free Towny app showcases participating locally-owned businesses offering deals and discounts that attract new customers to shop or dine with them, meanwhile encouraging everyone in Lubbock to support their favorite hometown businesses.
Towny, a mission-driven business based in Austin, Texas, works with local business owners and community financial institutions in mid-sized American cities to help reinforce their financial ecosystems, which are increasingly besieged by competitive pressures.
"Every household in Lubbock shops, dines and banks," says Don Shafer, CEO and Chief Evangelist of Towny. "However, most people don't give much thought to where they make purchases or make bank deposits. Our mission at Towny is to get every consumer to consciously choose to spend their money with local businesses and bank with community banks instead of 'clicking' it away to Amazon or banking with an out-of-state institution. That trend has unintended and serious consequences."
Shafer is referring to the economic and cultural repercussions associated with sending money to large retailers and financial centers instead of keeping it circulating locally. A vigorous circulation of currency is critical to the stability of local economies, and a robust local business sector preserves the authentic character and unique appeal of a community.
"Statistics show that for every 100 million dollars local consumers spend at big box stores, $84 million leaves Lubbock. If $100 million is spent at Amazon, $99 million leaves the local economy. Yet, if people spend that $100 million with locally-owned businesses, more than $50 million stays in town and continues to circulate here, creating more jobs and millions more in sales tax revenues to fund city services that are vital for a safe and vibrant Lubbock," says Shafer.
With 124 Lubbock business locations already on the app (and more than 220 active deals available), Lubbockians can easily discover new places, get immediate deals, and take pride in supporting their neighbor-owned businesses.
How do consumers get and use Towny?
Consumers can start getting great deals and support local businesses by texting "lovelubbock" to 31996 and downloading the free Towny app .
. Anyone with the app (and within geographic range) can discover local Towny businesses and take advantage of deals.
Lubbock is the first market launched by Towny, although Springfield, MO has served as a test market for Towny for the past year. The app is produced by Roll Forward, LLC.
For more information on how your business can participate with Towny, contact [email protected]. Consumers can download Towny from iTunes or Google Play stores.
Towny
Towny is owned and operated by Roll Forward, LLC, a private company based in Austin, Texas. Founders of Roll Forward, Don Shafer and John Burns, each have more than 20 years of founding and selling highly-successful companies that offer products and services in the financial market, including BancVue (now Kasasa), FundsXpress, BancLeasing and Banking Solutions. Towny is creating a movement across the U.S. establishing localized alliances of community financial institutions, locally-owned businesses and, soon, local charities to educate and encourage people to change their buying habits and spend their money locally. More information on Towny can be found at www.towny.com.
Media Contact:
Lynne Skinner
512.623.0683
[email protected]
Related Images
image1.jpg
Towny Logo
image2.png
How Much Stays Local?
image3.jpg
Related Links
Towny
SOURCE Towny
Related Links
http://www.towny.com
WAYNE, N.J., Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its ongoing commitment to support children and families which includes serving as champions of play for kids of all ages today the Toys"R"Us Children's Fund, a public charity affiliated with Toys"R"Us, Inc., announced it has donated $1 million to the Hamilton Education Program (EduHam). The donation provides thousands of high school students with a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience the hit musical HAMILTON through an innovative education program that focuses on history and the performing arts.
Over the course of several weeks, nearly 25,000 Title 1 high school students in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, will learn the past is far from boring. During the program, kids will see history through a new lens by studying Alexander Hamilton and nation's Founding Fathers, and by creating their own performance, such as an original song, spoken word or rap piece. Toys"R"Us worked closely with the EduHam team co-founded by Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History to ensure its donation would give each student a show-stopping final curtain call in their HAMILTON journey: the opportunity to experience the musical first-hand, in their hometown.
"At Toys"R"Us, kids are our number one priority whether they're just a few weeks old, or in this case, walking the halls of high school," said Dave Brandon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Toys"R"Us, Inc. "We're honored to support this five-year program and the thousands of students and teachers involved because we believe in the power that HAMILTON and EduHam has to help students flourish giving them a much-needed artistic and educational outlet, while making history fun."
"I am grateful for Toys"R"Us and its very generous gift to allow thousands of students across the U.S. the opportunity to study the Founding Fathers of our country through the Hamilton Education Program," said HAMILTON creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda. "Without support like this, we would not be able to share this impactful program with these students. #Eduham continues to be one of my greatest joys in creating HAMILTON."
To read more about the program, please visit https://www.toysrusinc.com/blog/toysrus-eduham-musical-magic.
HAMILTON is the story of America's Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington's right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and was the new nation's first Treasury Secretary. Featuring a score that blends hip-hop, jazz, blues, rap, R&B, and Broadway, HAMILTON is the story of America then, as told by America now.
Charitable Giving at Toys"R"Us
Toys"R"Us, Inc. is a global partner in philanthropic programs that advocate for the safety and happiness of all children. The company places a strong focus on partners and programs that provide basic necessities and opportunities for children in-need. Together with its charitable arm, the Toys"R"Us Children's Fund, Toys"R"Us has contributed more than $230 million to changing the lives of children around the globe.
ABOUT THE GILDER LEHRMAN INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN HISTORY
Founded in 1994 by philanthropists Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is the leading American history nonprofit organization dedicated to K12 education. With a focus on primary sources, the Gilder Lehrman Institute illuminates the stories, people and moments that inspire students of all ages and backgrounds to learn and understand more about history. Through a diverse portfolio of education programs, including the acclaimed Hamilton Education Program (#eduham), the Gilder Lehrman Institute provides opportunities for nearly two million students, 30,000 teachers and 14,000 schools worldwide.
For information on The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, visit www.gilderlehrman.org,www.Facebook.com/gilderlehrman,https://www.instagram.com/gilderlehrman and https://twitter.com/Gilder_Lehrman.
SOURCE Toys"R"Us, Inc.
Related Links
http://www.toysrus.com
ATLANTA, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Tropical Smoothie Cafe, the leading fast casual cafe concept known for its better-for-you food and smoothies with a tropical twist, announced today the opening of its newest franchised location in Cypress, Texas. Located at 28610 US-290, the new cafe marks the brand's 26th restaurant in the state and signifies its explosive growth and aggressive development efforts in Texas, with two additional cafes slated to open in Frisco and Carrollton this year. Tropical Smoothie Cafe continues to experience a surge in franchise development fueled by its ongoing success, with the company reporting comp sales exceeding 26 percent over the last three years.
"Houston has proven to be a prime market for Tropical Smoothie Cafe, with the success of our existing restaurants in the region propelling our continued expansion efforts in Texas," said Mike Rotondo, CEO of Tropical Smoothie Cafe. "Over the past several years, the brand has emerged as a leader in the fast casual segment and the fact that we've already opened more than 50 new locations this year further emphasizes our unstoppable momentum. We are thrilled to announce the opening of our new Cypress location and look forward to serving our better-for-you food and smoothie offerings to the vibrant Houston community."
The new Cypress cafe is owned and operated by first-time franchisees Binu and Jagriti Agrawal of AVA United, LLC. The Agrawals spent decades working as an IT consultant and licensed pharmacist before venturing into the restaurant industry to open their own business, something they always dreamed of doing. After learning of the company's remarkable success over the past several years, the husband-and-wife team landed on Tropical Smoothie Cafe. Coupled with its unparalleled service and innovative products, it was any easy decision for them to come to.
"There are countless fast casual franchise opportunities available, but when we were introduced to Tropical Smoothie Cafe, we knew that this was the type of concept we wanted to bring to our community," said Binu Agrawal. "As first-time business owners, we're proud to be part of such a reputable brand and thrilled to be a part of its expansion in Houston."
By 2020, Tropical Smoothie Cafe plans to have 1,000 stores open across the U.S. The food and smoothie franchise is looking to add qualified franchisees to its growing brand. Candidates should have business experience; $125,000 in liquid assets and a minimum net worth of $350,000; and an initial investment of between $220,770 and $525,400. The better-for-you food franchise currently boasts an average unit volume (AUV) of more than $662,000 the highest in the company's 20-year history with the top 50 percent reporting an AUV of more than $846,000.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe's aggressive franchise growth is backed by the entrepreneurs at the BIP Franchise Accelerator, a division of venture capital firm BIP Capital, which invested in the brand in 2010. BIP Capital has invested more than $250 million in emerging, high-growth brands across the franchising, software, and technology and consumer products industries. BIP Capital created the BIP Franchise Accelerator to leverage its leadership team's deep franchise experience to help emerging brands accelerate their growth. In addition to Tropical Smoothie Cafe, the BIP Franchise Accelerator's portfolio includes Tin Drum Asian Kitchen, which has grown to 11 locations in Georgia.
For more information about Tropical Smoothie Cafe, please visit www.tropicalsmoothiecafe.com.
About Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2017, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is a fast-casual restaurant concept inspiring healthier lifestyles across the country, with more than 600 locations nationwide. With snack and meal options for any time of day, Tropical Smoothie Cafe serves better-for-you smoothies, salads, wraps, sandwiches, and flatbreads. Upgraded app technology and enhanced mobile ordering capabilities further elevate the digital and dine-in cafe experience and emphasize the brand's focus on convenience. The rapidly growing franchise has received numerous accolades including being ranked on Entrepreneur's 2017 Franchise 500, 2016 Fast Casual Top 100 Movers and Shakers, Franchise Times' Top 200+ and Nation's Restaurant News' 2016 Top 200.
About the BIP Franchise Accelerator
The BIP Franchise Accelerator is a division of BIP Capital, an Atlanta-based venture capital firm with over $250 million invested in over 26 companies in emerging, high-growth brands across the franchising, software, technology and consumer products industries. BIP Capital created the BIP Franchise Accelerator to leverage its leadership team's deep franchise experience to help emerging brands accelerate their growth. The BIP Franchise Accelerator not only provides investment capital, but also uses proven strategies to help companies evolve into mature, thriving brands. From fast casual and QSR concepts to service brands and healthcare and education concepts, the BIP Franchise Accelerator has invested in emerging brands driven by people with an entrepreneurial spirit that have a great growth potential. Its current portfolio includes Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Tin Drum Asian Kitchen and BIP Franchise Finance. For more information on BIP Franchise Accelerator, visit www.bipfranchiseaccelerator.com.
CONTACT:
Nikki Rode
Fish Consulting
954-893-9150
[email protected]
SOURCE Tropical Smoothie Cafe
Related Links
http://www.tropicalsmoothiefranchise.com
DUBLIN, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN), a leading global biopharmaceutical company, today acknowledged that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has issued an adverse trial decision finding that the four asserted patents covering RESTASIS (Cyclosporine Ophthalmic Emulsion) 0.05% are invalid. The Company will appeal the Court's ruling.
"We are disappointed by the Federal District Court's decision on the RESTASIS patents. We are carefully reviewing the decision and are considering all options," said Robert D. Bailey, Chief Legal Officer, Allergan. "Allergan remains committed to vigorously defending the intellectual property of our products, which allows us to continue to invest in developing and bringing forward new medicines for millions of patients."
To date, none of the proposed generic versions of RESTASIS have received approval and none of these products would be able to launch in the market.
The patents include United States Patent Nos. 8,629,111; 8,648,048; 8,685,930 and 9,248,191. These patents, along with United States Patent Nos. 8,633,162 and 8,642,556, are listed in the Orange Book for RESTASIS and expire on August 27, 2024.
About Allergan plc
Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is a bold, global pharmaceutical company and a leader in a new industry model Growth Pharma. Allergan is focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing branded pharmaceutical, device, biologic, surgical and regenerative medicine products for patients around the world.
Allergan markets a portfolio of leading brands and best-in-class products for the central nervous system, eye care, medical aesthetics and dermatology, gastroenterology, women's health, urology and anti-infective therapeutic categories.
Allergan is an industry leader in Open Science, a model of research and development, which defines our approach to identifying and developing game-changing ideas and innovation for better patient care. With this approach, Allergan has built one of the broadest development pipelines in the pharmaceutical industry with 65+ mid-to-late stage pipeline programs currently in development.
Allergan's success is powered by our more than 18,000 global colleagues' commitment to being Bold for Life. Together, we build bridges, power ideas, act fast and drive results for our customers and patients around the world by always doing what is right.
With commercial operations in approximately 100 countries, Allergan is committed to working with physicians, healthcare providers and patients to deliver innovative and meaningful treatments that help people around the world live longer, healthier lives every day.
For more information, visit Allergan's website at www.Allergan.com.
Forward-Looking Statement
Statements contained in this press release that refer to future events or other non-historical facts are forward-looking statements that reflect Allergan's current perspective on existing trends and information as of the date of this release. Actual results may differ materially from Allergan's current expectations depending upon a number of factors affecting Allergan's business. These factors include, among others, the difficulty of predicting the timing or outcome of FDA approvals or actions, if any; the impact of competitive products and pricing; market acceptance of and continued demand for Allergan's products; difficulties or delays in manufacturing; and other risks and uncertainties detailed in Allergan's periodic public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to Allergan's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and Allergan's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2017. Except as expressly required by law, Allergan disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
CONTACTS: Allergan:
Investors:
Daphne Karydas
(862) 261-8006
Media:
Mark Marmur
(862) 261-7558
SOURCE Allergan plc
Related Links
http://www.allergan.com
Monday, October 16, 2017
When Robert Huskey died at the age of 86, his husband, Jack Zawadski, proceeded with prior plans to bury him at Picayune Funeral Homes in Mississippi. Upon discovering that Zawadski and Huskey were a same-sex couple, the funeral home refused to transport and cremate Huskeys body. Zawadski has filed suit under theories of breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent misrepresentation. This case may bring into question Mississippi HB 1523, which protects the rights of a business to turn away LGBTQ customers.
See Mark Joseph Stern, Man Sues Anti-Gay Mississippi Funeral Home for Refusing to Cremate His Husband, Slate, May 2, 2017.
Special thanks to Deborah Matthews for bringing this article to my attention.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/trusts_estates_prof/2017/10/man-sues-anti-gay-mississippi-funeral-home-for-refusing-to-cremate-his-husband.html
ALISO VIEJO , California, October 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
UST Global, a leading digital technology services company, today announced its collaboration with MIT Trust::Data Consortium. The alliance will focus on research and innovation of solutions for the data-driven society of the future.
(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/540539/UST_Global_Logo.jpg )
The MIT Trust::Data Consortium addresses the growing tension between societal data proliferation and data security by developing specifications, software, tools and documentation that help organizations adopt a holistic approach towards cyber security. Trust::Data is building new models for digital identity, data provenance, universal access, and secure privacy-preserving transactions to harness the future potential of global data sharing.
UST Global is focused on innovating digital solutions for the betterment of its customers and society. UST Global's alliance with MIT Trust::Data Consortium will allow the company to conduct research, and develop innovative solutions in areas of mutual interest.
Raju Chithambaram, Chief Transformation Officer at UST Global is a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Connection Science Lab and will be collaborating on projects like OPAL (Open Algorithms), CoreID to bring game-changing innovations to the fintech, healthcare, retail, media and other industries.
Commenting on the alliance, Raju said, "We are excited to collaborate with MIT Trust::Data Consortium, one of the most prestigious research institutes in the world, to conduct research and develop innovative solutions. Fintech or Healthcare industries would like to reap the benefit of shared data without ever compromising the privacy - PII (Personally Identifiable Information) or PHI (Protected Health Identifier) - of a single individual. Privacy preserving transactions will break this deadlock and accelerate innovation."
Sunil Kanchi, Chief Information Officer & Senior Vice President, UST Global, said, "This alliance comes at the right time when UST Global is at the forefront of developing new technologies, products and platform solutions. We are happy to extend our innovation capabilities beyond our Infinity Labs Innovation Centers to MIT Trust::Data Consortium."
Prof Alex 'Sandy' Pentland, Founding Faculty Director, MIT Connection Science Research Initiative, added, "We welcome UST Global for a joint research and innovation to solve difficult problems that global corporations and society face today. We are confident that UST Global's innovation capabilities and strong talent will add great value to our on-going and upcoming projects."
About MIT Trust::Data Consortium
The mission of The Trust::Data Consortium is to create open source tools and services that foster the development of a secure Internet-based network of trusted data.
With the emergence of massive global data ecosystems, The Trust::Data Consortium aims to provide people, organizations, and computers, the ability to manage access to their data more securely, efficiently and equitably, while protecting personal data from incursion and corruption. As we have moved from the analog world to the digital world, our data, security and governance systems have not kept pace. It has created numerous issues ranging from data insecurity (such as the large-scale government and private sector data losses of recent years) to a widening digital divide between rich and poor, including the global disenfranchisement of over 1.5 billion people who lack legal identity.
Evolving from the 25-year history of MIT Kerberos in MIT's famous Project Athena, Trust::Data continues the MIT tradition of solving difficult problems facing society today and in the future, and providing open source solutions, free to the world.
For more information, please visit: http://www.trust.mit.edu .
About UST Global
UST Global is a leading digital technology company that provides advanced computing and digital services to large private and public enterprises around the world. Driven by a larger purpose of Transforming Lives and the philosophy of "fewer clients, more attention", we bring in the entrepreneurial spirit that seeks the fastest path to value in today's digital economy. Our innovative technology services and pioneering social programs make us unique. UST Global is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California and operates in 21 countries. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies in Banking and Financial Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Retail, High Technology, Manufacturing, Shipping, and Telecom. UST Global believes in building long-lasting, strategic business relationships through agile and client-centric global engagement models that combines local experts & resources with cost, scale, and quality advantages of global operations.
For more information, please visit: http://www.ust-global.com .
UST Global Media Contact:
Media Relations
[email protected]
+91-8552944004
SOURCE UST Global
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- International Vintage Watch Company (IVWC), a Los Angeles, California Based Luxury Watch E-Commerce Company, has announced that it has opened an exclusive showroom to showcase and retail an extensive collection of fine vintage watches and authentic pre-owned timepieces. Featured collectable watch brands include vintage Omega, Rolex, Cartier, Longines, Patek Philippe, IWC, Seiko and others.
Showroom at 605 South Hill Street Los Angeles, 6th & Hill - International Vintage Watch Company. Featured collectable watch brands include vintage Omega, Rolex, Cartier, Longines, Patek Philippe, IWC, Seiko and others. Offerings include 1930's - 1950's collector pieces, 1960's retro models, 1970's classics and 1980's - 2000's modern styles, all professionally cleaned, serviced and restored in stunning detail. INTERNATIONAL VINTAGE WATCH COMPANY EXECUTIVES left to right - Jonathan Cohen, Jack Abramov, Danny Suleminian and Ron Cohen.
"We are pleased to display and present one of the finest and most varied vintage watch collections available anywhere!" said Jonathan Cohen, retail head at IVWC. "It's an amazing showcase of unbelievable timepieces, taking you back on a journey through timein a place that's new, hip and fun!" The store gives everyone a unique chance to see and appreciate these wonderful time machines up close."
Based in the historic Downtown Los Angeles Jewelry District, International Vintage Watch Company has become one of the fastest growing vintage watch dealers in the USA. The company currently sells watches online in the USA and internationally to over 50 countries through multiple websites and ecommerce platforms.
"The market for pre-owned and vintage watches has experienced tremendous demand in recent years. The showroom on Hill Street is an important extension of our business model. It is a physical destination point for our thousands of online customers and a unique and exciting place for local watch lovers and LA visitors to admire and buy these collectable treasures." Jonathan added.
Offerings include 1930's 1950's collector pieces, 1960's retro models, 1970's classics and 1980's 2000's modern styles, all professionally cleaned, serviced and restored in stunning detail.
The store features many collectable vintage premium Swiss and Japanese watches by the finest brands including: Rolex, Cartier, Patek Philippe, Omega, IWC, Vacheron Constantin, Piaget, Audemars Piguet, Franck Muller, Chronoswiss, Roger Dubuis, Universal Geneve, Bvlgari, Corum, Louis Vuitton, Tudor, Tiffany & Co., Panerai, Breitling, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Hublot, Chopard, Bell & Ross, Breguet, Glashutte, Girard Perregaux, Ulysse Nardin, Baume & Mercier, Sinn, Zenith, Rado, Seiko, Bulova, Gucci, Citizen, Orient, Enicar, Technos, Elgin, Ricoh, Milus, Wyler, Fortis, Tag Heuer, Longines, Movado, Benrus, Tissot, Fendi, Ebel, Movado, Raymond Weil, Oris, Hamilton and others.
International Vintage Watch Company is a collaboration of successful and recognized veterans from the Diamond, Jewelry and Watch worlds. "Each of our team members has over 25 years of experience in the industry," said Jack Abramov, Co-founder and CEO at IVWC. "Paired with our own appreciation for classic, quality timepieces, our operation is a labor of love."
The new Vintage Watch showroom at 605 South Hill Street features an exclusive VIP Customer Bar and Lounge Area and sits in the heart of downtown LA within walking distance from the Los Angeles Financial District, Museum of Contemporary Art, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Broad Museum, Grand Central Market, LA Central Library, Pershing Square, Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Wilshire Grand Center InterContinental Hotel, The Standard, LA Live, Los Angeles Convention Center, Staples Center, Grammy Museum, FIDM, Figat7th, OUE Skyspace LA and The Fashion District.
You can view the entire collection online at vintagewatchonline.com or visit the showroom at 605 SOUTH HILL STREET, Los Angeles, CA 90014
Store hours are Monday-Friday from 10AM-5PM
ABOUT INTERNATIONAL VINTAGE WATCH COMPANY (IVWC)
IVWC is one of the largest vintage watch dealers in the United States. Based in the Los Angeles Jewelry District, IVWC is world renowned for its expert restoration and supply of premium authentic vintage Swiss and Japanese made watches. The company sells online at vintagewatchonline.com, on Chrono24 at GMTSKY24, eBay store VIVIDLILY and others.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Jonathan Cohen
[email protected]
310-497-4569
310-922-2095
SOURCE International Vintage Watch Company
ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada, Oct. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Guy Palmer, a leading expert in infectious diseases and public health, will headline an esteemed group of presenters at the One Health One Medicine Symposium sponsored by St. George's University's October 21-22. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of St. George's -- and the 17th edition of SGU's Research Day/Phi Zeta Research Emphasis Day.
"Dr. Palmer's expertise in veterinary medicine and global health is unparalleled," said Dr. G. Richard Olds, president of St. George's University. "We are thrilled to have such an eminent scholar on campus to lead our exploration of the interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health."
Dr. Palmer is the founding director of the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health at Washington State University. He also holds the Jan and Jack Creighton Endowed Chair in Global Health at Washington State and is Regents Professor of Pathology & Infectious Diseases. He holds a doctorate of veterinary medicine from Kansas State University and a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from Washington State.
Currently, Dr. Palmer is investigating an array of public-health challenges, including rabies in East Africa, influenza in Central America, and how animal and human health programs can work together to improve nutrition, prevent zoonotic disease, and increase access to education.
"The One Health approach is crucial to solving global public-health problems ranging from outbreaks of disease to poverty and food scarcity," said Dr. Cal Macpherson, Vice Provost for International Program Development at St. George's and founding director of the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation. "Dr. Palmer is one of the leading lights in the One Health movement, and we look forward to his insights at this year's edition of the One Health One Medicine Symposium."
About St. George's University
St. George's University is a center of international education, drawing students and faculty from 140 countries to the island of Grenada, in the West Indies, to its programs in medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, science, social science, information technology, and business. St. George's is affiliated with educational institutions worldwide, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Ireland. The University's over 17,000 graduates include physicians, veterinarians, scientists, and public health and business professionals across the world. The University's programs are accredited and approved by many governing authorities and repeatedly recognized as the best in the region. For more information, visit www.sgu.edu.
Media Contact:
Yael Wollstein
(202) 471-4228 ext. 118
[email protected]
SOURCE St. George's University
Related Links
http://www.sgu.edu
DALLAS, Oct. 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The total market capitalization of the bitcoin market is poised to hit $100 billion USD; and has a thirst for more investment grade opportunities. The much- publicized ICO, watertoken.io/genesis makes its splash on the blockchain Oct. 19 and pre-sale has all the buzz of one of the largest ICOs in years. "The bitcoin meteoric rise is tremendous and Genesis Research & Technology Group wanted to be a part of a savvy investment exchange," says Ron Price, CEO of Genesis Research & Technology Group. The Water Token ICO will begin on Oct. 19 and the company will use the collected funds to expand worldwide while cleaning water chemical-free with its patented proven technology. According to the white paper, Genesis Water Token will pre-sale at a 20 percent bonus until Oct. 26. The ICO will run for a maximum of 30 days or until the hard cap of $200 million USD is reached, or until sold out, whichever comes first. The sale will not extend; and no further tokens will be issued and any unsold tokens will be burnt.
The Genesis Water Token will give investors a ground-floor opportunity in the oil and gas industry which spends enormous resources in the treatment of water. "The fact that water can be cleaned chemical-free and reused over and over is a breakthrough in the oil and gas market," says Jeff Soward, Chief Technology Officer of Genesis Research & Technology Group. Mr. Soward goes on to say, "To produce one barrel of oil can take up to ten barrels of water; which under the antiquated system used industry-wide, that toxic water is trucked and dumped into a disposal site. The Genesis System cleans the water on the actual drilling location and with green chemical-free technology the water is reused over and over again at one-tenth of the cost. This is a gamechanger." The Genesis Research & Technology Group patented technology is a portable and scalable system that resides on-site and treats the water immediately.
Fracking has always been a part of the oil and gas industry. Water is paramount in breaking the oil from the plates in the Earth and thereby mining the barrels of oil, the water then becomes toxic.The problem has been retuning that toxic water back to the Earth which can increase seismic activity. "The oil and gas industry wins because the frack water can be reused multiple times while eliminating the use of disposal wells that can be a detriment to the environment," says Cheryl Ryan COO of Genesis Research & Technology Group. Congress has long said that the Earth needed a "greener hand" in the oil and gas industry. In a statement, U.S. Representative Glenn 'GT' Thompson (R-PA) said in regard to the use of our natural resources: "For more than 150 years, since the first commercial oil well was drilled near Titusville, Pennsylvania, conventional oil and gas has been a key piece of the Pennsylvania economy, creating billions in wealth and providing jobs for tens of thousands of residents. I am thrilled to work with the oil industry to bring new, safe, and advanced technology to Pennsylvania's Fifth Congressional District. With the addition of such state-of-the-art water treatment, I look forward to another 150 years of sound, safe, American energy."
About Genesis Research and Technology Group: Genesis Research and Technology Group is a U.S.-based company that has developed a patented, state-of-the-art technology that provides clean reusable water for the world's population. The Company exploits its CHEMICAL-FREE technology as its efforts are being recognized by several leading government agencies developing and implementing Green technologies to protect and preserve our Earth's resources.
Genesis Research and Technology Group provides custom-built state-of-the-art water treatment technologies for all types of water. Years of research and development go into perfecting this technology that allows Genesis to offer its clients a sole source, reusable water filtering and cleansing technology that is totally chemical-free.
For more information: watertoken.io/genesis
Media Contact:
Patricia Almand
Phone: 855-8100UMG
Email: [email protected]
SOURCE Genesis Research and Technology Group
Related Links
http://watertoken.io/genesis/
In what has become a well-known story in the international publishing community, the Canadian Copyright Act was amended in 2012 to include "education" as a purpose for fair dealing. But with no definition of "education" offered by the Act, Canadian schools have over the last five years operated under arbitrary guidelines, understood to permit the uncompensated copying and distribution of print and digital copies. These copies amount to hundreds of millions of pages each year.
Unsurprisingly, the Canadian publishing industry has suffered significant economic damage as a result.
Collective licensing revenue across the industry is down 80% since 2013a loss of $53 million (CAD) in licensing royalties alone after K-12 Departments of Education and the vast majority of Canadian universities and colleges ceased paying licensing fees to Access Copyright, the copyright collective that administers Canadian licenses outside of Quebec. In addition, free copies have become a substitute for finished books, with the loss of those sales compounding the damage.
The net result: reduced investment in innovative products, and fewer high-quality educational resources developed in Canada, for the Canadian market. Some multinational publishing firms have shuttered entire Canadian educational publishing divisions and laid off staff. Others have moved warehousing and distribution to the United States, weakening Canadian supply chains. Canadian houses, meanwhile, are redirecting investment away from education, and the financial impact on Canadian writers is dramatic.
But a recent legal decision has the potential to influence the upcoming five-year review of the Copyright Act, with rightsholders calling on the government to address the damage stemming from the introduction of fair dealing for education.
The York University Case
Since 2012, uncompensated copying and distribution of print and digital copies has become the norm in Canadian schools. And with the education sector unwilling to come to the table, and the law silent on what constitutes fair dealing in an educational context, litigation remains one of the few avenues available to rightsholders.
The first legal test of the education sectors copying guidelines came in the form of a lawsuit against Torontos York University. Filed by Access Copyright in 2013, the suit alleged that Yorks copying guidelines authorize and encourage copying that is unsupported by Canadian law.
In July, 2017, the Federal Court of Canada ruled unequivocally in favour of Access Copyright, finding Yorks guidelines to be unfair in both their terms and application, and that tariffs issued by Canadas Copyright Board (the regulatory body authorized to establish royalty rates for the use of copyright protected works administered by collective societies) are mandatory. In short, the Court found that Yorks copyright policies and practices served primarily to obtain for free that which they had previously paid for.
Collective licensing revenue across the industry is down 80% since 2013a loss of $53 million (CAD) in licensing royalties.
The Court also found that the universitys actions have had an adverse effect on writers and publishers, resulting in a wealth transfer from copyright holders to educational institutions.
Though the case specifically examined Yorks policies and practices, the propagation of similar policies throughout the sector means that the mass systemic and systematic copying identified by the Court can be assumed to be widespread. Indeed, for all practical purposes, most Canadian post-secondary institutions and K-12 schools have copyright policies identical to Yorks.
Though the Courts decision provided much-needed guidance on fair dealing for education, and affirmed the position the Association of Canadian Publishers and other rightsholder groups have put forward for years, resolution is far from certain.
Despite the Courts clarity, the response of universities across Canada has been disappointing. For its part, York has announced its intention to appeal the decision, and K-12 Departments of Education have been silent. Rather than examine the Courts findings as they apply to their own institutions, universities, colleges and schools are instead maintaining the policies and procedures that the Court found lead to illegal behavior.
At the same time, the need for high quality Canadian curriculum resources that reflect local realities has not diminished, and demand for Canadian educational content remains high; however the ongoing supply of Canadian learning resources remains uncertain.
Lets Come to the Table
In an article for last years PW Frankfurt Show Daily, I noted that the Canadian experience serves as a cautionary tale for other territories considering these kinds of copyright reforms. And accordingly, international interest in Canadas situation is growing, especially as the upcoming five-year parliamentary review of the Copyright Act approaches.
As of this writing, the scope and timing of the review have yet to be announced, though it is anticipated that the process will launch in early November and extend into 2018. In the meantime, as Canadian publishers and creators await details of Yorks appeal, as well as the parliamentary review, financial losses continue to grow. Canadian students returned to schools this fall, and in many cases are relying on illegally produced copies to support their learning.
A simple solution is available, however: let's return to an affordable collective licensing regime, providing Canadian students with worry-free access to the resources they need, and rightsholders fair remuneration.
Achieving this does not require a review of the Copyright Act. All it requires is a willingness on both sides to strike the right balance between the interests of users and rightsholders, and leadership on the part of government to ensure this balance is upheld.
Kate Edwards is Executive Director of the Association of Canadian Publishers.
Ithaca residents try to save a beloved indie; new store opening in Florida; Foyles to offer book subscriptions; B&N planning concept store for Texas; and more.
Ithaca Residents Try to Save Local Indie: Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, N.Y. is $100,000 in debt and locals are looking for ways to save the store.
California Booksellers Shelter from Wildfires: The wildfires tearing through northern California have affected numerous bookstores.
New Florida Bookstore Opens: The Book Cellar in Lake Worth, Fla. opened earlier this month.
New Massachusetts Bookstore Preps for Opening: Whitelam Books will open in the town of Reading in early November.
B&N to Open Concept Store in Texas: A new Barnes & Noble location outside of Plano will be the first in the region to feature a full service restaurant.
Hemingway Site to Include New Bookstore: The Hemingway Museum in Oak Park, Ill. has closed and the site is expected to reopen as a writing center and bookstore.
Foyles Offers Gift Subscription Service: The U.K. bookstore chain will begin offering book subscription packages for six different genres this Christmas season.
Independent literary magazine A Public Space has launched a book publishing imprint, APS Books.
The imprint will debut its first title, the story collection Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage by Bette Howland (her first book in 30 years), in fall 2018. The inaugural list will include three more books: one on creativity and the artistic process by British filmmaker Sally Potter; a collection of the journals and letters of artist Dorothea Tanning; and an anthology of responses to a memo by Italo Calvino, edited by Martha Cooley.
"For my mother, the joyful labor of creative writing was ultimately a moral vocation," Howland's son, Jacob, said in a statement. "My brother, Frank, and I are thrilled that A Public Space is reintroducing a new generation of readers to her work."
Founded by former Paris Review editor Brigid Hughes, A Public Space launched in 2006 with a mission "to publish overlooked and unclassifiable work, seeking out work from beyond established confines." The magazine has since featured such writers as Jesmyn Ward and Amy Leach, both of whose first work was published by the magazine.
Bookseller Suzanne DeGaetano of Macs Backs in Cleveland, Ohio, said it best when she described this years Heartland Fall Forum as running smoothly, like a well-oiled machine. The event joined in a single show, for the sixth year, the members of the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association and the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association.
This years show was hosted by GLIBA, and took place October 11-13 at the Westin Hotel in the Chicago suburb of Lombard, Ill., where Heartland was held in 2015.
With approximately 275 booksellers from 109 stores attending Heartland, numbers were a little lower than the 2015 show, but on par with last years gathering in Minneapolis. Attendance was split almost evenly between the two organizations, with 51 MIBA bookstores, 55 GLIBA bookstores, and three stores holding memberships in both organizations. Additionally, 40% of the booksellers at this year's show were attending Heartland for the first time.
If there was a theme to this years gathering, it was that all in attendance--booksellers, vendors and over 160 authors--are essential links in the publishing supply chain. The only job we have as publishers is to connect authors with readers, Sourcebooks' senior v-p and editorial director Todd Stocke told booksellers during Wednesday afternoons booksellers outing to the company's headquarters in nearby Naperville.
Many of the educational sessions on Thursday focused on the ways indie booksellers can prevail in a competitive marketplace. Female Factor CEO Bridget Brennan, the author of Why She Buys, said female consumers, who are often the primary buyers in families, [look] at purchases through the lens of other peoples wants and needs. Brennan urged booksellers to strive to meet the needs of this key demographic. Its not about the product, its about service, Brennan explained.
Customer service was also emphasized in another educational session called What Amazon Cant Do, with four booksellers relating things they've done both solo and in collaboration with other local indie bookstores to effectively distinguish their bricks-and-mortar stores from the online retailer. During the panel, Nina Barrett of Bookends and Beginnings in Evanston, Ill. declared: Amazon has a smile on its box: I have a smile on my face.
While booksellers usually have big holiday titles on their minds during the regionals, this year Heartland booksellers seemed more intent on finding reads that reflect these tumultuous times. The three titles most mentioned by booksellers were The Immortalists (Putnam) by Chloe Benjamin, a novel exploring themes of fate and destiny; An American Marriage (Algonquin) by Tayari Jones, about a mans incarceration and its impact upon his marriage; and They Cant Kill Us Until They Kill Us (Two Dollar Radio), a collection of essays by the poet Hanif Abdurraqib in which he uses music as a lens through which to view his world as a young African-American man who used to identify as Muslim.
[Abdurraqib] seems like a bright light in a difficult time. We can use his voice, said Kris Kleindienst, the co-owner of Left Bank Books in St. Louis.
Heartland Fall Forum will return to Minneapolis next year and will be hosted by MIBA. The conference will be held once again at The Depot, October 3-5, 2018.
At the 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair, Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle offered an optimistic state-of-the-publishing-industry address at the fair's opening press conference. Below are Dohle's full remarks as written by Dohle in English, which he shared with PW (Dohle's actual talk in Frankfurt was delivered in German).
DOHLE: Margaret Atwood [who received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade at the 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair] has said: Youre never going to kill storytelling. Its built into the human plan. We come with it.
I agree with Margaret completely. And, in keeping with this idea, let me posit a thesis about trade publishing. The global book business is doing better now than it has been for the past 50 years, and perhaps even since its inception, and that was some 500 years ago.
I am certain that this idea will take many of my industry peersand maybe some of youby surprise. But there are five reasons for my optimism.
First, international book markets and territorial publishing continue to grow in most countries. Growth, though slow, has been in many cases continuous for fifteen years, since the digital transformation of the media industry began. This is true for most established book markets and for all emerging markets, which have exhibited higher, in some cases double-digit growth. We are one of the only physical media categories to experience overall revenue increases during the digital transformation that has occurred over the past decade-plus.
Second, we have relatively stable business models for selling and delivering print and e-books to readers. Amazons Kindle will be celebrating its tenth birthday next month. The Kindle launch in November 2007 marked a breakthrough for digital books in the mass market. The business model for e-books was in flux for some years, to put it mildly, especially in the large Anglo-American markets. After some disruption and a lengthy lawsuit in the U.S., we have had a widespread business model, in terms of media content, for the past two years. The Kindle launch ten years ago also positively affected the book industrys ability to respond reasonably and successfully to piracy, particularly in the major book markets.
The strength of print booksand their continuous growth in some of our major marketshas been a stabilizing factor for the book business diversity and, with that, the entire book ecosystem.
Third, we have achieved a healthy coexistence between print and digital books. Who would have imagined that, in 2017, we would be observing an 80:20 split among those formats globally? You might say that many so called experts predicted the split five years ago. But the split that experts and other observers were predicting was that 80% of all books sold today would be digital. Many were even predicting the death of print books.
Yet todays reality shows that the relationship is exactly the opposite. Sales of the most popular e-books by traditional publishers have declined in the last three years in the major Anglo-American markets. In many European countries, e-book sales are stagnating; in emerging markets, revenue and sales are growing more slowly in the digital segment than expected. In fact, print books have experienced a veritable renaissance. This is having a massive stabilizing effect on physical retail. And we need to preserve a diverse retail landscape if we want to ultimately sustain the diversity of stories, opinions, and ideas in book form.
Just imagine that we now had a split of, lets say, 50:50 between print and e-book sales. The book retail landscape would certainly look completely different, and would very likely be significantly smaller. Thus the strength of print booksand their continuous growth in some of our major marketshas been a stabilizing factor for the book business diversity and, with that, the entire book ecosystem.
Fourth, and another reason for my optimism, more people and demographic change. The planets growing population and the decline in illiteracy are increasing the number of potential readers we can reach worldwide significantly each year. Even today, we as Penguin Random House sell our books in more than 100 countries, particularly in the English language.
Let me give you two examples: India has a young, quickly growing population of 1.3 billion people; 10% of whom speak fluent English. This makes India the worlds second largest English speaking country, after the U.S. In fact, the number of Indian English speakers is approximately twice the population of the U.K., which is a major reason why we have had publishing operations in India for more than 30 years and why we continue to grow our business there.
Brazil and Mexico, two of our most important emerging markets, have a total population of some 300 million, many of them young. Combined, this makes these important, developing economies almost as large as that of Central Europe or the United States. And Brazil and Mexico are growing rapidly.
These examples show that markets, such as India and Latin America, demonstrate a growth potential for our business. At the same time, international e-commerce companies support us in distributing our titles in those markets which have a less efficient and extensive supply of bookshops.
And finally, fifth, books for children and young adults remain the fastest-growing category in most book markets over the last ten years. This is a very good indication that, despite a declining attention span among young people and competition from other media segments and from social media, we will be able to turn the younger generation into lifelong readers of stories in their longer form. Fact is, most of the global mega-bestsellers of the last 20 years have been books for young adults.
This year we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter. Harry, of course was succeeded by many other global phenomena, including the Twilight Series, Eragon, and the Hunger Games. Just today [October 10, 2017] we are publishing the new young adult novel by John Green Turtles All the Way Down, in the U.S. Greens last young adult novel and movie tie-in, The Fault in Our Stars, sold almost 10 million copies in the U.S. alone.
Beyond that, brain researchers have discovered that reading in our younger years in long form and especially of print formatsand the resulting involvement in complex plots and charactersdevelops synapses in the brain that cannot be created by any other use of media or method of absorbing information. Reading stories in book form, and in print, therefore not only trains us to be empathetic, simply put, it also makes us smarter.
That said, and after all my optimism, let me pour a little cold water on the subject. Despite all the opportunities, our business is not without challenges. I have always emphasized that the essence of the industrys digital transformation is not about format, and that it is best to remain agnostic about reader preferences. E-books are simply a new format, comparable to the introduction of paperbacks by Penguins Allen Lane in the 1930s.
The fundamental challenge posed by the digital transformation is the change from a B2B-oriented, publisher to bookstore publishing industry to one that is B2C-oriented (publisher to reader). In an online-dominated world, we publishers must become more reader-centric and we need to establish a direct connection with the reader. Given the way that the e-commerce market for books of all formats is developing and growing, we need a completely new approach to marketing books. We also have to be able to generate demand for our books directly, and at scale.
We have been saying for years that, in todays digital world, we basically have to reinvent how we advertise and publicize new books. In 2013, here in Frankfurt, I already described this as cracking the code of discoverability. What that means is that in the future we must first, generate demand for new books directly with readers, and second, improve the visibility of our books, especially online.
And therein lies the true challenge: discoverability is the essence of the book trades digital transformation, not the format mix.
At the same time, opportunities for self-publishing and streaming books are growing. Traditional publishing houses and bookshops are not participating in either phenomenon in a scalable manner.
Today, 50 million book titlesincluding all formats and used booksare available from Amazon. Yes, you heard correctly: 50 million. We are drowning in titles, and yet all of us are thirsting for the next great story. Nonetheless, this challenge also presents publishers with an opportunity.
We stand for quality, and we perfect each productboth the content and the packagingbefore we bring it to market. With that, we give our readers the orientation and promise of quality they need to make their way through this deluge of new, and often self-published titles.
In 2012, Malcolm Gladwell already brilliantly described this opportunity when he said: In a world of infinite choice, it is the editor who is the king. Dont give me more, give me less and make it goodand you will be in business forever.
I am confident that we can engage with and ultimately master the challenges stemming from the digital transformation of the book industry. My optimism is based on the belief that telling and consuming stories will continue to remain important and attractive for coming generations. As Margaret Atwood has said, it is anchored in our DNA.
The audiobook business, which by the way has been posting double-digit growth for many years in numerous countries, essentially harkens back to telling and listening to stories around the campfire. This trend can be found among all demographic groups.
Furthermore, every good film and every good television series is based on a good story, and in most cases, those stories begin with a great book. Hollywoods thirst for stories, from established studios as well as new players in the businessamong them Netflix, Amazon and Apple, Hulu, Facebook and Googlehas never been greater than it is today. And each iteration of a story as a film or a TV series increases sales of the original story, namely, in the form of the book.
Let me conclude by saying that our investment in and dissemination of multifaceted and diverse ideas and opinions is more important than ever before, especially today.
Penguin Random House invests $750 million in new stories every year. In the future, we as publishers, and the book industry as a whole, want to and must continue to fulfill our social responsibility. The written word in book form has not lost its importance for our social discourse and for the future of our democratic values and our basic social order.
Words, language and culture are more important than ever before, especially given the political situation around the globe. Margaret Atwood expressed it concisely: War happens when language fails. How true.
Ladies and Gentlemen, our mission as publishers remains unchanged. We want to shape the future of the book, and the future of reading for coming generations. If we succeed in this mission, then we, the book industry, will be financially successful, too.
After two straight years of modest gains in attendance in the professional segment of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the 2017 event was essentially flat, down just .02% from last year. Fair officials reported that total attendance, which includes the public visitors on the fair's closing day, was up by 3% over last year.
In all, some 286,425 visitors attended the fair, along with 7,300 exhibitors from 102 countries. That's up from 275,342 total visitors in 2016, and 281,753 in 2015.
In the fairs professional program, the 2017 Frankfurt Book Fair was marked by a sense of stability in the publishing industry. In his opening address, Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle suggested that the global book business is doing better now than it has been for the past 50 years, and perhaps even since its inception, citing among other things consistent, if slow, growth in many territories, and balance among print and digital formats.
Politics loomed large over this years event, amid a wave of rising nationalism in Europe. And on the fairs public day on October 14, which usually features costumed fans visiting the fair for author readings and other programs, police this year had to break up clashes among protestors.
This year we experienced physical altercations between left-wing and right-wing groups that had to be disbursed by the police, acknowledged Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, in a statement. Boos added that fair organizers reject violence, but stressed that, as the organizers of the largest international trade fair for books and media, we are obliged to uphold the fundamental right to free expression.
President Trump's recent speech on Afghanistan called out Pakistan for harboring terrorists targeting U.S. and Afghan forces across the border, and hinted that billions of dollars in U.S. military and counterterrorism aid are at stake. U.S. aid to Pakistan has averaged $12 billion annually since 2002, spent mainly on reimbursing the military for support in the tribal areas along the Afghan border, securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, drug interdiction and disaster relief. A lively debate rages in Pakistan about whether such a small amount of targeted aid is worth accepting.
By contrast, China is four years into joint planning and construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, a $62 billion, 15-year joint infrastructure and economic development package of nearly 60 road, rail, port, power generation, communications and industrial zone projects that stretch 1,500 miles from Kashgar in southwest China to the Pakistani port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea.
As many as 15,000 Chinese engineers, planners and laborers will have been deployed laying fiberoptic cable from the Chinese border south to Rawalpindi; paving a new Karachi-Lahore highway; upgrading track and roadbed on the 1,200-mile ML-1 Karachi-Peshawar rail line; building a new Gwadar airport; and adding 16,000 megawatts of coal, hydro, solar and wind power from 13 new plants. CPEC is scheduled for completion in 2030, with major projects operational by 2023. Progress has been steady but slow, with 19 projects, valued at $18.5 billion, completed or underway.
Both countries will gain. China will get sea access for its landlocked, economically depressed western provinces; a shorter, secure route for its Gulf fuel imports; and fueling and staging capability for Chinese naval vessels. Both countries will obtain expanded access to each other's markets. Pakistan gets a nationwide infrastructure modernization that will add an estimated 700,000 jobs and 2.5 percentage points to GDP and that is widely seen as a lifeline after two decades of economic stagnation.
Beneath the surface, China is testing a new build it and they will come model for delivering economic development and foreign aid. CPEC offers a mix of concessionary loans, grants and public-private projects combining infrastructure, industrial zone development and integrated logistics. It emphasizes pragmatic mutual benefit, without conditions on governance, political reforms, labor and human rights or other Western soft power concerns, although security guarantees for China's military are often found in the small print.
CPEC's success will provide an early benchmark for China's much larger and more ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, which commits $1 trillion in energy and infrastructure investment over 201323 toward creation of a vast Eurasian trade area spanning 68 countries from China, via South and Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa, to Europe.
The risks for China lie in the implementation of projects and in local politics across weak frontier economies plagued by poor transportation and communications, conflicting trade and technical standards, corruption and terrorism. Pakistan shares many of these problems, but is also a functioning democracy with a relatively educated bureaucracy and professional workforce.
Challenges slowing CPEC implementation so far have been daunting:
Power shortages are ongoing and severe. Demand nationwide exceeds capacity by 47,000 megawatts throughout the year. Theft of power is rampant; payment of utility bills is sporadic at best. Daily outages averaging four hours in cities and eight in rural areas, doubling in peak summer and holiday periods. Businesses close early; food spoils without refrigeration; construction stalls.
Security is a major concern. Balochistan separatists have killed more than 50 laborers on CPEC-related projects since 2014 in roadside bombings and drive-by shootings. Jihadist attacks this year on a civilian hospital and a police academy in Quetta, and the killing of two Chinese teachers, led to formation of a 14,000-member special Pakistan Army security division to protect CPEC projects, Chinese nationals and Pakistani workers.
Project finance is a balancing act for Chinese banks already struggling with massive debt loads and non-performing loans back home. With the highest-quality projects mostly financed, lending has slowed despite pressure from Beijing to finance more dubious projects in riskier locations. China's efforts to get banks in Hong Kong and other regions where it has influence to invest have so far been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Pakistani lenders and investors complain they are frozen out of CPEC project opportunities.
Mistrust of China is likely to grow as 2018 Pakistani elections approach, if CPEC cannot produce quicker, more widespread results. Local businesses and workers bristle at preferences for Chinese labor and materials and at a top-down management approach that often disregards local concerns. The 700,000 jobs created over more than a decade is relatively small in a country of 193 million. CPEC-related imports of Chinese equipment and materials have eaten into Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves and put downward pressure on the currency. Many fear that a flood of government-directed, debt-financed lending could outstrip Pakistan's ability to repay over time, leaving critical land and infrastructure assets in Chinese hands.
Despite these obstacles it would be a mistake to assume that CPEC is stalled, let alone doomed to failure, as skeptics suggest. In fact, progress to date suggests that CPEC may well succeed and that political support in Pakistan will remain strong.
Prominent stakeholders in the region have been slow to react, and initial reactions appear to be more competitive than cooperative: The Indo-Pacific Freedom Corridor proposed by India and Japan has similar infrastructure development intentions to BRI, focused on Southeast Asia. The U.S. has revived a 2011 New Silk Road package of energy and infrastructure projects integrating South and Central Asia, this time in partnership with India and focusing on Afghanistan assistance, while President Trump's recent speech suggests a continued security-based approach in Pakistan.
History is unclear on the net benefits when great powers confer favors on poor countries to achieve political or security objectives. Generally speaking, economic initiatives have more often led to successful outcomes. A lot can still go wrong for China in Pakistan and across Eurasia. But CPEC projects already up and running send a clear message to all Asia-Pacific powers eager to participate in a regional market projected to comprise more than 80 percent of global growth in 21st century: If you're not a serious player, you can't win.
Rafiq Dossani is director of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy (CAPP), a senior economist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Niels Erich is a San Francisco-based business consultant specializing in trade, transportation and logistics, with a focus on Asia.
This commentary originally appeared on U.S. News & World Report on October 12, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
New presidents with limited experience in the national security realm tend to make unforced errors that sometimes end up costing the nation dearly. Think of President John F. Kennedy's decision to launch the emigre-manned, CIA-organized invasion of Cuba that ended ignominiously in the Bay of Pigs; Lyndon Johnson's decision to vastly ramp up American involvement in Vietnam's civil war, dispatching hundreds of thousands of American combat troops to supplement the small advisory presence already in the country; Ronald Reagan's decision to intervene in Lebanon's civil war, which ended in the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut and their subsequent withdrawal; Bill Clinton's similar mishandling of the Somalia intervention that resulted in the Black Hawk Down incident; and most consequential of all, George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq on the basis of flawed intelligence. These decisions are almost universally seen as costly neophyte mistakes, sometimes even by the presidents who made them.
We are in the ninth month of the administration of the least-experienced American president in modern American history. So far, there have been no beginner's stumbles in the national security realm comparable to those marring many of his predecessors' early tenures.
This may be about to change. President Donald Trump has signaled that he is likely to decline the congressionally mandated requirement to certify that Iran is adhering to its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action to dismantle its nuclear weapons program. He reportedly intends to do this despite having twice certified Iran's complianceand against the advice of all his chief national security advisers, including the secretaries of state and defense and members of the intelligence community, all of whom insist that Iran is still abiding by the agreement.
The alternatives to the nuclear agreement are clear. Either Iran will develop nuclear weapons, or the United States will go to war to prevent this, or both. Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, an advocate of so-called decertification, is clear on what he thinks such a war would look like. Let there be no doubt about this point," Cotton has said. "If forced to take action, the United States has the ability to totally destroy Iran's nuclear infrastructure. And if they chose to rebuild it, we could destroy it again, until they get the picture.
In other words, the war would require a multi-year campaign, similar to the one the United States and its European allies mounted over Iraq from 1991 through 2003, involving continuous overflights and intermittent bombing for more than a decade. And even then the U.S. was not confident that it had succeeded in destroying Iraq's nuclear weapons program. But in the Iran case the United States would have no European allies, would not be backed by a United Nations mandate to conduct the military campaign, might not have access to some of the necessary bases, and would be opposed by a much more capable enemy that unlike Iraq is capable of procuring the most modern anti-air defense systems from abroad.
Trump is reportedly counting on Congress to save him from such an outcome. He apparently hopes to decertify Iran, yet have Congress pull back from re-imposing the sanctions lifted as part of the nuclear accord. This may be an effort to satisfy a campaign promise while avoiding unpopular and costly consequences, such as launching an open-ended war with Iran.
In modern times, Americans have looked to the presidencyrepresenting the country as a wholeto counterbalance the more parochial tendencies of Congress, whose members are elected by much narrower constituencies. We now seem to be in a situation in which we must count on Congress to counteract a chief executive's unwise and short-sighted policies. As a result, the American system of checks and balances may soon experience an unaccustomed test with momentous consequences.
James Dobbins is a senior fellow with the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, a former assistant secretary of state and the author of Foreign Service: Five Decades on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy.
This commentary originally appeared on U.S. News & World Report on October 12, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
Kantar IBOPE Media is launching its measurement tool for time-shift viewing and video-on-demand (VOD) platforms in Argentina.
This will be the first time the service will be available in Latin America and is part of Kantars expansion strategy in the region which recently saw the addition of Facebook data to its social TV tool in several LATAM territories The move was announced as Kantar IBOPE Media celebrated 25 years analysing the Argentinean TV market.IBOPE has been leader in Latin America and together with Kantar we have reached a global footprint of over 50 countries, said Ariel Hajmi, commercial director, Southern Cone, Latin America, Kantar IBOPE Media . We are very optimistic about the years ahead. The industry is going through a period of transformation that always drives opportunities.We are working together with the industry to create new solutions to measure video content consumption across new platforms, which is why well soon be launching the measurement tool for time-shift viewing and video streaming in Argentina, continued the executive.Kantar IBOPE Media was launched in 2015, following a rebranding of both Kantar and IBOPE Media after the former acquired a controlling stake of the latter.
The Global Systems for Mobile communication Association (GSMA) has said that it is monitoring developments in Spain and Catalonia and assessing any potential impact for next years Mobile World Congress.
However, the GSMA also confirmed that the MWC 2018 will be held in Barcelona, as there have been no major issues regarding security or organisation in the city.The GSMA has an agreement in place with the Barcelona City Partners making Barcelona the Mobile World Capital and host city of the GSMA Mobile World Congress through 2023 . The 2018 edition of Mobile World Congress will take place in Barcelona from 26 February to 1 March 2018, the organisation stated.With over 110,000 visitors every day and a potential 500-plus million in revenue for the city over the course of the event, MWC has become a key event for Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain in recent years.Despite the GSMAs statement, many companies and organisations have been taking measures in recent weeks to avoid potential problems caused by the current political situation.According to Spains Expansion , the organisers of the Barcelona event fear that the political situation will contribute to the recently-launched Mobile World Congress Americas becoming the most important event for the industry.
Full coverage of the Delphi murders: Look back at 5 years of stories
See how the Delphi murders and investigation unfolded through our coverage that began the day Abby and Libby went missing.
A senior European Union official prepares to visit Minsk amid reports that Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka will be invited to the EU's Eastern Partnership summit for the first time.
On the new Power Vertical Briefing, we preview this week's visit to Minsk by Johannes Hahn, the EU's commissioner for European neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations, and look at Belarus's ongoing flirtation with the West and where it may be heading.
Also on The Briefing, we look ahead to what the Kremlin says will be an important speech by Vladimir Putin at the Valdai Discussion forum this week.
Joining me is RFE/RL news editor Steve Gutterman.
Enjoy...
NOTE: The Power Vertical Briefing is a short look ahead to the stories expected to make news in Russia in the coming week. It is hosted by Brian Whitmore, author of The Power Vertical blog, and appears on Mondays.
LUXEMBOURG -- Meeting in Luxembourg, European Union foreign ministers have reiterated the blocs commitment to Bosnia-Herzegovinas EU perspective as a single, united, and sovereign country.
In a document adopted at an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on October 16, the ministers deplored that a divisive rhetoric rooted in the past and an early electoral agenda have over the last months slowed down the pace of reform and affected the political climate in Bosnia.
They also urged Sarajevo to step up efforts including regarding the functioning and the independence of the judiciary, the fight against corruption and organized crime, as well as the fight against terrorism and the prevention of radicalization.
Bosnia has lagged behind its neighbors on the path toward EU membership. An Association Agreement between the EU and Bosnia was signed in 2008 but didn't enter into force until 2015, due mainly to Sarajevo's lack of progress on reforms.
In Luxembourg, the EU foreign ministers expressed readiness to prolong the mandate of Operation Althea, the blocs military operation in Bosnia, under a renewed UN mandate.
Operation Althea, launched in 2004, aims at supporting Bosnia's authorities to maintain a safe and secure environment.
Since the end of the Bosnian War in 1995, the country has been split into two entities -- the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnian Muslims and Croats and the ethnic Serb-dominated Republika Srpska.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels
European Union foreign ministers have closed ranks in support of the Iran nuclear agreement, warning that U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to abandon the multinational accord jeopardize efforts to find a peaceful solution to the nuclear standoff with North Korea.
"At a time of acute nuclear threat the EU is determined to preserve the JCPOA as a key pillar of the international nonproliferation architecture," the ministers said in a joint statement issued during a meeting in Luxembourg, referring to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Tehran and six world powers.
Under the deal, Tehran agreed to curtail its nuclear activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions. Other signatories to the accord are Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany.
But in an October 13 speech, Trump said he would not certify that Iran was complying with the nuclear agreement, and warned he might ultimately terminate it.
He accused Tehran of violating the "spirit" of the agreement, in part for its continued testing of ballistic missiles and its support for extremists in the Middle East, and said he would ask Congress to strengthen a U.S. law to put additional pressure on Iran.
Trump on October 16 raised the possibility once again that he might try to end the deal completely.
"It might be total termination, that's a real possibility, some would say that's a greater possibility," Trump told reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting.
But Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, who is leading efforts on behalf of Trump to toughen the Iran nuclear deal in Congress, urged the president to cooperate with European allies in deciding what to do.
"This is something that can only work if the administration exercises tremendous diplomacy with our European allies," Corker, a Republican, said, adding that Democrats in Congress are insisting that the White House must work with Europe.
Corker told reporters on Capitol Hill that he has tried to convince Europeans that Trump's decision to decertify Iran is not all bad and provides world powers with an opportunity to try to correct acknowledged "deficiencies" in the nuclear pact.
"Look, if I were them, I'd look at this as 'the glass is half full.' He didn't withdraw from the JCPOA, and that's step one," Corker said.
The EU foreign ministers said that they consider Trump's decision "as being in the context of an internal U.S. process."
They underlined that the International Atomic Energy Agency had verified eight times that Iran "is implementing all its nuclear related commitments following a comprehensive and strict monitoring system."
They called on the United States to maintain its commitment to the JCPOA and to "consider the implications for the security of the [United States], its partners, and the region before taking further steps."
They insisted that the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions "strengthens cooperation and allows for continuous dialogue with Iran."
The Luxembourg meeting is expected to sign off on a new package of EU sanctions aimed at punishing North Korea for its recent nuclear and ballistic-missile tests.
The EU hopes economic pressure will help bring Pyongyang to the bargaining table, but the bloc's foreign-policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said that weakening the Iran deal "might affect negatively the possibility of opening negotiations or opening even the space for negotiations" with the North Korean leadership.
Mogherini said she would visit Washington early next month to urge U.S. lawmakers not to pull out of the Iran deal, which was aimed to slow Iran's potential path toward creating a nuclear weapon. Tehran says its nuclear program has purely peaceful aims.
"We must be able to demonstrate that when a nuclear agreement has been concluded that we respect it," Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.
His Dutch counterpart, Bert Koenders, said that the agreement concerned "the safety of the world. I hope also that the U.S. Congress will realize this and take the right decisions."
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the threatened termination of the deal "undermines the credibility of such international treaties," adding that Trump's hard-line stance risked dragging the world back to a "military confrontation" with Iran.
"Nonproliferation is a major element of world security and rupturing that would be extremely damaging," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters. "We hope that Congress does not put this accord in jeopardy."
In a joint statement on October 13, the leaders of France, Britain, and Germany said the deal remained "in our shared national security interest."
Russia and China also voiced their support for the agreement.
Tehran said it will remain committed to the deal as long as it serves the country's national interests.
With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters
A gay Russian man said he "could barely crawl" after being repeatedly tortured in a blood-stained cellar in Grozny. At a press conference on October 16 in Moscow, Maksim Lapunov became the first person to go public with allegations of abuse in Chechnya's reported crackdown on gays and lesbians. Lapunov, 30, said he was arrested by men in civilian clothes in March and was beaten through nearly two weeks of detention. (RFE/RL's Russian Service)
The United States expressed "concern" but said Washington wouldn't take sides as Iraqi government forces took over key assets in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk from Kurdish authorities on October 16.
"We're not taking sides, but we don't like the fact that they're clashing," U.S. President Donald Trump told journalists in Washington. "We've had for many years a very good relationship with the Kurds."
"We've also been on the side of Iraq," he added, "but we're not taking sides in that battle."
Trump spoke after Iraqi troops and tanks swept across the northern province, capturing oil and military sites from the Kurds and seizing the governor's office in Kirkuk city.
It was the first major clash between government forces and Kurdish Peshmerga since the region was rocked by an overwhelming vote for Kurdish independence in a referendum held in Iraqi's Kurdish autonomous region and surrounding areas, including Kirkuk, last month.
Kurdish officials said residents of Kirkuk voted strongly for independence in the referendum, which Baghdad rejected as illegal.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said the operation to retake control of Kirkuk, which Kurdish officials said caused "lots of casualties," was necessary to "protect the unity of the country." He called on the citizens of Kirkuk to cooperate with "our heroic armed forces."
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States is "very concerned" by the violence and urged "all parties to avoid provocations that can be exploited by Iraq's enemies who are interested in fueling ethnic and sectarian conflict."
The United States supports "the peaceful exercise of joint administration by the central and regional governments, consistent with the Iraqi Constitution, in all disputed areas," she said.
Pentagon officials said they are urging both sides to avoid any escalation of the conflict. Washington has armed and trained both Iraqi government forces and Peshmerga fighters to wage war against Islamic State militants in northern Iraq.
"We oppose violence from any party and urge against destabilizing actions that distract from the fight against [Islamic State]," Pentagon spokesman Robert Manning said.
Federica Mogherini, the European Union's chief diplomat, urged both sides "to seek dialogue in order to preserve Iraq's unity and long-term stability."
After clashes with Peshmerga forces overnight, Iraqi forces early on October 16 entered the disputed city and took control of the provincial councils headquarters and key installations outside the disputed city, reports said.
Kirkuk residents told Reuters that Iraqi forces removed the Kurdish flag that was hoisted on the governorate building in April next to an Iraqi flag. They said that only the Iraqi flag was now flying.
Amid the clashes, thousands of Kurdish residents reportedly fled the city, with some citing fear of reprisals against Kurds.
Meanwhile, crowds of Turkmen celebrated, with some driving in convoys with Iraqi flags and firing shots in the air.
The Iraqi army said on October 16 that government troops have moved toward Kurdish-held sites in the northern province of Kirkuk, capturing several installations from Kurdish fighters.
The military said that pro-government forces took control of roads and infrastructure, including a military base, an airport, and an oil field near the disputed city of Kirkuk.
A spokesman for Kurdish forces, Brigadier General Bahzad Ahmed, confirmed that federal forces seized industrial areas south of Kirkuk in fighting that caused "lots of casualties."
Crisis talks on October 15 failed to resolve the standoff as Kurdish leaders refused demands by the Bagdad government to reject the referendum result.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces took control of much of Kirkuk Province in 2014, when militants from the extremist group Islamic State (IS) swept across northern Iraq.
With reporting by AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP, and the BBC
BISHKEK -- The chief rival of the candidate authorities say won the presidency in Kyrgyzstan has alleged the voting was marred by violations but suggested he would not challenge the official result, potentially paving the way for a peaceful transfer of power.
Omurbek Babanov spoke at a news conference on October 16, hours after the Central Election Commission said preliminary results indicated ruling party candidate Sooronbai Jeenbekov won more than 54 percent of the vote -- enough to avoid a runoff.
International observers, meanwhile, praised the vote as competitive and transparent but said that "numerous and significant problems were noted" during the count and that "misuse of public resources, pressure on voters, and vote-buying remain a concern."
Babanov, who the commission placed second with just under 34 percent according to an initial count of nearly all ballots, said that he and his backers faced pressure and bias throughout the campaign.
"State television channels were used to pour dirt on us. There was a black PR [campaign] against us. Our campaign activists were abused; they did not know whom to turn to as law enforcement was also one-sided," Babanov said.
However, he said, "The election has taken place, and the people have made their choice."
Confirmation of the results and a smooth transition would mark the first peaceful handover of power from one elected president to another in the any Central Asian country since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Presidents were driven from power by street protests in Kyrgyzstan in 2005 and 2010, and for more than two decades only the death of a president in office has ushered in a new leader in any of the other four countries.
Kyrgyzstan has demonstrated a generally positive example for holding competitive elections and a peaceful transfer of power, but some concerns remain, said Azay Guliyev, leader of the short-term observation mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE ODIHR).
Our mission received credible reports about the misuse of public resources and pressure on voters, as well as allegations of vote-buying, said Alexandre Keltchewsky, the overall head of the ODIHR mission. He said that in the run-up to election day, monitors "observed several cases of open and official interference in the election campaign from the State Committee of National Security and other official institutions and other officials as well.
Keltchewsky also said there were indications of Central Election Commission members favoring certain candidates, thus demonstrating the CECs lack of impartiality.
Babanov said that his campaign workers are currently conducting an "alternative" vote count and that information from some polling precincts is not available, but he said that "even if it was available, they would not affect the official result."
"Despite the administrative pressure, many voters supported me and I am very thankful to them," he said.
Answering a question about reports saying that his supporters might be planning mass protests, Babanov said he had nothing to do with any such plans.
"I call on all my supporters to stay away from any illegal actions," Babanov said.
In the northern city of Talas, in Babanov's home region, hundreds of his supporters demonstrated near his campaign headquarters and marched across the city holding Kyrgyz national flags. They said the election was not transparent.
A handover to Jeenbekov, 58, could herald a continuation of the policies of outgoing President Almazbek Atambaev, who has close ties with Moscow and brought Kyrgyzstan into a Russian-led economic alliance in 2015.
My task is to preserve what has been achieved, to strengthen what has been started, Jeenbekov, said shortly after the preliminary results were announced on October 15.
He praised what he said were the predominantly Muslim county of 6 million's great achievements and developments in all sectors in the past six years, referring to Atambaevs term.
Both Jeenbekov and Babanov served as prime minister under Atambaev but the outgoing president vocally backed Jeenbekov, prompting accusations from critics that he abused the levers of power to ensure victory for his favored candidate.
Analysts and opposition politicians had predicted a closer race, and opinion polls had suggested that neither man would clear the 50 percent threshold, forcing a runoff.
A total of 11 candidates, including one woman, were on the ballot to replace Atambaev, who was constitutionally barred from running for a second term.
Underscoring the animus in the election, Jeenbekov was asked whether he would ask Babanov to join his team. He responded that he never had such intention.
Amid concerns of potential unrest and political confrontation, Temir Sariev, another candidate who is also a former prime minister, said on October 15 that there shouldnt be any tension in the country and added: The election must finish tonight.
Jeenbekov, who stepped down as prime minister in late August to focus on the presidential race, used his political leverage and support from the incumbent to wage a heated battle with the 47-year-old Babanov, a wealthy entrepreneur and former oil trader from the northern province of Talas.
Atambaev had unleashed a series of accusations as the vote approached, claiming that opponents were plotting unrest and accusing larger northern neighbor Kazakhstan and its long-ruling president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, of interfering in the campaign and backing Babanov.
He warned on October 15 that the authorities "have jailed and will continue to jail" those planning unrest "so that they don't spoil our celebration."
Government critics say the campaign was marred by a bribe-taking conviction and eight-year prison sentence handed down to opposition Ata-Meken (Fatherland) party leader Omurbek Tekebaev in August after a trial he said was politically motivated.
Meanwhile, the government accused Babanov of trying to buy votes and late last month it detained one of his supporters, saying there were efforts to plot a coup during the election.
Babanov has denied the accusations and in turn alleged the government has used administrative resources -- the political levers held by those who control power and budget funds -- against his candidacy and in favor of Jeenbekov.
Russia, which has an air base in Kyrgyzstan and is vying for clout in Central Asia with economic powerhouse China as well as the West, stayed neutral on the surface during the campaign. The main candidates were all seen as friendly to Russia.
A meeting at which Kyrgyz officials say Nazarbaev endorsed Babanov added tension to the campaign.
Atambaev said in a speech that Kazakhstan was ruled by corrupt "sultans" and later called an unnamed leading contender in the elections a flunky of a foreign country.
Kazakhstans government called the remarks "unacceptable" and introduced tighter controls this week on the Kyrgyz border, citing security concerns.
With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and RFE/RL correspondent Alan Crosby
Sooronbai Jeenbekov, a protege of the outgoing president who was tabbed by officials as the winner of Kyrgyzstan's weekend presidential election, once humbly bragged: "I have climbed through all the ranks. If I become president, I've enough experience to serve the nation."
The 58-year-old former schoolteacher stepped down as prime minister in August to make way for his bid for the presidency -- hoping to cap an impressive political career that has taken him from a village in his native Osh Province to the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.
In a country where regional associations can play an oversize role in politics, observers suggest Jeenbekov's career has been shaped in no small part by a close association with outgoing President Almazbek Atambaev, a northerner.
The two men, who first met as parliament members in an early stage of independence in the mid-1990s, "have a lot in common," says Bakyt Beshimov, a former lawmaker and Social Democratic Party ally.
"Both successfully adapted to previous regimes and exploited the weaknesses of the regimes to their own benefit," Beshimov told RFE/RL, describing a knack for political opportunism. "Their alliance is based on this attitude toward politics."
WATCH: After Kyrgyz Election, Citizens Expect Little To Change
Prior to becoming prime minister in March 2016, Jeenbekov served as agriculture minister, governor of the southern Osh Province following a 2010 political convulsion, and deputy head of the presidential administration under Atambaev.
He has seemingly remained loyal to Atambaev and the ruling party, which in May nominated Jeenbekov for the presidency.
In the summer, Atambaev made a point of publicly praising Jeenbekov for standing by him through thick and thin, during the "toughest times...even when his own close relatives" were against him.
Atambaev has described Jeenbekov as a "friend" and called Jeenbekov's government "the best" cabinet of his six-year presidency. He has also been accused of dedicating government resources to ensure a Jeenbekov victory, with accounts emerging of local officials trying to strong-arm voter support.
Diplomatic Opening
For his part, Jeenbekov has pledged to continue Atambaev's policies as president.
In his victory speech, he praised Kyrgyzstan's "great achievements" of the past six years and said his "task is to preserve what has been achieved, to strengthen what has been started."
But Jeenbekov's tone differed from that of the outgoing president's when he was asked about relations with neighboring Kazakhstan, which Atambaev has accused of interfering in the Kyrgyz election.
Jeenbekov said he treated Kazakhstan -- arguably post-Soviet Central Asia's richest and most influential country -- and its long-entrenched president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, with respect.
"We have to treat everyone with respect," Jeenbekov said, "then all issues will resolve themselves."
"Jeenbekov will try to correct Atambaev's mistakes and repair relations with Kazakhstan, using the language of diplomacy," says Erika Marat, a professor at the College of International Security Affairs National Defense University in Washington.
The president has relatively limited powers under Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary system, but still oversees the so-called power structures that include the national security apparatus and appoints the country's prosecutor-general.
The authority to appoint the foreign minister rests with the prime minister.
Throughout the campaign, Jeenbekov remained vague on Kyrgyz foreign policy and in many other areas, saying at one point, "Unlike others, I don't like papers, I have my program in my mind and my heart."
Jeenbekov comes from a large and relatively well-to-do rural family from the village of Biy-Myrza and has a former parliament speaker, an ambassador, and a university professor among his nine siblings.
His father headed a Soviet-era collective farm and his mother was a housewife, taking care of the couple's six sons and four daughters.
Jeenbekov is married and has three children, who have largely kept a low profile.
Tokon Mamytov, a political scientist and the head of the People's Assembly of Kyrgyzstan, a politically active alliance of ethnic minorities, described Jeenbekov as a "decisive" person who was "never involved in any corruption scandal."
RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service correspondent Gulaiym Ashakeeva contributed to this report
Pakistan has deported the Turkish former director of the PakTurk chain of private schools along with his family, his former colleagues and a lawyer have said.
Mesut Kacmaz, his wife, and two daughters were flown out of Pakistan after having been detained in September in the eastern city of Lahore, former school officials said.
A Pakistani government official who asked not to be identified told Reuters that the family was deported to Turkey over the weekend.
"The Turkish family was taken into custody by a team of security officials," the official said.
"On Saturday, they were deported to Turkey from Islamabad on a special plane sent by the Turkish government."
Turkey has claimed the PakTurk chain of schools was linked to Fethullah Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric Ankara blames for orchestrating a failed coup in July 2016.
PakTurk denies any links to Gulen, who himself denies involvement in the attempted coup.
Usama Malik, a lawyer for the Mesut family, told AFP that the deportation had gone ahead despite a ruling by the Lahore High Court directing authorities not to take any action while the petition was still pending.
He also said that Mesut family had been granted asylum in Pakistan as refugees until November 2018.
There was no immediate comment by Pakistani officials.
In November 2016, Pakistani authorities deported dozens of Turkish teachers tied to the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges following a visit from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
More than 10,000 students are enrolled at PakTurks 28 campuses across Pakistan.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP and dpa
A Russian court has imposed an 800,000 ruble ($14,000) fine on Telegram for refusing to provide the Federal Security Service (FSB) with encryption keys to the popular messaging app.
Judge Yulia Danilchik issued the ruling on October 16 at Moscow's Meshchansky District Court.
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov called the FSB's demand an unconstitutional privacy infringement and said he was putting together a legal team to challenge the government's actions.
"The FSB's effort to get access to personal correspondence is an attempt to expand its influence at the expense of the constitutional rights of citizens," Durov wrote on VKontakte, the Russian-language social network that he founded.
He urged lawyers "who want to get involved" to contact Telegram and said the company would "pick a team with maximal experience in this sort of matter within a day or two."
Durov cited an article of the Russian Constitution that says every citizen has "the right to privacy of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraph, and other communications."
The ruling came after Durov said on September 27 that the FSB had notified him that his firm was in violation of counterterrorism laws requiring companies to provide access to encrypted communications they facilitate.
Durov posted scans of the FSB documents on VKontakte.
He said at the time that Russian authorities were pressuring Telegram to comply with controversial legislation known as the Yarovaya laws.
Rights groups call the laws a draconian infringement on privacy that can be used to stifle dissent, and Durov called them unconstitutional.
Durov launched Telegram with his brother in 2013. The messaging app has become an influential forum for news and debate, featuring popular channels run by news sites, journalists, and political analysts.
Asked on October 16 whether the Russian authorities would seek to block Telegram, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said, "To my knowledge, this is not being discussed so far. In fact, no one has suggested it."
The spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, declined to comment on the court ruling.
In 2014, Durov announced that he had left Russia after he was forced to sell his stake in VKontakte amid pressure from authorities.
Based on reporting by RIA Novosti, Dozhd, and Interfax
By RFE/RL
Russian protest performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky set fire to an entrance of the Bank of France in Paris, according to photographs and accounts on social media.
Photos of the overnight stunt were posted on Twitter on October 16.
There was no immediate explanation of any motive for the action at the French central bank, which echoed a previous one in which he set fire to a door at the headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
Pavlensky, his partner, Olga Shalygina, and their children received political asylum in France in May after they fled Russia in January.
Russian police questioned Pavlensky and Shalygina in December, saying that a Moscow actress had accused them of raping her.
Pavlensky denied the allegation and described it as blackmail aimed to prevent him from carrying out political activities in Russia.
Pavlensky, who is known for startling protests that sometimes involve self-mutilation, says his performances draw attention to the indifference of many Russians to what he says is widespread Federal Security Service (FSB) control over society.
He spent 18 months in pretrial detention after he doused a large wooden door at the FSB headquarters on Moscow's Lubyanka Square with gasoline and set it on fire in November 2015.
He was released in June 2016 and ordered to pay a hefty fine, which he refused to do.
Pavlensky has also nailed his scrotum to Red Square, sewn his lips together, wrapped himself in barbed wire, and chopped off part of his ear.
With reporting by RFE/RL's Russian Service
The speaker of the Russian parliament's upper chamber has held separate talks with the heads of North Korean and South Korean delegations to an international parliamentary meeting.
Amid tensions over North Korean nuclear and missile tests that have violated UN Security Council resolutions, Federation Council chief Valentina Matviyenko held the meetings on the sidelines on the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in St. Petersburg on October 16.
The chairman of the International Relations Committee in the chamber, Konstantin Kosachyov, said Matviyenko told the speaker of the South Korean National Assembly, Chung Sye-kyun, that curtailing military activities off the Korean Peninsula's coast could help bring Pyongyang closer to compliance with restrictions on its activities.
Matviyenko said that Moscow "strongly condemns North Korea for developing its nuclear arms program and testing weapons, and we -- just like the entire international community -- urge it to strictly comply with relevant UN Security Council resolutions."
Meeting with Chung, she said recent exchanges of strong words between Washington and Pyongyang were "very dangerous."
The remarks were in line with previous statements by President Vladimir Putin and other Russia officials, who frequently accuse the United States and South Korea of provoking the North.
Matviyenko also met with North Korean Supreme People's Assembly Deputy Chairman An Tong Chun.
An handed her a statement from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that said that "the history of our two nations is a history of friendship," Russian news agencies reported.
Based on reporting by Interfax, RIA Novosti, and TASS
Former Georgian president and ex-governor of Ukraine's Odesa region Mikheil Saakashvili says the current generation of Ukrainian leaders needs to be replaced, accusing them of having a condescending attitude toward their citizens. In an interview with RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service in Kyiv on October 16, he called on demonstrators to turn out in a "calm and peaceful way" the following day in the capital.
ON MY MIND
How far can Alyaksandr Lukashenka's flirtation with the West go? How far will Moscow allow it to go? How much will the West embrace a man who is essentially a dictator for geopolitical gain?
Johannes Hahn, the EU's enlargement commissioner, is due to to visit Minsk this week amid reports that Lukashenka is about to be invited to the EU's Eastern Partnership summit for the first time.
Hahn's visit also comes as relations between Minsk and Moscow are skidding to new lows in the wake of the Zapad 2017 military exercises. (See the Power Vertical blog post, The Zapad Hangover, featured below.)
On this week's Power Vertical Briefing (also featured below), we discuss these issues and also look ahead to Vladimir Putin's speech this week at the Valdai Discussion Forum.
So be sure to tune in to get a jump-start on this week's events!
LATEST POWER VERTICAL BLOG
In case you missed it, the latest Power Vertical blog post, The Zapad Hangover, looks at the deteriorating relations between Minsk and Moscow.
NEW POWER VERTICAL BRIEFING
And on this week's Power Vertical Briefing, we discuss the potential and limits of authoritarian Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's courtship of the West.
IN THE NEWS
Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has said Moscow will not consider itself bound by the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if Russia is not allowed to participate in the selection of judges.
Dozens of people have been detained in the Russia-occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea for demonstrating in defense of Crimean Tatars.
Russian officials have questioned the United Nations inquiry into who is to blame for a toxic gas attack in Syria and threatened it might not support extending the investigating team's mandate if it is not satisfied with the resulting report.
Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev's drama Loveless has won the best-picture prize at the London Film Festival, three years after his previous film, Leviathan, won the same award.
An unmanned Progress space freighter carrying supplies to the International Space Station was launched by Russia from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on October 14.
Russia has accused the United States of denying entry to military officials who were planning to conduct a joint Russian-Chinese briefing criticizing U.S. missile-defense systems at the United Nations.
Ukraine has banned a new Russian banknote that includes images from the annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea.
Thousands of Ukrainian nationalists have marched through the capital, Kyiv, to mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the controversial Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
WHAT I'M READING
The Drama-Free Election
In his column for Republic.ru, opposition journalist Oleg Kashin argues that next year's presidential election -- in contrast to previous elections -- is conspicuously lacking in drama. And this means we should expect something dramatic soon.
'Strategic Provincialism' In Central Europe
Andreas Umland, a senior research fellow at the Kyiv-based Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, has a piece on the Carnegie Europe's website arguing that "strategic provincialism" and "geopolitical myopia among the elites of NATOs new member states is helping to preserve an unstable 'gray zone' in post-Soviet Europe."
Assessing Navalny's Latest Protests
Richard Arnold, a professor at Muskingum University, has a piece in The Jamestown Foundation's Eurasia Daily Monitor looking at the latest round of protests organized by opposition leader Aleksei Navalny.
Russian Defense Spending
In The Moscow Times, defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer looks at Russia's military spending and what it reveals about the Kremlin's strategic thinking.
The Death Of Stalin
Shaun Walker has a piece in The Guardian on how Armando Iannuccis dark satire film The Death Of Stalin is being received in Moscow.
A Peace Plan For The Donbas
In a commentary for the European Council on Foreign Relations, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt lays out a road map to peace in the Donbas.
Putin's Extremist Pals
In Think Progress, Casey Michel looks at Russia's alliance with far-right extremists around the world.
The Kaspersky Scare
In his column for Bloomberg, political commentator Leonid Bershidsky looks at Western concerns about Kaspersky Lab's antivirus software.
KYIV -- Ukraine's main security agency has claimed it averted potential violence planned during a protest in front of the country's parliament, an action organized by controversial firebrand politician Mikheil Saakashvili.
A former Georgian president who has been stripped of both his Georgian and Ukrainian citizenship, Saakashvili had called for the October 17 rally in a speech he gave last month in the Black Sea port of Odesa, where he was once governor.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on October 16 that "armed provocations" were planned for the protest, and agents had thwarted an effort by two former activists of the "Revolutionary Rightist Forces" to acquire automatic weapons and rocket launchers to be used during the rally.
Speaking to RFE/RL, Saakashvili did not comment on the SBU announcement, but pledged the demonstration would be peaceful.
"People who come tomorrow to the Verkhovna Rada, they are tuned peacefully, calmly, decisively...we just have to show that we are a calm force," Saakashvili said, referring to Ukraine's parliament.
"I think this is just the beginning of a great process. People must come to say that nobody will talk to us like this...to explain that we are not goats, that we have our rights and dignity," he said.
Saakashvili was previously an ally of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who in 2015 appointed him governor of Odesa, Ukraine's largest Black Sea port and a hub of commerce for the country.
But Saakashvili resigned in November 2016, complaining of rampant corruption and he has turned his outspoken rhetoric on Poroshenko and his allies.
In July, Poroshenko stripped him of the Ukrainian citizenship he was granted when he became Odesa's governor.
Saakashvili lost his Georgian citizenship when he took Ukrainian in 2015, and the authorities in Tbilisi have also begun criminal proceedings against him.
Last month, he forced his way across the Polish border into Ukraine, defying border guards and vowing to reenter Ukrainian politics. Authorities have not moved to arrest him, a decision reflecting Saakashvili's continuing popularity in some parts of the country.
Saakashvili said supporters from four other political blocs -- Self-Help, Democratic Alliance, Automaidan, and Svoboda -- were also expected to attend the Kyiv demonstration, which will call for the creation of anticorruption courts, the abolition of parliamentary immunity, and a revamping of the country's electoral legislation.
A prominent Uzbek human rights advocate, Ganihon Mamathonov, has been released after spending eight years in prison.
Speaking to RFE/RL shortly after his release on October 16, Mamathonov described his regained freedom as a "dream."
"I absolutely can't believe that I was freed. It is like a dream," he said in a telephone interview.
"I thought that I will waste all my life in prison. I never thought that there were still people who fought for my release. I want to dedicate the rest of life serving the people of this country," he added.
Human Rights Watch's (HRW) Central Asia researcher Steve Swerdlow welcomed Mamathonov's release in a post on Twitter.
"Getting amazing news from Uzbekistan," Swerdlow wrote, adding that Mamathonov had been released after eight "long" years.
Mamathonov, 65, is one of several people whom activists consider political prisoners who have been freed from prison since President Shavkat Mirziyoev took office after longtime autocrat Islam Karimov's death in 2016.
Mamathonov was sentenced to five years in prison in 2009 on fraud and bribery charges supporters contended were unfounded and politically motivated.
Just days before his prison term was ending in 2014, Mamathonov's term was prolonged by two years for alleged "violation of prison regulations."
In 2016, another two years were added to Mamathonov's prison term, also for alleged "violation of the penitentiary's regulations."
HRW said in mid-August that five political prisoners had been freed since Mirziyoev, the longtime prime minister under Karimov, became acting president after Karimov's death was announced in September 2016.
Mirziyoev was subsequently elected in a tightly controlled vote in the Central Asian country of about 30 million in December.
Another U.S.-based human rights advocacy group, Freedom House, said in an August 28 report that Mirziyoev had taken some steps to open up the country.
It said the international community "should acknowledge positive changes in the country but continue nudging the government toward a full-scale reform to ensure a prosperous, secure, and pluralistic Uzbekistan."
56 people were injured, 16 of them seriously, and nine people were reported missing in the blazes, according Civil Protection Agency spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar. She also predicted the death toll could rise. Emergency services recorded 523 wildfires Sunday, the highest number in a single day this year and the highest on one day in more than a decade. More than 5,300 firefighters with more than 1,600 vehicles were still battling the fires through dense pine and eucalyptus forests Monday.
Wildfire at the Portugal Spain border
The authorities in Portugal declared a state of emergency in affected areas over the weekend. Northern Spain was affected too. Across the border in Spain, fires reached the outskirts of the port city of Vigo. A car factory was forced to temporarily close. The Spanish authorities said that more than 90 fires were burning in the northern regions of Galicia and Asturias. Investigators are looking at human causes. Alberto Nunez Feijoo, the leader of Galicia, said on Monday that many of the fires had started as acts of arson. In Portugal the state owns about 3 percent of the countrys forests and does not have a proper registry of forest landowners. Portugals forests have been burning repeatedly this year.
Mahindra BAJA SAEINDIA 2018 finale will be held at NATRIP facility at Pithampur near Indore, from January 24-28, 2018 followed by IIT Ropar from March 8-11, 2018. These events are being held by Mahindra and Mahindra in association with SAE INDIA Society of Automotive Engineers.
Mahindra BAJA SAEINDIA 2017 finale received 388 entries out of which 180 teams shortlisted for conventional BAJA and 41 teams short listed for eBAJA events. This year for the 2018 finale there were 400 entries out of which there are 120 Teams for mBAJA, 37 Teams for eBAJA at Pithampur and 60 Teams at IIT-Ropar.
Students will be asked to design, build, test and put into motion a single seater four wheel all terrain vehicle over the three day course to finally proving its road and race worthiness. The events will include Technical Inspection, Static Evaluation Design, Cost and Sales Presentation and Dynamic Events Acceleration, Sledge Pull, Suspension-Traction and Maneuverability.
As was noted in the past few years, the maximum number of entries has been from Pune and the city has also claimed the maximum number of awards. Last year, the prize was claimed by College of Engineering, Pune, followed by Alard College of Engineering, Pune and Singhad College of Engineering, Pune, was declared winner of Best eBAJA Team.
The theme for 2018 season of Mahindra BAJA SAEINDIA is Ground to Glory allowing students to take up this challenge and achieve glory. eBAJA which was initiated in 2015 is to draw attention to the added importance of Electric Mobility in the country. The eBAJA vehicles run on 10 hp B&S gasoline engine propelled by an electric motor and powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack.
The events are sponsored by Mahindra and Mahindra with a host of other sponsors and also supported by SIAM, ARAI and ACMA.
First launched back in 2015, Maruti Care App has now been updated thoroughly. Launch across three major platforms Google Android Play Store, Apple iTunes Store, and Windows App Store, it already has over 5 lakh users.
With Maruti Care, the company aims at making the lives of their over 1 crore customers easier. It does everything, right from booking appointments to checking how much have you spent on your car till date this app is a must have if you have a Maruti car in your possession.
Speaking about the Maruti Care Application, Mr. Partho Banerjee, Executive Vice President (Service), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. said, With rising customers expectations, it is crucial to epitomize their demands into overall service experience. Customers expect to be treated with utmost care for their service requirements and the definition of convenience for new age customers covers addressing of their service related needs through seamless digital integration.
Below are the key features of the updated Maruti Care app
Downloading the app is very easy. All you have to do is visit your phones respective app store (Android Play Store, Apple iStore, Windows App Store), and download the app. It will require permission to access the following files on your phone appointments, contacts, video and still capture, location services, maps, music library, photos library, microphone, data services, push notification service, SD card, and web browser component. Once you accept to give the app access to these, the download and install will follow.
In order to access the app, you will need to register first. Only genuine Maruti car owners will be able to access this app. After you have registered successfully, you will be given a login and password, which you will need to enter every time you access the app.
Once logged in, you will notice that there are four sections in this app Maruti Suzuki Connect, Maruti Assist, My Maruti and Maruti Suzuki. Each of these offer multiple features.
Under Maruti Suzuki Connect you will have features like Locate Dealer, Book Service Appointment to any Maruti dealer across India, Maintenance Cost, Service Records till date, Service Cost calculator, and Service Feedback.
Under Maruti Assist you get basic tips to how to get the best out of your Maruti car, weather, and traffic updates (to suggest you fastest route possible to your destination), GPS Trip Meter, Service reminder, Vehicle Finder (before exiting the vehicle, all you have to do on the app is press Save Location. So when you are back, and find yourself amongst a pool of cars, you can use the saved location to find your car.)
Under My Maruti you get to save your data like car documents, Pan Card, Driving License, RC Book, etc. You can also set expiry date of these documents, so that you can get reminder to renew. Under this, you can also check your details as saved on Maruti Suzuki servers. If there is a change, you can visit nearest dealer to rectify error or update.
The last, Maruti Suzuki tab provides you phone numbers and address of regional offices, feedback form, complaints, concerns, share button (to share the app with other Maruti Suzuki owners), terms of use, and more about the company Maruti Suzuki.
Overall, the app has been downloaded about 5,000 times since launch. We expect it to be downloaded by hundreds of thousands more in the coming days. Another thing you need to be careful about, there are some fake apps in the market, with similar name. Make sure you download the one with title Maruti Care and which is developed by Maruti Suzuki India.
Incoming South Bend board members talk facility plans, community input
South Bend school board members elected this fall will likely play a role in shaping the district's footprint for years to come.
An uncrewed Russian cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station early Monday (Oct. 16) to deliver nearly 3 tons of fresh food, fuel and other supplies.
The Progress 68 resupply ship linked up with the space station at 7:04 a.m. EDT (1104 GMT) as the two spacecraft sailed 252 miles (405 kilometers) over eastern China. The docking came two days after a Soyuz rocket launched the cargo craft Saturday (Oct. 14) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
"The docking [culminated] a flawless two-day journey following the progress launch atop a Soyuz 2.1a booster on Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan," said NASA spokesman Rob Navias of the Johnson Space Center in Houston during live commentary. [How Russia's Progress Cargo Ships Work (Infographic)]
Progress 68 is carrying 5,946 lbs. (2,697 kilograms) of supplies for the space station's six-person Expedition 53 crew, NASA officials have said. Those supplies include: 2,976 lbs. (1,349 kg) of dry cargo like spare parts or science gear; 1,940 lbs. (879 kg) of propellant; 926 lbs. (420 kg) of water; 53 lbs. (24 kg) of air; and 51 lbs. (23 kg) of oxygen.
Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) initially attempted to launch Progress 68 on Thursday (Oct. 12) to test a novel flight profile that would take just 3.5 hours to reach the International Space Station. That launch try was aborted in the final minute due to an issue with the Soyuz rocket.
The launch was delayed until Saturday, forcing Progress 68 to shift to a more typical two-day rendezvous to the space station due to the orbital mechanics involved in reaching the orbiting laboratory, NASA officials said.
Russia's Progress spacecraft is one of several robotic cargo ships that deliver supplies to the International Space Station. Japan's HTV-2 Transfer Vehicles, SpaceX's Dragon cargo ships and Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft are the others currently serving the orbiting lab.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
For the first time, scientists have detected ripples in the fabric of space and time known as gravitational waves from a colliding pair of dead stars called neutron stars. This is the first time astronomers have witnessed two neutron stars merging, and these new findings may help solve the decades-old mystery of how many of the universe's heavy elements were created. Here's an explainer on why the discovery is so groundbreaking for our understanding of the universe.
What are gravitational waves?
The existence of gravitational waves was first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916. According to Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravity results from how mass warps the fabric of space and time. When any object with mass moves, it should generate gravitational waves that travel at the speed of light, stretching and squeezing space-time along the way.
Gravitational waves are extraordinarily weak, making them extremely difficult to detect, and even Einstein was uncertain whether they really existed. A century later, in 2016, researchers successfully detected the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). This work earned three scientists the 2017 Nobel Prize in physics in October 2017.
How does LIGO work?
Using laser beams, scientists have detected the physical distortions caused by passing gravitational waves. See how the LIGO observatory hunts gravitational waves in this Space.com infographic (Image credit: By Karl Tate, Infographics Artist)
LIGO uses a pair of detectors in the United States one in Livingston, Louisiana, and the other in Hanford, Washington to sense the warping that gravitational waves cause as they move through matter. Each detector is shaped like a gigantic L, with legs about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) long. The legs of each detector are normally the same length, so laser beams take the same time to travel down each. However, if gravitational waves pass through Earth and they make the detector legs expand and contract by as much as one-ten-thousandth the diameter of a proton these space-time distortions allow each detector's instruments to detect the split-second differences in time it would take for the laser beams to zip down one leg of the detector versus the other.
Because LIGO's detectors are separated by about 1,865 miles (3,000 km), it can take up to 10 milliseconds for a gravitational wave to cross from one detector to the other. Scientists can use this difference in arrival times to gauge where the gravitational waves come from. As more gravitational-wave detectors come online such as the Virgo facility near Pisa, Italy researchers can do a better job of pinpointing the sources of gravitational waves.
The easiest gravitational waves for LIGO to detect are the most powerful ones, which are released when extraordinarily massive objects collide with one another. All of the gravitational waves that LIGO and other detectors previously discovered were from the mergers of black holes. Now, for the first time, scientists have detected gravitational waves from merging neutron stars, using LIGO and Virgo.
What are neutron stars?
Neutron stars, like black holes, are remnants of stars that perished in catastrophic explosions known as supernovas. When a star goes supernova, its material collapses to form a dense core. If this core is massive enough, it may form a black hole, which has such a powerful gravitational pull that not even light can escape. A less massive core will form a neutron star, so named because its gravitational pull is strong enough to crush protons together with electrons to form neutrons.
Although neutron stars are typically small, with diameters of about 12 miles (19 kilometers) or so, they are so dense that a neutron star's mass may be about the same as that of the sun. A teaspoon of neutron-star material has a mass of about a billion tons, making neutron stars the densest objects in the universe besides black holes.
The discovery: Gravitational waves from neutron stars
On Aug. 17, advanced LIGO and advanced Virgo (the current upgraded versions of both observatories) detected a gravitational-wave signal possessing an extraordinary amount of energy "something like a billion times the energy of the luminosity of the Milky Way," said Mansi Kasliwal, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Kasliwal is principal investigator of Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen (GROWTH), an international collaboration focused on cosmic transient events such as neutron-star mergers.
"Its energy was enough to outshine the 100 billion stars in our galaxy by about a billion-fold for the 50 or so seconds it took place," said Kasliwal, one of many scientists who took part in this discovery.
This event is the first time scientists have witnessed two neutron stars merging. One main clue that the signal came from such a merger was its duration, the longest gravitational-wave signal detected to date, Kasliwal said.
Black holes are denser than neutron stars, so the signals from their mergers are relatively brief. "Previously detected black-hole mergers lasted for a second, maybe two seconds," Kasliwal told Space.com. "This latest event lasted nearly a whole minute."
There was another main clue that this new signal came from a neutron-star merger: the masses of the objects generating these gravitational waves. The frequency of gravitational waves depends on the mass of the objects that generates them the higher the frequency, the lower the mass, Kasliwal said. The two merging objects that generated this new signal were about 1.3 and 1.5 times the mass of the sun, respectively, which is typical of neutron stars, Kasliwal said. In comparison, "the first black-hole merger that LIGO detectedinvolves black holes each about 30 times the mass of the sun," Kasliwal said.
As powerful as this new signal was, it was also much less powerful than ones seen from black-hole mergers. This neutron-star merger converted about 0.025 times the mass of the sun into energy, "which is a stupendous amount of energy," Kasliwal said. However, the first black-hole merger LIGO detected converted three solar masses into energy, "which outshone everything we had ever seen until then," Kasliwal said.
So far, LIGO has detected four black-hole mergers and one neutron-star merger. Some researchers had predicted neutron-star mergers would be more common than black-hole mergers, whereas others had predicted the opposite, Kasliwal said. She explained that while neutron-star mergers are more common in any given volume, black-hole mergers are more energetic "and so can get detected from much farther out."
The light from colliding neutron stars
Together, advanced LIGO and advanced Virgo narrowed down the location of this new event, named GW170817, to a 28 square-degree patch of sky. (In comparison, the full moon as seen from Earth covers about 0.2 square degrees of sky.)
By working quickly, astronomers used both conventional and gravitational-wave observatories to watch the same event: the first-ever detection of light from a gravitational-wave source. In contrast, black-hole mergers are not expected to produce any light, which means conventional telescopes cannot detect them.
The scientists employed a variety of telescopes to analyze the radio waves, infrared waves, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma-ray burst from the neutron-star merger for weeks. The Swope Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile successfully pinpointed GW170817 to a galaxy called NGC 4993, located in the constellation Hydra, about 130 million light-years from Earth.
This is the first time scientists have linked a gravitational-wave event with a known galaxy. They dubbed the source of this event Swope Supernova Survey 2017a (SSS17a).
"Using LIGO and Virgo, we found there were only 49 galaxies that could have possibly been the home of this merger, and by prioritizing our search for this merger by how massive the galaxies were which helped us estimate how many stars there were in each galaxy, and thus the chances they might have merging neutron stars we found the merger in the third galaxy on our list," Kasliwal said.
Debris from the merger
SSS17a quickly faded and changed from bluer to redder light a sign that its debris expanded rapidly at speeds close to the speed of light and cooled as it went. The researchers said the merging neutron stars generated a "kilonova," an explosion 1,000 times stronger than a typical star explosion, called a nova.
"We think the merger ejected about 10,000 Earth masses of material," Kasliwal said.
The researchers estimated the merger generated a jet of material that shot outward at nearly the speed of light, moving down a path tilted about 30 degrees away from the line of sight from Earth. All of the light that the researchers detected came from a cocoon of material surrounding this jet. They estimated that about 30 percent of future neutron-star mergers will generate bright gamma-rays detectable from Earth.
The spectrum of light from the matter ejected from the merger revealed that this material was loaded with newly synthesized elements. These new findings confirmed 70 years of research suggesting that neutron-star mergers are powerful enough to synthesize heavy elements such as gold, platinum and lead.
Scientists had known where lighter elements were synthesized most hydrogen and helium came from the Big Bang, and elements up to iron on the periodic table are mostly forged in the cores of stars. However, the origin of half of the elements heavier than iron has been uncertain. These new findings provided the first concrete proof that such mergers are the birthplaces of half of the universe's elements that are heavier than iron, Kasliwal said.
It remains uncertain what the product of this merger was. "It's about 2.7 solar masses, so it lies in the 'mass gap' between neutron stars and black holes. The most massive neutron stars found to date are about two solar masses, and the least massive black holes seen are five solar masses," Kasliwal said. "It's either the most massive neutron star ever seen, or the lowest mass black hole ever seen, or maybe it's a supermassive neutron star that will collapse to form a black hole. This is new territory."
The scientists detailed their findings in a collection of papers in the journals Science, Nature, The Astrophysical Journal and other journals.
Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
For the first time, scientists have seen the source of gravitational waves from two colliding neutron stars, and the space oddity doesn't stop there. Those neutron stars might have collapsed into a black hole after they merged, scientists say.
On Aug. 17, 2017, the gravitational-wave observatories LIGO (short for the "Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory") and Virgo detected a strong signal from the galaxy NGC 4993. Scientists pinpointed the source of that signal in the sky, and an international collaboration immediately sprung forth to observe the event with terrestrial and space observatories. Researchers detected light from the neutron-star crash across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, beginning with a burst of high-energy gamma-rays seconds after the gravitational waves were detected.
The observations indicate that the waves and light came from a pair of merging neutron stars about 130 million light-years away, according to a news conference on Monday Oct. 16, 2017. Neutron stars are the incredibly dense remnants of stars that have exploded in supernovas. The two that merged were 1.6 and 1.1 times as massive as our sun, but each was no wider than Washington, D.C., according to a statement by the Space Telescope Science Institute. [When Neutron Stars Collide! What Telescopes Saw (Videos)]
This still from a NASA animation shows the aftermath of a collision of two neutron stars, which merged into an objected called GW170817. Gravitational waves from the collision were detected on Aug. 17, 2017. (Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab)
As the stars spiraled into each other, they sent gravitational waves through the universe and released tremendous amounts of light when they finally collided. Scientist call the phenomenon a "kilonova."
"We don't actually know what happened to the objects at the end," David Shoemaker, a senior research scientist at MIT and a spokesman for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, said at a news conference today (Oct. 16) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. "We don't know whether it's a black hole, a neutron star or something else."
From neutron stars to black hole?
Such a massive object could collapse under its own weight, forming a black hole. A black hole is essentially a point of infinite density surrounded by a region of no return the event horizon, inside which not even light can escape.
If the new object did collapse into a black hole, "it's the lightest one that we know about," Harvard astronomer Edo Berger said at the news conference. Berger's team analyzed the light from the kilonova and found evidence of superheavy elements, like gold and platinum, forged in the violent event. [What Neutron Stars Are Made Of (Infographic)]
The kilonova associated with GW170817 (inset) as observed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (visible light) and Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) over nine days in August 2017. (Image credit: NASA/CXC/E. Troja)
Eleonora Troja, a high-energy astrophysicist at the University of Maryland and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, expressed a bit more confidence in what the new object may be. "[It's] very likely the collision of two neutron stars resulted in a new black hole," she said at the news conference.
Troja has good reason to believe the stars did form a black hole. Right after the gamma-rays and gravitational waves were detected on Earth, NASA's Swift Gamma-Ray Burst observatory, which orbits high above Earth, returned some interesting results: a bright source of ultraviolet light, but no X-rays. This was the first time in the Swift observatory's 13 years of working on the mission that it had come up empty-handed, according to Troja. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), also saw nothing in the X-ray spectrum.
A signal! But from what?
Nine days after the gravitational waves were detected by LIGO and Virgo, Troja's team finally picked up a faint X-ray signal one so weak only the space-based Chandra X-ray Observatory could detect it.
For Troja, the faint signal suggests the presence something far more powerful: jets of matter and radiation spewing the same amount of energy in a few days that the sun radiates over millions of years.
The paltry signal was an effect of the viewing angle, Raffaella Margutti, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University, told Space.com. It took nine days for the jet to spread out enough for the spray of X-rays to begin hitting Earth, she said. Margutti is the lead author on one of the Chandra X-ray Observatory studies that resulted from the discovery, and a coauthor on at leat eight related studies.
The Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope imaged the kilonova from two merging neutron stars in the galaxy NGC 4993 (inset) on Aug. 18, 2017, just 15 hours after gravitational waves and a gamma-ray burst from the event was detected. (Image credit: NASA/Swift)
Margutti cautioned that many astronomical objects can produce jets. They simply need enough energy to feed a stream of material and an axis of rotation to establish the direction from which the material shoots out.
"There's nothing obvious that would tell us that the remnant was a black hole or neutron star," Margutti said.
X-ray and radio observatories are still gathering data on the kilonova remnant, but scientists may never know what became of the two stars. "Once the light is off, we will never see it again," Margutti said.
Email Harrison Tasoff at htasoff@space.com or follow him @harrisontasoff. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
W oundcare products maker ConvaTec was forced to row back on ambitious growth hopes on Monday after a botched shutdown of a US manufacturing plant triggered a logjam of customer orders.
The British medical group slashed annual organic revenue growth to as little as 1% from more than 4% after a snag shifting production lines from the US to the Dominican Republic.
That sent shares in the FTSE 100 firm down 23%, or 62.9p, to 216.5p, the biggest fall since it listed on the London stock market last October.
ConvaTec, which is in the middle of an ambitious programme to improve productivity levels, has moved a number of manufacturing lines from Greensboro in North Carolina to Haina in the Dominican Republic but a delay in obtaining regulatory clearance hit production.
The firm is now facing a backlog of orders for colostomy bags and surgical dressings. It said was making progress clearing the orders.
Chief executive Paul Moraviec said he was disappointed by the turn of events. The groups Margin Improvement Programme has also seen many of its gains over the past 18 months wiped out by the debacle.
The bounce in margins has been lost, as well as the majority of the improvement made in 2016.
Despite the setback, ConvaTecs third-quarter revenues appeared encouraging and Moraviec said that the company was well-positioned.
Group revenue was up 5.1% at constant exchange rates to $445.5 million (335 million), with its two biggest divisions advanced woundcare and ostomy care growing by 3.5% and 2.2% respectively.
The two divisions account for 60% of group sales.
A fter so many decades of war and turmoil in the Middle East, oil investors have learned to become inured to political conflicts in the region. But todays tiny bump up in the oil price less than a dollar a barrel on news Iraqi forces are attacking Kurdistan, is languid to the point of negligence.
For years, oil-rich Iraqi Kurdistan has been agitating for independence. For even longer, its been routing its prodigious oil output north to Turkey. Iraq hates the prospect of losing all that oil and influence. Having united with the Kurds to get rid of Isis, it now wants to quell the upstart region.
Iraqi troops are pushing to take control of the oilfields around Kurdistans Kirkuk the source of around 10% of Iraqs total oil output. So far, Kurdistans indomitable Peshmerga forces have not responded. But given their fearsome reputation, and the Kurds desire for independence, this threatens another hot war to shut down a major oil-producing region.
To add to the ramifications, the Iranians are backing the Iraqis. That raises the prospect of a Tehran-loathing US supporting the Kurds against Iraq (Opecs second-biggest producer) and Iran (the cartels number three). Still not worried about the oil price?
Its true that abundant US shale oil means Middle East politics have less effect on crude price than they once had. But this ratcheting up of tensions should surely drive it beyond $60 a barrel.
FRC must bite harder
At last, the Financial Reporting Council has rustled up a fine for a big City accountant. Tough actions from the accountancy watchdog are rare. Lately, it has cleared PwC on Barclays failure to keep clients money separate, KPMG for failing to spot HBOS was about to collapse in 2008 and PwC for not spotting the black hole in Tescos accounts.
So, how come the FRC won a fine in todays case? Two points to note. First, the client company, Tech Data, is one hardly anybody has heard of. Second: the audit work on Tech Data was so bad that even the auditor in question EY admitted as much.
In both features, the FRC has form. Take its 5 million fine this year on PwC. Yes, it was a record one, but the scandal involved a debacle at Connaught eight years ago is one that, again, few were aware of at the time, and nobody remembers now. And, as with todays case, the conviction came after PwC fessed up.
Fund manager Sarasin & Partners has warned MPs the FRC isnt fit for purpose. The Treasury Select Committee was already snapping at its heels. The FRC has a new enforcement boss in Claudia Mortimore. If the FRC is to avoid major reform being forced on it by Parliament, she must claim some major scalps. Fast.
A nne McElvoy [Quiet and dangerous coup happening in Corbyns party, Comment, October 12] should be reminded that until Tony Blair managed to get the rules changed, the Labour Party was owned and paid for by the affiliated trade unions and the constituency membership .
Under Blair, the parliamentary party became the decision-makers, dominating the executive committee and resulting in the party losing ground with its constituents its actual members. It should be remembered that the party lost ground and membership during the latter Blair years.
It also used to be the case that members of the party should have also been members of, and contributing to, a TUC-affiliated trade union. Then Blair had the rule removed and the party became an organisation to support the parliamentary party and its MPs.
To see the rolling back of undemocratic changes so that all the membership can have a say in party policy up to the executive committee is a positive development that McElvoy and others should applaud, not denigrate.
This is not a so-called Left revolution in action but a whole party returning to democracy, representing its constituency with relevant policies decided by all its members, not the small clique who sit in Westminster.
Terry Rechnitz
Did people really vote for Jeremy Corbyn because he is an honest politician [Letters, October 10]? In June, he sacked three shadow cabinet ministers for defying him over Chuka Umunnas Brexit amendment to stay in the single market and customs union, before spectacularly performing his own U-turn.
Now he is tacitly presiding over the Momentum takeover of the Labour Party. This is not honesty. At best it is inconsistent and slapdash. At worst it is deceitful and opportunistic.
James West
In response to Anne McElvoy, far from Momentum threatening electoral democracy, it actually strengthens it. Labours shift back to a radical Harold Wilson-type agenda of public investment and skilled, well-paid jobs actually gives voters a real choice in the political marketplace.
If voters dont like Jeremy Corbyn and his party, which is funded by British taxpayers, and they would prefer one funded by foreign billionaires, then they are free to vote Conservative.
There is no threat and nothing sinister is going on with Momentum. McElvoys scaremongering only does a disservice to our vibrant democracy.
Paul Bower
A solution to the EU migrants issue
The Mayors proposal for a loosening of rules on non-EU migration and for continued EU free movement are misguided for a number of reasons.
Londons population is projected to hit 10 million by 2030. This increase would put more pressure on schools, GP services, housing and on the already congested transport network. A senior manager has warned that overcrowding could make parts of the Tube inoperable by 2031.
With eight in 10 secondary schools in some boroughs reportedly full or oversubscribed and the highest annual number of migrant GP registrations in the capital in more than a decade, it is clear that London will struggle to cope.
A better proposal would be to expand highly skilled work permits to EU migrants while restricting inflow for lower-skilled work, with exceptions for sectors where there is evidence of a shortage. This would allow business to recruit the best and brightest from Europe while likely reducing net migration by about 100,000 a year on recent levels.
Lord Green of Deddington, chairman, Migration Watch UK
May needs to put Brexiteers in line
rather than sack Philip Hammond, the Prime Minister should be questioning the irreconcilable Brexiteers in her Cabinet.
It is their dogmatic attitude that is making a no deal outcome more likely. They are the ones who need to explain how leaving without an agreement constitutes a good result for the UK, how the country will cope when ports and airports are clogged with unshipped freight and how a country that imports 40 per cent of its food from the EU will be fed and essential medicines manufactured overseas made available.
They need to justify the economic contraction and scale of redundancies that will surely follow. If they cant do this, Theresa May should change the UKs negotiating strategy in order to get a deal in place in the time available. A confirmed intention to retain single market membership and an urgent application to rejoin the European Free Trade Association would be a strong start.
Mark Burrows
With stories of sexual harassment within Hollywood becoming more prevalent by the day, it was only a matter of time before other industries were put under the microscope.
And weighing in on the topic from within the fashion world is supermodel Carla Bruni, who has controversially claimed that the issue doesn't exist in her industry.
"Of course, you have dreadful people in fashion like everywhere else," she told InStyle, "but fashion is not so dangerous for young girls."
"There's a lot of work, there's a lot of travelling, and you need to have a lot of discipline. I would say that it's one of the places in show business that is safe."
"People don't want to abuse girls - they want to photograph them. It's a healthy environment."
Having returned to the runway last month, Bruni joined fellow supermodels Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen for Versace's Milan Fashion Week showcase.
Versace SS18 at Milan Fashion Week 1 /57 Versace SS18 at Milan Fashion Week Versace at MFW Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen REUTERS Versace at MFW Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen REUTERS Versace at MFW Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen REUTERS Versace at MFW Models walk the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW Gigi Hadid walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW Models walk the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW Doutzen Kroes walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW Kaia Gerber walks the SS18 runway AP Versace at MFW Models walk the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW Models walk the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AFP/Getty Images Versace at MFW Models walk the SS18 finale REUTERS Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway REUTERS Versace at MFW Bella Hadid walks the SS18 runway AP Versace at MFW Gigi Hadid walks the SS18 runway AP Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway REUTERS Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway REUTERS Versace at MFW Models walk the SS18 runway AP Versace at MFW Models walk the SS18 runway AP Versace at MFW Models walk the SS18 runway REUTERS Versace at MFW A model walks the SS18 runway AP Versace at MFW Carla Bruni, Claudia Shiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen AP Versace at MFW Claudia Shiffer, Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen AP Versace at MFW Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen REUTERS Versace at MFW Carla Bruni, Claudia Schiffer, Donatella Versace, Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Helena Christensen REUTERS Versace at MFW Lewis Hamilton poses with Kris Jenner ahead of the show AP
Speaking specifically of the recent allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the supermodel and former First Lady of France insisted: "That doesn't happen in fashion"
"I never had a photographer or designer do that, never ever."
"Most agents are protecting girls because they have to work. And there are a lot of women in fashion - women rarely go into that kind of abuse. That keeps it safe for young models," she said. before acknowledging: "Maybe I'm wrong."
Bruni's comments just days after model Cameron Russell took to her Instagram page to share anonymous, horrific stories of sexual harassment and abuse experienced by women in the fashion industry.
Cameron Russell shares model stories - in pictures 1 /12 Cameron Russell shares model stories - in pictures A model tells the story of being told to join her photographer in the bathroom instagram/cameronrussell One model almost forgot her own encounter as it had been so normalised instagram/cameronrussell instagram/cameronrussell One model revealed she was assaulted when she was just 15 instagram/cameronrussell Another young model told of being asked to pose naked instagram/cameronrussell One model was called 'fat' after she displayed 'disgust' at having been told of the photographers previous sexual encounters instagram/cameronrussell One model spoke of being touched inappropriately during a shoot instagram/cameronrussell A model revealed she was expected to sleep with the photographer instagram/cameronrussell Another model was questioned about her recent sexual history instagram/cameronrussell
Starting the hashtag #MyJobShouldNotIncludeAbuse, Russell asked women to message her privately to reveal their experiences.
"I would urge everyone within the fashion industry to be mindful of [the] power imbalance," , Russell wrote in one of her posts.
"If you have power you have a duty of care in the way in which you exercise it."
"And not just towards models."
E arlier this year, Eve Best, one of our greatest and most mercurial stage actresses, who has also added brio and ballast to the onscreen likes of Nurse Jackie, The Honourable Woman and The Kings Speech, was contemplating moving to the US.
God yes, that was the plan, says Best, 46. I didnt know if I was necessarily going to move there but I was on my way to Australia to see my sister and her family and I stopped off in LA to have meetings, in inverted commas. It was the time of the [Trump] inauguration and there was just a very, very unhappy feeling there. The atmosphere felt incredibly toxic and I thought, I have to get out of here.
The next day Trevor Nunn emailed to ask her to appear in the lost Rattigan play Love in Idleness, in London, and in the middle of that shows successful run, Dominic Dromgoole asked her to star in A Woman of No Importance in October.
The play launches his year-long season of Oscar Wilde plays at the Vaudeville Theatre with his new company Classic Spring, and allows Best to add another iconic stage role to her Cleopatra, Hedda Gabler and Duchess of Malfi, and the Eugene ONeill and Harold Pinter heroines she has played here and on Broadway. So, lucky us: London has something to thank Trump for. And lucky me to be sitting under a tree with Best, alternately strafed by rain and showers, she having vetoed the dingy interview room.
Best had appeared in Much Ado About Nothing and directed Macbeth at Shakespeares Globe when Dromgoole was running it, so I have a huge amount of trust and massive faith in him and love for him, and was very inspired by the Wilde project as a whole. As he says, we have this idea that these plays are always on, but they are not. To take a proscenium arch theatre and simply present the plays as they are written is a breathtakingly simple idea but feels completely unique in terms of whats going on in London at the moment.
Dromgoole was adamant he wanted her. Eve is unique, a wonderful match of heart and fancy, bridged by a sharp intellect, he says. She can take any text, whether Shakespeare or Nurse Jackie, and make it seem equally fresh and like it just spilled into the world. Add to that an easy physicality, and a lively sense of the absurd, and you have a unique package which should at some point become a national treasure.
Buy tickets for A Woman of No Importance with Evening Standard tickets
She initially had reservations: eight shows a week is exhausting, plus she had misconceptions about Wilde. I thought unfairly that he was a misogynist, she says, and that his writing was two-dimensional, filled with witty epigrams and cardboard- cut-out characters saying things that were too clever by half. Now I slap my own wrists for having that thought. Her character in the play, Mrs Arbuthnot, is the mother of a secretly illegitimate son and faces a moral dilemma, as well as the double standards of Victorian England, when the boys louche, aristocratic father reappears in their lives. The psychological accuracy of it is extraordinary, she says. It feels so modern: its like coming across a new play that is the love child of Ibsen and Chekhov.
Rachel is an extraordinarily resilient, intelligent, strong, brave, rebellious, good woman, part of a proto-feminist sisterhood in late 19th-century fiction that includes Hardys Bathsheba Everdene and Ibsens Nora and Hedda. She is also the least witty character in a play that is, for all its depth, also laced with clever epigrams. Im not thinking about it in those terms because I am just being inside her, Best ripostes. But she has the wit the literal wit to survive as a single mother, which I know from the experiences of friends and family is difficult beyond imagination. A woman who has committed the sin of having a child out of wedlock was in Victorian eyes almost as much of a criminal as a man who slept with other men... she sets herself free at the end of the play in the way Wilde clearly yearned to do for himself.
Feminist hero: Eve Best as Mrs Arbuthnot
Best was born in Ladbroke Grove, her father a design journalist who is now a painter and her mother a director who worked on the English Stage Companys famous Wars of the Roses cycle, which gave Best and her younger sister early exposure to Shakespeare. Her parents split when she was 18 old enough to understand but still young.
She boarded at Wycombe Abbey, acted during her studies at Oxford and got into Rada on her second attempt, changing her name from Emily to Eve as there was already an Emily Best in Equity. Shortly after graduating she won the Outstanding Newcomer award (as it was then called) at the Evening Standards 1999 Theatre Awards for her role as Annabella in Tis Pity Shes a Whore opposite Jude Law.
Although she still owns a flat in Ladbroke Grove, Best moved to a cottage near Lewes two years ago. Yes, I am a traitor and I am sorry for that, she says. But the effect of moving out has made me appreciate London more. I always felt in my heart that I was a country bumpkin, but if youve got to be in a city, London is the best city to be in. She knows whereof she speaks: she has spent long stints in New York, playing Dr Eleanor OHara, the free-spirited foil to Edie Falcos fraught and drug-addicted Nurse Jackie, between 2009 and 2015.
Even though it was written and led by women, Nurse Jackie also introduced her to the misogynist side of American showbiz, when she was measured for Dr OHaras designer wardrobe. I was deemed to be far too fat by the producers, she snorts. I was so cross about it but I was told to go off to a personal trainer. Now I would just say shut up and pass me the cake. In earlier days, she says, she never checked to see if she was paid less than male co-stars because it didnt cross my mind that I wouldnt be. But now I jolly well am making a point of it. The pay gap is absurd, laughable. Its a nonsense that we are even having a conversation about it.
Professionally, she is not sure what the future holds after the Wilde play, though she has a long-held ambition to direct opera. On the personal side, she wont say if she is in a relationship (pass!) but does say that she would like children. The play has focused her thoughts on this but she struggles to put them into a form of words that wont sound like a soundbite, and eventually asks me to leave her answer as a simple yes. A day later she emails me the following.
At 46 Im facing the realities that time takes on the female body. Sometimes I feel sad about that and sometimes I feel happy about that, and sometimes I feel like I have kids already . I think what I mean by that is that I dont feel I have to have literal physical children in order to exercise that part of me that is a mother that part of me that is unconditional love. Thats there as a possibility in all of us, whoever we are, all the time, isnt it?
A Woman of No Importance is at the Vaudeville Theatre, WC2, until Dec 3
T he pop-up masters of East London have done it again, and this time they are really out to cause a flutter.
For one night only, cocktail-fueled pop-up The House of Angostura is taking over Dalstons TT Liqour to bring us booze, food and... butterflies.
The bar will feature a butterfly room where you can surround yourself with the fluttering insects. Curated by Luke Brown, an expert in the colourful-winged ones, this is the same butterfly exhibition that Instagram went crazy for at the Natural History Museum a couple of months ago. And yes, they will probably land on your nose, just for that perfect selfie shot.
The venue is popping up to celebrate the culture of all things Trinidad and Tobago, and along with butterflies the experience also includes rum cocktail masterclasses, street food, a mini cinema (hot buttered rum popcorn included) and a calypso-themed rave in the bars secret cellar.
So that's booze, beats and butterflies. We just might be sold.
The House Angostura pop-up is at TT Liquor, 17b Kingsland Road, E2 8AA on Tuesday October 24. Tickets cost 25.
F inlay Wilson is nonchalant about his brush with viral fame. According to the 30-year-old yoga teacher, it runs, understatedly, thus: after uploading his Kilted Yoga sequence to YouTube, Wilson went to teach a class. When he emerged, stretched and limber, the video had collected a million views. Friends were texting him, asking if it was him. Of course its me! He laughed. It was 17 million by the time I went to bed.
The video stars Wilson and a student doing acrobatic yoga poses against the sort of stirring, rugged backdrop Scotland does particularly well (the Hermitage Forest in Perthshire, on this occasion). But the appeal is down to its alchemy of levity and gravity: while the poses are hardcore, the earnest words that float, in slow-mo, across the scene (strength, power) undercut the seriousness. As of course, do the kilts. The closing scene is, predictably, a headstand in which they flap over the yogis heads. It turns out everyone loves ass, Wilson quips.
Universally, they do: the video continued to race across the world. Wilson ended up on megalithic US programme The Today Show and in news broadcasts in China and Australia. He was invited to New York to walk in the Tartan Day Parade: a huge, kitsch celebration of Scottish culture that processes down Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. The trip to NYC crescendoed towards a meal, where he discussed male mental health with the Health Secretary of the United Nations. The video has now been viewed more than 52 million times since it was shared in February.
And the latest stage in the empire is a book, Kilted Yoga: Yoga Laid Bare, which is published on Thursday. Its consistent with the irreverent tone of the viral video but has an instructive function, too. Its a manual for how to get started, explains Wilson. It has detailed instructions on very specific moves and breathing exercises, laid over more images of Wilson looking at peace in the Scottish wilds Glencoe, this time.
Simon Buxton
The shoot was really fun, he says. A busload of tourists got off and started taking photographs. They asked me to do headstands in a kilt with the inevitable conclusion.
Wilson, 30, started doing yoga when he was 19, when he had to have surgery on both his legs. I had to have the bones sanded down, which I dont recommend. Recovery was pretty rough I struggled to walk without my legs buckling. I was told yoga would be easy. It wasnt but Im pretty stubborn.
Hes been studying yoga now for a decade and practises every day. If I didnt you wouldnt want to know me. Indeed, he is zealous about its potential to balance mental health. Yoga is self-care. Theres this idea that you should get in a private victory before a public victory every day. So do yoga before leaving the house. Youve achieved something, youre leaving on a high.
Best yoga Instagrammers - in pictures 1 /14 Best yoga Instagrammers - in pictures Click through to discover 10 essential Instagram accounts for any yoga-lover Instagram/@steffywhiteyoga Adam Husler @adamhusler Teaches at Equinox, Yotopia, Stretch, Hot Yoga Society, KX, Yogahaven, Indaba, Tripspace
Though its not necessarily what I teach in my classes, naturally, people love to see the more flamboyant poses in cool settings. But beware trying to copy these poses: dont get drawn in by the aesthetics and focus on the integrity and alignment of the pose, not the prettiness! Sarah Highfield @sarahhighfield Teaches at Bodyism, Form Studios
Its not too difficult to photograph the poses but I do need to warm up before the deeper stretches. I dont have a dedicated photographer its pretty much anyone who is with me at the time, so usually my friends or boyfriend. Natasha Sherikhora @soluckysogreen Teaches private classes
I love seeing people from all over the world enjoying yoga on Instagram, regardless of their experience or body type. I get ideas and inspiration while teaching and I try to capture all facets of yoga in my photos its grace, beauty, fun and challenges. 5. Naomi Absalom @naomiabsalom Teaches at Triyoga, Indaba Yoga, Union Station Yoga
I dont plan what I post at all; I just post what I feel like, when I feel like it. I like that Im in charge of what I say and how I communicate its very much my voice. Zarouhi Grumbar @yogawithzaz Teaches at iLumi Power Yoga, Yoga West
I have made real friends through the Instagram yoga community. One friend travelled from Sweden so that we could meet and go to a yoga retreat together. At the end of my personal practice, or after teaching, I may set up my iPhone and simply take whatever poses I feel my body needs or what I want to express at that time. Calli Popham @calliyoga Teaches at Stretch
My shots are done by me on my iPhone timer or by friends and some are from professional shoots. Unless its a professional shoot the light is always natural light. I tend to take them in the studio after Ive taught or if I am somewhere particularly beautiful I might get inspired to do something upside down it tends to be quite spontaneous. Nell Clough @danielle5freedomsyoga Teaches at Third Space, Fitmibody, Alex Fitness
A quick browse of Instagram and Im always itching to get back on my mat (it also makes me want to book lots of holidays). Its not all about crazy handstands or arm balances, although its good to be encouraged to safely develop your practice with more difficult poses. Steffy White @steffywhiteyoga Teaches at Frame Shoreditch
My top tip is to press the brighten button. I dont have someone walking around with me taking photos on a proper camera. Just me, randoms on the street and sometimes my boyfriend nothing too fancy! My favourite pose at the moment is hanging out in caterpillar pose. Katarina Rayburn @katarinarayburnyoga Teaches at Frame, Dragonfly Yoga Studio, The Power Yoga Company
I enjoy looking at poses on Instagram as it gives insight into variations that I may not have discovered so I am inspired to try and explore new poses and transitions within my practice. Charlotte Wellfare @charyogi Teaches at The Refinery, Shoreditch House, Frame, More Yoga
The best Instagram pictures, in my opinion, are a balance of amazing yoga poses but also some fun and not-so-serious pictures to capture who you really are in life.
Yoga can feel elitist but the book does not alienate. Partly because of its gentle humour, and partly because the language does not assume any knowledge of terms or sequences. Its straightforward and to the point. And the scenery beats a sterile yoga studio.
Next, hell will continue to curate his YouTube channel, where hes building a library of moves. Most of the sequences are up there, he says but Im filming newer sequences and speaking through them. This should make the basic moves even easier to follow. Hes been roving the globe teaching yoga and is about to begin another tour to teach classes in Texas, Minnesota, Canada, New York, Australia and New Zealand. Im that guy who always has a yoga mat at the airport, he says, and does headstands on the travelator.
Broga is mainstream now, and Wilson reports that he gets plenty of guys in his classes. Hes more enthused by the ascendant yogis from the next generation. I teach a lot of kids yoga. Its setting a really good tone. And 90 per cent of those classes are boys, which he thinks is important for establishing a gender- neutral tone for the practice. When his video went viral, his pupils were showing all their mates. I should have got my bum out sooner.
@phoebeluckhurst
V isit Wales and you'll find it hard to tear yourself away from its beautiful scenery during the day.
But, head out in the evening and you'll find some amazing nightlife in towns and cities across the country. Here are some suggestions:
Cardiff
As the Welsh capital, its no surprise Cardiff is home to the countrys most vibrant nightlife, with everything on offer from quiet pubs to thumping nightclubs. Lab 22 is one of the citys best cocktail bars, taking mixology to the extreme in a low-lit, atmospheric setting. The menu has a scientific slant, with drinks listed like chemical elements. Or, head to The Dead Canary, which has taken the Year of Legends theme to heart by developing cocktails based on Welsh folklore.
If your vibe is more craft beer than cocktails, try the Cambrian Tap, an historic city centre boozer thats been given a modern makeover and specialises in beer, with 18 draught taps serving Brains Craft Brewery products plus other microbrews from across the UK. Fancy a taste of further afield? Try the range of bottled and canned beers from around the world.
Head to Cambrian Tap in Cardiff for craft beers
Clwb Ifor Bach, in the Castle Quarter, is an award-winning, three-floor live music venue and club, where you can hear practically any genre, including rocknroll, R&B, indie and pop classics. Open until 4am at weekends, this is the place to come if youre in it for the long haul.
Swansea
Serving coffee by day and cocktails by night, chic No. 6 Bar draws in Swanseas cool crowd with its bare brick walls, stripped wood tables and Instagramable drinks. It also serves street food-style snacks, so you can sate your appetite and your thirst.
Another classy cocktail joint is The Perch, which dishes up live music, stand-up comedy and mixology masterclasses alongside drinks and sharing plates. As well as a comprehensive cocktail list, theres a range of wines. And, billing itself as the first micro-pub in Wales, Mumbles Ale House feels more like a cosy living room than a pub, and is indeed the citys smallest. But despite its size, it was Swansea Camras Pub of the Year 2016.
Best of the rest
Tiny Rebel is arguably Waless best-known craft brewery, and since starting out as a pop-up at Newport market in 2015 its opened a flagship bar in the town. Just minutes away from the companys brewery, it serves an international selection of beer and cider, as well as Tiny Rebels own (very) locally made brews. Hungry? Theres hearty grub on offer here too.
For a touch of Prohibition era-chic, head to Nolton Corner in Bridgend, where the bar is tiled, glasses hand from the ceiling and a great range of drinks lines the bar. Look out for the regular live music sessions, comedy nights and wine tastings.
The Libertine is perhaps the most chic bar in Aberystwyth and has been shaking up cocktails just off the seafront since 2015. Here the Heston Blumenthalesque molecular creations are served in vintage-style surroundings.
All content was commissioned and approved by Visit Wales
A man was stabbed to death after an afternoon game of football in an east London park erupted into violence, according to witnesses.
The 20-year-old victim was stabbed in the chest after an argument broke out in Plashet Park in East Ham just after 4pm yesterday.
A boy aged 16 was arrested on suspicion of murder and was being interviewed today.
The victim, believed to be from Afghanistan, was playing in the game.
A witness said: It was a quiet peaceful sunny afternoon on the park. There were groups of friends playing football and then out of nowhere there was an argument and the guy was stabbed. There were a lot of tears.
The park was busy with people enjoying the warm weather when the stabbing took place.
The victim was treated by paramedics but died at the scene.
One father, whose family was in the park at the time, said: My wife ran for it with my child, they were terrified. I was only here visiting.
"I was brought up round here and it was fine. But in recent years it has got worse and worse. I moved my family to Birmingham because of the violence.
The Mets Homicide and Major Crime Command appealed for witnesses.
A young mother walking with her toddler son was robbed at knifepoint by masked thugs in an affluent London suburb suffering an epidemic of violent crime.
Police have stepped up patrols in Queens Park, north-west London, to combat the reported spike in attacks while the local MP has organised a police summit.
Residents in the district, popular with families and celebrities including Thandie Newton, Sienna Miller, Ian Wright, say they are coming under daily attack. Last week a teenager ran screaming into the local Jubilee leisure centre covered in blood after being stabbed repeatedly in the street.
Resident Rosalind Lerner, 61, said she was walking her dog when she was attacked by a lone moped rider. She said: I was in shock. There was nowhere to run, there was no one to help me. He pushed me down and took the phone. All he said was, F****** give me that. And then he just got back on his bike and rode off.
He was completely covered, I couldnt see his face - it was like a monster coming for you. I keep feeling that hand on me, I keep seeing the gloved hand.
MP Tulip Siddiq has called a summit later this month / Lucy Young
Local police have told residents that a section 60 notice has been put in place following last weeks stabbing, giving officers greater powers of stop and search.
Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, said the attack on the mother and child in Kilburn was just one of the muggings reported by shell-shocked residents on an almost daily basis.
She has called a summit later this month for victims of crime in her constituency to meet police chiefs from Brent and Camden boroughs. She told the Standard: Something needs to be done.
Its not new that your phone gets snatched out of your hand, it happened to me 10 years ago. But they are getting more and more fearless. Theyre doing it in broad daylight and then just driving away. Its quite traumatic, people seem very shell-shocked.
Neil Nerva, a Labour councillor for Queens Park, said: Local residents are looking for reassurance, its become an epidemic. Its important that the police treat this seriously.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: Met officers from Operation Venice, which tackles scooter, motorcycle and moped crime, are increasing tactical options to identify suspects involved in this type of crime.
The summit is at 5pm on October 26 at the Swiss Cottage Community Centre.
D rones are to be allowed to film in City airspace for the first time after complaints from businesses and residents about the noise from TV and film company helicopters.
Under a trial, drones will be permitted to film in very restricted circumstances.
It will mean that BBC Apprentice sequences using helicopters to capture the Gherkin, Walkie Talkie and Tower 42 could be shot on cameras mounted in quadcopters.
City of London Corporation officials previously had safety and privacy concerns over the use of drones, but were convinced to lift the ban after a change in Civil Aviation Authority rules.
It is expected that mainly TV and movie companies will apply to fly, with one drone request already being considered from producers of a large-scale feature film for next year.
Approved operators will be allowed to hover drones within 50 metres of buildings and crowds, compared with 150 metres elsewhere in London. Casual hobby fliers remain banned.
A City spokeswoman said successful applicants must have effective stewarding on the day of filming.
H undreds of people answered an urgent call to march through central London to protest against modern slavery after the Evening Standard raised awareness.
More than 800 participants, dressed in black, took part in the Walk For Freedom, handing out information flyers and walking in single file. Many wore yellow bandannas over their mouths to symbolise how slaves are forced into silence.
Organised by anti-human trafficking organisation A21, the walk on Saturday drew attention to the plight of the 40 million men, women, and children worldwide who are trapped in sexual exploitation, forced labour and domestic servitude. In the UK there are estimated to be at least 13,000 victims, many of them in London.
Walkers said the Standards special investigation into modern slavery was crucial to shedding light on such hidden horrors. I think awareness is slowly rising, and things like the Evening Standards campaign are helping, said accountant Dawn Davies, 54.
'Can't imagine how it feels': Walkers wanted to help end modern slavery / Eleanor Rose
Wesley Allison, 28, also an accountant, said: This walk is shining a light on something thats not being spoken about in any sphere to be honest. Playing a small part in shining that light is why Im here.
Chrysiis Katsea, 24, an MA student at LSE, said she was inspired to go on the walk after meeting victims of modern slavery while working with refugees in Greece. Even though I know people who have been victims of human trafficking, I cant even imagine how it feels, she said. I wanted to participate in raising awareness, letting people know so they can also take action.
A21s UK director, Charlie Blythe, thanked the Standard for calling on readers to attend and said this years turnout had dwarfed last years of about 550. She said: We are overwhelmed by the support that we have received this year. Today, because of our passionate participants, the city of London was awakened to the harsh reality of human trafficking and slavery.
Today, figures revealed a 300 per cent rise in the number of victims of modern slavery referred for support over the past six years. According to the Salvation Army, almost half of those referred to the Governments programme were brought to the UK for sexual exploitation, while 39 per cent were trafficked for labour exploitation and 13 per cent for domestic servitude.
Readers can take action, too. Join our online platform to help fight the scourge of modern slavery.
B oris Johnsons former deputy mayor today criticised proposals to select younger and more ethnically diverse Tory candidates for next Mays local elections.
Stephen Greenhalgh, who was deputy for policing, rejected Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidsons suggestion the party was too old and white to win in London. He described as balls! the idea that only politicians with a certain skin colour or age could represent the capitals diverse communities.
His comments come as senior Conservatives in London are saying they risk long-term decline in London.
Mr Greenhalgh, previously leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council, wrote on the Conservative Home website: I worry at the number of leading Conservative politicians including Davidson who believe in the Leftist concept of representation. The idea that you need to be a certain skin colour, gender, age, or sexual orientation to represent the community. What balls!
Conservatives should be meritocrats who are passionate about opportunity for all. We believe in the hand up. It is the Left who believe in the hand out. Our candidates need to be local people who want to serve their local areas rather than themselves.
He added: We should reject the idea that politics is about representation or that you need the young to attract the youth vote. Jeremy Corbyn has showed us that, for goodness sake.
Nor do I think we will beat Sadiq Khan by matching him up against another son of a Muslim bus driver who happens to be Conservative. Londons voters are more savvy than that.
It follows an article last week by Ms Davidson in the Standard which said that the party was too old and white to win over London voters and urged Tories in the capital to copy her by showing real differentiation from the national party.
London MEP Syed Kamall, tipped as a future Tory mayoral candidate and a son of a Muslim bus driver, has also warned that the party could be left with no safe seats in London if it failed to modernise.
Mr Greenhalgh agreed that London Tories needed to develop their own identity, but suggested this should be done at a local level.
R ebel Tory MPs delivered an ultimatum to Theresa May today by declaring the Governments EU Withdrawal Bill not fit to be passed.
They raised the stakes for the Prime Minister by making clear her rule by decree legislation risks being shot down in the Commons without major changes.
Senior Conservatives say they are surprised Mrs May has not yet contacted them to offer reassurances or concessions after it became clear her Commons majority could be overwhelmed. A key demand for a binding vote in Parliament on Britains withdrawal terms has emerged as one of the biggest dangers for the Prime Minister.
Writing in todays Standard, former attorney general Dominic Grieve urged Mrs May to accept that the Bill is flawed, including an excessive use of so-called Henry VIII powers that allow ministers to change laws by diktat. It ought to be possible to achieve a sensible consensus on this, he said. Without it the Bill is not fit to be passed.
The former minister argued that uniting Parliament is vital if Mrs May wants to succeed in Brexit negotiations. The EU Withdrawal Bill returns to the House of Commons for debate shortly. But the Government has delayed the crucial committee stage after being deluged with 300 amendments, many of them commanding cross-party support.
Although the Bill does not cover key questions such as whether the UK will have access to the European single market, those issues would be centre stage if the Government is forced to allow a vote on the final deal.
Responding to Mr Grieves article, Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable said: This is a devastating blow to the Governments plans for a divisive hard Brexit. Dominic Grieve is absolutely right. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said MPs would unite to force a meaningful vote on the terms of exit.
Juncker: UK must pay Brexit bill
MPs say the Bill could allow ministers to dump by stealth existing EU laws that guarantee equality for sex and gender. I am satisfied that the Government has no such intention, Mr Grieve said. But accepting amendments to prevent their alteration save by primary legislation would be both conciliatory and sensible.
Mr Grieve emphasised that the rebels were not trying to halt Brexit, but protect liberties. He said: Some in favour of Brexit are so fixated on leaving the EU, they keep arguing that any attempt to change it is some form of sabotage. It is not.
The Withdrawal Bill cleared its first Commons test last month in a historic vote in which the rebels stood back to give time for Mrs May to offer concessions. It passed with a majority of 36 thanks to a Labour split.
Tory rebel heavyweights, including Mr Grieve, former chancellor Kenneth Clarke, ex-minister Bob Neill and four committee chairs, including Treasury committee chief Nicky Morgan, have said they will not back amendments put down by Jeremy Corbyn but that Labour must unite behind their proposals.
Key demands include for Parliament to have a meaningful vote on the final withdrawal terms rather than the deal or no deal vote offered by No 10.
Mr Clarke said a no-deal situation would be catastrophic for the UK economy in the short term. In a dig at Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, he said: We mustnt be seduced by this bizarre stuff of the lion roaring, and of President Trump, and the Japanese, and protectionist countries around the world, all being prepared to open their markets to us, no rules we have got to comply with, and no obligations... this is compete fantasy. Its la-la land.
However, former Welsh Secretary John Redwood said Britain would be fine without a deal. Mrs May was holding emergency talks in Brussels today in an attempt to get deadlocked Brexit negotiations back on track. She was dining with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in a meeting that came as a surprise to observers.
The Commission said the dinner would not take the place of formal talks. The last time the two sides had dinner together, Mr Juncker reportedly called Mrs May deluded over Brexit. No 10 said: We are looking forward to a very constructive dinner.
Mrs May will also speak to Irish premier Leo Varadkar and French president Emmanuel Macron today. She spoke on the phone with German chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday. No 10 said the pair agreed on the importance of continued constructive progress in the UKs exit negotiations
A big cut in stamp duty for first-time buyers is being considered for next months Budget, the Standard has learned.
The plan is worth thousands of pounds to hard-working young people struggling to get on the property ladder. It is among bold measures being studied by Chancellor Philip Hammond for a Budget that will aim to help people in their twenties and thirties and restore intergenerational fairness to the system.
Stamp duty is a massive extra cost for people trying to buy their first home, especially in London.
It means a tax bill of 11,427 for the average first-time buyer in the capital, according to the Land Registry, which recorded the average price paid by new entrants to the London property market as 428,546. Even a starter flat costing 250,000 attracts a stamp duty bill of 2,500.
Mr Hammond is looking for ways to restore young peoples faith in the system at a time when senior ministers fear the link between working hard and getting on has been badly weakened.
Ministers say even young professionals on good money in London feel they are missing out on things their parents took for granted, including buying a home.
Cutting stamp duty is among ideas put forward by backbenchers that are being considered in detail. At the same time, No 10 is pressing Transport for London and other public bodies to release unused land for homes to be built on.
The Budget is a good opportunity to seize the political initiative domestically through bold measures on issues like housing, said a Tory source.
A stamp duty cut for first-time buyers would help all those in London whose starter homes are above the threshold of 125,000.
The average first-time buyer in London spends 11,427 in tax (AFP/GettyImages) / AFP/Getty Images
However, without an increase in new homes, a stamp duty cut could backfire by driving up prices. A stamp duty holiday was used by John Major to revive the market in 1992, and big cuts for young families were advocated by the Tories and picked up by Gordon Brown in 2005. However, Treasury studies have cast doubt on the benefits of cuts unless supply is also boosted.
Tory former minister David Willetts told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: If you are 30 now you are probably earning less than someone who was aged 30 10 years ago. Anything that rebalances and helps young people, Id be in favour of.
But he said tight public finances meant taxes would have to rise on older people if the young received help: Any help you give to one part of the population does have to be offset by increases on others.
Other Budget measures could include a boost for the AI and biotech industries, seen as sectors that can thrive after Brexit.
Mr Hammond believes that the economy is set for a super-surge of investment once a deal is struck with the European Union to secure a transitional period after the UK leaves in March 2019.
A number of firms have postponed investment decisions while they wait for the dust to settle on negotiations between Britain and the EU. Once the deal is done, even if it is only a transitional arrangement, they are likely to go ahead with the investment in new plants or equipment and take on staff.
Stamp duty is charged on all homes over 125,000, which means it hits hardest in London. It is charged at two per cent on the value between 125,000 and 250,000, rising to a marginal rate of five per cent above 250,001, then 10 per cent above 925,001 and 12 per cent after 1.5 million.
That means the average purchase in London costing 490,000 results in a 14,000 bill. For 1 million homes, the bill is 43,000.
J eremy Corbyns current seat in Parliament is to be abolished under revised boundary plans being published tomorrow, the Evening Standard can reveal.
His constituency of Islington North will cease to exist if the Boundary Commission proposals go ahead - triggering musical chairs as he and other top Labour figures scramble for seats in the Commons.
A brand new seat called simply Islington will be created, largely based on the current constituency of Islington South & Finsbury, held by his shadow cabinet colleague Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary.
Mr Corbyn is likely to lay claim to another new seat, carved from chunks of Mr Corbyns seat and that of Diane Abbott, to be called Finsbury Park and Stoke Newington.
That in turn leaves powerful shadow home secretary Ms Abbott battling against neighbouring Labour MP Meg Hillier for another new seat, Hackney Central, which straddles parts of their existing seats.
A source commented drily: There will only be one winner in that one-sided selection contest. Meg needs a new lifeboat.
Ms Hillier is MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch and chair of the powerful Public Accounts Committee.
Leaked details of the London review have been seen by the Standard ahead of their official publication tomorrow.
A big winner is David Lammy, the Tottenham MP, who has fought a successful battle to preserve his constituency.
Rivals in Labour had tried to have it carved up to ensure the partys leadership all had safe seats at the end of the shake-up.
Overall the plans will cut Londons tally of MPs from 73 MPs to 68. It is part of a review set in motion by David Cameron to whittle down the overall size of the Commons from 650 MPs to just 600.
But most MPs think the laboriously drafted new map will be sunk when put to a vote next year, after Theresa May lost her majority in the election.
Key questions are whether the Democratic Unionist Party have managed to argue successfully against plans that would have cut their tally of seats.
Another big question is whether Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary tipped as a future Tory leader, has improved her prospects of keeping her Hastings seat. Her slim majority currently counts against her leadership claims in the eyes of some Tories.
T heresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker have promised to work together to accelerate Brexit talks in the coming months.
Following a meeting and dinner together in Brussels, the Prime Minister and European Commission President Mr Juncker issued a joint statement describing their meeting as "constructive and friendly".
The statement read: "The Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission reviewed the progress made in the Article 50 negotiations so far and agreed that these efforts should accelerate over the months to come."
The meeting came after the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned last week that the discussions remained "deadlocked" over Britain's "divorce bill".
The PM met Juncker for a 'friendly and constructive' working dinner on Monday evening. / AFP/Getty Images
He made clear he could not recommend to other EU leaders that they were ready to move on to the second phase - including a free trade deal - when they meet in the Belgian capital on Thursday.
But while there were few details of the discussion between Mrs May and Mr Juncker, the upbeat tone of the statement will encourage hopes among British officials that the talks can make progress before the end of the year.
There has been intense frustration on the British side that Mr Barnier - who was also present along with his UK counterpart, Brexit Secretary David Davis - has been unwilling to move forward until there is greater clarity on the so-called withdrawal issues, including the Irish border and future citizens' rights.
EU negotiators in turn have complained that while Mrs May promised in her Florence speech the UK would honour its outstanding financial obligations, Mr Davis has so far refused to put a figure on the proposed financial settlement.
Brexit Secretary David Davis and his European counterpart, chief negotiator Michel Barnier, also attended. / REUTERS
Ahead of her meeting with Mr Juncker, the Prime Minister spoke by telephone with two other key players - French president Emmanuel Macron and Irish premier Leo Varadkar.
Downing Street said Mrs May and Mr Macron had agreed to go over "next steps" in the margins of this week's summit while she reiterated Britain's commitment to maintaining a "soft" border with Ireland when she spoke to Mr Varadkar.
In their statement, Mrs May and Mr Juncker said they had had a "broad, constructive exchange" on a range of issues - including the need to preserve the Iran nuclear deal following US President Donald Trump's latest threat to withdraw.
It was in marked contrast to a previous private dinner at Number 10 in April when Mr Juncker's chief of staff Martin Selmayr was blamed for leaking details, including a warning by the commission president that he left "10 times more sceptical" than when he arrived.
Ahead of the meeting, Downing Street reiterated that the Government believed the Prime Minister's Florence speech had given a new momentum to the talks, and had received a "constructive response" in Europe.
Mrs May's deputy Damian Green said the UK and EU were "moving closer" to agreement on citizens' rights, although he acknowledged the divorce bill remained "one of the most difficult" withdrawal issues.
He said the Government would "keep making constructive suggestions" in an effort to achieve a breakthrough.
T heresa May flew to Brussels today in an effort to break the "deadlock" in the negotiations over Britains exit from the European Union.
The Prime Minister will meet the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker just days after they raised serious concerns about the rate of progress in talks.
Downing Street sources insisted the meeting had "been in the diary for weeks" but the announcement caused surprise in Westminster.
It comes after last week's negotiations ended with little movement and Mr Barnier said there was a disturbing deadlock.
McDonnell: Tories in talks with Labour to prevent 'no deal' Brexit
Mrs May, who will be joined by Brexit Secretary David Davis, is expected to have discussions with European counterparts over the coming days ahead of a meeting of all EU leaders later in the week.
No 10 said the PM and German chancellor Angela Merkel had agreed the "importance of continued constructive progress" in the UK's exit negotiations in an early morning telephone call on Sunday.
Over dinner, the PM will hope to end the stalemate over the divorce settlement that is stopping post-Brexit trading relationship being discussed.
Talks: Theresa May and Angela Merkel have discussed negotiations over the phone / Getty Images
After the fifth round of discussions were brought to a close last week, Mr Barnier said he would not recommend that talks moved on to the next stage when he attends the European Council on Thursday.
He said the negotiations had ended without making any "great steps forward" and there was "disturbing deadlock" over the size of Britain's divorce bill.
Mr Juncker said the Brexit process will take "longer than we initially thought", blaming delays on Britain's failure to settle its financial obligations.
The Government wants EU leaders to expand Mr Barnier's negotiating mandate to allow some headway to be made.
Labour's John McDonnell suggested yesterday that Tory MPs are in talks with Labour to prevent Britain leaving the bloc without a deal.
The shadow chancellor said Parliament can stop the Government taking the country out of the block without an agreement in place and claimed discussions are "going right the way across the House".
But Chris Grayling said the Labour MP was talking "nonsense" and accused him of threatening to create a chaotic Brexit.
T heresa May will head to Brussels on Monday for crunch talks over Brexit, Downing Street has said.
The Prime Minister will meet with EU chiefs commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and chief negotiator Michael Barnier, officials said late on Sunday.
The talks come after leaders in Brussels said exit negotiations were deadlocked.
Mrs May, who will be joined by Brexit Secretary David Davis, is expected to have discussions with European counterparts over the coming days ahead of a meeting of all EU leaders later in the week.
Downing Street sources insisted the meeting had "been in the diary for weeks" but it comes after last week's negotiations ended with little movement.
Mr Barnier raised concerns about a "disturbing" deadlock over the size of Britain's "divorce bill" and said there had not been sufficient progress for him to be able to recommend moving on to the second phase of negotiations, covering trade.
Mr Juncker said the Brexit process will take "longer than we initially thought", blaming delays on Britain's failure to settle its financial obligations.
Additional reporting by Press Association.
A dog was rescued after being spotted by a coastguard helicopter when it was swept out to sea.
The helicopter crew spotted the cockapoo in peril in the Moray Firth at Cummingston, on the northeast coast of Scotland, at 10.45am on Sunday.
A crew, already out on a training exercise, kept watch until an inshore lifeboat arrived and succeeded in returning the dog to land.
A spokesman said: "We were able to quickly locate the animal and alert the inshore rescue boat to its location.
The Cockapoo was rescued after being swept out to sea in Scotland / Credit: Maritime and Coastguard Agency
"They pulled the dog onto the boat and returned it to its owners, who were waiting on shore with the Burghead Coastguard Rescue Team."
The dog is believed to have been unharmed in the incident.
T he UK is preparing for the onslaught of potentially deadly hurricane-force winds as Storm Ophelia barrels towards the coast.
Weather experts have issued severe weather warnings in the wake of the strongest storm bound for Britain in almost 60 years.
Ophelia which has set the record for the strongest hurricane ever to hit the east side of the Atlantic - is hurtling towards Ireland and the west coast of the UK with top winds of 115 mph.
The storm was upgraded from a category two to three hurricane on Saturday, but is expected to become a post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds of up to 80mph by the time it hits Ireland tomorrow.
Satellite image: Hurricane Ophelia pictured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / AP
Irelands Met Office have issued a red weather warning for parts of the Republic of Ireland and said all schools in the will close on Monday amid warnings huge gusts could cause a danger to life.
Storm Ophelia is on course to batter parts of the UK with gusts of up to 80mph
Meanwhile, very windy weather is expected across the entire region.
Yellow weather warnings for wind will come into force across swathes of north and west England, parts of Scotland, Wales and Ireland at 12 noon on Monday.
Surfers in Ireland watch as waves approach in the Atlantic on the eve of storm Ophelia / REUTERS
Forecasters have warned power cuts could occur and mobile phone coverage could be affected.
A spokesman for the Met Office said: Some damage to buildings, such as tiles blown from roofs could happen, perhaps leading to injuries and danger to life from flying debris.
"This leads to the potential for injuries and danger to life.
Ophelia is set to reach the UK and Ireland on Monday morning. / National Hurricane Centre
The storm is to continue overnight with more wind expected on Tuesday.
The National Hurricane Centre, which monitors all Atlantic storms, said: "Preparations to protect lives and property should be rushed to completion this afternoon."
Ophelia is also expected to bring rainfall of between two and three inches with isolated torrential rain of up to four inches across west Ireland and Scotland.
Ireland is braced for potentially catastrophic flooding from 9am on Monday.
An image from the European Space Agency shows Hurricane Ophelia / EPA
Met Office forecaster Luke Miall added that while storms with these wind speeds tend to happen at this time of year, the one on its way is "quite a substantial system", adding that he would describe it as "pretty exceptional".
For London, the forecast for Monday and Tuesday remains mild, with highs of 21C on Monday and top winds of 18 mph. Tuesday is set to be cooler and less windy.
The Great Storm: 15th October 1987 1 /20 The Great Storm: 15th October 1987 My other car was a Porsche: damage done during the great storm of October 15 1987 Ros Drinkwater/Rex Features Two of the 27 light aircraft at Shoreham airport that were damaged in the wake of the savage weather that left a trail of chaos in the south of England. PA Devastation everywhere PA Michael Fish failing to predict the Hurricane, that hit the south-east in October 1987 BBC Red alert: phone boxes after the storm Rex Features PA PA Devastation in Kew Gardens Robin Anderson/Rex Features Crushed beetle: October 16 1987 Sten Rosenlund/Rex Features Man struggles on the Embankment at 11.30am on October 16 25 years ago Rex Features Getty Images A tree squashed Porsche in Wandsworth SW18 Mail on Sunday Uprooted trees crashed onto houses in Old Tovil Road in Maidstone, Kent, after a hurricane hit Britai PA A light aeroplane upside down by the savage storms which hit the south, at Stapleford Abbotts airfield near Epping in Essex PA Mrs Joan Rix, owner of the Abridge Park Residential Caravan Park, tries to make a call from a blown over telephone booth in the wake of the savage storms that swept the South Coast. PA
Dublin Airport and Shannon Airport are advising passengers to check the latest flight information before travelling to the airport.
Cork Airport said cancellations are likely, adding: "We ask all passengers to check flight status with their airline & to avoid travelling to @CorkAirport on Mon unless absolutely necessary."
Responding to passengers' questions, Aer Lingus said it is monitoring the situation closely and that so far no changes have been made to its schedule.
The predicted path of Hurricane Ophelia
Ryanair said: "We will inform customers in the event of any changes to our flight schedule and the latest flight information will be posted on the Ryanair.com website."
Loganair in Scotland is offering free flight changes on routes that could be hit by the severe weather conditions.
The airline said at the moment it still intends operating a normal full schedule on Monday and Tuesday.
The UK Military of Defence (MOD) has three battalions - 1,200 personnel in total - permanently on standby to assist with contingencies.
On Sunday, bookmaker Coral cut the odds on this month being the wettest October on record in the UK into evens (from 3-1) following a flurry of bets on Sunday morning.
The firm is offering 6-4 that the wind speed reaches as high as 100mph in mainland UK next week and 2-1 for there to be snowfall in October.
Ophelia is set to hit on October 16 exactly 30 years after the Great Storm of 1987 that killed 18 people in Britain.
L ondon was cloaked in a strange orange glow after Storm Ophelia caused a dust phenomenon and turned the sun red.
The bizarre red sun was seen over parts of the UK on Monday after the former hurricane pulled in tropical air, dust and debris from southern Europe and Africa.
Londoners remarked on a sepia and orange tint to the light as hundreds of photos were shared on social media.
One stunning image showed the bright red sun glowing through the clouds next to the Shard as a plane passed by.
The phenomenon was caused by Ophelia pulling dust over from southern Europe and Africa. / PetalsofPerfection (Twitter)
Weather forecaster Grahame Madge, from the Met Office, explained the red sun is caused by Ophelia pulling in tropical air from the Sahara.
This movement of air from the continent has also brought in warmer temperatures, including highs of up to 22C in parts of southern England today, including London.
"It's all connected with Ophelia, on the eastern side of the low pressure system air is coming up in the southern direction," he said.
'No filter needed' Londoners joked as the sky was turned sepia. / @loisollerenshaw
"Air is being pulled from southern Europe and Africa and that air contains a lot of dust.
Red sun caused by storm Ophelia
"So it's most likely the appearance of sunset at midday is caused by the particles scattering the light and giving the appearance of a red sun.
"It's certainly spectacular at the moment and quite a talking point, we've had a lot of calls about it."
London was shrouded in orange on Monday. / BellaAMorley
As the air moved northwards, it also picked up a lot of dust and debris resulting from forest fires in Portugal and Spain.
According to experts, dust particles scatter the sky's blue light - which has a shorter wavelength - instead allowing longer-wavelength red light to shine through.
Storm Ophelia is on course to batter parts of the UK with gusts of up to 80mph
Ophelia, which had been speeding over the Atlantic as a category three hurricane before being downgraded to a post-tropical storm, hit the south-west tip of Ireland on Monday morning.
These were the eerie scenes over London from the top of the Shard as the sky over the capital turned a dark yellow due to Storm Ophelia
Met Office forecasters in the UK had warned of a danger to life from flying debris as well as power cuts and falling trees.
Saharan dust is the cause of the bizarre sight. / Phil73 (Twitter)
One woman sitting in her car was the first victim to be claimed by Ophelia, after her vehicle was hit by a falling branch in County Waterford in the south east of Ireland.
Two other people have since died, authorities confirmed.
Dozens of flights to and from London have been cancelled.
Ophelia is expected to hit Northern Ireland by 3pm and move onto Scotland tonight.
It comes exactly 30 years after the Great Storm of 1987 killed 18 people.
F orecasters have issued a warning of potential "danger to life" as Storm Ophelia was on course to batter parts of the UK and Ireland on Monday, with gusts of up to 80mph.
Fears over the impact of strong winds have seen troops placed on standby and many public services in Ireland closed with schools, government buildings and courts among the services affected.
Remnants of Ophelia - which was previously classified as a hurricane as it made its way across the Atlantic - will reach home shores on Monday, resulting in "exceptional" weather - exactly 30 years after the Great Storm of 1987 killed 18 people.
Schools and colleges will also be closed in Northern Ireland, which is covered with an amber weather warning - meaning there is a "potential risk to life and property", issued when forecasters believe people need to be prepared to change their plans and protect themselves from the impacts of severe weather.
Surfers in Ireland watch as waves approach in the Atlantic on the eve of storm Ophelia / REUTERS
Forecasters are warning of flying debris, such as tiles blown from roofs, as well as large waves around coastal districts with beach material being thrown on to coastal roads, sea fronts and properties.
"This leads to the potential for injuries and danger to life," the Met Office said.
Very windy weather is expected across the entire region, while a yellow warning is in place for much of Wales, Scotland, north east England, north west England, south west England and the West Midlands.
Satellite image: Hurricane Ophelia pictured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / AP
In Ireland, Met Eireann has issued a "status red" weather alert for Galway, Mayo, Clare, Cork and Kerry, warning of severe winds and stormy conditions.
Met Office forecaster Luke Miall said that while storms with these wind speeds tend to happen at this time of year, the one on its way is "quite a substantial system", adding that he would describe it as "pretty exceptional".
Mr Miall said Ophelia will have gone through a transition on its way across the Atlantic but will still bring "hurricane-force" winds.
10-day-trend from the Met Office, including impact of Storm Ophelia
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tweeted: "Defence forces being deployed in Red weather alert areas and on standby for further action (on Monday). Please check in with older neighbours and those who need medical care."
Meanwhile, airports are advising passengers in Ireland to check the latest information, with a number of Aer Lingus flights cancelled due to severe weather and the prospect of further cancellations with other carriers.
The UK Military of Defence (MOD) has three battalions - 1,200 personnel in total - permanently on standby to assist with contingencies.
But an MOD spokesman said it has not yet received requests from any local authority for assistance.
Meanwhile, bookmaker Coral cut the odds on this month being the wettest October on record in the UK into evens (from 3-1) following a flurry of bets on Sunday morning.
The firm is offering 6-4 that the wind speed reaches as high as 100mph in mainland UK next week and 2-1 for there to be snowfall in October.
A woman sitting in her car died in high winds caused when Storm Ophelia made landfall early today.
The woman was in her car when it was hit by a falling branch in County Waterford in the south-east of Ireland.
Officials warned of possible loss of life ahead of the major storm making landfall on the Irish coast.
Dozens of flights from London were cancelled, schools and other public buildings were closed and troops placed on standby amid fears of flying debris and falling trees with winds expected to reach up to 80mph.
The storm made landfall at Baltimore, on the south-west tip of the Republic of Ireland, this morning and was creeping up the west coast and expected to hit Northern Ireland by 3pm.
It was forecast to hit Scotland tonight. It comes exactly 30 years after the Great Storm of 1987 killed 18 people.
Storm: Hurricane Ophelia in the eastern Atlantic Ocean as it headed towards Ireland / EPA
Gatwick Airport today said five Ryanair flights to Ireland have been cancelled while seven from Stansted have been axed.
Heathrow said five per cent of in and out trips - up to 60 flights - will be cancelled due to Ophelia-associated disruption.
Ophelia is set to reach the UK and Ireland later this morning / National Hurricane Centre
Meanwhile Dublin Airport said 130 in and out flights had been cancelled while Belfast said seven had been axed this morning with more expected throughout the day.
An amber weather warning has been issued for the whole of Northern Ireland, meaning there is a potential risk to life and property.
Met Eireann issued a status red weather alert for Galway, Mayo, Clare, Cork and Kerry, warning of severe conditions.
The storm has set the record for the strongest hurricane ever to hit the east side of the Atlantic. / Met Office
Within the last 24 hours the storm has been downgraded after formally being classified as a hurricane, but forecasters say those caught up in it should still expect hurricane-like conditions.
Chris Page, a Met Office forecaster, told the Standard: We are likely to see large waves (on the coast) and damaging winds leading to debris possibly flying around like tiles off a roof.
We could see trees and power lines down and that could also affect mobile phone coverage.
The winds do have a threat to life. Someone could be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
By contrast Londoners were set for highs of 24C as the band of tropical air which surrounds and is driving the storm in from the Atlantic sent temperatures rising.
The normal maximum average temperature for this time of year is around 14C and it could be the hottest October day in the south east since 2011.
The Great Storm: 15th October 1987 1 /20 The Great Storm: 15th October 1987 My other car was a Porsche: damage done during the great storm of October 15 1987 Ros Drinkwater/Rex Features Two of the 27 light aircraft at Shoreham airport that were damaged in the wake of the savage weather that left a trail of chaos in the south of England. PA Devastation everywhere PA Michael Fish failing to predict the Hurricane, that hit the south-east in October 1987 BBC Red alert: phone boxes after the storm Rex Features PA PA Devastation in Kew Gardens Robin Anderson/Rex Features Crushed beetle: October 16 1987 Sten Rosenlund/Rex Features Man struggles on the Embankment at 11.30am on October 16 25 years ago Rex Features Getty Images A tree squashed Porsche in Wandsworth SW18 Mail on Sunday Uprooted trees crashed onto houses in Old Tovil Road in Maidstone, Kent, after a hurricane hit Britai PA A light aeroplane upside down by the savage storms which hit the south, at Stapleford Abbotts airfield near Epping in Essex PA Mrs Joan Rix, owner of the Abridge Park Residential Caravan Park, tries to make a call from a blown over telephone booth in the wake of the savage storms that swept the South Coast. PA
Mr Page added: Those in the south and east of England will probably be thinking what is the fuss about?
Its dragging the warm tropical air in with it and thats what we are getting in the South East. We could see highs of 24C but it will be quite breezy.
The last time the temperature hit 24C in England in October was in 2011 when it climbed to 29.9C in Gravesend.
However, very windy weather is expected across the entire northern region, with a yellow warning in place for much of Wales, Scotland, north east England, north west England and even parts of south west England and the West Midlands.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar tweeted: Defence forces being deployed in Red weather alert areas and on standby for further action.
Please check in with older neighbours and those who need medical care.
Airports were advising passengers to check the latest information about their flights.
Ryanair said: We will inform customers in the event of any changes to our flight schedule and the latest flight information will be posted on the Ryanair.com website.
Forecasters warned of flying debris, such as tiles blown from roofs, as well as large waves around coastal districts with beach material being thrown on to coastal roads, sea fronts and properties.
A reckless sightseer teeters on the edge of the eroding Birling Gap cliffs, in defiance of repeated safety warnings.
The woman's dangerous antics come after a 23-year-old student fell to her death at nearby Seven Sisters in June.
Despite repeated safety warnings over the risk of cliff falls, tourists continue to teeter on the edge of the cliffs on the Sussex coast for holiday snaps.
Hyewon Kim, from South Korea, fell 200ft to her death in June, after losing her footing while posing for a picture on the world-famous chalk cliffs.
The woman peers over the edge with a friend / Alamy Live News
Ms Kim asked a nearby group of tourists to take a picture of her, during a visit to Cuckmere Haven, East Sussex on June 22.
After jumping in the air for the shot, Ms Kim slipped and fell over the cliff edge, suffering grievous injuries. Pictures found on her phone showed her posing happily with her back to the cliff-edge in the moments she fell.
A student fell to her death yards from the spot where the woman posed for pictures / Alamy Live News
Last week, an inquest into the incident heard how there had been major rock fall at the same location the previous day.
The cliffs at Birling Gap and Seven Sisters, which attract more than 350,000 people each year, regularly crumble because of coastal erosion.
Birling Gap is known for its rapidly eroding coastline. There were several cliff falls at the site during the summer including three in 48 hours which saw a loss of 50,000 tons of chalk to the sea.
Several homes have disappeared from the coastline as the land has gradually eroded.
Earlier this month, the steps leading down from the from the cliff edge to the beach were closed due to the recent increase in erosion.
B ritains top financial regulator has issued a stark warning about the level of debt being forced on young people because of the cost of living.
Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said the younger generation were not reckless but still racked up large debts paying high rents and funding essential living.
He said: "There is a pronounced build-up of indebtedness amongst the younger age group.
"We should not think this is reckless borrowing, this is directed at essential living costs. It is not credit in the classic sense, it is [about] the affordability of basic living in many cases."
The regulator told the BBC the change marked a generational shift and young people faced being worse off than their parents.
Andrew Bailey / AFP/Getty Images
There has been a clear shift in the generational pattern of wealth and income, and that translates into a greater indebtedness at a younger age, he said.
"That reflects lower levels of real income, lower levels of asset ownership. There are quite different generational experiences.
Mr Bailey highlighted high rental costs and lack of income growth as key problems which lead young people to turn to credit in order to make ends meet.
His comments come after recent research flagged concerns among the younger generation about the amount of debt they owe and their ability to repay it.
Last month Citizens Advice said they had seen a 34 per cent rise in the number of under-25s seeking help with high credit costs in the last two years.
Meanwhile, projections from a major lettings network found record numbers of rental sector tenants leaving London over the past year.
In the last 12 months, nearly 65,000 tenants are estimated to have left London, the highest number doing this since its records started in 2007, Countrywide said.
M ore than 300 people have been killed by twin truck bomb blasts in Somalia's capital Mogadishu in the deadliest single attack in the country's history.
Officials fear the toll will continue to climb from Saturday's lorry bomb, which targeted a busy street near key ministries in the city.
We have confirmed 300 people died in the blast. The death toll will still be higher because some people are still missing, Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of the citys ambulance service, told Reuters on Monday.
Doctors struggled to assist horrifically wounded victims, many burned beyond recognition.
"The hospital is overwhelmed by both dead and wounded," said Dr Mohamed Yusuf, the director of Medina hospital. "This is really horrendous, unlike any other time in the past."
Ambulance sirens echoed across the city as bewildered families wandered in the rubble of buildings, looking for missing relatives.
Security officials gather to search for bodies by the devastated shell of a building / AP
"In our 10-year experience as the first responder in Mogadishu, we haven't seen anything like this," the Aamin Ambulance service tweeted.
"There's nothing I can say. We have lost everything," wept Zainab Sharif, a mother of four who lost her husband.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared three days of mourning and joined thousands of people who responded to a desperate plea by hospitals to donate blood.
Bombing: Somali woman mourns at the scene of the explosion / REUTERS
"I am appealing all Somali people to come forward and donate," he said.
Angry protesters gathered near the scene of the attack as Somalia's government blamed the al Qaida-linked al Shabab extremist group for what it called a "national disaster".
However, al-Shabab, which often targets high-profile areas of the capital with bombings, had yet to comment.
"They don't care about the lives of Somali people, mothers, fathers and children," prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire said.
"They have targeted the most populated area in Mogadishu, killing only civilians."
Rescue workers searched for survivors trapped under the rubble of the largely destroyed Safari Hotel, which is close to Somalia's foreign ministry.
The explosion blew off metal gates and blast walls erected outside the hotel.
Qatar's foreign minister said his country's diplomatic mission in Somalia was hit by the attack.
Reporting by Reuters, AP
A n 8-year-old girl has died after falling from a cruise ships interior atrium to a lower deck.
The Carnival Cruise Lines ship has just finished its voyage and docked in Miami, Florida on Saturday when the child fell at around 8.15am, the Miami-Dade Police Department has said.
She was taken to the Jackson Memorial Hospitals Ryder Trauma Centre, where she died.
"We understand that the child may have fallen 20 or so feet from a landing," Miami Fire-Rescue spokesman Capt. Ignatius Carroll said at a news conference, CNN reported.
The polices homicide department is working with the cruise company to investigate the details of the incident.
The childs name has not been released.
The Carnival Glory ship had just returned from a seven-night cruise to the Western Caribbean.
In a statement, the vice president of corporate communications at Carnival Jennider De La Cruz said: "Our most heartfelt care and concern is with the family at this very difficult time.
The ship has been turned back over to Carnival Cruise Lines to resume normal operations, police said on Saturday.
D onald Trump has said he wants to run against Hillary Clinton again in 2020.
Mr Trump defied all the odds to stunningly defeat Mrs Clinton in last years US election and become President of the United States.
He tweeted on Wednesday that he was asked whether his beaten opponent intended to run again in the 2020 US election.
He said: I was recently asked if Crooked Hillary Clinton is going to run in 2020?
He added his answer was: "I hope so!"
The US President defied pollsters, analysts and even leaders of his own Republican Party to pass the finishing line of 270 electoral college votes needed to beat Mrs Clinton last November.
However for some his victory was tainted by the fact he failed to win the popular vote, with Mrs Clinton securing almost 3 million more votes than him.
The 69-year-old is in the UK after publishing her new book, What Happened, and told Andrew Marr on Sunday that the vote to leave the EU, and specifically the false claims made by Leave campaigners, were a forerunner to her defeat in last years US election.
Hillary Clinton talks about Brexit being a big lie
Her election defeat came just months after the Brexit vote stunned Britain.
Mrs Clinton accused the likes of Nigel Farage of giving "fabricated" information to voters during the referendum and raised the role of data mining and analysis company Cambridge Analytica.
An investigation was launched by the Information Commissioner's Office into the firm after complaints the Leave.EU campaign, backed by Mr Farage, had not declared its role in its campaign.
Mrs Clinton said: "Looking at the Brexit vote now, it was a precursor to some extent of what happened to us in the United States.
Whatever the role Cambridge Analytica played for example. But the amount of fabricated, false information that your voters were given by the Leave campaign."
She added: "You had, you know, Mr Farage campaigning for Trump and the like.
You know, the big lie is a very potent tool, and we've somewhat kept it at bay in western democracies, partly because of the freedom of the press.
A man-eating tigress that killed four people in India was electrocuted and died just days after a court ruled it was to be shot dead.
The hunt for the two-year-old tigress was called off after her body was found in the west Indian state of Maharashtra.
The wildcat was electrocuted on Saturday by a farmers fence designed to keep out wild boar, wildlife officials said.
A shoot-to-kill order had been issued by the state forest department on 23 June this year. Wildlife activists had challenged the order, but the court rejected their appeal on Thursday.
The tigress was first captured in July after killing two people and injuring four in the town of Brahmapuri, in Maharashtra.
It was later released into Bor Tiger Reserve, but went on to kill two more people.
60 per cent of the worlds tigers live in India, but loss of habitat and poachers threaten the population. As humans encroach into their territory, tigers compete for resources with nearby villages, leading to conflict.
M ore than 20 people were today feared to have died in devastating wildfires in Portugal and Spains north-west Galicia region.
Portuguese authorities said overnight that six people had been killed, but later reports said the number of dead numbered at least 20
A 19-year-old pregnant woman was among those killed as she struck another car while trying to flee flames in one of 500 forest fires across Portugal.
Strong winds brought in by the tail-end of Hurricane Ophelia and high temperatures provided the perfect scenario for the spread of the fires, most of which are thought to have been deliberately started.
Respected daily Correio da Manha said at least 20 had died in different parts of the countrys central region.
Officials look on from a safe distance as the wildfires spread in Galicia / EPA
At least three people died in Spain, including two women trapped in their van in Nigran 10 miles south of the city of Vigo yesterday.
Galician President Alberto Nunez Feijoo described the situation as critical as 17 fires near populated areas in the region remained active this morning (MON) after a weekend with more than 200 separate blazes.
Claiming firefighters had been tackling homicide incendiary activity, he said: We are dealing with deliberately-started fires by people who know what to burn, how to burn it and the places to pick.
At least 20 people are said to have died in the fires which are raging across Spain and Portugal / EPA
Distressing footage showed panicked locals driving along smoke-filled roads with walls of flames either side.
In the coastal resort town of Baiona in southern Galicia, people were filmed abandoning their homes as they were surrounded by fire.
The city of Vigo, where locals in a human chain were pictured using buckets of water to tackle flames encroaching on their houses, was one of the worst affected.
Several schools there cancelled classes today (MON) with the University of Vigo suspending all activity because of the emergency situation.
Police tweeted alongside a video of a motorcyclist racing away from a wildfire approaching a normally-busy roundabout: Galicia is burning and silence is complicit with those who burn it. If you know who did it, ring the emergency number and tell us.
Some of the fires affecting Spains north-west region crossed the border from Portugal, which suffered its worst day of the year so far bringing back memories of the wildfires in June which killed 64 people including several children, most in the central town of Pedrogao Grande.
Four people were injured on the A25 in Vouzela near the city of Viseu in Portugals central region in a head-on collision which happened after a motorist drove the wrong way to escape one of the blazes.
Thirty-three of the 523 wildfires, a record number this year, were described as large.
Nearly 6,000 people were mobilised to tackle the flames.
Two people died in Penacova near the university city of Coimbra, another two in Oliveira do Hospital a 45-minute drive east and one each in Serta and Nelas.
Portuguese PM Antonio Costa admitted: I hope there are no more deaths, but there are a lot of people injured and still unaccounted for.
L awyers have condemned a Pakistan government decision to support notoriously violent tribal councils, arguing that the country is mainstreaming misogyny.
The councils, called jirgas, have been known to order civilians to carry out honour killings and "revenge rapes" as a means of "traditional justice".
Earlier this year the government decided to endorse the rulings of jirgas in an effort to control them. MPs voted to integrate jirgas into the formal justice system as long as each jirga is appointed a neutral arbitrator. Aiming to prevent misogyny, the arbitrator will need to approve the verdicts of jirgas before they are passed.
Just 23 of 342 members of the lower house in the Pakistan government turned out to vote on the measure.
Demonstration: Honour killings in Pakistan have sparked protests by human rights activists / AFP/Getty
A law that allows police to arrest members of jirgas for suspected "anti-women" activities was passed in 2011. But activists say the councils, which blend tribal and Islamic customs, are still advocating sexual assault.
In August this year a 15-year-old girl and her boyfriend who attempted to elope were electrocuted and murdered by their fathers on the order of a jirga. A settlement had initially been reached between the two families over the marriage plans but the jirga rejected the agreement and ordered the deaths as a lesson to others.
Lawyers have blasted the idea of the government mainstreaming jirgas, with one telling the Economist whoever drafted the new law should be shot.
In July this year, 24 men were arrested after the alleged revenge gang-rape of a teenage girl, ordered by a jirga. The tribal councils carry a code which considers women to be "property".
But support for jirgas is increasing as more and more civilians are turning to them for a form of speedy justice.
For most Pakistanis, a formal legal system is out of reach. Lawsuits on average take more than a decade to resolve and lawyers charge large sums for their services.
A former bureaucrat who runs a popular jirga in the city of Rawalpindo told the Economist: Only jirgas in illiterate backwaters produce the sort of decisions that end up making shocking headlines.
Support for jirgas has also come from the UK. A report commissioned by the UK Department for International Development in 2016 advocated studying merits of jirgas. The department has since funded gender-sensitivity training for tribal elders in Peshawar, a conservative northern city.
Nearly 1,100 women were killed in Pakistan in 2015 by relatives who believed they had dishonoured their families, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan..
A penguin that became an internet star after developing an unusual affection for a cardboard anime character has died with the cut-out by his side.
Grape, who was 21-years-old, hit the headlines earlier this year after he grew attached to the cut-out of an anthropomorphic female penguin.
The elderly Humboldt penguin touched hearts around the world when he was constantly pictured standing next to Hululu, a character from the series Kemono Friends.
Grape lived at Tobu Zoo in Miyashiro, Japan and is said to have become attracted to Hululu after being rejected by female penguin Midori, who he had been courting for ten years.
His feelings appeared to be so strong that zoo staff left the cut-out character in the enclosure despite the promotion it was placed there for ending many months ago.
Grape had been spotted performing courtship rituals alongside Hululu, stretching out his wings with his beak pointed upwards.
When she was briefly removed from the enclosure during a typhoon, Grape was said to be visibly distressed.
The Tobu Zoo confirmed the penguins passing on Friday, writing on Twitter:
The Humboldt penguin Grape-kun passed away yesterday. Sincere thanks to everyone for supporting him until now.
Thank you also to Hululu, who watched over him until the very end. And thank you, Grape-kun, for all this time. Rest peacefully in heaven.
Twitter users marked Grapes passing with a flurry of memes and artwork celebrating his relationship with Hululu.
A t the age of just 31, Sebastian Kurz is set to become the world's youngest national leader after his party's victory in the Austrian election Sunday.
Although no party won a majority, Kurz is likely to be sworn in as Austria's next chancellor and the head of a coalition government.
He served as Europe's youngest-ever foreign minister after he was appointed in 2013 at the age of 27.
Near-final results from Sunday's balloting put his People's Party comfortably in first place, with 31.4 per cent of the vote.
The right-wing Freedom Party came in second with 27.4 per cent.
New leader: Sebastian Kurz / REUTERS
Nicknamed "Wunderwuzzi" or "wonderkid", Kurz has been compared to other young global leaders Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau.
Personal life
Kurz was born in Vienna and still lives in the same district, Meidling, that he grew up in.
After completing the compulsory military service, he decided to study law at the University of Vienna.
Throughout this time he dabbled in politics and was elected chairman of the Austrian People's Party in 2009 and became a member of Vienna's city council in 2010.
Kurz with his girlfriend Susanne / REUTERS
In 2011, he was appointed to the newly created post of State Secretary for Integration and decided to stop his studies to pursue a career in politics
He is not married, but is currently dating Susanne Thier who works at the Austrian finance ministry. They met aged 18.
Career and political background
Kurz became foreign minister in 2013, aged 27, when the Social Democratic-People's Party coalition was formed. This made him the youngest top diplomat in Europe.
In this role he hosted several rounds of talks between Iran and other countries on Tehran's nuclear program, met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other powerbrokers.
Other international events further boosted his visibility and party influence.
During the refugee crisis in 2015, Kurz recognized Austrian voters' anxiety over unchecked immigration involving large numbers of Muslim newcomers and called for tougher external border controls, better integration and stringent control of "political Islam" funded from abroad.
Election: Sebastian Kurz attends his party's victory celebration meeting in Vienna / REUTERS
He also organized the shutdown of the popular overland route through the West Balkans many newcomers were using to reach the EU's prosperous heartland.
By now, Kurz and his centrist party had drifted considerably to the right of their Social Democratic government partners, making governing difficult.
The coalition agreed to an early national election this spring and The People's Party, then lagging in third place, made him leader.
Kurz set out to reinvent the party's image and helped it shrug off criticism that it's been part of the political establishment for decades.
What does this mean for Austria?
Kurz will now have to negotiate a contrition government with the other leading parties in Austria.
The right-wing Freedom Party came in second with 27.4 per cent and the center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria, which now governs in coalition with People's Party, got 26.7 per cent.
Sebastian Kurz speeks to supporters / AFP/Getty Images
Noting that his center-right party had triumphed over the rival Social Democrats only twice since the end of World War II, Kurz called Sunday's election a "historic victory."
But the victory marks a significant shift to the right in Austrian politics and andKurz and and his party could seek an alliance with the anti-immigration Freedom Party.
Kurz's manifesto is so right-wing, in fact, that the Freedom Party accused him of stealing their policies.
Their candidate, Heinz-Christian Strache, has called him an "imposter".
Following his victory Kurz told supporters: "It is time for change in this country. Today is a strong order for us, to change this country, and I say thank you to you all who made this possible.
"I'm overwhelmed, I am happy, and I look forward to working for Austria."
A Spanish judge has jailed two leaders of Catalonia's pro-independence movement while they are investigated for sedition.
Jordi Sanchez of the Catalan National Assembly and Jordi Cuixart of the Omnium Cultural group were remanded in prison without bail after being questioned.
The National Court in Madrid is investigating their roles in demonstrations in Barcelona on September 20-21.
They are both seen as leading figures in the independence vote on October 1, which was suspended by Spanish courts. The vote was deemed illegal by the Madrid government.
Catalonia crisis explained in 60 seconds
Mr Sanchez and Mr Cuixart face trial for sedition, which means inciting people to rebel against the national government.
The pair are also accused of encouraging protesters to block police officers as they tried to prevent the voting taking place.
Ahead of the referendum, police arrested several Catalan officials and raided offices.
Earlier on Monday, the judge ruled that Catalan regional police chief Major Josep Lluis Trapero and colleague Lieutenant Teresa Laplana could remain free under several conditions, including surrendering their passports and agreeing to appear in court every two weeks.
W omen and men who have been sexually assaulted or harassed are using the #MeToo hashtag to show the world how widespread the issue is.
Victims came forward on Twitter to share their experiences and offer support to others following a flurry of sexual harrassment and assault allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein.
#MeToo soon began trending on the site on Sunday night, racking up thousands of tweets and remaining as a top trend through to Monday.
It started with a tweet from actress Alyssa Milano, who was citing a friend.
By Monday morning the tweet had 30,000 replies, mostly from people describing their experience of sexual assault or simply saying me too.
Milanos tweet was posted after a number of women came forward with sexual assault and harassment allegations against film producer Weinstein, who is now the subject of police investigations in London and the US.
More than 30 women including Rose McGowan, Kate Beckinsale, Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow have come forward alleging sexual advances and assaults by Weinstein.
Some men used the #MeToo hashtag to urge other men to act to prevent sexual assault.
A host of stars have since slammed Weinstein for his alleged behaviour, with Dame Judi Dench calling the claims "horrifying" and Meryl Streep calling the women who spoke out "heroes".
In response to the harassment claims, Weinstein has apologised for his behaviour but has said many of the allegations against him are false. His spokesman had said that the categorically denies any non-consensual sexual activity.
C omedian Sean Hughes has died at the age of 51, his management has confirmed.
The London-born Irish writer and stand-up died after being rushed to the Whittington Hospital on Sunday night.
It is believed he was admitted with liver cirrhosis and died after suffering a cardiac arrest.
The Never Mind the Buzzcocks star had said in his latest tweet, dated October 8, that he was in hospital.
Sean Hughes, right, starred on Never Mind the Buzzcocks / BBC
Tributes have poured in for Hughes who was one of the youngest comedians ever to win the prestigious Perrier Award.
Fellow comedian Jason Manford paid tribute to him on social media, writing: "Very sad to hear about Sean Hughes. A brilliant comic and a lovely bloke. RIP."
Jack Dee tweeted: "Very sad to hear about Sean Hughes. Started on the circuit with him back in the day. RIP."
David Schneider and Al Murray were among others to post about the star, who was well-known for being a team leader in the panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
And comedian Ross Noble posted: "Just awful news about Sean Hughes.he was very nice to me when I was starting out in comedy.a sad loss."
Hughes was a stand-up, writer, presenter and starred in several shows / PA
Hughes won the Perrier Award in 1990 for his popular show A One Night Stand With Sean Hughes.
During his career, he also wrote books, starred in Coronation Street in 2007 and presented several radio shows on the BBC.
Following news of his death, his former-promoter Richard Bucknall told Beyond the Joke that Hughes has been a "pioneering, groundbreaking comedian who changed comedy with that live show".
Nica Burns, the director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, said: "Sean Hughes was the youngest comic at 24, to win Britain's top comedy award in 1990.
Tributes: Sean Hughes has died at the age of 51 / PA
"He was a huge talent, a really good comic, instinctive timing from day one and a very good writer. He will be missed."
S tranger Things actor Charlie Heaton has revealed his path to stardom had a strange beginning a Skype interview in the Hammersmith branch of Byron Burger.
The British newcomer, from Bridlington in Yorkshire, was part of the young cast who shot to fame in the Netflix show, which was one of last years most talked-about programmes.
Heaton, 23, had only a handful of minor television credits to his name before he was cast by Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer to play introverted teenager Jonathan Byers.
The first series of the sci-fi thriller, set in a fictional Indiana town in the Eighties, centred around the disappearance of Jonathans brother, Will. The boys mother is played by Winona Ryder, who is returning with Heaton and the rest of the cast for the second series, out this month.
Young stars: Charlie Heaton with Stranger Things co-star Natalia Dyer in the shows second series
Heaton said: I sent in an audition tape and then found out they wanted to know more about me and where I had come from. They ended up Skyping me from a Byron Burger in Hammersmith it was the weirdest thing.
Stranger Things 2 - Super Bowl 2017 Ad
They said they were looking for people who werent necessarily known actors, and I told them how much I related to this character as I was from a working class background and really into music. I was flown over to the US for a screen test and got the role very quickly. Then it came out and almost overnight it became a phenomenon.
Heaton went on to win a role in Marvels next X-Men movie, New Mutants, which he has just finished filming.
Stranger Things, Season 2 - in pictures 1 /6 Stranger Things, Season 2 - in pictures She's back Winona Ryder returns as Joyce Byers - and is that a new character on the right? Netflix Downside Up Will Byers is back to reality after spending Season 1 in the Upside Down Netflix Dream team Nancy and Jonathan are teaming up again Netflix Worse for wear Chief Hopper looks as disheveled as ever in the new series Netflix Who ya gonna call? The kids dress up as Ghostbusters for Halloween Netflix
He has had no formal acting training and fell into the profession after moving to London at 16 to become a musician. He toured with several bands but, short of money, ended up auditioning for a part in an advert with his sister.
Since then he has been learning on the job. He said: Its the best way! You can go to school and learn and that works for some people. But I think the best kind of learning is practical and learning on the job.
He added: When I see my old mates they will say, Youre doing well, good on you! It kind of blows their minds it blows my mind too! I sometimes think, What am I doing standing on this red carpet? Its hard to believe. You just tell yourself, Just play along and hopefully no one will notice!
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Up until 2014 Ukraine saw a bright future in further developing pre-1991 Soviet era weapons designs and selling them to export customers. Orders were coming in for these weapons until early 2014 when Russia decided to invade and annex portions of the Ukraine that Russia regretted parting with in 1991. Crimea was lost in a month then the Russians went after eastern Ukraine (Donbas) and that effort stalled, and is still stalled. Ukraine was surprised to discover that it was not lots of weapons, especially the one Ukraine had been building since 1991 that made the difference. It was eventually discovered that the Donbas effort was halted because many Ukrainians who were not in the military stepped forward and went to Donbas to fight using whatever they could scrounge up.
In any event Ukraine found its Russian suppliers (or components for weapons and much else) no longer available. Russia suffered the same fate but was better able to adapt. Many export projects were disrupted and when the Ukrainian military went looking for new weapons the first stop was Ukrainian firms making these updated Russian designs. Defending Ukraine took priority and that disrupted delivery schedules. A prime example of that is the T-84, a $4 million high-tech tank that was, on paper, equal to the American M1, the German Leopard 2, the Israeli Merkava and the Russian T-90.
The problem was the Ukrainian military found The T-84 it was more than they needed. Although the Ukrainian Army only ordered ten of them it was quickly discovered that cheaper tanks were more effective against the Russians (actually Russian backed Ukrainian rebels who were ethnic Russians who had long lived in the area) in Donbas. Where the T-84 really got into trouble was its main export customer; Thailand, who had ordered 49 of them in 2012. The first five T-84s were delivered to Thailand in early 2014 and after that deliveries slowed down rather than accelerated. The second five didnt arrive until early 2015, at which point Ukrainian weapons manufacturers were all dedicated to supply Ukrainian troops in Donbas. Nevertheless ten more T-84s arrived in Thailand in early 2016 with another five arriving in late 2016. In the meantime Thailand was having second thought about the T-84 and ordered 28 Chinese VT4/MBT3000 tanks that were similar in performance and price to the T-84s and could be delivered more quickly and on schedule. Thailand has not cancelled the rest of the T-84 order but that is a possibility. China has become a major player in the post-1991 Russian weapons market, producing its own enhancements of Cold War era Russian designs but adding better tech and reliability. Ukraine cant really compete, especially not with the Russian invasion still an issue because which the Russian advanced has been halted, the Russians are still occupying about half of Donbas. It was at that point that analysis of how Ukraine had stopped the Russians depended little (or not at all) on having the most modern weapons. This came as a blow to Ukrainian arms manufacturers, who depend on export sales. They again you cant manufacture determination, resourcefulness and fighting spirit in a factory.
Nevertheless Ukraine has done some impressive weapons development. The T-84 is a Ukrainian modification of the Russian T-80, a failed Russian design that Ukrainian engineers managed to salvage. The Ukrainian version, the T-84 Oplot-M, was offered for sale in 2009. It was a 46 ton vehicle with a "western" style turret (as opposed to a Russian style one). The T-84 relies on multiple layers of armor protection (conventional steel, composites and reactive armor) and a Zaslon APS (active protective system) to deal with guided missiles and RPGs as well as modern electronics system to jam missile and other guidance systems and sensors. The fire control system is world-class and allows the T-84 to fight at night and in bad weather. The 125mm main gun uses a reliable auto-loader with 46 rounds of ammo on board and 28 (of up to four different types) are available for autoloading. The 125mm gun can also fire a laser guided missile against air or ground targets up to five kilometers away. The fire control system sensors can spot ground and air targets up to eight kilometers away. There is a 12.7mm machine-gun on top of the turret and a 7.62mm one coaxial with the main gun. The three man crew (commander, gunner, driver) use a lot of automation and electronics to operate a vehicle that has a top speed of 75 kilometers an hour on roads (and 45 off). Using internal fuel the tank can travel about 500 kilometers on roads. Each battalion of T-84s (usually 30-40 tanks) has a maintenance company of at least a hundred mechanics and technicians to assist the tank crews in keeping the vehicles operational.
The Ukrainian Army, now with several years of experience fighting the Russians, reports that most of the high-tech features of the T-84 are not needed in the Donbas fighting but could perhaps be useful if Russia brought in equally advanced tank designs. What the Russians really need is more and better motivation but that sort of thing has proved hard to come by in contemporary Russia. This is the sort of thing that repeats itself again and again throughout history but is generally played down these days in favor of neat new tech.
Since June Islamic terrorist violence has doubled compared to earlier in the year. That means there have been 15-20 attacks a month since June with most (59 percent) casualties suffered by Mali police and soldiers and 28 percent by UN peacekeepers. Only 13 percent of casualties have involved the thousand French troops in the north. The French troops are part of a larger (about 4,000 personnel) counter-terror group that works with the mew multi-national G5 force. While the Mali security forces and the peacekeepers in Mali are largely for defensive purposes the G5 Force is better trained and equipped and exists to find and kill or capture Islamic terrorists. Thus Islamic terrorists operating in Mali avoid the G5 force and most of the clashes with the G5 Force are because the G5 Force troops were looking for Islamic terrorists to confront.
Not surprisingly Mali has become the most dangerous peacekeeping operation in Africa. Since June the 13,000 strong peacekeeping force has suffered 15 deaths (six troops and nine civilians). Since 2013 nearly a hundred peacekeepers have died in Mali. Most of these deaths occurred in the north, where there was a l0t of violence since (and before) the peacekeepers arrived in early 2013. The peacekeepers are mainly African and in the last year the combined forces suffered a death rate of about 200 per 100,000 per year (a standard measure of such things.) Compare that to the 2013 rate (200 per 100,000) for foreign troops in Afghanistan. That was down from 587 in 2010, which was about what it was during the peak years in Iraq (2004-7). The action in Mali is less intense than in pre-2014 Afghanistan or pre-2011 Iraq but is more than double the rate for peacekeepers worldwide. Total peacekeeper casualties since mid-2013 are about 300 dead and wounded and losses have been much heavier among the Islamic terrorists.
The G5 Sahel (the semi-desert area south of the desert that stretches across northern Africa) Joint Force is seen as a better peacekeeping solution because it consists of the best troops from Sahel nations (Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad) able to deal with Islamic terrorism throughout the Sahel. The idea for the G5 force has been around since 2015 but it was only by the end of 2016 that the countries involved agreed on the details. This included who would provide what in terms of the 5,000 soldiers and police needed and where they would be based. The G5 force will be stationed in three operational areas along with troops familiar with local conditions. Thus Sahel East would consist of troops from Chad and Niger. Sahel Central would be staffed by troops from Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso while Sahel West would mainly use troops from Mali and Mauritania. France expects to see parts of the G5 force operational by the end of 2017. That would enable France to shrink and eventually disband the force of 4,000 French troops it has deployed in the Sahel since 2013 and reduce the 13,000 strong UN peacekeeper force in Mali. The recent attack on American Special Forces troops in Niger was related to building the G5 Force.
The peacekeepers in Mali are mainly African and mainly stationed in the north and, increasingly central Mali where there is more Islamic terror group activity, not all of it violent. The Islamic terrorists in Mali spend most of their time taking care of business, which is usually smuggling (drugs, weapons, people). This takes Mali based Islamic terrorists into neighboring countries, where the armed smugglers fight locals who get in the way. Burkina Faso and Niger have been the most frequent victims of this kind of violence.
It was also agreed that the G5 countries could not pay for such a force. This is a common problem in Africa, where only a few large, oil-rich nations (like Nigeria) can fund a multi-national operations. The UN or the AU (African Union) usually raise and manage the money. This is always a difficult process because of the pervasive corruption in most of Africa and the need to closely and constantly monitor the money to ensure that is being applied as intended.
The EU said earlier in 2017 it would help G5 get prepared to work in cooperation with the similar (but larger and better equipped) French force that has been operating in the Sahel since 2014. The EU (European Union) approved $56 million to establish support operations for the G5 force. That support will be based on what has already been established for the French counter-terrorism and UN peacekeeping forces in the area.
The idea of a permanent Sahel counter-terror forces had its origins in a 2014 French analysis of the problem. Back then the French concluded that the Sahel was still troubled by thousands of Islamic terrorists and that this situation could not be taken care of quickly. In order to maintain pressure on the Islamic terrorists France established a special force of 3,000 troops to fight Islamic terrorists throughout the Sahel (actually just Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso). Since then the French force has grown to some 4,000 troops equipped with hundreds of armored vehicles, 20 transport and attack helicopters, six jet fighters and three large UAVs. There are also two twin engine C-160 air transports available for use within the Sahel. Supplies and reinforcements are regularly flown in using long-range transports (like the C-17) belonging to NATO allies (especially the U.S. and Britain). From the beginning the French force included a thousand French troops in Mali and the rest dispersed to other Sahel bases and ready to quickly move anywhere in the region that Islamic terrorist activity had been detected. The G5 nations already cooperated by sharing intelligence and providing quick access to their territory by the French force. In addition the Americans provided satellite and UAV surveillance and other intel services (especially analysis and access to nearly all American data on Islamic terrorist activities in the region).
All this was meant to keep the Islamic terrorists in the Sahel weak and disorganized. So far that has worked, but these groups have been around since 2007, are still in business (as gangsters smuggling drugs and illegal migrants north) and getting support from Islamic terrorists in Europe and the Persian Gulf. Islamic terrorists continue to carry out attacks in Mali (mainly the north) and in the G5 states to let the world know that Islamic terrorists were still present in the area and not afraid to fight whoever is sent against them.
The main reason for the stubbornness of the Islamic terror groups is not religion but economics. Much of their activity is economic. They need the money. For example Islamic terror groups use ambushes or bombs, especially against road traffic, not just to intimidate rivals and intimidate local security forces and armed militias, but also to make the roads unsafe. This means it is difficult to get relief supplies to needy populations in the north or revive the economy. Most Islamic terror groups will, for a fee, be selective about who they attack on certain roads. Going along with this extortion is discouraged by most governments (because it sustains and encourages the extortionists) but for the locals it is often a matter of survival.
For the Islamic terrorists all this can be very lucrative. But if you cant or wont pay (as is the case with most foreign aid groups) you must either have an armed escort (which peacekeepers will, when they can, provide at no cost) or risk losing a percentage of your shipments (and the willingness of locals to drive those trucks). Sometimes the Islamic terrorists will steal the trucks and let the drivers go but you cannot always depend on that. As a result a lot of refugees who depend on donated food are going hungry.
The increased Islamic terrorist activity in Mali and along its borders is believed to be one result of the main local Islamic terror groups consolidating by forming JNIM (Jamaah Nusrah al Islam wal Muslimin, or Group for the support of Islam and Moslems) in early 2017. In part this March merger was a reaction to the growing threat from ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) which is hostile to everyone who is not ISIL and will attack or recruit from the JNIM members AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), Ansar Dine, FLM (Macina Liberation Front), and al Mourabitoun (an al Qaeda splinter group). Another reason for merging is to make it easier to pool resources (including information and advice) and coordinate with other Islamic terror groups in the area. This reduces friction and needless feuding. Making a coalition like this work is always difficult, especially considering the importance of ethnic differences. The FLM is Fulani while the other groups are largely Tuareg, Arab and some are largely foreigners. Note that JNIM did not absorb all of AQIM or al Mourabitoun, just local groups that had long been identified with al Qaeda. Al Mourabitoun is believed to have largely rejoined al Qaeda. Internal politics for Islamic terror groups is a lot messier than these religious zealots like to admit. Thats mainly because each group believes they are uniquely qualified to be the supreme leader of all Islam. Coping with this aspect of Islamic radicalism has proved burdensome and ultimately becomes a major reason for Islamic terror movements to fade away (via desertion and other forms of self-destruction).
The less publicized reason for this merger was economic. JNIM is noticeably more businesslike which has been the historical trend with terrorist groups in general. These groups evolve into well-organized and persistent criminal gangs. For Islamic terrorists that means eventually carrying out fewer attacks and trying to concentrate on staging ones that will generate maximum publicity or cash (or both). Reputation is important if you want to instill fear and respect. Right now JNIM needs both cash and publicity. Increased smuggling and other cash producing efforts (like extortion and kidnapping) are necessary to pay the bribes (of those who cannot be intimidated) and cash incentives to members. This payroll includes money to support families of married senior members as well as cash payments (compensation) to the families of members who are killed or crippled by wounds. Without the compensation payments the clans and tribes would discourage their young men from joining.
Most senior Islamic terrorists know how the financial side of things work and have, for over a decade, been taking over more of the drug and people smuggling operations because these efforts cross through several countries and terminate on the Mediterranean coast. Near the coast it is possible to buy weapons, often relatively cheaply, and after taking these down south, sell them for a lot more.
In Mali the Islamic terror groups already play a major role in the culture of corruption that has long been a major obstacle to economic, educational and social progress. Mali is considered one of the least desirable places to send foreign aid because so much of it is stolen before reaching those it was meant for. Details are often not available until long after the crimes occurred. For example an audit of foreign aid sent to Mali in 2015 eventually (after overcoming considerable local lack of cooperation) detailed how one scam alone (involving fuel supplies) saw fifteen percent of British aid for 2015 disappear (and now in some untraceable foreign bank account). To add to the problem there are many risks to foreign aid staff (foreign or local) because of physical violence frequently used to carry out thefts. Most of the attacks on foreign aid workers in Mali occur in the north where the aid is most needed. In 2017 there have been more than twice as many such attacks compared to 2016. The end result is that aid groups, who face more demand than they can deal with, avoid the areas where most of their work is wasted. Mali has become one of the worst, although not the worst.
October 4, 2017: In the northeast, just across the border in Niger four American Special Forces soldiers were killed when the training exercise (a large patrol) they were supervising was ambushed. Four of the Niger troops were killed as well and even more American and Niger troops were wounded. Return fire drove off the ambush force. A dozen American troops were working with about 30 Niger soldiers and all were travelling along a road in unarmored trucks when they were fired on. The attackers were believed to be Islamic terrorists from Mali. In less than an hour French helicopters were in the area to evacuate the wounded and in the next 24 hours French troops and more aircraft from Mali moved to the Niger border to search for the attackers. The area where the attack took place had never experienced an Islamic terrorist activity before but the border is long and the Islamic terrorists have been known to move around the area without attracting attention because the locals tend to avoid groups of men with guns. Apparently Islamic terror groups had established a new smuggling route that ran through this areas. The U.S. has 800 troops in Niger, mainly to train Niger troops but some also maintain a number of Reaper UAVs used for surveillance. The smuggling operations often appear (especially from the air) like commercial or aid group traffic.
Niger is one of the nations in the area that has been able to drive Islamic terrorists out. But it often takes some sustained and bloody combat to get that done. This was the case recently when Niger had problems with Nigerian Boko Haram Islamic terrorists in the Lake Chad area. That lake is bordered by Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon. Boko Haram has operated along the shoreline and on island in the lake for years but have not ventured deeper into Niger because the Niger security forces were too effective. The American troops in Niger are conducting training for Niger troops, some of them headed for the new French led multi-national G5 force while others are still dealing with Boko Haram remnants. Mali has the misfortune of being astride a major smuggling route from central Africa to the Mediterranean.
September 30, 2017: The Mali military has received four new aircraft this month. Two of these were Chinese Y-12 transports. The Y-12 is a 5.3 ton twin turbo-prop aircraft that has a crew of two and carries up to 17 passengers or 1.5 tons of cargo. Cruising speed is 250 kilometers an hour and normal endurance is about five hours.
Two Russian Mi-35M helicopter gunships also arrived with two more on the way. The Mi-35M, with a top speed of 335 kilometers an hour, and two hour endurance, can be armed with 12.7mm machine-gun or 23mm autocannon plus unguided rockets. This is generally sufficient for whatever the Mi-35M might encounter in Mali. The Mi-35M is the export version of the most recent (the most widely produced) model of the older Mi-24V gunship. The Mi-24/35 is a twelve ton helicopter gunship that also has a cargo area that can hold up to eight people, or four stretchers. The Mi-24/35 is used by over thirty countries, and has a pretty good reputation for reliability. Despite tropical conditions the Mi-35Ms are available for action 70 percent of the time. The design is based on the earlier Mi-8 transport helicopter. Thus the export model, the Mi-17, is also a 12 ton helicopter, but without all the gunship stuff. It can carry 2.6 tons of cargo, or up to 24 troops. The Mi-35M version entered service in 2005.
September 24, 2017: In the north (outside Gao) a roadside bomb killed three peacekeepers and wounded five others while their truck was driving by.
September 21, 2017: In the north (outside Kidal) rival Tuareg groups signed another ceasefire after agreeing on what to do about who controls the town of Menaka and other disputed territory. Many of the local Tuareg tribal militias were always pro-government and usually fought the local Tuareg CMA (Coordination of Azawad Movements) separatists and assorted Islamic terrorist rebels. Azawad is the Tuareg term for their homeland in northern Mali (and several other North African nations). The 2015 peace deal ended the Tuareg support for Islamic terrorism, but not the tribal animosities. Since 2015 Tuareg militias affiliated with CMA has regained much of the control of the Kidal region that they gave up to government control after 2015. Since the pro-government militias got most of the government jobs the CMA affiliated groups wanted revenge or at least some form of compensation. For most of 2017 there has been tension and occasional fighting in the Kidal region between the militias. Government and peacekeeper efforts to help work out a lasting peace deal have proved very difficult because many of the demands, once met, tend to upset someone else.
September 20, 2017: In the northeast (Kidal) a peacekeeper vehicle hit a mine near the town of Menaka leaving one soldier dead and several wounded. Menaka is about a hundred kilometers from the Niger border and Islamic terrorists have been more active in the area this year. Closer to Kidal Islamic terrorists attacked a peacekeeper camp but were apparently repulsed without casualties to anyone in the camp. Another group of Islamic terrorists also fired on a Mali Army camp in the area.
At a private meeting in Moscow, Vladimir Putin has advocated for Russia to begin issuing its own cryptocurrency. Dubbed CryptoRuble, the Russian cryptocurrency will not be open for mining and will be under tight control by government authorities.
Regular paper Rubles will be exchangeable for CryptoRubles at any time. However, a 13 percent tax may be imposed if coinholders are unable to satisfy Russian officials on the origins of their cryptocurrency. If there is a rise in value, the same 13 percent rate will be applied upon sale of the coin only on the difference in value.
Russia is not considered a friendly state for digital currencies considering Putin previously called for an unconditional ban of cryptocurrencies. Now, it seems that the Kremlin wants to keep pace with advances in technology but does not want any other currencies circulating within the country. According to one Russian official, it is inevitable that Russia could fall behind its neighboring countries if it does not launch its own digital currency.
"I confidently declare that we run CryptoRuble for one simple reason: if we do not, then after 2 months our neighbors in the EurAsEC will." - Nikolay Nikiforov, Minister of Communications
Unlike other cryptocurrencies, CryptoRuble will not be decentralized. The Russian government will have the ability to modify its own blockchain at any given time. The potential for abuse of a government-operated blockchain is extremely high although for this reason, it is unlikely that many merchants outside of Russia would consider accepting the coin.
As cryptocurrencies continue to climb in value and are continuously achieving new all-time highs, there is no telling where they may end up. Should other countries consider launching their own blockchain-backed currencies?
The resolution has nothing to do with Ukraine. It is about the theft of Russian assets, Ambassador Polyanskiy said. | Read More
Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
There were so many things to be angry about last week that its understandable if you missed this one: The draft of the Department of Health and Human Services 20182022 strategic plan contains language that claims life begins at conception. As an ob-gyn, Im alarmed. You should be, too.
The HHS strategic plan is drafted every four years, intended to clarify the administrations focus; under President Barack Obama, for example, the 20142018 plan highly prioritized matters relating to health insurance. The introduction for that plan contained this line:
HHS accomplishes its mission through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of activities, serving Americans at every stage of life.
The 20182022 version, on the other hand, has been updated to this:
HHS accomplishes its mission through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of activities, serving and protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception.
This new phrasing means one thing: personhood, the ideology that a fertilized egg has the same rights as a woman. The word unborn also appears in the new plan.
I cannot stress enough how worrisome this is. The HHS isnt some obscure government organization; it has a budget of $1 trillion and controls Medicaid, Medicare, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Indian Health Service. The HHS oversees how we study medicine, how we approve medications and medical devices, how we provide medical care, and how we track health outcomes. If a fertilized egg is defined as the start of life in the final draft of the HHS plan, this could have sweeping and devastating consequences for everyone, and not just women.
For instance, abortions are not paid for with federal money, but could the HHS stop all federal Medicaid funds for states that pay for abortion with state Medicaid dollars? Could Medicaid stop paying for IUDs? Could the FDA make it more difficult to get a new method of contraception approved? Could health plans be pressured into eliminating coverage for IUDs or infertility therapy? Could the NIH stop awarding grants to study contraception or treatment for infertility? Could the CDC use inappropriate metrics for tracking abortion outcomes? Could infertility treatments be considered the same as abortion?
And yet this shouldnt come as a surprise. In September 2016, then-candidate Trump announced that if elected, he would turn the issues of reproductive health over to the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that opposes not only abortion but many forms of birth control as well. They tout misconceptions about fetal pain, want to defund Planned Parenthood, and advance the falsehood that IUDs and emergency contraception are abortifacients. (They arent.)
Former HHS secretary Tom Price had quite the anti-choice track record, but just because hes gone doesnt mean anyone who cares about womens health can rest easy. The HHS is still filled with Trump appointees with concerning approaches to reproductive health, such as Charmaine Yoest, former president of Americans United for Life, Teresa Manning, deputy assistant for population affairs who has questioned if birth control even works, and Valerie Huber, a prominent abstinence-only sex education advocate.
The draft of the HHS strategic plan is currently open for public comment. You have until October 27 to have your say.
Larry Flynt. Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images
Many unlikely Trump critics from Rex Tillerson to Bob Corker have emerged in recent weeks to suggest that the president is a moron and the White House an adult day care center.
But one of the more surprising voices in the chorus comes from Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. The porn kingpin took out a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post this weekend, offering $10 million to anyone who had really damning information on Trump in an effort to impeach the president.
So I decided to do this...let's see what happens. pic.twitter.com/Xpy4qrwHU7 Larry Flynt (@ImLarryFlynt) October 15, 2017
Flynt outlines the reasons he believes Trump should be impeached in the Washington Post ad. (He offered a similar reward of $1 million in 2012 for the tax returns of thenpresidential candidate Mitt Romney.)
Flynt cites: compromising domestic and foreign policy with his massive conflicts-of-interest global business empire; telling hundreds of bald-faced lies; and gross nepotism and appointment of unqualified persons to high office.
The pornographer adds that its his patriotic duty and the duty of all Americans, to dump Trump before its too late.
Flynt asks anyone with impeachable information to email or call the toll-free number listed on the ad. Operators will be standing by.
In this Sept. 27, 2017, file photo, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl leaves a motions hearing during a lunch break in Fort Bragg, N.C. (Andrew Craft/The Fayetteville Observer via AP, File)
U.S. Army Sergeant Bergdahl Pleads Guilty to Desertion
A military prosecutor says he has made no agreement to limit punishment for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in return for the soldiers guilty pleas to charges that he endangered comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009.
After Bergdahl entered guilty pleas to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, the prosecutor, Maj. Justin Oshana, told the judge that theres no pretrial agreement between the two sides.
The judge, Army Col. Judge Jeffery R. Nance, spent Monday morning asking Bergdahl questions to make sure he understands what hes pleading guilty to, and that his offenses carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. The judge asked him one last time if he wanted to plead guilty, and Bergdahl replied, yes.
Nance then told him that he accepted his pleas.
On Monday in court in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Bergdahl admitted leaving his post in Paktika province in June 2009. He said he got lost after 20 minutes, was captured two or three hours later, and that he never wanted to put anyone at risk.
I was captured by the enemy against my will, the 31-year-old Idaho native told the hearing. At the time I had no intention of causing search and recovery operations. Its very inexcusable.
The offense of misbehavior before the enemy carries a possible life sentence. Neither side has said whether Bergdahl has entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors.
President Barack Obama was criticized by Republicans for the 2014 Taliban prisoner swap that brought Bergdahl home, while President Donald Trump harshly criticized Bergdahl on the campaign trail.
Bergdahl, who was charged in 2015, remains on active duty in a clerical job at a base in San Antonio. He said in a podcast in 2015 that he left his post to draw attention to leadership failure in his unit.
The official search for him lasted 45 days, but the United States spent years trying to determine his whereabouts and bring him home.
The serious wounds to service members who searched for Bergdahl are still expected to play a role in his sentencing.
Sadly these 6 heroes who were killed while looking for Bowe Bergdahl will not get any press today- during Bergdahls trial. pic.twitter.com/PUpR0GxChE Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) October 16, 2017
The guilty pleas allow Bergdahl to avoid a trial, but he still faces a sentencing hearing thats expected to start on Oct. 23.
Bergdahls five years of captivity by the Taliban and its allies also will likely factor into what punishment he receives.
By Colleen Jenkins
This undated photo provided by the New Jersey State Police shows Ahmad Khan Rahami, wanted for questioning Monday, Sept. 19, 2016, in bombings that rocked the Chelsea neighborhood of New York and the New Jersey shore town Seaside Park. Investigators want to question Rahami's wife, who is currently in Pakistan. (New Jersey State Police
Chelsea Bomber Found Guilty in New York
A New Jersey man was found guilty by a federal jury in New York on Monday of planting two bombs in Manhattans Chelsea neighborhood in September 2016, one of which exploded and wounded 30 people.
Ahmad Khan Rahimi, a 29-year-old U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan, faces a mandatory life sentence in prison after his conviction on charges including using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a public place. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 18.
Sabrina Shroff, a lawyer for Rahimi, declined to comment on the verdict.
Rahimi, dubbed the Chelsea bomber, was also accused of planting a bomb on the route of a charity running race in New Jersey, which exploded without injuring anyone, and shooting at New Jersey police before being captured. He still faces separate New Jersey charges over those accusations.
Over the course of Rahimis two-week trial in New York, jurors heard testimony from multiple people who were injured by the bomb, made using a pressure cooker and a cell phone timer, that exploded on Manhattans West 23rd Street.
One woman testified that she was nearly blinded when a piece of shrapnel struck her next to her eye. Another man described the sound of the explosion as doomsday.
Jurors heard from law enforcement officers who were at the scene of the West 23rd Street blast, and who removed an unexploded pressure cooker bomb found on nearby West 27th Street. Others testified about fingerprint and DNA evidence linking Rahimi to the bombs.
Prosecutors played a series of surveillance videos that appeared to show Rahimi walking around Manhattan carrying suitcases and a backback in the hours leading up the explosion. Another video appeared to show Rahimi testing an explosive device in his New Jersey backyard.
They also read from a bloody journal Rahimi was found carrying, in which he referred to Osama bin Laden and wrote that the sounds of the bombs will be heard in the streets.
The prosecutors called an expert witness to testify about how Rahimi was influenced by radical anti-American materials found on his computer, including a publication called Inspire Magazine, believed to be produced by al-Qaeda.
Rahimi did not testify, and his lawyers did not call any witnesses. In her closing argument, defense lawyer Shroff focused on the West 27th Street bomb, saying the evidence did not show that Rahimi ever meant for it to go off.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and producer Harvey Weinstein attend the TIME 100 Gala, TIME'S 100 Most Influential People In The World, cocktail party at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2012 in New York City. (Larry Busacca/Getty Images for TIME)
Clinton Foundation to Keep Harvey Weinsteins $250,000 Donation
Recently disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein had in the past donated up to $250,000 to the Clinton Foundationand the foundation is going to keep it, even after the accusations of sexual harassment and rape.
The foundation said on Sunday, Oct. 15 that the donations, ranging between $100,000 to $250,000 have already been spent on their projects, according to The Daily Mail.
The decision to keep the money was no surprise, after tweets from the foundations spokesman Craig Minassian, seemed to confirm it.
Suggesting @ClintonFdn return funds from our 330,000+ donors ignores the fact that donations have been used to help people across the world, Minassian wrote in an Oct. 14 Tweet.
Suggesting @ClintonFdn return funds from our 330,000+ donors ignores the fact that donations have been used to help people across the world. https://t.co/dBXNZwAkWS Craig Minassian (@MinassianMedia) October 14, 2017
Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax and recently fired by its board after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced, is a major Democratic donor. Calls for the foundation to return Weinsteins money started to emerge after some 30 women came forward and accused the Hollywood producer of sexual assault and rape. The scandal has put many Hollywood stars and politicians under an awkward spotlight.
Already dozens of Democratic Party politicians, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have pledged to donate all of their contributions received from Weinstein to womens rights charities, Fox News reported.
Hillary Clinton made a similar, albeit five-day late, statement on the scandal, saying she was shocked and appalled by the revelations on Weinstein.
Weinstein had hosted fundraisers for Clinton in the past and donated more than $46,000 to her recent presidential campaign and other election efforts, Fox News reported.
Clinton later told CNN that she would donate donate the money to charity.
What other people are saying, what my former colleagues are saying, is theyre going to donate it to charity, and of course I will do that, she told CNN.
Weinstein was recently expelled from the Motion Picture Academy after the Academys board of governors met on Saturday to discuss the allegations against Weinstein. The board voted in excess of the two-thirds majority needed to expel him.
We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over, the board wrote in the official statement. Whats at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society.
The board also said that it is working to establish ethical standards of conduct that all members would be expected to exemplify.
The boards decision arrived on the same day that Weinsteins brother, Bob Weinstein, broke his silence and criticized his brother as a predator. Bob Weinstein said that he intended to write a letter to the board, but it is unclear if the letter had reached the members before their decision was made.
Weinstein has settled at least eight lawsuits with victims who alleged sexual abuse over the years, according to the New York Times, which itself was accused of burying a 2004 expose on Weinstein after the mogul used his influence with the paper to kill the story. Three women alleged that Weinstein raped them in a subsequent article in The New Yorker.
From NTD.tv
Comedian Sean Hughes Dies at 51
The Irish stand-up comedian Sean Hughes has died aged 51.
Hughes died in Whittington Hospital, north London from a cardiac arrest, after being admitted with liver cirrhosis, according to the Evening Standard.
The star has been described as a formidable comedian who will be remembered for his superb wit and quite brilliant imagination by his former agent, Richard Bucknall.
He will be missed, said Bucknall in a statement.
The comedian is perhaps best-known as a team captain on BBC 2s Never Mind the Buzzcocks where he starred alongside Phill Jupitus and Mark Lamarr. He also had his own sitcom Seans Show on Channel 4 in 1992.
At 24, Hughes was the youngest person to win the Perrier Award in 1990.
Very sad news. Early this AM, the master of comedy Sean Hughes past away. @mr_seanhughes
A comic very much ahead of his time. pic.twitter.com/nv5DEn4CH1 RBM Comedy (@RBMComedy) October 16, 2017
The last twitter post he wrote on Oct. 8 consisted of just two words: In hospital.
He leaves behind two brothers, Alan and Martin.
Nica Burns, director of the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, said: He was a huge talent, a really good comic, instinctive timing from day one and a very good writer.
Tributes for the star, who was also an actor and writer, poured in on social media.
Terribly sad news about Sean Hughes wrote Al Murray.
Terribly sad news about Sean Hughes. Al Murray (@almurray) October 16, 2017
Sports broadcaster Des Cahill described him as a great comedian.
Sad news. RIP Sean Hughes, aged 51. Great comedian. pic.twitter.com/3sc3zWzVdQ Des Cahill (@sportsdes) October 16, 2017
Katy Brand remembered him as a brilliant comedian.
Very sad news about Sean Hughes. A brilliant comedian. #RIP Katy Brand (@KatyFBrand) October 16, 2017
Jason Manford said he was a brilliant comic and a lovely bloke.
Very sad to hear about Sean Hughes. A brilliant comic and a lovely bloke. RIP. JasonManford (@JasonManford) October 16, 2017
Novelist and playwright Irvine Welsh described him as a witty, gracious, kind and gentle soul and said she was lucky to enjoy his company on a few occasions over the years.
Film critic John Maguire quoted Hughes, saying he was: a funny man. I saw my brother fight at the National Stadium. It was at a Depeche Mode concert.' RIP Sean Hughes.
Television presenter Jake Humphrey also quoted one of Hughess jokes in his tribute: I thought when I was 41, I would be married with kids. Well, to be honest I thought I would be married with weekend access.
An Indian airport staff member walks next to an AirAsia airplane after it landed on its inaugural flight from New Delhi to Bagdogra Airport, some 12 miles from Siliguri, on Feb. 19, 2017. (Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images)
Crew Panics More Than Passengers as AirAsia Jet Drops 24,000 feet in 9 Minutes
Passengers were left terrified after an AirAsia jet plunged 24,000 feet after the cabin lost air pressure.
Passengers remember the crew panicking first, and then seeing oxygen masks drop from the overhead bins of the Airbus A320. Passengers recall the crew preparing for a crash, running through the aisles in a panic and confusing passengers, NBC News reported.
Passengers were left fearing for their lives after an Indonesia AirAsia jet dropped nearly 24,000 feet about an hour into a flight. pic.twitter.com/USQzWoRlT8 NBC News (@NBCNews) October 16, 2017
The plane was headed from Perth, Australia, to Bali, Indonesia. Passengers were under the impression that this would be their last airplane flight and thought they wouldnt survive. Some were crying and saying goodbye.
Passengers saw a panicked flight crew who seemed less prepared for the incident than they were.
Now, I get it, but we looked to them for reassurance and we didnt get any, we were more worried because of how panicked they were, said passenger Clare Askew via NBC News. Askew said staff were screaming, looked tearful and shocked.
AirAsia passengers describe terrifying scene as flight plunges 22,000 feet and crew panics https://t.co/1KOM5e7oWg pic.twitter.com/e41VzrXaCk Business Insider (@businessinsider) October 16, 2017
Chris Jeanes, who decided to propose to his girlfriend during the chaos, said staff were running through the aisles yelling emergency, brace, crash positions. Despite the circumstances, his girlfriend said Yes to marrying him.
The 24,000-foot drop brought the plane down to a 10,000-foot altitude, where normal pressure can return and people can breathe without oxygen masks. The plane landed back in Perth 78 minutes after it took off, returning to safety with 151 people on board, the BBC reported. Passengers were shaken, but relieved.
Air Asia officials are investigating a frightening mid-air incident that caused packed Bali-bound flight to plummet 20,000 feet. #9News pic.twitter.com/vWDAmPrW7z Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) October 16, 2017
Air travel authorities are currently investigating the incident. AirAsia was involved in another scary situation in June, when one of the engines blew out, forcing the plane to turn around and land back in Perth, USA Today reported. The flight was originally scheduled to land in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
In December 2014 an AirAsia jet hit the Java Sea on a flight from Surabaya to Singapore. The 162 passengers and crew on board were all killed.
Turning Point: She lost her husband and daughter in 2014 AirAsia crash https://t.co/vvhIMrbpQ8 #tonyfernandes #airasiadotherightthing Maj Ismail (@Le_Maj) June 25, 2017
From NTD.tv
Somali government forces secure the scene of an explosion in KM4 street in the Hodan district of Mogadishu, Somalia on Oct. 15, 2017. (REUTERS/Feisal Omar)
Death Toll from Somalia Bomb Attacks Tops 300
MOGADISHUMore than 300 people were killed by twin bomb explosions in Mogadishu, an official said on Monday, as locals packed hospitals in search of friends and relatives caught by Somalias deadliest attack in a decade.
The death toll has steadily risen since Saturday, when the blasts struck at two busy junctions in the heart of the capital city. One truck bomb detonated near a fuel truck, creating an enormous fireball.
The bomb attacks were the deadliest since Islamist militant group al Shabaab began an insurgency in 2007. Al Shabaab has not claimed responsibility, but the method and type of attack a large truck bomb is increasingly used by the al Qaeda-linked organization.
We have confirmed 300 people died in the blast. The death toll will still be higher because some people are still missing, Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of the citys ambulance service, told Reuters.
Aden Nur, a doctor at the citys Madina hospital, said they had recorded 258 deaths and that 160 of the bodies could not be recognized.
(They)were buried by the government yesterday. The others were buried by their relatives. Over a hundred injured were also brought here, he told Reuters at the hospital.
Some of the injured were being evacuated by air to Turkey for treatment, officials said.
Locals visiting their injured relatives or collecting their bodies filled every available space in Madina hospital.
My last time to speak with my brother was some minutes before the blast occurred, Halima Nur, a local mother, told Reuters.
I am afraid he was among the unrecognized charred bodies that were buried yesterday. I have no hope of getting him alive or dead. But I cannot go home.
Abdullahi Aden, 56, said five of his cousins had died.
The shop completely collapsed on them. I could not help them. I could not hear their screams and the nearby buildings were burning, he said. He was still searching for two other relatives.
Deadliest Silence Insurgency Began
Al Shabaab stages regular attacks in the capital and other parts of the country. Although the group claims it targets the government and security forces, it has detonated large bombs in crowded public areas before.
It has sometimes not claimed responsibility for bombings that provoked a big public backlash, like the 2009 suicide bombing of a graduation ceremony for medical students.
The group is waging an insurgency against Somalias U.N.-backed government and its African Union allies in a bid to impose its own strict interpretation of Islam.
The militants were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 and have been steadily losing territory.
But Al Shabaab retains the capacity to mount large bomb attacks. Over the past three years, the number of civilians killed by insurgent bombings has steadily climbed as al Shabaab increases the size of its bombs.
In 2016, 723 Somalis were killed in 395 bomb attacks, according to Nairobi-based thinktank Sahan Research, up from 193 deaths in 265 attacks in 2015.
Some of those seriously injured in Saturdays bombing were moved by ambulance to the airport on Monday morning to be flown to Turkey for further treatment.
Workers unloaded boxes of medicine and other medical supplies from a Turkish military plane and Turkish medical teams attended to the injured moved from the hospital for evacuation.
By Abdi Sheikh
President Donald Trump speaks about the Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington on Oct. 13, 2017. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Trumps New Iran Strategy Aimed at Preventing Development of Nuclear Weapons
The Iranian regime is one of the worlds leading sponsors of terrorism. It fuels sectarian violence in the Muslim world, has pushed to develop nuclear weapons, and regularly calls for the deaths of Israel and the United States.
The Obama administration signed a deal with Iran in 2015 to pay Iran more than $1.7 billion and delay its development of nuclear weapons until 2026. Despite this, Iran has continued its hostilities toward the United States, continued to finance terrorism, and continued to interfere with inspections of its nuclear sites. In January 2016, Iran took 10 U.S. sailors hostage and violated international norms in showing pictures of them.
In August 2016, the State Department revealed that the Obama administration also paid $400 million to Iran as part of a deal for the release of four U.S. hostages.
President Donald Trump denounced the Iran deal during an Oct. 16 speech. He said, This nation has been taken advantage of for many, many yearsfor many decades, franklyand Im tired of watching it.
Days earlier, on Oct. 13, Trump announced he would not recertify the Iran deal, but also said he would not abandon it entirely. As part of a new strategy, he laid out new actions to rein in the threats from Iran.
Trump said not certifying the Iran deal was something that I felt had to be done, and said phase two of his decision is still being determined and might end in the total termination of the deal. Well see what happens, he said.
Trump noted that following his announcement, Irans leaders began changing their tone, though he was aware that theyre great negotiators and their sudden shift may not be genuine. He said, They negotiated a phenomenal deal for themselves but a horrible deal for the United States, and were going to see what happens.
Countering Iran
The Trump administration issued a new strategy on Iran on Oct. 13. An outline of the plan states it will neutralize Irans efforts to destabilize other nations and constrain its aggression, particularly its support for terrorism and militants. The United States will revitalize its alliances to build bulwarks against Iranian subversion, will expose Irans operations, and will also deny funding to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. (IRGC), which it uses for terror and subversion.
The new strategy will also counter Irans threats of attack from ballistic missiles and other weapons and will deny the Iranian regime all paths to a nuclear weapon.
Iran has been under the control of its Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, for 28 years, and according to the strategy on Iranwhich was formed through nine months of meetings with Congress and U.S. alliesKhamenei and the IRGC have pursued a steady policy of spreading a revolutionary ideology aimed at undermining the international system and many states by force and subversion.
The report notes that in addition to exporting violence and terrorism, and spreading hatred toward the United States and Israel, Iran runs an authoritarian regime that oppresses the Iranian people and heavily restricts their rights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu applauded Trumps new strategy on Iran, saying in a statement that had things been left unchanged, in a few years time, the worlds foremost terrorist regime [would] have [had] an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and thats tremendous danger for our collective future.
Ahead of the decision, the National Council of Resistance, an Iranian group that opposes the Iranian regime, said in a report that Iran had secretly continued to develop nuclear weapons, despite its deal with the Obama administration. It states, Many aspects of this operation have been kept hidden by The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp. (IRGC) from the prying eyes of both the world and the United Nations.
When Trump announced the strategy on Oct. 13, he noted that our policy is based on a clear-eyed assessment of the Iranian dictatorship, its sponsorship of terrorism, and its continuing aggression in the Middle East and all around the world.
Iran is under the control of a fanatical regime that seized power in 1979 and forced a proud people to submit to its extremist rule, Trump said. This radical regime has raided the wealth of one of the worlds oldest and most vibrant nations, and spread death, destruction, and chaos all around the globe.
Trump said that former sanctions against Iran had significantly weakened it, but the previous administration lifted these sanctions, just before what would have been the total collapse of the Iranian regime, through the deeply controversial 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
The deal gave Iran a $1.7 billion cash settlement and an immediate financial boost of over $100 billion. Trump said, The saddest part of the deal for the United States is that all of the money was paid up front, which is unheard of, rather than at the end of the deal when they have shown theyve played by the rules.
But whats done is done, and thats why we are where we are.
Producer Harvey Weinstein speaks at the ceremony for the unveiling of the star for Italian composer Ennio Morricone on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, Calif., on Feb. 26, 2016. (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)
France Considers Revoking Weinsteins Legion of Honor
PARISFrance has started the process of stripping Harvey Weinstein of his Legion of Honor, Frances highest civilian distinction, after allegations of sexual harassment against the film producer, President Emmanuel Macrons office said on Saturday.
The French Presidency has started discussing this case with the Grande Chancellerie de la Legion dhonneur, a spokeswoman said. A decision will be taken after this discussion.
The move follows detailed claims by numerous women that Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them over the past three decades.
The Presidency considers that this behavior is in contradiction with honor, the spokeswoman said.
Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone.
The producer of Oscar-winning films including The Artist had received the Legion of Honor, Chevalier grade, from President Nicolas Sarkozy in March 2012.
The Grande Chancellerie de la Legion dhonneur is the body in charge of the decoration, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte.
By Elizabeth Pineau and Sybille de La Hamaide
Portuguese men o' war have been washing up on British beaches for weeks, a result of strong westernly winds that now bring Hurricane Ophelia, potentially the worst storm to hit the Ireland and UK in a generation. (4Neus/flickr)
Poisonous Sea Colonies Storm Ireland and UK Beaches Ahead of Hurricane Ophelia
The United Kingdom and Ireland are bracing for Hurricane Ophelia, which is already washing thousands of jellyfish-like Portuguese man o wars onto beaches.
The storm is expected to maintain hurricane force winds until it reaches the North Atlantic but the unusually strong winds coming from the Atlantic have been pushing the poisonous sea creatures onto beaches for weeks.
Man o wars have been washing up on beaches in the UK since mid September. The unique sea creatures have long tentacles that have an excruciating sting and can be fatal for humans.
As Ophelia gets closer, new dangers have emerged. Predictions have warned it could be among the strongest storms to hit the area in a generation.
Preparations to protect lives and property should be rushed to completion by this afternoon, warns the U.S. National Hurricane Service (NHS).
Irelands national weather service, Met Eireann, is warning of gale force winds starting early Monday morning that are expected to spread northwards across the country with hurricane-force winds arriving a few hours later.
Ireland will take the brunt of Ophelia, but the storm is raising concerns in the United Kingdom as well.
While those along the Irish coast are being warned about a storm surge, which could bring coastal flooding and destructive waves, those inland face a different threat.
Wind speeds atop and on the windward sides of hills and mountains are often up to 30 percent stronger than the near-surface winds indicated in our Warnings, and in some elevated locations could be even greater, warned Irelands weather service.
Forecasts are predicting 2-3 inches of rain in the most affected areas of western Ireland while the eastern side will see rainfall of just over an inch.
But Ireland and the UK have been seeing the effects leading up to Ophelia for weeks with the arrival of thousands of man o warsan unusual entity that is actually a colony of specialized individual creatures who depend on each other for survivalhas surprised many.
Matt Slater, a marine awareness officer at the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, told the Irish Mirror in mid-September that the arrival of the sea creatures in such numbers was unheard of.
This is an unprecedented event and we urge the public to be cautious and to keep an eye out for unusual species being stranded, he said.
The stings are incredibly rare and the man o war is actually a beautiful life form, wonderfully adapted to life in the open ocean, and are only seen in extremely rare cases on our shores, he said.
While the UKs Cornish coast has seen the highest volume of the creatures wash up, they have also been reported in Ireland.
As Ophelia approaches, more of them could be pushed onto the shore. Locals are warning pet owners to be careful bringing their animals to the beach.
The storm has weakened on its way to Ireland, being downgraded from a Category 2 hurricane from a Category 3 hurricane early Sunday.
Sustained winds were reaching 105 mph. The NHC puts current maximum sustained wind speeds at 90 mph.
While that is an improvement from 115 mph winds from Saturday, the storm could still be the fiercest to strike the area in a generation.
Hurricane Lilli hit Britain in 1996 with wind speeds of 92 mph. More recently, Hurricane Katia, struck with 81 mph winds, which Ophelia could slow to before making landfall in Ireland.
NATO Ships Hold Missile Defense Drill Near Scotland, US DOD Says
Warships from eight NATO countries participated in live-fire self-defense exercises of ship and missile systems near Scotland on Sunday, Oct. 15, the U.S. Department of Defense said.
Ships from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States defended against a medium-range missile as well as three anti-ship cruise missiles.
The USS Donald Cook successfully intercepted a medium-range missile with a Standard Missile-3 Block IB guided missile during the exercise, the Pentagon said, Reuters reported.
Three anti-ship cruise missiles were fired upon by Spanish and Dutch ships participating in the Formidable Shield exercises in the U.K. Ministry of Defenses Hebrides Range located on the Western Isles of Scotland.
Navy, NATO Forces Conduct Integrated Air and Missile Defense Exercise Off Scotland USNI Newshttps://t.co/o87pCxqNH2 pic.twitter.com/TzGn9nhp6C USNI News (@USNINews) October 16, 2017
The U.S. Department of Defense said this was the first time NATOs smart defense concept was demonstrated with some ships providing protection to other vessels targeting ballistic missiles.
The Formidable Shield exercise began on Sept. 24 and is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday, Oct.18.
The Pentagon said the exercise is planned to be a biennial event and is designed to assure allies, deter adversaries, and demonstrate U.S. commitment to collective defense of the NATO alliance.
Following the NATO exercises, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully test-fired a Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) from the USS McFaul.
The SM-6 test was not part of the Formidable Shield exercise, the Pentagon said.
During the collective self-defense scenario, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) successfully detected, tracked and intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target with a Standard Missile-3 Block IB guided missile, according to a news release from the Missile Defense Agency on Oct. 15.
It added: Simultaneously, the Spanish frigate SPS Alvaro de Bazan (F101) fired an Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) against an incoming anti-ship cruise missile, while the Netherlands frigate HNLMS Tromp (F803) fired ESSMs against a pair of incoming anti-ship cruise missiles. This was the first time NATOs smart defense concept was demonstrated with ships serving as air defense units protecting naval ballistic missile defense units.
Formidable Shield is, as the name already implies, a formidable setup for both testing architectural constructs to TDL (tactical data link) and for the conduct of operational decision-making of the complex environment of Integrated Air and Missile Defense, Cmdr. Peter Jansberg, a spokesman, said in the release. As such, Formidable Shield demonstrates the necessity of constantly maintaining and sustaining a Joint Operational Air picture, so all nations have the ability to act and operate from the same hymn sheet. This making the decision line as short as possible, and the room for error minimal.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Forrest Sanco sent this photo of himself and Donna Grant to a friend shortly before leaving on their flight to the Bahamas. (Forrest Sanco)
New Clue Could Help Reveal Fate of Missing Texas Couple
A newly discovered clue is giving hope to friends and family trying to find Forrest Sanco and Donna Grant, high school sweethearts who reconnected a year ago and flew to the Bahamas on Sept 26 to get married.
The Fort Worth, Texas couple, both 56, went to high school together and led separate lives for decades before reconnecting last year on Facebook.
After a whirlwind romance, the pair decided to get marriedand eloped to the Bahamas on a single-engine Cessna airplane for the wedding.
One of the last signs of the couple is this photo Sanco shared on Instagram.
Sunrise somewhere in the Bahamas.. A post shared by Forrest Sanco (@forrestsanco) on Sep 26, 2017 at 3:59am PDT
When Sanco first reconnected with Grant, he told his niece, 23-year-old LeeAnn Burger, that it was love at first sight.
He told us that he knew she was the one after their first date, Burger told People magazine.
The couple took off from Fort Pierce, Florida, on a route to Rum Cay where they had rented a house and planned to get married. The family has not heard from them since and the last known location of the couple was a fuel stop in North Eleuthera, Bahamas, on the same day they took off.
Fire Valley A post shared by Donna Grant (@donnagrnt) on May 30, 2017 at 8:37pm PDT
They never made it to their next destination, Burger wrote on a Go Fund Me campaign description.
The search for Sanco and Grant has been complicated by their last known location, putting the under-resourced Royal Bahamian Defense Force in charge of finding them.
Family say the search has been too slow.
Due to lack of resources with the Bahamian government and coast guard we have been forced to hire our own private search crews and pilots, Burger wrote on the campaign description.
Everything we raise will go to our efforts to bring them home whatever it takes, wrote Burger.
Brandon Simmons, Grants son, flew to the Bahamas with his wife in an effort to put pressure on the U.S. Coast Guard and the Royal Bahamian Defense Force to search for the missing pair.
After two weeks without any sign of the pair, family members have found hope harder to hold on to.
Were struggling. I mean its been terrible, Erin Simmons, Donna Grants daughter-in-law told People magazine.
Now evidence has been found that could limit the massive search area.
CBS Dallas/Fort Worth reported that a wheel was found by some fishermen this week that investigators say matches the plane Sanco and Grant were flying in.
I think its a good thing because it gives them an area to start, said Forrests older sister, Sue McDaniel, told CBS.
New Details Emerge in Case of Kenneka Jenkins, Teen Found Dead in Freezer
A number of new details are emerging in the case of an Illinois teen found dead in a hotel freezer after dozens of police reports and witness statements were released to the public on Friday.
19-year-old Kenneka Jenkins was found dead on Sept. 10 in a walk-in freezer at the Crowne Plaza OHare Hotel in Rosemont, Illinois. She was missing for 24 hours after going to a party at the hotel with her friends.
A hotel workers testimony added details to the scene where Jenkins was discovered. The teen was lying face down, the worker said. She had one shoe off, but there were no signs of trauma with the exception of a small cut on her foot, CBS Chicago reported.
Details are also emerging about why it took so long to find Jenkins. Crowne Plaza OHare Hotel says that staff first checked the entry and exit surveillance before moving on to footage from the hallways.
The new documents also show how police used information gathered on social media to question suspects and pursue leads. Significant controversy built up online in the wake of Jenkins death, with people speculating that she was a victim of foul play.
In one witness interview, an officer says some people are speculating that Kenneka was sold for $200, following a lead police took from an online post by a woman who said she met Jenkins at the party and claimed that one of the people there could have accepted $200 for her death, Chicago Tribune reported.
The officer added that people who saw the video heard someone saying help me. The interviewee, a friend of Jenkins, explained that the teen was concerned the $200 reference was about getting a fine for not having a hotel parking ticket in her car.
Meanwhile, the friend explained that the words help me likely came from a rap song playing in the background.
The online controversy also appears to have affected those who were at the party. Several of Jenkinss friends described receiving death threats from people who thought the teen was a victim of foul play. A person who was with Jenkins at the party ended up relocating from the city to a suburb for safety.
The footage of Jenkins walking through a kitchen was taken by a motion-activated camera that had not recorded anything for more than a week.
The freezer Jenkins was found in was inside a refrigerator. The structure was just out of view of cameras, so no footage exists of the teen walking in.
A detectives description of the freezer says that the inner door was self-closing. The door was latched shut and could only be opened by pressing a circular handle. The door mechanism functioned properly.
Neither the freezer, nor the kitchen it was located in, were used by the hotel. One employee said that the refrigerator was leased to a company that was opening a restaurant in the hotel. It is unclear why the freezer was running, but not in use.
The newly-released documents also show that Jenkinss mother declined two offers by the police to examine her daughters phone. Tereasa Martin said she inspected her daughters phone herself, but added that she will consider a reinspection after learning that a police expert can provide an in-depth check.
An autopsy revealed that Jenkins died of hypothermia, with alcohol intoxication and medication playing a contributing role. The coroner found the teen had a blood alcohol level of 0.112, above the legal limit for drivers.
Police also released some text messages from people present at the party.
When one person texted another to say that Jenkins was missing, the person replied Find Kenneka and I cant believe yall lost her.
From NTD.tv
Spectators watch competitors during the 'Autumn Race-Goers Games' at the Mirim Riding Club in Pyongyang on October 15, 2017. (KIM WON-JIN/AFP/Getty Images)
North Korea Is So Desperate for Cash, Its Allowing 12-Year-Olds to Gamble
International sanctions have limited North Koreas access to foreign funding so much, that the regime is now allowing its citizensas young as 12 years oldto place bets on horse races.
Several horse races took place at a race track near Pyongyang on Sunday, where North Koreans were allowed to bet on the race.
Previously, anyone caught gambling in the reclusive communist state could face three years of hard labor.
The move comes after a new round of sanctions, initiated by the Trump administration, were imposed on North Korea.
Last month China announced that its Central Bank instructed other Chinese banks to stop providing financing to the North. It also ordered North Korean businesses operating in China to close down, giving them a 120-day deadline.
A new round of U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on the regime last month prohibit the export of North Korean textile products, severely impacting one of the Norths main export products. China has also banned imports of coal, iron, and lead from North Korea.
The U.S. Treasury Department has placed additional sanctions on businesses and financial institutions doing business with the reclusive state.
All this has led the North Korean regime scrambling for sources of hard currency.
In a country impoverished under decades of communist rule, the North Korean leadership is now looking to other methods to fill its state coffers using money from a small but wealthy class of North Koreans.
You may have ridiculed Kim Jong Un for constructing lavish facilities while struggling to feed the people, but those things are to make foreign currency, not from foreigners but from the well-offs inside North Korea because you have to pay in U.S. dollars or Chinese renminbi there, Lee Sang-keun, a researcher at the Institute of Unification Studies of Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told Reuters.
Many North Koreans make lots of money from the market, dine at hamburger restaurants and go shopping, all of which help fatten regime coffers. Thats part of the reason why the regime still has some financial latitude despite international sanctions.
North Korea has already been operating casinos for foreigners in Pyongyang and Rason, where it jointly runs a special economic zone with China.
Last March, the government sent out investment proposals for new casinos in Namyang, near the border of China, and the Mount Kumgang region, home to a scenic tourist resort just north of the border with South Korea. The United Nations latest round of sanctions, however, bans any further joint ventures with North Korean companies.
The Mirim riding club has an indoor training facility, seven outdoor riding courses, a pavilion, restaurants, and a sauna, as well as 120 horses including 67 famous Orlov Trotters from Russia, according to the website of Uri Tours, a U.S.-based agency specialized in guided trips through North Korea.
The entrance fee is $35, which covers one-hour of horse riding with an instructor, riding gear, and sauna.
The fee could be lower for North Koreans, reportedly at around $10still a hefty sum for many impoverished locals.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Eleven Thai elephants, doused in powder to appear an auspicious white, stood at attention and trumpeted grandly at a ceremony Friday in Thailands ancient royal capital, Ayutthaya, marking one year since King Bhumibol Adulyadejs death. Mourners clad in black stood in front of the elephants and fell silent for 89 seconds from 3:52 p.m., the official time of Bhumibols death in what Thailands Buddhist culture recognized as his 89th year. Then they sang an uplifting royal anthem and held pictures of Bhumibol above their heads while others prostrated on the ground.
Vietnam: Flooding death toll rises to 68
The death toll from landslides and heavy rain triggered by a tropical depression in Vietnam has climbed to 68, with another 34 people missing, officials said yesterday. The Vietnam Disaster Management Authority said in a statement that the disasters have also injured 32 people, damaged infrastructure and killed more than 230,000 livestock in central and northern regions. The storm hit Vietnam on Tuesday and authorities have been dealing with the fallout since.
Philippines: Plane veers off runway, passengers evacuated
A Philippine plane carrying more than 180 passengers and crewmen veered off the runway after landing in a central province, prompting the pilot to order an evacuation of the aircraft, officials said Saturday. The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines said all passengers and crew of Cebu Pacific airlines Airbus 320 aircraft were safe following late Fridays incident, which caused the planes front landing gear to get stuck in a grassy area at the end of the runway at Iloilo provinces international airport.
North Korea Preparing for Missile Launch During US-South Korea Military Drills, Report
The North Korean communist regime is allegedly preparing to launch a ballistic missile during U.S.-South Korea military drills this week. South Korean news outlet Dong-A Ilbo reported on Oct. 14 that transporter-erecter-launchers (TELs) were seen moving in at least three regions.
It cited an unnamed government source stating that a U.S. satellite captured images of the TELs being moved in areas near Pyongyang and North Pyongan Province, saying Korean and U.S. military officials were observing the situation and view it as a sign of preparation for the launch of a ballistic missile.
The missiles may include the Hwasong-14 or Hwasong-13, it notes. North Korea has demonstrated its capability to launch missiles directly from the TELs.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and other communist officials at an undisclosed location in North Korea in this picture released by North Koreas official Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency)
The Hwasong-14 may be capable of reaching Alaska or Hawaii, David Wright co-director of the UCS Global Security Program stated in a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, but it would not be able to reach the lower 48 states.
A new version of the Hwasong-13, on the other hand, may be capable of reaching most of the United States, although the missile is still in development.
According to the Center for Strategic & International Studies, the North Korean regime paraded the Hwasong-13 in 2015, although it notes that several analysts believed it was merely a poorly designed mock-up to be used for propaganda purposes. It notes its unclear whether North Korea has tested the missile, but there are experts who say it is operational.
The movements of the missiles were observed just ahead of joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea. The exercises will be held in the East and West Seas, and will run from Oct. 16 to Oct. 26.
President Donald Trump during a meeting with senior military leaders at the White House on Oct. 5, 2017. (Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)
Last week, North Korea threatened to fire a salvo of missiles into waters near the U.S. territory of Guam, in what it called counteractions for self-defense. Its state-run news outlet KCNA stated, The US military action hardens our determination that the US should be tamed with fire.
The North Korean regime was previously threatening to use nuclear weapons on the United States and Guam, but backed off the threats on Aug. 15, soon after President Donald Trump warned North Korea on Aug. 9 that North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury, like the world has never seen.
Russia announced on Monday that President Vladimir Putin signed a decree enacting sanctions voted on by the U.N. Security Council last week. China and the United States already started to impose the sanctions last month.
In this undated photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sept. 3, 2017, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) looking at a metal casing with two bulges at an undisclosed location. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
North Korea Unlikely to Negotiate Until It Can Hit US With Nukes, Says Former Ambassador
One of the men that helped negotiate the nuclear deal that North Korea secretly violated for years thinks the United States should go into negotiations again, and without any conditions.
The only problem, in his view, is that North Korea isnt likely to want to negotiate until it has proven a nuclear strike capability that threatens the United States.
Maybe its true that the North has no interest at this moment in having the negotiations that involve its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, former U.S. nuclear negotiator Robert Gallucci said during a lecture at Seouls Yonsei University, according to South Koreas Yonhap News Agency.
Some suspect in the U.S that they dont want to enter through negotiations with the U.S until they have demonstrated an ICMB capability that makes the U.S. vulnerable to them so that they have leveled the playing field, he added. Thats possible.
The United States has said North Korea must cease any further missile or nuclear bomb tests for a period of time before it will enter negotiations.
But Gallucci said negotiations should begin without any preconditions so that senior negotiators can begin talking to each other.
Yonhaps coverage of the lecture doesnt report Gallucci offering any clear explanation of why North Korea would want to sacrifice its nuclear deterrent once it had one, but does quote him saying that making the Korean Peninsula nuclear free should be the end goal of negotiations.
Gallucci was chief nuclear negotiator with North Korea during the first nuclear crisis in the early 1990s and was central to the 1994 nuclear deal that gave the regime energy aid and made other concessions in exchange for North Korea dismantling its nuclear program.
While Gallucci is sometimes praised for helping ward off a nuclear war with North Korea, the deal fell apart in late 2002 after it was revealed that Pyongyang was secretly running a uranium enrichment program in violation of the deal.
Gallucci has been critical of President Donald Trumps position on North Korea and the strong statements Trump has made about the consequences North Korea faces should it continue to threaten the United States with a nuclear attack.
In other published comments, Gallucci has argued against taking such threats seriously. While North Korea may threaten the United States, it has no actual intention of attacking, he said.
They want the sanctions gone, they want [nuclear weapons to be] paid off, they want to be left alone to run their regime the way they want, they dont want to have to worry about the U.S. launching an effort at regime change a la Libya or a la Iraq, Gallucci told British news website i.
Theyd like to be recognized as a nuclear weapons state the way we recognize Pakistan, India, Israel, who are not mentioned in the original five nuclear powers.
But others challenge the view that negotiations and pacifying rhetoric are helpful in dealing with the Kim Jong Un regime.
Yong Suk Lee, deputy assistant director of the CIAs Korea Mission Center, told students and reporters at George Washington University on Oct. 10 that one of the biggest obstacles to peace on the Korean Peninsula was Kims need to vilify the United States.
North Korea is a political organism that thrives on confrontation, said Lee.
One of the big stumbling blocks for dialogue is that if we do come to a good place, North Korea is going to have to explain to its people that suddenly we are friends with the United States. North Korea exists to oppose the United States, so how are you going to explain to your population what your last 60, 70 years of sacrifice were all about.
The Kim regime uses the threat of an American invasion and ongoing sanctions to justify its Songun or military-first policy.
Songun prioritizes the needs of the military over all other affairs of state, including feeding the civilian population.
At the end of the day, all politics are local, said Lee.
L: An oil rig on Lake Pontchartrain, La., on Oct. 16, 2017, a day after it was rocked by a gas explosion. (Kenner City Government); R: The location of Lake Pontchartrain, La. (Screenshot via Google Maps)
Oil Rig Explosion in Louisiana: Update on Oil Spill Risk, Rescue Efforts
Three people were still in critical condition and one missing on Monday morning after a gas pipe exploded on an oil rig in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, on the night of Sunday, Oct. 15.
The explosion injured seven workers, three of them critically. The other four have been released from hospital.
Lake Pontchartrain oil rig explosion: Officials continue search for missing worker, brace to clean up possible spill https://t.co/Za0bx3u0Hw pic.twitter.com/jMS1gwDe1U New Orleans Advocate (@theadvocateno) October 16, 2017
Authorities were still looking for the missing eighth worker as of Monday morning.
There wasnt a visible oil sheen around the platform, said Michael Yenni, Jefferson Parish president during a Monday morning press conference. The rig isnt used for drilling.
It gathers oil from three nearby wells,company spokesman Tim OLeary told The Times-Picayune. Then it holds the oil until the tanks capacity is met, at which point a barge arrives and moves the stored oil to an onshore site. It also treats and transfers gas from a fourth natural gas well, OLeary added.
Kenner Police Department received 911 calls about the explosion at about 7:18 p.m. on Sunday. Residents living on the lakes shore reported a strong explosion and the flames engulfing the rig were visible from land.
The explosion stemmed from a natural gas pipe, said Dave Tibbetts, chief of Eastbank Consolidated Fire Department. The flames were still roaring at 10 p.m., but Monday morning pictures of the platform showed no visible fire. Authorities said the gas pipe was shut off, but the remaining gas inside the rig was let out to burn.
An initial report from the Kenner city government Facebook stated cleaning chemicals ignited on the surface of the platform, but Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto didnt confirm it as the cause of the explosion.
At this point, its all under investigation, he said. The only person who has been on the rig right now is myself and the fire chief and the fire investigator just for a preliminary look to see what has to be assessed, right? Those investigators will get on there later on, hopefully this afternoon, and start figuring out what happened.
The rig belongs to Clovelly Oil Co. Llc, an oil exploration and production company based in New Orleans. The city extends north all the way to the Lake Pontchartrain.
Pot Farmers Dreams Go Up in Smoke During California Wildfires
SANTA ROSA, Calif.Andrew Lopas plans to bring his marijuana business out of the black market with a legal, profitable and organic pot farm went up in smoke in the wildfires that have scorched Santa Rosa, California.
After four decades of growing pot illegally, the 54-year-old saw an opportunity last year to start a legitimate business serving the medical marijuana market.
Last Sunday, as the wildfires, which have now killed at least 40 people, first erupted, Lopas cannabis farm in Santa Rosa went up in flames, leaving behind the stumps of two chimneys, heaps of ash, charred marijuana plants and a despairing entrepreneur.
After moving to the farm last November, he had been only days away from his first harvest.
Lost in the conflagration at Mystic Spring Farms were 2,500 pounds of cannabis worth an estimated $2 million, $10,000 in cash to pay the mortgage and workers, a farmhouse that dated back to the 18th century, trailers and farm vehicles, and 900 marijuana plants.
That was all our eggs in one basket, Lopas said. We were devastated.
Californias newly legalized marijuana industry was hit hard by the deadliest blaze in state history.
Fires consuming communities north of San Francisco have destroyed almost 30 pot farms in Sonoma, Mendocino and Napa counties and significantly damaged a similar number, according to the California Growers Association. Those are a fraction of the estimated 15,000 pot farms in the region.
California is the source of most of the nations illegal marijuana farming. Humboldt and Mendocino counties, in the cannabis-growing region known as the Emerald Triangle, have led the states production.
Fleeing from fire
California voters approved medical marijuana in 1996, despite a federal ban, and last year approved recreational use of the drug by adults. Since then, the state has been developing rules to allow recreational sales.
Lopas said he and his girlfriend, Monika Meyers, were focusing on the medical marijuana market, taking a wait and see approach to the developing recreational market.
Medical marijuana businesses in California are expected to operate as non-profit cooperatives, but beginning in January 2018 they can apply to run as for-profit companies, according to the California Franchise Tax Board.
Lopas fears the fires have irrevocably destroyed many farmers in Sonoma County. He said marijuanas illegal status on a federal level means farmers cannot qualify for federal aid in disasters and most do not have crop insurance that would cover the fire losses as there are not adequate policies available.
Lopas first warning of the rapidly approaching fire was flickering lights in his greenhouse as he worked last Sunday evening. He smelled smoke, and when the wind picked up, he and Meyers fled, grabbing little more than some clothes and their two dogs.
Lopas has had trouble sleeping since the loss and worries how he will repay his investors. But he is not giving up.
We want to rebuild, he said. This property is too special to me.
Rose McGowan arrives at the Los Angeles Premiere Of "DIOR & I" held at the Leo S. Bing Theatre on Wednesday, April 15, 2015. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Rose McGowan Says Celeb Lawyer Offered Her $6M to Say Harvey Changed
Actress Rose McGowan says that celebrity attorney Lisa Bloom offered her $6 million through her literary agent in exchange for a public declaration that accused sexual predator Harvey Weinstein has changed.
In a lengthy Facebook post, McGowan says that Blooms offer stood until the day that the New York Times article exposing decades of sexual assault by Weinstein was published. McGowan refused the offer.
You know what is truth, Lisa? I feel like people should know that youve been calling my literary agent and saying thered be money for me if I got on the Harveys Changed bandwagon? McGowan wrote.
You told her that I should care about his reputation. How he has a family now and HE has changed, the actress continued. Well, guess what? Ive always had a family and that didnt stop him from assaulting me.
McGowan settled a lawsuit against Weinstein for $100,000 over a claim that he raped her in a hotel room in 1997 during the Sundance Film Festival.
Bloom denied McGowans allegations. She resigned from her position as Weinsteins attorney shortly after the New York Times article was published.
I never called Rose McGowans literary agent. I dont even know who her agent is. I never threatened Rose McGowan, nor offered her money, nor reached out to her, Bloom told Buzzfeed News. This is completely false.
Bloom has said that she made a colossal mistake in choosing to represent Weinstein.
I have withdrawn from my representation of Harvey Weinstein and apologized for being involved in this, Bloom said. I am sorry for the pain Rose McGowan is in. But this is completely false.
McGowan wrote that she did not sign a non-disclosure agreement as part of the settlement, allowing her to go public with her allegation. McGowan said that she and her attorney met with another Weinstein lawyer, Charles Harder, to find out what you two pigs were going to do to me if I tell the truth, McGowan wrote.
I have to pay for two men to have coffee and croissants at a fancy restaurant to discuss my assault and what would happen to me if I didnt shut up forever, McGowan wrote.
McGowan also revealed further details about her 1997 settlement with Weinstein, saying that her lawyer suggested a small settlement to get on Weinsteins good side.
When I was hurt by the Monster, my then lawyer was someone named David Feldman and he is the one who came at me with the $100,000 offer. He was just trying to curry favor from the swine, Lisa, just like you.
More than 30 women have now accused Weinstein of sexual assault. After the accusation surfaced, Weinstein was fired from the company he co-founded and expelled from the Motion Picture Academy.
From NTD.tv
Russia Imposing New Sanctions on North Korea
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday enacting sanctions on North Korea that were passed by the U.N. Security Council last month.
The new security council sanctions came in response to a sixth underground nuclear test conducted by the communist regime in early September.
Under the sanctions, all sales of natural gas to North Korea are prohibited and only limited amounts of oil can be sold to it. The sanctions also prohibit imports of textile products from the country.
On the same day Putin signed the decree, the speaker of the Russian Parliaments upper house condemned North Koreas nuclear tests and called on the regime to comply with U.N. resolutions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with Security Council members in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on March 21, 2014. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service)
Russia has also tried to facilitate talks between the South Korean and North Korean delegations currently attending a parliamentary forum in Russia.
South Korea said it was open to talks, but the North has rejected the idea.
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has increased pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear missile program. Trump has been successful in persuading Russia and China to agree to new sanctions on the rogue regime.
The Trump administration has been preparing military options and moving military assets into the region, while still trying to find a solution to the problem through talks and economic sanctions.
While it is believed North Korea does not yet possess a nuclear weapon that can be successfully delivered using a ballistic missile, experts say its only a matter of time before it is able to do so.
Women work at the assembly line of a South Korean textile factory in Kaeson, North Korea, on May 22, 2007. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
On Monday, Russia also announced it had resumed a ferry service from Russia to North Korea.
The ferry line, opened in May, is predominantly used for transporting cargo and Chinese tourists. It is the only scheduled cargo-passenger service between ports of the two countries.
The ferry service was halted in August after the company running the ferry line did not pay the port in Vladivostok.
The Chinese regime began implementing the new sanctions on North Korea last month. In addition, Chinas Central Bank has instructed banks to stop providing financing to North Korea. China has also cut imports of coal, iron, and lead from the country, significantly disrupting its economy.
Related Coverage EU to Impose Stringent Sanctions on North Korea
The United States has also passed additional sanctions targeting businesses and financial institutions that do business with North Korea.
Since the implementation of the sanctions last month, the regime has seen a severe shortage of access to foreign capital as well as fuel.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Toddler Denied Kidney Transplant Because Dad Violated Probation: Reports
A family from Georgia claims that their 2-year-old boy who has been suffering from kidney problems since he was born will have to wait longer after his father, who is a perfect match for the kidney transplant, violated his probation, AJC.com reported.
The surgery to transplant the kidney was slated for Oct. 3, but now, its been pushed back to at least January 2018.
Anthony Dickerson Jr., the child, was born without his kidneys and was due to get his fathers left one. A month ago, he suffered a stroke and needs constant care, WTSP reported.
Theyre making this about his dad, Carmellia Burgess, the infants mother, told the channel. Its not about dad. Its about our son.
2-year-old denied kidney transplant from 100% match dad because of probation violation #9newsmornings https://t.co/NCwndZpqnk pic.twitter.com/teOxRT2UcR 9NEWS Denver (@9NEWS) October 16, 2017
The elder Anthony Dickerson, 26, was first arrested six years ago on theft and forgery charges, and he violated his probation in September, AJC reported. Meanwhile, he was charged with possession of a firearm.
Mr. Dickerson is currently in custody for a parole violation, an alleged letter from a hospital stated. If Mr. Dickerson could be escorted to Emory for blood work and a pre-operative appointment tomorrow, September 29, we will be able to continue with the scheduled surgery.
Fathers Criminal Record Prevents Kidney Transplant For 2-Year-Old Son https://t.co/loA30NgWwi pic.twitter.com/UFvthZnmvK NewsOne (@newsone) October 14, 2017
After testing, the elder Dickerson was released, and Burgess said she got another letter saying that surgery will be delayed until he complied with his parole officer for three months.
The Living Donor Team at Emory has asked Mr. Dickerson of compliance from his parole officer for the next three months, the alleged letter said, WTSP reported. We will re-evaluate Mr. Dickerson in January 2018 after receipt of this completed documentation.
Guidelines for organ transplantation are designed to maximize the chance of success for organ recipients and minimize risk for living donors, Janet Christenbury, who is a hospital spokeswoman, told AJC.
Because of privacy regulations and respect for patient confidentiality, we cannot share specific information about our patients.
A petition that was set up by the family has generated more than 25,000 signatures.
Hes only two, Burgess told WTSP of the toddler.
He doesnt deserve this. Weve been waiting so long for this.
The lady said we need your parole information and your probation info. He said Why? We need you to be on good behavior for three to four months before you can give your son the kidney. And January 2018 we will think about re-evaluating you basically, Carmella said, CBS reported.
An E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) from the 93rd Air Control Wing flies a refueling mission over the skies of Georgia in this file photo. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. John Lasky)
US and South Korea Kick Off Military Drills Amid Threats from North Korea
South Korea and the United States began week-long joint Navy drills in the waters around the Korean peninsula on Monday, Oct. 16, amid high tensions over North Koreas nuclear and missile program.
About 40 Navy ships from both countries, including the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and USS Michigan submarine, are taking part in the exercises on the east and west coasts of the peninsula from Oct. 16 to 20, South Koreas defense ministry said on Monday, Oct. 16.
According to South Koreas Yonhap News Agency, the United States deployed a Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) plane to closely monitor the Norths ground and naval forces.
The exercise will provide a visible and coordinated engagement for the U.S.ROK [Republic of Korea] alliance continuing the United States national policy and commitment to the U.S.ROK alliance and the region, the commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet said in a statement.
North Korea has called joint military exercises by the United States and South Korea a rehearsal for war.
Now, the Korean Peninsula is on the threshold of a nuclear disaster and no one knows at what time a thermonuclear war will break out, state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Monday.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have risen sharply in recent weeks following a series of weapons tests by Pyongyang, including its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3 and two missile launches near Japan, one into the Sea of Japan and one over Japan.
Earlier this month, news broke that the United Kingdom, a key U.S. ally and NATO member, has been drawing up military plans for a potential armed conflict with North Korea.
President Trump has been hitting the North Korean regime hard in recent weeks. Last month he got China to agree to new U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea. The regime admitted in a rare article published by its state media late last month that the sanctions were causing a colossal amount of damage.
Last week, Trump stepped up his attacks on the rogue regime, saying that negotiations with it are not effective and that only one thing will work. Trumps Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, later said that the president was telegraphing with the statement that military options are on the table.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union that he will continue diplomacy until the first bomb drops.
The President has also made clear to me that he wants this solved diplomatically, Tillerson said. He is not seeking to go to war.
Epoch Times staff member Jasper Fakkert and Reuters contributed to this report.
From NTD.tv
Vegas Suspects Brain Will Be Put Under a Microscope: Report
Investigators are looking at the brain of Stephen Paddock on Monday, Oct. 16, to see if any undetected conditions caused him to carry out the worst mass shooting in U.S. history earlier this month in Las Vegas.
Neuropathological examinations at Stanford University can reveal hidden conditions in the brain, including dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Fox News reported.
Paddock, 64, is accused of killing 58 people and injuring more than 400 on Oct. 1, as he rained bullets down on a crowd of concert-goers at a nearby country music festival. Officials said that he opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino.
There will be no stone left unturned in this process and this is the next logical step, ex-Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy told FOX5 Las Vegas.
A coroner in Las Vegas said Friday that his body was transported to Stanford, located in the Bay Area, California, for further evaluation.
A motive for the shooting has not been established.
Paddocks autopsy was carried out, but the cause and manner of his death arent expected for weeks or months, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg told Fox. Fudenberg said hell look at the results of multiple forensic analyses at Stanford.
His body will be returned to his family after the test results come in.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, who oversees the Las Vegas police department, told reporters that gunman Stephen Paddock shot at Mandalay Bay hotel security guard Jesus Campos outside his room on Oct. 1 at about the same time he opened fire on the more than 20,000 concertgoers at an outdoor venue.
@dcexaminer: Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock scouted hotels in Boston and Chicago https://t.co/I00jTTeRzi pic.twitter.com/oX9pYciiBp Mike Walker (@New_Narrative) October 6, 2017
Previously, police said that Paddock shot Campos six minutes before he started firing on the crowd, raising questions as to whether police and hotel security could have acted faster to prevent casualties in the attack.
Nobody is attempting to hide anything. The dynamics and the size of the investigation require us to go through voluminous amounts of information in order to draw an accurate picture, Lombardo said of the changing timeline.
The police account is similar to one given on Thursday by the hotel operator MGM Resorts International (MGM), which said in a statement that Paddock opened fire on Campos and the crowd at the same time or within 40 seconds, Reuters reported.
Campos was shot in the leg when Paddock strafed the hallway with about 200 bullets, police said.
Paddock, who placed cameras in the hotel hallway to monitor activity, also injured 546 people before killing himself. No motive for the attack has been made public.
The third timeline could affect claims brought by some victims that depend on the hotels allegedly delayed response after Campos was shot. One attorney told Reuters MGM may have acted quickly but questioned whether reasonable precautions were in place.
Most of the wounded have been discharged from hospitals, but 45 were still hospitalized, some with critical injuries, Lombardo said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Film producer Harvey Weinstein attends the 2016 amfAR New York Gala at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan, New York on Feb. 10, 2016. (Reuters/Andrew Kelly)
Weinstein Co., Mired in Sex Scandal, May Be Up for Sale
The Weinstein Company has entered talks to sell the bulk of its assets to private equity firm Colony Capital, the companies said on Monday.
The announcement about the deal talks comes only days after co-Chairman Bob Weinstein, Harveys brother and the other co-founder, denied the firm was seeking to sell or shut down after firing Harvey Weinstein following accusations that he sexually harassed or assaulted a number of women over the past three decades.
Colony Capital, which has about $20 billion in assets under management, will provide an immediate capital infusion into Weinstein Co and is in talks to buy all or a significant portion of its assets, the companies said in a statement.
If the deal goes through, it will be familiar territory for Thomas Barrack, the founder and executive chairman of Colony Capital.
His firm and the Qatar Investment Authority bought the Miramax studio, founded by the Weinstein brothers, in 2010 and sold the movie production and distribution company last year to BeIN Media Group.
Like Miramax, the value of Weinstein Co likely lies in its library of movie hits such as Shakespeare in Love, The Kings Speech and Silver Linings Playbook, which are in demand by traditional TV networks and online streaming services.
The companies made no mention in their statement of a possible deal value.
Last year, Harvey Weinstein told The Hollywood Reporter that the privately held company was worth $700 million to $800 million, including the film library, and that it had no debt.
There are no public filings on which to assess the likely value of the company or its debt load.
The cash infusion comes after more of the Weinstein Cos partners have cut ties in recent days. Goldman Sachs Group Inc said on Friday it is exploring options for the stake it holds in the company. Goldmans stake is less than $1 million.
Hachette Book Group, the U.S. publishing house of French group Lagardere, terminated the Weinstein Books imprint on Thursday.
Colonys cash infusion will stabilize the companys current operations, as well as provide comfort to our critical distribution, production and talent partners around the world, the companies said in the statement.
A number of women have claimed that movie producer Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them over the past three decades. Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled Weinstein on Saturday, a sharp smack for a Hollywood mogul known for powering a string of films to Oscar gold. The Weinsteins together have received 341 Oscar nominations and won 81 Academy Awards.
Colony Capital is the private equity arm of Colony NorthStar Inc, a real estate investment trust that has holdings in healthcare, industrial and hospitality sectors.
Colony NorthStar shares were last up 0.5 percent on Monday.
By Greg Roumeliotis and Jessica DiNapoli
The largest ever raid by Hong Kongs securities regulator was linked to the multi-billion dollar plunge in nearly three dozen small-cap stocks in June, according to a person familiar with the situation.
One hundred and thirty-six agents from the citys Securities and Futures Commission recently searched multiple premises, head of enforcement Tom Atkinson said in a speech last week, without disclosing what triggered the raid.
The search was related to the so-called Enigma Network, the person familiar said, a group of companies whose overlapping ownership ties and bubble-like qualities were publicized by activist investor David Webb in May. The stocks gained widespread attention in Hong Kong after many of them suddenly plunged by as much as 90 percent on June 27.
Jonathan Li, an SFC spokesman, declined to comment on links between the raids and Enigma.
The SFC and stock exchange have made cleaning up Hong Kongs small-cap market a priority over the past year, saying wild share-price swings and allegations of manipulation have damaged the citys reputation. Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. is reviewing the rules for its small-companies exchange, where many of the stocks highlighted by Webb are listed.
The raid was related to nefarious groups of inter-related companies that work in coordination to extract value from unsuspecting investors, Atkinson said in his speech, adding that evidence was being processed. He didnt provide further details.
Anyone who has been exploiting investors through this type of scheme should not underestimate our resolve to stop them, Atkinson said. Benjamin Robertson, Bloomberg
Firefighters from the Military Emergency Unit (UME) work to put out a forest fire near As Nieves, northern Spain on Oct. 15, 2017. (Spanish Defence Ministry/UME/Luismi Ortiz/Handout via REUTERS)
Wildfires Kill at Least 30 in Portugal and Spain
LISBON/MADRIDAt least 30 people died in wildfires raging through parched farmlands and forests in Portugal and neighbouring Spain on Sunday and Monday, officials said.
Authorities said they were still battling 145 blazes in Portugal still recovering from its deadliest fire on record in June and another 100 in Spain. Portugals government asked for international help and declared a state of emergency in territory north of the Tagus river about half of its landmass.
We are facing new (weather) conditions In an era of climate change, such disasters are becoming reality all over the world, Portugals Interior Minister, Constanca Urbano de Sousa, said citing the fires burning in California.
Flames ripped across countryside left tinder-dry by an unusually hot summer and early autumn, fanned by strong winds as remnants of ex-Hurricane Ophelia brushed the Iberian coast.
Officials in Portugal and Spain said arsonists had started some of the blazes.
The weekends fires had killed at least 27 people and injured more than 50 in Portugal, civil protection service spokeswoman Patricia Gaspar said.
In June, 64 people died in a huge forest fire in central Portugal. The government has been criticised for a slow, inefficient response and a lack of fire-prevention policies.
Three people died in Spains Galicia region two of them women found inside a burnt-out car, the third a man in his seventies, killed as he tried to save his farm animals, media reported.
Most of the fires in Galicia were started deliberately, the head of the regional government, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, said in a radio interview.
Spains Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said some of those responsible had already been identified. They could face up to 20 years in jail if convicted, police said. At least one person was arrested in Portugal for allegedly starting a fire.
By Andrei Khalip and Raquel Castillo
A Hong Kong court on Friday convicted 20 activists, including prominent student leader Joshua Wong, for defying authorities trying to clear a protest site during massive 2014 pro-democracy demonstrations in the Chinese-controlled city.
A High Court judge found the group guilty of criminal contempt of court for failing to comply with a court order to vacate a protest camp on a busy Kowloon street as they blocked major thoroughfares during the 79-day Umbrella Movement protests.
Wong, who has already been imprisoned in a separate case, and 10 others earlier admitted to the charge while nine others pleaded not guilty.
In a court summary of the verdict for the nine who pleaded not guilty, Judge Andrew Chan said, The court has no doubt that the respondents actions amounted to a serious interference with the administration of justice.
Sentencing was expected later. Under Hong Kong law, there is no maximum penalty for contempt, with the sentencing range subject to case law and legal precedents.
The ruling came the same day Wong turned 21 and supporters gathered outside a packed courtroom to sing him Happy Birthday. The activist, who rose to global fame for his part in leading the 2014 protests while still a teenager, was sent back to prison, where he will be moved to an adult ward.
In August, Wong and two other student leaders were given prison sentences of six to eight months after the justice secretary requested the courts review their earlier, more lenient sentences for unlawful assembly related to the protests. The move sparked fears that authorities were undermining the citys independent judiciary.
Activists said the case is the latest sign that authorities are clamping down on dissent in Hong Kong. The city was promised wide autonomy after its 1997 handover from Britain to China but residents increasingly fear Beijing is tightening its grip.
Lester Shum, another student leader convicted Friday, said after the ruling that more and more political prosecutions will be forthcoming under Hong Kongs Beijing-
backed leader, Carrie Lam. Yi-Ling Liu, AP
South Korean military officials are readying for another possible missile launch by Pyongyang as they prepare for a joint military drill with the U.S. on the disputed peninsula this week.
Multiple South Korean media reports citing unidentified military officials on Saturday and Sunday said North Korean missile vehicles kept appearing and disappearing from the map and transporter erector launchers had been spotted carrying ballistic missiles from near Pyongyang and North Pyongan province.
A joint military drill between the U.S. and South Korea will be held from today through Friday, Yonhap reported yesterday, citing an unidentified military source who said Pyongyang was ready to fire missiles any time.
Anything could happen especially before Chinas party convention on Oct. 18 and during the time between post-drills and Trumps visits in the region, said Shin Beomchul, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul. There is also the possibility for North Korea to test shorter-ranged ballistic missiles, which in the past did not lead to UN sanctions. Historically, the North had tended not to provoke directly during the military drills.
North Koreas state-run media agency KCNA on Saturday criticized the joint military exercise, calling it a reckless act of war maniacs. Earlier, the White House said U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to Asia from Nov. 3-14, during which he will visit South Korea and possibly the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.
As part of this weeks drill, the U.S. has deployed the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to South Korea. The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Michigan is also likely to take part.
Separately, U.S. weapons systems including F-35A and F-22 stealth fighter jets, B-1B bombers and RQ-4 surveillance drones, will participate in the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition being held from tomorrow through Friday, although they wont be armed, according to a Yonhap report.
North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, and has launched more than a dozen missiles this year as Kim Jong Uns regime seeks the capability to hit the continental U.S. with an atomic weapon. The United Nations has imposed stringent sanctions on North Korea for its weapons tests.
Trump has said all options including military are on the table to stop Kim, and the White House ruled out talks with Pyongyang.
A war of words has escalated between the two leaders in recent weeks, with Trump labeling Kim Rocket Man and telling the UN that the U.S. would totally destroy North Korea if it attacks. Kim responded by calling Trump a dotard and warning of the highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history.
Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho suggested last month that could include testing a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean. He later said the U.S. had declared war and his country had the right to shoot down American warplanes flying in international airspace. MDT/Bloomberg
Australia warned
North Korea also turned its focus on Australia at the weekend, warning the U.S. ally of the risks of siding with Trump. Joining the U.S. in seeking to increase pressure on North Korea would mean Australia will not be able to avoid a disaster, the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Saturday cited a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying. Australia is showing dangerous moves of zealously joining the frenzied political and military provocations of the U.S., the spokesman was quoted as saying, citing Foreign Minister Julie Bishops visit last week to South Korea. Bishop and Australias Defense Minister Marise Payne visited South Korea, and the demilitarized zone that separates the country from its neighbor, backing potential tougher measures aimed at compelling North Korea to negotiate.
A local micro-enterprise has seen a nearly 20 percent increase in its annual sales turnover following its contracts with Sands China.
Ocean Pride Food Company is one of the many micro-enterprises that participated in Sands Chinas Local Supplier Support Program in 2015 a program in line with the governments initiative to buy local.
As the program demonstrates Sands Chinas commitment to supporting local enterprises as part of the companys corporate social responsibility efforts, Ocean Pride Food has seen a steady growth in its sales after its continuous partnership with Sands China.
The local enterprise currently supplies frozen commodities to the integrated resort including meat and seafood, along with dairy products.
Stanley Lo, director of Ocean Pride Food remarked that Sands China quickly placed an order totaling some MOP600,000 after learning about the enterprise and its food hygiene processes.
Stanley initially planned to supply local restaurants yet bravely targeted gaming operators when Sands China launched its SME program.
Our target was to supply some restaurants. Luckily I saw Sands Chinas SME programs on the website so I joined, Lo recalled.
The director is also grateful to the local government for helping SMEs launch businesses.
When we started the company, we depended on local restaurants and supermarkets to stabilize our daily operations. Luckily, Sands Chinas SME program helps us build up the business more easily, he said.
Along with government policy, the Sands Chinas SME program has contributed to the development of local SMEs including Made in Macao products and young entrepreneurs. These elements are part of SCLs supplier relationship management strategy.
Ocean Pride Food started its partnership with Sands China after it submitted competitive product pricing to the gaming operator.
Thus, according to Lo, the company saw stable growth in the firms annual sales once the partnership commenced.
Lo also noted that each contract is valid for some 6 to 12 months, which has resulted in being able to present much more competitive pricing to the gaming operator as it enabled the firm to gain longer term volume discounts from its own suppliers.
Luckily the contracts are not only for one month so I will have this [client] to provide to for a period of time, Lo remarked.
Due to these contracts, we also get the best price from our suppliers which also adds to our profitability, the director continued.
Meanwhile, the micro company currently employing six staff noted how beneficial the SME program is for Sands China as it contributed to the growth of its stakeholders.
According to Lo, as Sands China prioritizes local SMEs, it assists them in becoming more competitive in the local market.
With the SME program, there is a higher chance of staying in business for a longer time because the procurement team [of Sands China] prioritizes local SMEs, Lo shared.
Since Sands China prioritizes the SMEs, it also helped us to cooperate with other hotels and gaming operators, and gave us a higher credibility, he added.
Meanwhile the entrepreneur shared that he has participated in the new Sands China Procurement Academy in a bid to develop his business knowledge and skills to assist him in gaining experience.
Joining the program, local entrepreneurs can increase their capacity for working with large-scale international clients such as Sands China, as it provides tailor-made practical training modules to local SMEs including micro-enterprises, young entrepreneurs, and Made-in-Macao enterprises.
Sands Chinas F.I.T. program helps me improve my knowledge on purchasing and how to communicate with Sands China and other hotels, said the entrepreneur, noting that it will be both beneficial for him and his companys overall growth.
The director acknowledged that Sands China has given his company the credibility which has opened up opportunities to supply other gaming operators. Lo remarked that he is keen to join other programs that Sands China may initiate with local suppliers.
With the expansion of the business, Ocean Pride Food has recently acquired a larger office and will move to its new site soon, recognizing Sands China for its continuous support of local SMEs and young entrepreneurs including Lo.
I will join a food safety program or other programs for the company [Sands China] to learn about how our company is doing and [set] safety measures for our food business, said the entrepreneur.
Lo cited his belief that the knowledge and other skills he is learning through the SME program can be used as a basepoint to supply other gaming operators and hotels, allowing the company to further boost its local sales.
Further, the director also said that he is interested in joining Sands China Young Entrepreneur Advance Payment Program.
The program is being created to help local young entrepreneurs who have limited financial capacity to run their business.
It targets young Macau entrepreneurs with a staff of 15 or fewer, providing them with a 30 percent advance payment on purchase orders.
As a young entrepreneur, Lo acknowledged that working capital has always been an issue, particularly when its clients place orders in bulk.
Thus the financial support of Sands China would assist the micro-enterprise in easing its cash flow, allowing Ocean Pride Food to continually acquire clients without being troubled by its capital situation.
With the move to a larger office, Lo is optimistic that they will be able to expand their product range and would also be able to sell processed goods.
Despite market competition, the entrepreneur is quietly confident that its partnership with Sands China will contribute to its continued expansion.
This article was sponsored by Sands China Ltd.
The Philippine president said he has asked his finance secretary to reject an unspecified British financial aid package and that hes ready to cut diplomatic ties with all European countries critical of his deadly anti-drug crackdown.
President Rodrigo Duterte also threatened in a state TV talk show late Friday to declare a revolutionary government until the end of my term to allow him to arrest opponents and launch an all-out war against communist guerrillas if they seriously attempt to destabilize his government.
Dutertes latest outburst against critics came after an independent poll made public this past week showed that his approval rating has dropped to its lowest level since he took office last year, amid an outcry over unabated drug killings and allegations that he has unexplained wealth.
The Social Weather Stations said its Sept. 23-27 nationwide survey showed Dutertes satisfaction rating dropping by 18 points to 48, a level classified as good, compared from its last survey in June, when he got a very good 66-point rating.
Amid renewed criticisms of his anti-drug campaign, which has left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead, Duterte has barred the national police for the second time from enforcing his crackdown and designated a small antinarcotics agency to spearhead his crackdown.
The volatile leader has also been incensed by concerns over the drug killings raised by a small group of European parliamentarians and human rights advocates, who recently visited Manila.
I am prepared to lose all diplomatic relationships with all of the European countries now. [] Youre not allowed to enter here now. I will write that letter, Duterte said, adding that the Philippines could drop European imports.
Duterte said his country could survive as long as I have China, Russia and Eastern Europe, along with a bloc of Southeast Asian nations that he currently heads.
He said that Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III recently informed him of a financial package Britain wanted to provide, but that he told Dominguez to reject the offer. Tell them Duterte may use that to buy guns and ammunition to carry out extrajudicial killings, so keep your money, Duterte said he told his finance chief.
British officials were not immediately available for comment.
The 72-year-old president, known for his bombastic speeches, also warned that he would declare a revolutionary government to contain any serious threat by political opponents and communist rebels to undermine his administration. I will arrest all of you and we can go to a full-
scale war against the Reds, Duterte said. Im prepared, thats why Ive gotten more soldiers. [] Why did I ask for new arms?
Duterte has made such bold threats in the past but later walked back on his public remarks. He threatened Thursday to expel EU ambassadors and suggested they could be asked to leave the Philippines in 24 hours, but his spokesman later clarified that the diplomats would not face expulsion.
He has denied he has a policy condoning unlawful drug killings. Following public outrage over the shooting death of a teenage student in August, he has warned police officers that they would be locked up in jail if they murder drug suspects.
The president, however, has continued to threaten drug and crime suspects with death and mock human rights advocates. The human rights of the criminals end where the survival of my country begins. Simple as that, Duterte said. AP
Watertown talent teaches basics in creating artisan bread and charcuterie
Those interested in exploring their culinary side learned the basics of making fresh artisan bread and a guest-pleasing charcuterie board this weekend.
Want to improve your handstand? Try using your head. This Handstand Helper docks the crown of the head onto a wall to provide extra stability and increase proprioceptive awareness as you learn to stand up on your own two hands.
Handstands build upper body and core strength and they increase bone density in the wrists. If youre brand new to handstanding, however, be sure to get clearance from your doctor and seek guidance from a qualified yoga instructor before diving in headfirst.
1. Begin in a narrow Downward Facing Dog Pose with your fingertips a full palms width away from a sturdy wall.
2. Keeping both arms straight and strong, look at the ground between your thumbs, and kick up to Handstand by swinging one leg up to the wall and allowing the other one to go along for the ride.
3. Place the crown of the head onto the wall and press your heels towards the sky as you organize feet over hips and hips over shoulders. Stabilize your lower back by engaging core muscles and reaching your tailbone away from the press of your hands.
4. Balance for as many as five breaths before stepping your feet down one-at-a-time.
Underpass Park
Located under and around the Eastern Ave. and Richmond/Adelaide overpasses, between Cherry St. and Bayview Ave., Underpass Park is a reclaimed public space designed by PFS Studio and The Planning Partnership. Toronto-born graffiti artist Derek Mehaffey (a.k.a. Troy Lovegates a.k.a. OTHER) and Labrona painted 16 portraits of east-end residents on 16 pillars in Underpass Park. They are now pillars of the community, holding up the structures that define the park.
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CALGARY Hes hip, funny, well-educated and widely known across Canada, but Naheed Nenshi is facing the fight of his political life on Monday as he seeks his third term as Calgarys mayor.
During his two previous terms, Nenshi was named the No. 1 mayor in the world by an international urban research institute and feted with the World Mayor Prize in 2014. He has been praised as an urban visionary, who doesnt neglect the nitty-gritty of local government.
But Calgarys struggling economy and a number of missteps have opened the door in Mondays civic election for Bill Smith, 54, a Calgary lawyer and former firefighter who was president of Albertas Progressive Conservative Party.
A month ago we were all saying that its hard to kick out an incumbent and Bill Smith had no name recognition back then, said independent pollster Janet Brown.
The fact that were even thinking its a competitive race is unprecedented in Calgary politics. We havent seen an incumbent mayor defeated since Ralph Klein won in the early 80s.
Nenshi said he never expected to sleepwalk through this campaign.
OK, maybe Im irritating. Maybe you dont want to have a coffee with me, Nenshi said. But I think what we really should be making decisions on is what kind of a community are we trying to build.
The campaign has been a lot less fun than previous years, he admitted.
It has been nasty. Its been vitriolic, he said. The thing about me is that I put myself out there every single day. And like Popeye, I yam what I yam. I dont try to hide it.
Smith said Calgarians are frustrated with rising taxes, high office-vacancy rates and a struggling economy.
Nobody sees any hope in sight in terms of a recovery on the energy side. What were getting is increased taxes at the civic level, at the provincial level and the federal level, said Smith. Theres just a real general feeling of discontent.
Brown said a couple of issues seem to have come back to haunt Nenshi.
There was a war of words with a Calgary developer that led to legal action. Nenshi had to pay $300,000 in legal bills and received help raising the money from a Calgary group.
Last year, Nenshi apologized for calling Uber the worst of people and its CEO a dick in a widely circulated video while he was using a competing ride-hailing service in Boston.
That again brought questions around his respect for others, said Lori Williams, a political scientist at Mount Royal University.
This image of him of being sort of arrogant and combative, he thinks hes the smartest person in the room, and things like that ... seems to be hurting him as well.
Williams said unlike other civic elections, this one has become partisan with traditional party loyalties entering into it.
There are a number of small-c conservatives who seem to be engaging in this race.
Brown said some may be taking frustrations with Premier Rachel Notley and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau out on Nenshi.
Theres a lot of anger, and with the cancellation of Energy East, perhaps Calgarians would like to punish Trudeau. Perhaps they would like to punish Notley, but they dont have an opportunity to do that, she said.
Nenshi has complained about an increasing presence of racism and hateful language in social media discourse coming from forces supporting his opponents and wanting to take the city backwards.
Brown said she doesnt doubt that Nenshi, the first Muslim mayor of a major Canadian city, has encountered racism, but suggested his comments could backfire.
It came out as meaning if youre against me, youre racist, Brown said.
It didnt really acknowledge that there are some legitimate reasons to dislike Mayor Nenshi and be voting against Mayor Nenshi that has nothing to do with his race.
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HALIFAXNearly two dozen partygoers were arrested after a series of off-campus celebrations for Dalhousie Universitys homecoming weekend overran a Halifax residential neighbourhood.
Police estimate up to 2,000 people swarmed the citys south end for a booze-fuelled bash on Saturday, leading to 22 arrests and a number of fines.
Videos uploaded to social media show young people clad in Dalhousies colours chanting obscenities at police as they tried to break up the unsanctioned street party.
Dalhousie officials have denounced the disturbance and say the university is considering taking disciplinary actions against some of the students involved.
University spokesperson Brian Leadbetter says similar types of gatherings have occurred around other Canadian campuses as part of a growing movement around homecoming festivities.
Councillor Waye Mason, who represents the district, says residents fear the ragers will escalate as student housing becomes more concentrated and social-media invitations attract more party attendees.
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U.S.-backed Syrian fighters launched an operation to retake the last Islamic State-held pocket of the northern city of Raqqa yesterday after some 275 militants and their family members surrendered.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said the operation will continue until all the city is cleansed from terrorists who refused to surrender.
The SDF has been on the offensive in Raqqa since early June and now controls about 90 percent of the city that was once the extremist groups self-styled capital. Most of the fighters who remain in the pocket are foreigners, according to the SDF and opposition activists.
The operation was named after Adnan Abu Amjad, an Arab commander with the SDF who was killed in August while fighting against IS in central Raqqa.
The loss of Raqqa would hand another major blow to IS, which has lost most of the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq. Iraqi forces captured the northern Iraqi city of Mosul the largest ever held by the extremist group in July, and Syrian government forces retook the eastern Syrian city of Mayadeen, near the border with Iraq, on Saturday.
IS still holds parts of Syrias Deir el-Zour province and Iraqs Anbar province, as well as small, scattered pockets elsewhere.
On Saturday, the U.S.-led coalition and local officials said Syrian IS fighters and civilians would be allowed to leave Raqqa, but not foreign fighters. The evacuation appeared aimed at sparing the lives of civilians being used as human shields. As of last week, around 4,000 civilians were believed to still be in the city.
The SDF said the initiative by local tribesmen and members of the Raqqa Civil Council succeed in evacuating civilians who were still in the city and the surrender of 275 local mercenaries and their families. It added that the ongoing offensive aims to end the presence of mercenaries of the terrorist organization inside the city.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said among the fighters who remain in Raqqa is an official who planned attacks in France that killed and wounded dozens of people. Abdurrahman said the man is either a French or Belgian citizen of North African origin.
Two Kurdish officials, Nawaf Khalil and Nasser Haj Mansour, said the evacuation took place early Sunday, adding that some gunmen remained in a pocket they still control in Raqqa. Khalil said the civilians who left Raqqa included families of fighters. Bassem Mroue, Beirut, AP
OTTAWAAll Canadian military personnel in Iraq are safe, defence officials confirmed Monday after allied Iraqi and Kurdish forces opened fire on each other near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
Some Canadian troops had been operating in the area earlier this month, but a military spokesman said they left nearly two weeks ago after the region was liberated from Daesh, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
No Canadian Armed Forces were caught in any crossfires in Iraq, Capt. Vincent Bouchard said in an email. All Canadian Armed Forces personnel are safe and accounted for.
The eruption of violence has nonetheless raised questions about the future of Canadas military mission in Iraq, which has involved training both Kurdish and Iraqi forces to fight Daesh militants.
It has also sparked new concerns about the future of Iraq, which one senior Kurdish official says could be on the verge of civil war unless Canada and others speak up more forcefully.
And it has confirmed the fears of many who worried that the international community wasnt doing enough to keep the Iraqis and Kurds from turning on each other after enemy militants were beaten back.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan refused to take sides Monday, nor would he say how or even whether the fighting could impact Canadas mission in Iraq.
He instead urged both the Iraqis and Kurds to focus on defeating Daesh, which is on its last legs in the country.
Read more:
Kurds withdraw as Iraqi forces push into disputed city of Kirkuk
Border reported closed between Iran and Iraqs Kurdish region
Iraqi forces demand Kurdish troops withdrawal from Kirkuk area
Great work has been done with all parties of the coalition and the Iraqi security forces, and we want to continue with that, Sajjan said outside the House of Commons.
So were encouraging all parties to focus on the main threat itself, and were hoping that all parties can resolve the situation quickly and peacefully.
Global Affairs Canada issued its own statement calling for calm and urging the two sides to peacefully resolve their differences, including Kurdish aspirations for independence.
But Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurds top diplomat in Washington, said her people feel abandoned, and that a stronger response was required to stop the violence from getting worse.
We are on the brink of all-out war, Rahman told The Canadian Press. We need our partners the United States, Canada, Britain, France, others to say very clearly, very loudly, and I really mean very clearly, that this is unacceptable.
The comments followed the Iraqi military, with support from Shiite militia groups, wresting control of key positions around Kirkuk from Kurdish peshmerga forces early in the day before taking the city centre.
The Iraqi Kurds have their own regional government in the north of Iraq that is largely autonomous from the rest of the country, and which claimed ownership of Kirkuk after liberating it in 2015.
But a turning point came when, against Baghdads wishes, they included the city in a controversial independence referendum last month in which the vast majority of Kurds voted to form their own country.
In a statement on Facebook, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pointed to the referendum being held in Kirkuk as the reason he ordered Iraqi forces to take the city Monday.
The U.S.-led coalition fighting Daesh, which has trained and equipped both Iraqi and Kurdish forces over the past three years, played down the extent of the fighting between the two one-time partners.
But local media reported heavy gunfire and even artillery exchanges, while thousands of civilians were seen fleeing as Iraqi forces advanced on the city.
Canadian diplomats actually warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a briefing note in November 2015 about possible fighting between Kurds and non-Kurds in Iraq after Daesh, including for ownership of Kirkuk.
Baghdad, the note said, would have to contend with a range of land disputes with strengthened Iraqi Kurdish forces, which have received training and equipment from coalition members, including Canada.
The Liberal government responded by increasing Canadas support to the Kurds, tripling the number of Canadian military trainers and promising to provide them with weapons.
Bessma Momani, a Middle East expert at the University of Waterloo, said Canada bears part of the responsibility for the current crisis by essentially ignoring the issue until it was too late.
Its almost like they hoped nothing would happen, but didnt lay the groundwork to make sure nothing happened, she said.
We really did ignore it.
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OTTAWAAmid a growing clamour in its ranks, the federal Liberal government says it will finally fulfil a campaign pledge to cut the small business tax rate to 9 per cent by 2019.
And it ditched outright one of three other controversial tax proposals unveiled midsummer that had triggered an angry backlash among small business owners, farmers, fishery licence holders, doctors, lawyers, opposition members and Liberal backbenchers alike.
The government will now drop proposals aimed at limiting the ability of incorporated business owners to convert income into capital gains, which are taxed at a lesser rate. The planned change had been slammed as an obstacle to transferring family businesses on to the next generation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and embattled Finance Minister Bill Morneau said weve listened to caucus members and Canadians, and said therell be no change to the lifetime capital gains exemption after all.
Trudeau and Morneau, along with two other ministers and MPs, went to a Main Street Italian restaurant in Stouffville Monday morning to confirm news leaked the night before that it would lower small business taxes as promised in the 2015 election campaign, a pledge it had put the brakes on once in power.
The previous Conservative government had legislated a gradual reduction in the rate from 11 per cent to 9 per cent, which the Liberals froze after the first cut 10.5 per cent, where it still stands.
Now, the tax cut will proceed in stages, moving to 10 per cent effective Jan. 1, 2018, and to 9 per cent, effective Jan. 1, 2019. Thats 10 months before the next federal election. The move is expected to cost the public treasury $2.9 billion in revenue over the next six tax years. The Finance Department says the average small business in Canada would have an additional $1,600 per year to reinvest in new equipment and job creation.
Morneau and Trudeau said that to support the small business tax cut, the government will keep a simple version of a change targeting the ability of corporations to sprinkle income among family members to cut the tax bill. It proposes a reasonableness test that would require family members to demonstrate they make a meaningful contribution to a business through labour, capital, equity or the assumption of a financial risk for the business.
Read more: Trudeau and Morneaus efforts to sugar coat their tax reforms turns into a comedy of errors: Hebert
Small-business tax cut is an unseemly buy-off: Editorial
Bill Morneau feels the heat as Liberal support slips: Hebert
Nervous Liberal MPs, who had been briefed early Monday, breathed more easily and promised more good news to come in announcements Wednesday and Thursday.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer took credit for the tax cut and accused the government of modifying other proposals only in response to a political crisis. He said the Liberals cannot be trusted to properly manage fiscal reform.
Canadian business leaders applauded the latest moves, but in a sign of the distrust that has grown over the past three months they were also skeptical about the net impact of tax changes, want clarification, and say theyll wait to see whether the Liberals will reverse other controversial tax measures later this week.
The government is conducting a Dance of the Seven Veils this week on small biz taxation. The first was removed today, tweeted Perrin Beatty, president of the Chamber of Commerce, calling it an improvement, but theres more to follow.
Beatty said Ottawa should produce an economic impact analysis for each of the elements of its tax package.
Both the chamber and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said the government provided no new specifics on how it would curb illegitimate income sprinkling without Canada Revenue agents overshooting the mark and imposing more red tape on business. And theyve heard nothing yet on the bigger question of how Ottawa will limit so-called passive investments within corporations what Morneau has called dead money.
We want to see details before we pop the champagne, said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. He said the government had eroded the trust of business owners after three months of the prime minister and minister every day hitting loopholes, small business owners and rich fat cats.
Kelly acknowledged the reductions to the small business corporate tax rate are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, so that is not just a spoonful of sugar but maybe a couple of cupfuls of sugar.
That is a win for the business community because I truly do believe regardless of what the government was saying today that was deader than a doornail two weeks ago.
For the first time, in a long time, Ive got a bit of my smile back and feel very, very good about where were going to go as a government, said Liberal MP Wayne Long, of New Brunswick.
Long voted against the government and was punished for supporting a Conservative motion to extend the consultation period on the first tax-change package. He said Monday that he was finally satisfied, especially with the coming change to the overall rate.
I think that it sends a signal. Our small business tax rate is certainly the lowest in the G7, and were going to get a little bit more aggressive with that tax rate and free up some more capital for small businesses, in particular, to reinvest in their businesses.
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The provincial government will fund a study into the health effects of air pollution on residents of Sarnias Chemical Valley following a joint investigation by journalists, including the Toronto Star, Environment Minister Chris Ballard announced Monday.
Residents of Sarnia and the nearby Aamjiwnaang First Nation have for nearly a decade been asking the provincial and federal governments to fund such a study.
Ballard did not say how long the study would take or what the process would be, saying he didnt have a finalized proposal.
Read more: In Sarnias Chemical Valley, is toxic soup making people sick?
Outrage, calls for health study after Chemical Valley spills investigation
Well be announcing stricter regulations in the coming weeks, Ballard said at Queens Park Monday. We are committed to funding that science-based approach to understanding the localized impact of air pollution on the health of Sarnia residents.
Mondays announcement comes after a joint investigation by the Star, Global News, National Observer, the Michener Awards Foundation and journalism schools at Ryerson and Concordia universities revealed a troubling pattern of secrecy and potentially-toxic leaks in the area known as Chemical Valley. There are 57 industrial polluters registered with the Canadian and U.S. governments within 25 kilometres of Sarnia.
The investigation also raised questions about whether companies and the provincial government are properly warning residents of Sarnia and the Aamjiwnaang when potentially toxic substances including benzene, known to cause cancer at high levels of long-term exposure are leaked.
More than 500 Ministry of the Environment incident reports, obtained by the investigation through freedom of information requests, details industrial leaks in Sarnias Chemical Valley that released a range of emissions from a 2014 benzene spill that experts said should have triggered alarms to a valve left open for three months venting hydrocarbons that year, to a two-hour leak of hydrogen sulphide from tanks in 2015.
Only one public warning has been issued for an industrial incident through the citys official alert system since it began in 2014. And the ministry has laid charges in four cases in the Sarnia area since January 2013.
Though benzene levels in Sarnia have dropped significantly in the last 25 years, documents obtained by the investigation revealed how refineries in the area release three to 10 times the annual limit of the carcinogen, exceeding stricter targets put in place in 2016.
Ballard, who recently replaced now-former MPP Glen Murray as environment minister, didnt say how much the study would cost.
I dont think, frankly, it matters where the money comes from, Ballard told reporters. Lets just get this study done.
The Lambton Community Health Study, which includes the countys medical officer of health, has sought money for a health study since 2007.
A survey released by the group based on a phone poll of 500 residents, an online survey and five open houses in 2010 and 2011 found 80 per cent felt pollution from local industries was causing health problems for them or their families, most commonly citing cancer or respiratory health. Concern was especially high in Aamjiwnaang, where residents live in the shadows of industrial smokestacks that surround them on three sides.
The public health data that exists is inconclusive. Hospitalization rates for respiratory problems are higher in Sarnia and Aamjiwnaang than nearby Windsor and London. There are more lung cancer cases and mesothelioma than the Ontario average, in part because of the regions asbestos legacy.
But leukemia and blood cancer rates are consistent with the rest of Ontario. Critics say the data, collected at the county level, misses the impact on people in the immediate vicinity of Chemical Valley.
Industry offered to fund about a third of the costs of a health study in 2014. However, Health Canada, then under former prime minister Stephen Harpers government, said it could provide in-kind scientific support but not enough money for the study. The provincial government never responded to the committees requests.
I felt crushed and totally defeated, especially when we were so close to the actual study itself, said Anne Marie Gillis, a Sarnia city councillor and chair of the committee, speaking Monday before Ballards announcement.
We needed the answers and we still need the answers.
The committee ended its operations in 2016, though Gillis said its prepared to regroup.
On Monday, federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor said shes asked her department to look into the 2014 decision.
Michel Camus, a Health Canada senior epidemiologist who was the liaison for the Lambton Public Health Study group and has since retired, said he thought the ministry had no interest in intervening.
They didnt want to create a precedent by financing one community to address an environmental health issue while other communities might have also similar issues and they then might want to have some monies, Camus said.
Sarnia MPP Bob Bailey who worked in the areas petrochemical industry for 30 years before entering politics joined calls for the health study in 2008 and 2010.
If the government of the day and the minister had funded that inquiry (in 2010), wed have resolved it, he said. Bailey previously said he thinks a study would prove the current monitoring system is working in Sarnia.
However, Camus said a study might not even bring the answers Chemical Valley residents have long asked for. If it doesnt examine longer-term trends after all, some whove been exposed to pollutants have moved away, while newer arrivals havent been exposed yet it might not capture an accurate picture.
Well have a better idea of the potential reality of these health effects, he said. That might not be enough.
With files from Carolyn Jarvis, Global News and Robert Cribb
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MONTREALAfter a decade-long debate about the place of religion in a secular society, Quebec is set to pass a law that would bar public servants from wearing face coverings and oblige ordinary citizens to unveil when seeking access to government services.
The proposed law has been vigorously opposed by Muslim advocacy groups in the province who say that it will unfairly target women who wear Islamic face coverings such as the niqab, which leaves only the eyes uncovered.
A woman with five children who wears the niqab and wants to go to the library wont be able to take the bus, wont be able to have access to a place of learning to go with her family, and it will take an official request for her to have a reasonable accommodation, said Eve Torres, the Quebec representative of the National Council of Canadian Muslims. It makes no sense.
Debate on the final draft of the bill starts Tuesday and a vote is likely sometime this week.
Read more: Fading NDP presence in Quebec could give breath of life to a moribund Bloc Quebecois: Hebert
NDPers tying themselves in knots to defend the niqab: DiManno
Jagmeet Singh calls out NDP opponents on niqab issue in Quebec
Quebecs Liberal government says the legislation strikes a balance between the status quo and the more extreme solution put forward by the previous Parti Quebecois government to legislate a ban on public servants wearing any religious symbols on the job.
The bill specifically exempts any measures that might affect displays of Quebecs own Catholic heritage, which are considered cultural artifacts and testify to (the provinces) history.
Opposition parties say the proposed law wont do enough to stop religious minorities seeking to put their faith ahead of the common obligations of the state and their responsibilities as citizens. The bill states that a demand for accommodation or exemptions on religious grounds can be refused if they violate fundamental principles like gender equality, pose a security risk or present undue hardship or unreasonable costs to an institution.
There is already great consternation about how and where it will be implemented when it becomes law.
The Quebec government introduced amendments so that the measures apply to school boards, municipalities and even local transit providers.
Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, reacting to the news this summer, was adamant.
No government is going to tell us how to dress our employees and deliver our services, he said, raising the seemingly far-fetched scenario of a woman wearing a niqab being refused entry to a city bus.
That scenario now looks less and less outlandish. Quebec Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee has refused to adjudicate hypothetical scenarios, but has spoken of the importance in a society that conversation be unconstrained by clothing.
I find it hard to see how you can have a dialogue when its difficult or impossible to distinguish a persons non-verbal cues, she said on Oct. 4.
In the same address to the legislature, she used an example of a Quebec City protest that led to a clash between a right-wing anti-immigration group and their anti-fascist rivals, who wore scarves and dark sunglasses, as an example of the security concerns the law might address.
The obligation to have your face uncovered is quite simply an obligation with the goal of having social harmony that is completely legitimate.
None of the explanations quite add up for Quebec Muslims who thought they had found an ally and protector in the Couillard government but are now increasingly prepared to fight on another frontthis time in the courts.
For sure it will be contested, said Haroun Bouazzi, co-president of the Quebec Association of Muslims and Arabs for Secularism. You cannot remove fundamental rights if the reasons are not real and urgent and its impossible to explain that the problem were trying to solve is either. Its impossible.
Bouazzi said he is confident that the law will be proven to be a breach of Canadas Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as its provincial equivalent. But he worries it could lead in the future to more drastic measures to prevent an individuals religious expression, or other rights.
We just opened the door in Quebec to taking away fundamental rights based on nothing. No studies, no security problems whatsoever, he said.
Critics say that they have yet to hear of a public-service employee at any level who will be affected by the new rules. But Torres pointed to an 2016 Environics survey of 600 people which found that three per cent of Muslim women wear the niqab in public. These are the people likely to suffer the effects of the legislation, she said.
This position is reinforcing the stigma faced by a minority. Instead of adopting inclusive policies we are excluding people from the public sphere, Torres said. In the end it looks like Quebec does not protect its minorities.
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OTTAWAA Yukon First Nation wants Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene with the White House to stop the latest American push to drill for oil in fragile Arctic caribou habitat.
Chief Bruce Charlie of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation is hoping to have American plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska added to the agenda of a meeting he is to have with Trudeau in early November.
U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed support for Arctic oil drilling and Congress could have legislation on it ready for Trumps signature before Christmas.
Trump has already undone a ban on offshore oil drilling in the U.S. Arctic implemented by former president Barack Obama in December 2016, which was announced at the same time as Trudeau announced a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Canadian Arctic.
The Gwitchin, a nation that includes more than 8,000 people across Alaska, Yukon and Northwest Territories, have been fighting against oil drilling in the refuge for 40 years, arguing it would seriously harm the breeding grounds of the Porcupine caribou.
Charlie said two delegates from his community are going to Washington, D.C., next week to join a planned day of action against the drilling proposals and meet several members of Congress who could help stop the legislation from going forward.
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Mayor John Torys signature transit project moved a step forward last week when the city took plans for new rail stations under his SmartTrack proposal to public consultations.
At a news conference in Scarborough on Tuesday to mark the launch of the sessions, Tory promised that transit users in Scarborough will have access to SmartTrack service at two completely new stations . . . The people of Toronto want that choice. They want that convenience when it comes to their commute.
But despite the mayors proclamation, uncertainty hangs over at least one of those stops: Lawrence East.
Read more:
How politics, not evidence, drives transit planning in Toronto
Torys SmartTrack plan heads off for public input
Political pandering eclipses fact-based decision-making on transit file: Opinion
Like all six of the new stops proposed under the mayors plan, Lawrence East would be a SmartTrack-branded station added to the GO network as part of the provinces wider regional express rail expansion program and would be served by GO trains.
As the Star has previously reported, concerns have been raised about why the board of Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of GO, approved the $23-million station last June despite analysis that recommended it should not be built.
After a Star investigation uncovered that the ministry of transportation pressured the board into endorsing the stop, the Metrolinx board chair ordered a review of the station to conduct further analysis and determine whether its warranted.
If the station is found to be justified however, constructing it could pose logistical challenges for Metrolinx and political headaches for the mayor.
The new Lawrence East station would replace an existing stop on the Scarborough RT, a line that Tory promised to keep operational until the city completes the contentious one-stop extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway to the Scarborough Town Centre.
But to build the SmartTrack stop, the SRT may have to be decommissioned. According to a business case Metrolinx commissioned, building the new Lawrence East station would be contingent on the removal of the existing Scarborough RT system, including the existing Lawrence East SRT station and SRT tracks.
The report also assumed Metrolinx would have to acquire the SRT station site and use it as a staging area.
Tory has promised SmartTrack stations will be done in the early 2020s while the Scarborough subway extension isnt scheduled to open until midway through 2026.
As it stands, meeting Torys timeline for SmartTrack stations to enter service would require shutting down the SRT before the subway extension opens, which would force transit users to take the bus.
Not needing to tear down the SRT while the subway was being built was a key selling point used by supporters of the Scarborough subway to argue against the alternate proposal of building a seven-stop LRT. Building the LRT would have required closing the SRT.
The city and Metrolinx are in talks to figure out how the SRT might be kept open while Lawrence East station is constructed. But so far the issue remains unresolved.
In an email, Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said the agency is working with the city to determine a construction schedule/staging so as to keep the SRT operating during construction, but no final decisions have been made.
Don Peat, a spokesperson for the mayor, said Tory is confident that the city and Metrolinx will work to build this SmartTrack station in a way that keeps the Scarborough RT operational until the Bloor-Danforth subway extension is completed.
Should the station be built, questions still remain about whether Lawrence East would be beneficial to the transit network.
The station location, situated under an overpass on Lawrence Ave. midway between Kennedy Rd. and Midland Ave., is surrounded by largely stable, lowrise residential neighbourhoods to the south as well as several apartment complexes cut off by the hydro corridor. To the north are commercial and industrial uses.
While there are a number of redevelopment opportunities nearby, the area is poorly situated relative to current and future office, industrial, residential and retail demand, the Metrolinx business case found.
The study projected that by 2031, the area around the station would have a density of 86 people and jobs per hectare. Thats far below the threshold that Metrolinx has set as the minimum requirement to justify an express rail station, which is 150 people and jobs per hectare.
The analysis found ridership demand at Lawrence East would be relatively low, and insufficient to offset the number of existing upstream passengers who would stop taking GO due to the longer stopping time at the new station. That would result in a net loss of transit use.
A separate report commissioned by Metrolinx ranked all the potential new stations being considered for addition to the GO network and screened each one to determine whether other factors might offset low ridership numbers.
It found that allowing passengers to board at Lawrence East for the same price as a TTC fare would lead to a small increase in ridership, but not significant enough to warrant building the stop.
It concluded that while Lawrence East met some important objectives such as serving a nearby low-income neighbourhood, it was less beneficial than other stations being considered for the same line and should not be built for at least another 10 years.
Based on this analysis, the Metrolinx board met behind closed doors in June 2016 and decided not to build Lawrence East. But the Star, through a freedom of information request, found the board reversed that decision under pressure from the ministry of transportation.
The review Metrolinx has ordered wont examine the role political influence played in the approval process at the arms-length agency. Its expected to be complete by Metrolinxs February board meeting. The agency plans to launch the procurement process for new GO stations in the spring.
Presented with the Metrolinx reports, Tory and the city have countered that a city analysis has shown better results.
When the Star requested that analysis in August, a city spokesperson sent a two-page report, which determined Lawrence East would still cause a net loss in GO ridership, although a smaller one than that projected by the Metrolinx analysis.
On Friday, a city spokesperson said the two-page report was based on a ridership analysis provided to Metrolinx in the summer of 2016.
The spokesperson said city staff have since conducted additional work that determined the station would have a positive impact on ridership. She could not immediately provide details of what led to the newer projection but said it was based on council scrapping plans for a three-stop Scarborough subway extension in favour of a single-stop option.
Unlike the Metrolinx reports, the city argues that allowing commuters to use a TTC fare would significantly boost ridership at Lawrence East. However, the city and province are currently in negotiations over fare alignment. It is still unclear what SmartTrack GO stations fares will be.
The citys analysis also projected significantly more development for the area around the station.
We feel the (Metrolinx) analysis relies heavily on the market analysis saying that future demand for new development will be low and does not properly reflect the incentive this station will have on future development, the city report said.
However, even at double the growth rate expected by Metrolinx, the citys projection of 95 people and jobs per hectare by 2031 is still well below the threshold set by the provincial agency for an express rail stop.
The city and mayors office have said the city plans to encourage denser development by enacting supportive land-use policies.
But Shoshanna Saxe, an assistant professor of civil engineering and a member of the University of Torontos Transportation Research Institute, said theres only so much the government can do. She noted the area has had a rapid transit stop in the SRT station for more than three decades and development remains low.
Demand is something that the city and the province can try and nudge, they can try and inspire, but if the market isnt there, thats not within the citys control.
Steven Farber, a transportation geographer and assistant professor at U of T, agrees its difficult to predict how much the area will develop. But he said thats not necessarily an argument against building the new station.
I think its way more important to do whats right in terms of providing a high level of service thats accessible from a cost perspective and that gets people moving around the city in a much faster way than whats possible from that part of the city right now.
Peat, the mayors spokesperson, said city staff believe there is a strong case for Lawrence East Station and the stop will be an important part of the Scarborough transit network plan.
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Mayor John Tory says he has assurances Premier Kathleen Wynnes government will consult Toronto before any sale of the massive decommissioned Hearn power generating station in the east Port Lands.
Tory said he knew nothing of any negotiations between provincially owned Ontario Power Generation and long-term Hearn tenant Studios of America until he read last Fridays Star.
Speaking after a Monday visit to Facebook Canada, Tory suggested Wynnes Liberal government was also caught flatfooted.
Truth to tell, from what I can understand the government itself, at the very centre, didnt understand that this was happening (and) . . . is now very much familiarizing itself with whatever is going on, the mayor told reporters.
We now have assurances from the government that any negotiation of the sale of, or any other treatment of, a very strategically located piece of land like that, would be done in consultation with us simply because it is in such close proximity to our waterfront and our Port Lands, and represents something thats going to be a very strategic asset for everybody including whoever the owner of that piece of land is going forward.
The 650,000-cubic-metre waterfront building big enough to house the Statue of Liberty opened in 1951 and closed in 1983. Studios of America, owned by partners including company president Paul Vaughan and prominent real estate developer Mario Cortellucci, has a lease on the site from 2002 to 2041, if all extensions are exercised, and a right to first refusal if the 16-hectare (40-acre) Unwin Ave. site is sold.
Last Thursday a lawyer representing OPG, appearing before a city committee to express concerns with the citys Port Lands development plan, was asked point-blank by Councillor Paula Fletcher if there are negotiations to sell the site.
I believe there has been discussions in that regard, including recently, the lawyer, Mary Flynn-Guglietti, told Fletcher.
Ray Davies, OPGs real estate strategy manager told the committee he had no knowledge of such talks. Although OPG has title to the land, Davies said, the Ontario government is OPGs sole shareholder so we wouldnt make a decision without their blessing.
Vaughan told the Star he was aware of such talks but a gag order prevented him from saying more and referred questions to the land owner OPG, which has not yet responded to the Stars questions.
Proposals have come and gone for permanent use of the Hearn building, which hosts film shoots as well as special events such as Luminato in 2016.
Tory said he favours a broad consultation on the Hearns future, noting former industrial buildings around the world now house art galleries, retail, residential and more. I think we should open our minds to doing something very bold with that building and that property and I hope that well be fully consulted on that, the mayor said.
Fletcher noted the Ontario government is a partner with the city and Ottawa in Waterfront Toronto, the agency executing a long-term redevelopment of the once-industrial Port Lands, and said the public and all partners should be consulted before any change to an important piece of waterfront.
Peter Tabuns, the NDP MPP for the area, echoed Fletchers concerns in an interview Monday.
The whole area is being redeveloped so OPG and the provincial government should be helping the city. . . , Tabuns said. To me taking a quick profit doesnt seem very thoughtful or community minded.
In June, the province announced it would sell another decommissioned former coal-burning plant, Lakeview on Mississaugas waterfront. The developer or consortium that buys that property will have to remediate the industrial lands before transforming the area into a mixed-use community expected to house up to 20,000 residents and 9,000 jobs.
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Be quiet.
How annoying that women, and the men who purport to support them, would choose Twitter silence as an expression of defiance.
Cutting off their voice to spite their noses.
And I say that as a Twitter infidel. A phenomenon that has polluted the environment, given vile expression to anonymous trolls, short-handed communication to the point of cacophonous Babel, been exploited by Russian hackers to influence an election outcome, and has even replaced the minimal courtesy of a condolence note. Oh yeah, Vegas, see how much I feel your pain, by tapping out a sympathy blurt in 140 characters or less, bobbing along on the currents of vacuous dissemination.
Read more:
#WomenBoycottTwitter in support of actress Rose McGowans stand on the Weinstein sex scandal
Actress Rose McGowan tweets HW raped me, referring to Harvey Weinstein
End the culture of silence around sexual assault: Editorial
I had to go back to into the files to remind myself who invented this digital plague: Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, back in the aught days when the platform was called twttr. Buried in the company biography, an amusing detail about the once and again CEO Dorsey was once briefly suspended from his own Twitter account, which the embarrassed company blamed on an internal mistake.
There was no mistake, except in re-think retrospect, when Twitter last week knocked actress Rose McGowan off her tweet perch, locked out, sent to Twitter Coventry for fierce condemnation of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, the alleged serial sexual predator and, as McGowan more than implied in one of her dispatches, her rapist.
At first Twitter would not explain why McGowan was temporarily muzzled. Only in the face of online howling did the company explain that McGowan had violated its terms of service because a specific message had included a personal phone number.
Some 6,000 tweets flying out into the social media cybersphere per second around 200 billion tweets every year and somehow McGowans rule-breaker had snagged a monitors attention.
Her account was hastily restored. But not before #WomenBoycottTwitter had gone viral, 24-hour no-tweet zone it began last Thursday at midnight exhorting users to go all mute. That call to mum the ramparts apparently resonated with the masses as celebrities tweeted well of course they would tweet their boycott alignment. Alyssa Milano, a TV actress of minor repute, said Friday the 13th will be the first day in over 10 years that I wont tweet. Join me.
A decade of daily tweeting? Am I the only one who considers that addictive behaviour? The protest had its protesters, resisters who pointed out that Twitter has long been fraught with toxic abuse by The Tweet Chamber, with scant crackdown and no draining of the vulgarian swamp by the company. Some noted, correctly, that there was no similar outrage mounted via boycott when minority women such as Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones were brutally trashed on the platform.
But what was the point, really, of #WomenBoycottTwitter? For a protest to have traction, there has to be an objective, an aspiring. This was just a bloated whinge that inconvenienced nobody except the alliance of social media remonstrators and only fleetingly. Not exactly cutting off your tongue, like the Ellen Jamesians in The World According to Garp.
Fiction, I know. But the silencing of rape victims is very real. Just as it apparently took decades to out the powerful Weinstein, with celebrities now falling all over themselves on Twitter, natch to claim, gosh, they never knew, when clearly many did.
Twitter or Non-Twittering was the vehicle adopted to push back. I dont think anybody has been able to gauge the boycotts impact. It seems not to have damaged the brand.
But Twitter is damaging us. Not just as a conduit for malicious electoral engineering but, in my profession most especially, as a slapdash replacement for reportage.
Eleven years after it launched, we still dont know what were doing with Twitter and the multiple pulpits it spawned. The haranguer-in-chief no Winston Churchill is a crude, rabble-rousing American president whos perfected the art of mass disinformation. But tout le monde is in thrall to his early morning squawks, a Wakey-Wakey America pile of bilge.
Everybody has an opinion, everybody has something to say. But now legions are listening, even to the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who have migrated from the fringe or the Dark Web to the social media hub.
I dont think journalists should join them there.
We talk by which I mean tweet too much, in the process shedding all the core principles of neutrality and objectivity, as if the online persona can be separated from the professional.
Columnists are paid to have opinions, of course thats the job though apparently much of the public doesnt grasp the difference. And it can be confusing. Columnists sometimes function as reporters its a multi-tasking scramble but reporters should never be columnists.
Ive never understood, for example, why newspapers that are fairly vigilant about keeping partisan opinions and editorializing out of their core news content although often, not so subtly, refracting the news through an ideological prism are perfectly happy permitting reporters to freewheel spout on social media platforms. Its a kind of didactic schizophrenia, with reporters pretty much given carte blanche to snark and barb (and self-promote) on their Twitter feeds.
The practice has gone berserk. Because it drives eyeballs. And theres a legitimate corporate interest in engaging readers in a fractured media market. And it doesnt cost anything.
The New York Times, held up as a paragon of journalistic virtue, had taken disapproving notice.
On Friday, the paper with newsroom social media accounts boasting tens of million of followers told staff to keep their opinions off Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Revisiting and updating corporate guidelines, the Times stated what should be blindingly obvious partisan content jeopardizes credibility. Certainly its made it all too easy for Donald Trump to vilify big media (apart from lapdogs such as Fox and conservative blowhards on the radio dial) as fonts of fakery and spiders nests of newsroom guerrillas.
Bottom line from the NYT: Knock it off.
Social media can, and has, expanded news platforms (I do so hate that word), particularly by providing real-time updates via tweets and websites constantly turning over content. Were not held hostage any longer by press-roll deadlines. Theres never before been so much information rolling out as it happens.
We can effectively pull back the curtain and invite readers to witness, and potentially contribute to, our reporting, the Times states. But social media presents potential risks for the Times. If our journalists are perceived as biased or if they engage in editorializing on social media, that can undercut the credibility of the entire newsroom.
You think?
Key points:
In social media posts, our journalists must not express partisan opinions, promote political views, endorse candidates, make offensive comments or do anything else that undercuts the Timess journalistic reputation.
Our journalists should be especially mindful of appearing to take sides on issues that the Times is seeking to cover objectively.
Maybe we can, after all, take a cue from #WomenBoycottTwitter.
Shaddup!
Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
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Classes have been cancelled for more than 500,000 students after faculty at 24 Ontario colleges went on strike late Sunday night.
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents 12,000 college professors, instructors, counsellors and librarians, and the group representing management failed to reach an agreement late Sunday night after the union presented its final offer to the College Employer Council in a bid to avert a strike before the 12:01 a.m. deadline.
We felt really disappointed. There is no reason that council shouldnt be working to engage with these discussions with us, said JP Hornick, the chair of the union bargaining team in a statement.
Hornick said they presented the council with an offer that represented what faculty consider to be the bare minimum they need to ensure quality education for students and treat contract faculty fairly.
OPSEU made three critical proposals in the offer: 50:50 ratio in the number of full-time faculty to the number of faculty members on contract; increased job security for part-time faculty, and academic freedom to give faculty a stronger voice in academic decision-making.
Hornick said the council is taking the Walmart approach to education, where they address funding shortfalls by lowering standards such as exploiting underpaid contract workers who have no job security beyond one semester.
They seem to be driven not by what is best for students but by what is best for them.
Hornick said they have gotten support from students during the whole bargaining period. The union understands the distress the strike will be causing on students.
We didnt want to do it. We feel very forced into this position. We are hoping that the colleges will come to their senses and come back to the table and actually start to work towards a settlement that is better for the students, said Hornick.
Employer council spokesperson Sonia Del Missier said the strike is completely unnecessary.
She said management was offering terms that were as good or better than recent settlements with teachers, college support staff, hospital professionals, and Ontario public servants.
The College Employer Council had complained last week that union demands for staffing ratios and wage increases would add more than $1 billion in costs over three years.
Students are advised to check their colleges website to find out how they are affected.
George Brown College, Seneca College, Humber College and Centennial College have all announced that all full-time classes will be cancelled until the strike is over.
Academic staff have been without a contract since the end of September.
With files from The Canadian Press
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SOMALIA The death toll from the most powerful bomb blast witnessed in Somalias capital rose to 231 with more than 275 injured, making it the deadliest single attack ever in this Horn of Africa nation, a senator said yesterday. Doctors struggled to assist horrifically wounded victims, many burned beyond recognition. The hospital is overwhelmed by both dead and wounded, said Dr. Mohamed Yusuf, the director of Medina hospital. This is really horrendous, unlike any other time in the past.
PHILIPPINES President Rodrigo Duterte said he has asked his finance secretary to reject an unspecified British financial aid package and that hes ready to cut diplomatic ties with all European countries critical of his deadly anti-drug crackdown.
IRAQ-IRAN Kurdish media says the three official border crossings between Iraqs Kurdish region and Iran have been closed. But Irans Foreign Ministry says there has been no change to the status of the border.
KYRGISTAN Preliminary results from the presidential election in Kyrgyzstan show the governing partys candidate winning. The countrys media report that Sooronbai Jeenbekov had received about 55 percent of the vote, based on a count of ballots from 95 percent of polling stations.
AUSTRIA Initial results showed the party of Austrias 31-year-old foreign minister leading in national elections yesterday, putting him on course to become the youngest head of government in Europe.
MOLDOVA A cargo plane chartered by the French military crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on its approach to the international airport in Abidjan, killing four crew members from Moldova and injuring six others from Moldova and France, officials said Saturday.
SPAIN Catalonias president is facing a critical decision that could determine the course of the regions secessionist movement to break away from Spain. The Spanish government has given Carles Puigdemont until this afternoon (Macau time) to clarify if he did or didnt actually declare independence earlier this week.
ST. HELENA One of the worlds most remote places became a little less isolated on Saturday when the first commercial flight arrived in St. Helena, a South Atlantic island that until recently was only accessible by boat and where Napoleon Bonaparte spent his last years in exile.
GUATEMALA The genocide trial of former Guatemala dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt resumed behind closed doors Friday as the 90-year-old retired general faces charges related to the killing of 1,771 Ixil Indians during his brief time in power.
Jennifer Brown and Karl Froehr would like to be together for the rest of their lives, making the best of the years they have left.
They want to hold hands, share meals, watch films, talk about the arts, politics, music and books but a string of circumstances has been keeping them apart for almost six years.
Froehr, 87, lives at Lakeside Long-Term Care Centre. The airy and spacious facility in the west end of Toronto provides the round-the-clock care he needs after a severe stroke in early 2012 seriously impacted his movement and his speech. He has been at Lakeside since last summer and in long-term care since the stroke, following a period of rehabilitation.
Brown, 79, resides in a downtown co-operative. Health issues, she admits, are making daily tasks increasingly difficult. She would like to join him at Lakeside and said she has been on what is known as a priority wait-list since January.
The months tick by.
And still, they are apart.
Next year I will be 80, Brown said. I think it is remarkable I have done this for six years and havent lost my mind.
Brown and Froehr met with the Star at Lakeside to talk about the anguish the separation has caused them. They also wanted to raise awareness of the financial and emotional stresses facing aging couples who want to enjoy their senior years in Toronto.
Declining health is also an issue, Brown said.
Not his, he just blooms. Im not exactly blooming, she jokes.
Canadas seniors have been identified as a vulnerable group, in terms of housing needs, by the federal government. The forthcoming National Housing Strategy will include housing supports for seniors, though the details have not been announced.
The money will come from a National Housing Fund worth $5 billion and dedicated to helping vulnerable people, including those with addiction and mental health issues, find and keep homes.
In the meantime, private rental costs in Toronto continue to climb, as do the costs and wait-lists for retirement homes across the province.
Torontos centralized wait-list for social housing which includes Toronto Community Housing units, co-ops, private non-profit housing and subsidized rental housing has nearly reached 100,000 households, or more than 183,000 people. In 2017, 31,000 senior households were on that list.
Froehr and Brown have been together for more than 30 years. They met in an airport terminal, both headed to New York, but got so swept up in conversation they accidentally boarded a flight bound for Chicago.
They did not become a couple until years later, and built a life based on mutual respect and fondness for sports, travel, literature and the arts and humour. They got married in 2003 because, said Brown, they wanted to throw a party.
In Froehrs unit at Lakeside, by the time they speak of the love and respect they have built over three decades, they are pointing out the obvious.
Brown is a gregarious and private woman with a self-deprecating and salty sense of humour.
Some of this is a surprise to you, she said to Froehr, after revealing the stress she has been under.
Froehr, formerly fluent in German and French and somewhat familiar with Italian and Spanish, shared his views using careful and deliberate English.
Much of his communication is done with his eyes. When he looks at Brown, they glow.
We got extremely lucky with love, she said.
He turned to her. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. That is so nice that we have it together.
There are 36 long-term care homes with 5,879 spaces under the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), which covers much of the city, according to a September 2017 report.
Lakeside has 128 beds and most people can expect to wait at least 18 months for a private room. Getting a basic room can take more than four years. At Lakeside there are 126 people waiting for a basic room and 44 for a private and about two beds become available each month, the report showed.
Because her husband is in care, Brown has some priority and her wait time is expected to be shorter, but she said staff simply cant tell her when a bed might free up.
People trying to enter long-term care are usually asked to choose five potential spots. If a bed becomes available, the person has 24 hours to take the spot and just five days to move in, under rules set out in the Long-Term Care Homes Act.
If a potential resident is not able to move in within that time frame it is considered a failed admission and the client is removed from the waitlist and the process would begin with another potential resident, explained Megan Primeau, communications manager with the Toronto LHIN, via email.
Lakeside is obligated by law to adhere to these rules, as are all long-term care homes.
The act affords some flexibility to the five-day rule, for example if somebody is too ill or injured to move or if there is an outbreak of disease at the facility.
The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is asking for feedback from the public on proposed amendments in the Long-Term Care Homes Act that should make it easier for couples to reunite.
The five-day window is not being reviewed.
That unpredictable wait time, coupled with the five-day time frame, means Brown cant give notice at her co-operative, plan to pack, or sell or store her possessions. Nerve damage in her feet and spinal issues make it hard to stand and walk, much less move belongings, she said.
Windmill Line Co-op requires members to give at least two calendar months plus five days written notice, according to their bylaws, posted online. The general manager wouldnt comment about a particular resident, or co-operative policies, but said members are welcome to raise issues with him and one has already done so about this issue.
In private rentals, tenants are typically required to give at least 60 days notice, but landlords can agree to break a lease.
Brown pays $929 a month, from her government pension and retirement income funds. Froehrs pension covers most of his room and board, a small amount is subsidized and he is given $146 a month, a set amount known as a comfort care allowance.
Brown said his children help with expenses, when they can, but she handles the bulk of his extra needs and costs, including trips on WheelTrans to visit him and appointments, clothing and the roughly 20 books he reads every month. She says she also manages any outstanding financial or legal affairs.
My life consists of taking care of Karl and trying to survive . . . and I am still laughing.
But worrying about his needs, money, her own medical appointments and trying to plan a move has exhausted her, she said.
Frankly, I am close to giving up.
Seniors pay to live in long-term care, but the rates are set by the government and nursing and support care workers are covered. All basic long-term care rooms, or ones without private washrooms, cost a maximum of $1,819 per month and private rooms cost a maximum of $2,599.
David Jensen, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care said the government is aware of the stress and anxiety couples can experience when separated, as a result of one person being placed in long-term care.
Ensuring not only the safety but also the well-being of all residents living in long-term care homes across the province is a strong priority for this government, said Jensen.
The proposed amendments to the Long-Term Care Homes Act include designating a bed, to make sure spouses can join their partners faster, or separate wait lists for couples who want to be reunited in long-term care homes.
Members of the public can review the amendments and offer feedback until Oct 26. If approved, they would go into effect Jan. 1.
Brown hopes to be with Froehr soon at Lakeside, but until then the bills and frustration will continue to pile up. It isnt, she has said, how they want to spend the rest of their lives.
We have been apart for six years. I think we deserve to go out together.
Froehr, she explained, said it to her a slightly different way.
You and me. Forever. We go together.
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It only took five to 20 minutes to lay out trees and wrench down wires all across the city, but the cleanup effort required in the aftermath did not have the luxury of being so brief.
Trees bent double in the wind and rain lashed gray and heavy against windows as winds of up to 90 km/h battered the city for a few tense minutes Sunday afternoon. Environment Canada issued a wind warning for Toronto until the gusts dropped down to 20 km/h overnight. Power was knocked out for roughly 25,000 customers, Toronto Hydro said.
We had roughly 170 wires-down calls, which is an extraordinary amount said Brian Buchan, Toronto Hydro communications director.
He said in his experience, it was the most wires down hed seen since the ice storm of 2013, which knocked out power for almost 300,000 people in Toronto. Buchan said there could be even more trees felled than the number of wires down would suggest, as some trees may have fallen in backyards and missed the power lines.
In the aftermath of Sundays storm, Twitter lit up with photos and testimonies of the damage caused by the winds, with trees brought down across wires and streets, and even onto cars and houses.
Weve seen peoples cars crushed by trees and I know one story of someone who was talking about how they were in the car only 20 minutes earlier, Buchan said. Fortunately we havent heard of any major injuries.
Repair crews with Toronto Hydro worked through the night to try and get power back on, and continued through Monday, when over 40 crews were mobilized.
Right now its a lot of all hands on deck, everybodys running around, Buchan said. We ended up getting over 300 incidents logged that (all occurred) within five minutes.
They were still investigating around 200 incidents early Monday afternoon.
What made this storm unusual, Buchan said, was the speed with which it wrecked its havoc.
It basically rolled through (in five minutes), and caused a lot of destruction, so I think in that respect it was unique. Weve seen numerous storms and wind storms in the past. With this one it was really remarkable because of the intensity and duration of it.
Toronto Hydro intended to restore power to everyone by the end of Monday.
This is a lot of hand-to-hand, combat-type restoration, Buchan said. Where youre going in, theres one wire down, a trees knocked it down, youve got to re-string the wires and get people back on. Were dealing with a high number of them but theyre all very small, individual customers or streets.
With files from Bryann Aguilar, Jenna Moon and Brennan Doherty.
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A Liberal MPP is putting her foot down with a new private members bill banning employers from forcing workers to wear high heels on the job.
The proposed legislation follows a move earlier this year in British Columbia, where, for health and safety reasons, heels cant be a mandatory part of any uniform.
Toronto MPP Cristina Martins (Davenport) will formally announce her Putting Your Best Foot Forward Act on Tuesday, which will make changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act and prohibit employers from requiring an employee to wear footwear that is not appropriate to the protection required for their work.
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As the law currently stands, footwear protections deal with confined spaces, construction projects, health care, residential facilities, industrial establishments, mines and mining plants which ensure workers who may be susceptible to specific hazards or foot injury in these workplaces are protected by these regulations, said a release from Martins office.
There is also a general duty for employers to take every precaution reasonable for the protection of a worker. The Putting Your Best Foot Forward Act 2017 would further enhance these protections for workers and specifically include protection for all workers from being required to wear unsafe footwear as part of dress and uniform codes.
Martins bill already has the support of Ontarios foot doctors, who say they see all kinds of injuries caused by wearing footwear that is inappropriate or outright unsafe.
Clinical evidence demonstrates that wearing high heeled shoes causes a much higher incidence of bunions, musculoskeletal pain and injury than those who do not wear high heels, said James Hill, president of the Ontario Podiatric Medical Association.
Podiatrists treat foot pain and deformities in women twice as often as foot disabilities in men, often due to having to wear high heels in their workplaces, he said in a written release.
In the United Kingdom, a bill was introduced though later rejected after a woman was sent home without pay after showing up to work in flats.
And last year, the Ontario Human Rights Commission issued a report on gender-specific dress codes, saying women should not be forced to wear skimpy or tight uniforms and high heels, and noted the demand is typical for servers in bars and restaurants.
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CALGARYThe tall, slim teenager asks a question thats on the minds of many of the young people gathered around the cloth-covered tables in a small meeting room at a mosque in northeast Calgary.
If someone from ISIS or ISIL approaches you, how would you respond to them, so that youre not attacked any further? wonders Zubair Tariq, 16.
If they approach, you should be smart enough to know that ISIL/ISIS is very big criminals in the eyes of Islam, answers Imam Syed Soharwardy, founder of Muslims Against Terrorism and the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada.
These people reach out through the internet. These people reach out through a local community. Understand this is not somebody who is a nice Muslim or a good Muslim or a true Muslim. This is someone who is disguised as a Muslim. ISIL is a disguised Muslim.
They say they are good Muslims but to us they are a bunch of thugs and criminals, he continues. They are terrorists.
Soharwardy met recently with 30 Muslim youth at the Jamia Masjid Gunbad-e-Khizra mosque. It was one of several meetings he does on a regular basis to prevent the radicalization of Canadian Muslim youth.
Soharwardy decided to call another meeting after an attack earlier this month that injured a police officer and civilians in Edmonton. A man stabbed an officer doing traffic control outside a CFL game and then crashed a cube van into pedestrians downtown. Five people were injured. Police say they seized a Daesh flag as evidence.
Tariq says he hasnt been contacted directly by anyone seeking to recruit young Canadian Muslims, but hes worried.
One of my friends was approached . . . and hes the same age as me, the teen says. Its scary. If someone approaches you, you dont know how to respond properly unless you talk to your peers.
Teen Hassaan Rizvi says recruitment by Daesh is happening through social media.
We were sitting in my math class and two of my friends received a WhatsApp link, says Rizvi, referring to the popular mobile messaging program. When opened, it was for recruitment for ISIS. It had the flag and said we are recruiting.
I said, This is not something good so we should close it. This did happen. They are still recruiting.
Soharwardy turns the conversation to the Edmonton attack two weeks ago.
When you hear . . . a police officer hurt and an ISIS flag found, what do you feel? Soharwardy asks.
Angry, says one young man.
Embarrassed, says another.
A report last year on the terrorist threat in Canada said that at the start of 2014 there were more than 130 Canadians who were abroad and suspected of terror-related activities. By the end of 2015, the number had grown to about 180 and the government knew of about 60 extremists who had returned to Canada.
Some of the students at the meeting express anger at the backlash they endure every time a terrorist attack happens anywhere in the world.
I dont understand why the word terrorist or terrorism is stitched to the word Muslim or the name of Islam. Terrorism itself is just an attack on anyone, says Shahwali Hameed.
Terrorism has no religion.
Aysha Ali believes a lack of understanding causes people to believe all Muslims are terrorists every time an attack occurs.
It definitely gets worse. They wouldnt blame it on Muslims if it just happened once, but its happened several times where people like ISIS and ISIL do it in the name of Islam.
Ibrahim Khan says there appears to be a double standard. He points out nobody is calling the perpetrator in the Las Vegas mass shooting a terrorist.
Hes either mentally damaged or they just call him a shooter. No one calls him a terrorist, because he doesnt have a long beard.
Soharwardy says he believes there are still Daesh recruiters and sympathizers working in Canada and he suggests that will continue until their financial pipeline dries up.
He tells the students that anyone who promotes hatred or committing violent acts is not following the Muslim faith.
If you see anybody make sure you report to your parents, your teacher, to me, he says.
Let us know right away, because we need to defend ourselves and . . . remain loyal, faithful, law-abiding citizens of this country.
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SANTA ROSA, CALIF.With the winds dying down, fire officials said Sunday they were finally getting the upper hand against the wildfires that have devastated California wine country and other parts of the state over the past week, and thousands of people got the all-clear to return home.
While the danger from the deadliest, most destructive cluster of blazes in California history was far from over, the smoky skies started to clear in some places.
A week ago this started as a nightmare, and the day we dreamed of has arrived, Napa County Supervisor Belia Ramos said.
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People were being allowed to return home in areas no longer in harms way, and the number of those under evacuation orders was down to 75,000 from nearly 100,000 the day before.
Fire crews were able to gain ground because the winds that fanned the flames did not kick up overnight as much as feared.
Conditions have drastically changed from just 24 hours ago, and that is definitely a very good sign, said Daniel Berlant, spokesman for California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, who noted that some of the fires were 50 per cent or more contained. Its probably a sign weve turned a corner on these fires.
The blazes were blamed for at least 40 deaths and destroyed some 5,700 homes and other structures. The death toll could climb as searchers dig through the ruins for people listed as missing. Hundreds were unaccounted for, though authorities said many of them are probably safe but havent let anyone know.
In hard-hit Sonoma County, Sheriff Rob Giordano said authorities have located 1,560 of the more than 1,700 once listed as missing. Many of those names were put on the list after people called from out of state to say they couldnt reach a friend or relative.
Sonoma County officials said they will not let people return home until it is safe and utilities are restored. Crews have been working around the clock to connect water and power, in some cases putting up new poles next to smouldering trees, the sheriff said.
Many evacuees grew increasingly impatient to go home or at least find out whether their homes were spared. Others were reluctant to go back or to look for another place to live.
Juan Hernandez, who escaped with his family from his apartment Oct. 9 before it burned down, still had his car packed and ready to go in case the fires flared up again and threatened his sisters house, where they have been staying in Santa Rosa.
Every day we keep hearing sirens at night, alarms, Hernandez said. Were scared. When you see the fire close to your house, youre scared.
Evacuation orders were lifted for the city of Calistoga, the Napa Valley city of 5,000 known for its mud baths, mineral spas and wine tastings. The city was cleared out Wednesday as winds shifted, but homes and businesses were spared.
At the Sonoma fairgrounds, evacuees watched the San Francisco 49ers game on television, received treatment from a chiropractor and got free haircuts.
Michael Estrada, who owns a barber shop in neighbouring Marin County but grew up in one of the Santa Rosa neighbourhoods hit hard by the blazes, brought his combs, clippers and scissors and displayed his barbering license in case anyone doubted his credentials.
Im not saving lives, he said. Im just here to make somebodys day feel better, make them feel normal.
Lois Krier, 86, said it was hard to sleep on a cot in the shelter with people snoring and dogs barking through the night.
She and her husband, William Krier, 89, were anxious to get home, but after being evacuated for a second time in a week Saturday, they didnt want to risk having to leave again.
Were cautious, she said. We want to be safe.
Nearly 11,000 firefighters were still battling the 15 fires burning across a 160-kilometre swath of the state.
In the wooded hills east of Santa Rosa, where a mandatory evacuation remained in place, firefighters made a stand along Hwy. 12 to keep the fire from burning a retirement community and advancing onto the floor of Sonoma Valley, known for its wineries.
Houses that had benefited from repeated helicopter water drops were still standing as clouds of smoke rose from surrounding ridges. A deer crossed the highway from a burned-out area and wandered into a vineyard not reached by the flames.
Those who were allowed back into gutted neighbourhoods returned to assess the damage and, perhaps, see if anything was salvageable.
Jack Daniels had recently completed a yearlong remodel of his Napa house near the Silverado Country Club and watched it go up in flames last week as he, his wife, 7-year-old grandson and two pugs backed out of the driveway.
His neighbours, Charles Rippey, 100, and his wife, Sara, 98, were the oldest victims identified so far in the wildfires.
Daniels, 74, a wine importer and exporter, said he lost everything left behind, including his wifes jewelry and 3,000 bottles of wine in his cellar.
Its heartbreaking, the 74-year-old said. This was going to be our last house. I guess weve got one more move. But were fortunate. We got away. Most things can be replaced. The bank didnt burn down.
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A chorus of outraged Ontarians ranging from to the provinces environment watchdog to the First Nations community living in the shadows of industrial smokestacks called for a health study Sunday in the aftermath of an investigation revealing a pattern of potentially dangerous leaks in Sarnias Chemical Valley.
Ontario environmental commissioner Dianne Saxe said the situation in the area home to Canadas highest concentration of petrochemical plants is shameful.
It is clear to me that this situation is outrageous and it needs immediate attention, Saxe said, adding that there needs to be better air monitoring by industry and the province.
First Nations communities disproportionately bear the burden of pollution across Ontario and that needs to change.
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The joint investigation carried out by the Star, Global News, the National Observer and journalism schools at Ryerson and Concordia raised questions about whether companies and the provincial government are properly warning residents of Sarnia and the nearby Aamjiwnaang First Nation when chemicals including benzene, known to cause cancer at high levels of long-term exposure are leaked.
Though benzene levels in Sarnia have dropped significantly in the past 25 years, documents obtained by the investigation revealed how refineries in the area release three to 10 times the annual limit of the carcinogen.
Despite a decade of pleas from residents and local politicians for a health study examining the effects on those who live near the 57 polluters registered with the Canadian and U.S. governments within 25 kilometres of Sarnia, provincial and federal governments have never agreed to fund one. Existing research on cancer rates in the area is inconclusive, though critics say the data collected at the county level misses the impact on people in the immediate vicinity of Chemical Valley.
The number 1 issue is large number of industry living in close proximity to homes. That is the result of historic zoning decisions, said Saxe. There are systemic problems with the way the government is regulating pollutants from not only this industry but from across Ontario and we will be writing about that.
Aamjiwnaang Chief Joanne Rogers said the results of the investigation were sad and emotional for her community, and her council will be gathering this week to discuss next steps.
What really is concerning to me is the number of our community members who we have lost because of cancer and respiratory illnesses, Rogers said. When we lose members here, its because of their illnesses that are caused by the air pollution, in my opinion.
The MPP for the Sarnia area, Bob Bailey, said the investigation exposed the failure of the Liberal provincial government to fund the health study hes been requesting for nearly a decade.
It was quite shocking, he said.
However, Bailey, who worked in Sarnias petrochemical industry for 30 years before entering politics, said he thought the study would prove the system is working.
I feel quite confidently . . . that there will be found that there isnt an issue, but we need that study.
Ontario NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns also joined calls for the study, saying he thinks the provincial Ministry of the Environment needs to act swiftly.
If youre getting benzene releases like that . . . and theres no followup, no one goes out and actually inspects to see whats going on, that seems to indicate to me that either they dont care which I dont think is the case with the ministry of the environment staff, he said.
I can only think that they dont have the resources.
The Ontario Liberal government didnt provide comment by deadline Sunday. However, provincial Environment Minister Chris Ballard previously said hed be happy looking at funding for a health study.
However, provincial Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said Premier Kathleen Wynnes government is asleep at the switch.
Looking into its not going to cut it anymore, Brown said. The time is now for action. No more time for delay.
With files from Carolyn Jarvis, Global News
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CARACAS, VENEZUELAUnder the watchful eye of 260,000 troops, Venezuelans went to the polls Sunday in state elections, with the opposition decrying obstacles and illegalities and the government of President Nicolas Maduro lauding the vote as free and fair.
The vote to elect governors in all 23 Venezuelan states comes 10 weeks after an internationally condemned election created a pro-government super congress loyal to Maduro. That July election led opponents, including U.S. President Donald Trump, to label Venezuela a dictatorship.
Sundays election is seen by observers as an important test of just how much space Maduro is willing to give the opposition, which opinion polls suggest could win the vast majority of states including many now led by pro-government officials.
The stakes are dampened by Maduros insistence that all winners will be under the authority of his new Constituent Assembly, an all-powerful national legislature run by some of his closest allies.
Voting was scheduled to end at 6 p.m., although some of them remained open beyond that hour. Higher turnout was expected to favour the opposition. Shortly before 6 p.m., Maduro said turnout had exceeded the 53 per cent of voters who cast ballots in regional elections in 2012.
Were Venezuela, and we have to show were a democratic country, he said. Theyve said were a dictatorship. No.
Opposition officials have campaigned hard for seats, even as they accused the government of sabotage.
Gerardo Blyde, head of the opposition coalitions campaign, said that many voting centres had opened late because of tardy government-appointed witnesses. Pro-government messages, he said, were still appearing on state TV in violation of election laws.
In Maracaibo, Venezuelas second-largest city, witnesses said on social media that groups of masked men broke car windows, robbed purses and threw Molotov cocktails at an opposition tent. Government officials did not mention those alleged attacks, but said that at least 26 electoral crimes had been committed, including some by people who tried to damage voting machines.
The pro-government National Electoral Council last week abruptly decided to relocate hundreds of voting centres mostly in opposition districts for security reasons. On Sunday, many voters arrived to find that their polling stations had been moved to poor, often pro-government neighbourhoods, where some voters feared to go.
At one centre at a school in northeast Caracas, a sign informed voters that they were now registered to cast ballots in a nearby slum. They put up this obstacle so that well give up and go back home, said Ignacio Sanchez, a businessman who lives nearby.
Sanchez was sitting with a dozen neighbours, waiting for buses that the opposition promised to send to take them to their new polling place.
One man said his adult children had returned home because they didnt want to go through the trouble of voting elsewhere. But thats what they want, said a 74-year-old neighbour, Maria de Alba. Voting is resisting.
Yet the opposition also faced a hurdle in the form of anti-government Venezuelans who felt that opposition leaders should have boycotted the state elections, as they did the July vote.
In Plaza Francia, the centre of the opposition protests that shook Venezuela earlier this year and in which more than 100 people died, Janeth Hernandez, a woman in her 50s, sat on a park bench. She said she was abstaining.
Im not going to vote, Hernandez said. If you vote, you contradict yourself. So many deaths in protests, all for an election? All the politicians are the same here. Liars. If I vote for the opposition, the government isnt going to let them work. If I vote for the government, theyre going to rob money and do nothing. I see no solution here.
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BARCELONA, SPAINA Monday morning deadline came and went without the president of the Catalonia region clarifying whether he had declared independence from Spain, and the Spanish government says he now has until Thursday to backtrack on any steps the region has taken toward secession.
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy exchanged letters but made no headway in the conflict, one of the deepest political crises the country has faced in the four decades since democracy was restored.
Responding to a demand from Spains central government to state explicitly whether he had declared independence, Puigdemont instead sent a four-page letter seeking two months of negotiations and mediation.
The priority of my government is to intensively seek a path to dialogue, Puigdemont said in his letter. We want to talk ... Our proposal for dialogue is sincere and honest.
Rajoys response came less than two hours later. The conservative prime minister lamented that Puigdemont had declined to answer the question and said that he has until Thursday morning to fall in line.
Otherwise, he faces the possibility of Spain activating Article 155 of the Constitution, which would allow the central government to rescind some of the powers that Catalonia has to govern itself. The wealthy northeast region, which includes Barcelona, is home to 7.5 million people and contributes a fifth of Spains 1.1 trillion-euro ($1.3 trillion U.S.) economy. Polls have shown about half of the people there dont want to secede.
To extend this situation of uncertainty is only favouring those who are trying to destroy civic concord and impose a radical and impoverishing project in Catalonia, Rajoy wrote in his letter.
It wasnt very difficult to say yes or no, Rajoys number 2, deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, told reporters in Madrid. That was the question that was asked and the response shouldnt be complicated.
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Saenz de Santamaria said that Puigdemonts call for dialogue is not credible and that Spains national parliament is the place to talk.
Spain has repeatedly said that its not willing to sit down with Puigdemont if calls for independence are on the table, or to accept any international mediation at all.
The new deadline gives him till Thursday to either say he didnt declare independence or to show hes taking action to cancel the declaration if he did.
Puigdemont held a banned independence referendum on Oct. 1. Those who voted were overwhelmingly in favour of the wealthy northeast region seceding from the rest of the country, but fewer than half of those eligible turned out to cast ballots.
Based on the referendum, Puigdemont made an ambiguous declaration of independence last week, then immediately suspended it to allow time for talks and mediation.
In Mondays letter, he called on Spanish authorities to halt all repression in Catalonia, referring to a police crackdown during the referendum that left hundreds injured.
He also said the Spanish government should end its sedition case against two senior Catalan regional police force officers and the leaders of two pro-independence associations.
Officials are investigating the roles of the four in Sept. 20-21 demonstrations in Barcelona. Spanish police arrested several Catalan officials and raided offices in a crackdown on referendum preparations.
All four, including Catalan police chief Josep Lluis Trapero and Jordi Sanchez, head of the Catalan National Assembly, testified Monday during closed-door hearings held at Spains National Court in Madrid. A Spanish prosecutor requested that they be jailed during the investigation.
The judge later ruled that Trapero and another aide in the Catalan regional police, Lt. Teresa Laplana, could remain free with restrictions, including revocation of their passports and orders to appear come back to court every two weeks.
Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, leader of the pro-secession Omnium Cultural group who is also under investigation, were greeted by several dozen supporters from pro-independence Catalan parties who chanted You are not alone as the two entered the court together amid heavy security.
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MOGADISHU, SOMALIAMore than 300 people were killed in the weekend truck bombing in Somalias capital and scores remained missing, authorities said Monday, as the fragile Horn of Africa nation reeled from one of the worlds worst attacks in years.
As funerals continued, the government said the death toll was expected to rise.
Nearly 400 people were injured after Saturdays bombing targeted a crowded street in Mogadishu. Somalias government blamed the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, though the Islamic extremist group has not claimed responsibility for the attack. A new statement by the SITE Intelligence Group said al-Shabab posted claims of responsibility as recently as Monday for other attacks on Somali and African Union forces but not for Saturdays blast.
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Still, analysts said there was little doubt the Islamic extremist group carried out the bombing, one of the deadliest in sub-Saharan Africa. No other group in Somalia has the capacity to put together a bomb of this size, in this nature, said Matt Bryden, a security consultant on the Horn of Africa.
Nearly 70 people remained missing, based on accounts from relatives, said police Capt. Mohamed Hussein. He said many bodies were burned to ashes in the attack.
More than 70 critically injured people were airlifted to Turkey for treatment as international aid began to arrive, officials said. Nervous relatives stood on the tarmac at the airport, praying for the recovery of their loved ones.
Overwhelmed hospitals in Mogadishu were struggling to treat badly wounded victims, many burned beyond recognition. Exhausted doctors struggled to keep their eyes open as the screams from victims and bereaved families echoed in the halls.
Africas deadliest Islamic extremist group, al-Shabab has waged war in Somalia for more than a decade, often targeting high-profile areas of the capital. Earlier this year, it vowed to step up attacks after both the Trump administration and Somalias recently elected Somali-American president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, announced new military efforts against the group.
After Saturdays attack, Mohamed declared three days of mourning and joined thousands of people who responded to a plea by hospitals to donate blood.
Countries including Kenya and Ethiopia have offered to send medical aid in response to what Somalis government called a national disaster, Information Minister Abdirahman Osman said. A plane carrying a medical team from Djibouti arrived to evacuate the wounded, according to health ministry official Mohamed Ahmed. It was the second team of foreign doctors to arrive in Mogadishu.
Mogadishu, a city long accustomed to deadly bombings by al-Shabab, was stunned by the force of Saturdays blast. The explosion shattered hopes of recovery in an impoverished country left fragile by decades of conflict, and it again raised doubts over the governments ability to secure the seaside city of more than 2 million people.
A huge explosion from a truck bomb killed almost 200 people in Somalia's capital, police said Saturday, as shaken residents called it the most powerful blast they'd heard in years. (The Associated Press)
The United States condemned the bombing, saying such cowardly attacks reinvigorate the commitment of the United States to assist our Somali and African Union partners to combat the scourge of terrorism. It tweeted a photo of its charge daffaires in Somalia donating blood. But the U.S. Africa Command said U.S. forces had not been asked to provide aid.
The U.S. military has stepped up drone strikes and other efforts this year against al-Shabab, which is also fighting the Somali military and over 20,000 African Union forces in the country.
Global Affairs Canada confirmed there are no reports of Canadians affected by the bombing.
Global Affairs Canada is closely monitoring the situation in Mogadishu and stands ready to provide consular assistance to Canadian citizens as required, said spokesperson John Babcock.
On behalf of all Canadians, we extend our sympathies to the families and friends of those who died, and we wish a swift recovery to everyone injured, Babcock said.
Saturdays blast occurred two days after the head of the U.S. Africa Command was in Mogadishu to meet with Somalias president, and two days after the countrys defence minister and army chief resigned for undisclosed reasons.
The United Nations special envoy to Somalia called the attack revolting. Michael Keating said the UN and African Union were supporting the Somali governments response with logistical support, medical supplies and expertise.
With files from Jenna Moon
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About 30 minutes after publishing her final blog post Monday, Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a powerful bomb blast that tossed her car off the road.
Her work was instrumental in cracking open the island nations connections to the Panama Papers document leak.
Caruana Galizia, 53, described by Politico as a one-woman WikiLeaks, had just driven away from her home in Mosta outside Maltas capital, Valletta, when the bomb exploded, sending wreckage spiralling over a wall and into a field.
The Guardian reported the blast was close enough to her home that one of Caruana Galizias sons heard the explosion.
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Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who described the slain journalist as one of my harshest critics, on a political and personal level, said her death resulted from a barbaric attack that also assaulted freedom of expression. He denounced the attack as unacceptable violence.
Muscat said he has asked the U.S. government and the FBI for help investigating the car bombing.
Malta Today reported that opposition leader Adrian Delia called the incident political murder, hanging blame on Muscat in Parliament on Monday night.
In Caruana Galizias last entry, posted at 2:35 p.m., she called Muscats chief of staff, Keith Schembri, a crook, asserting that he, with the help of others, established a clandestine operation in Panama to store money to insulate it from taxation, then searched for shady arrangements in other countries for the same ends. The piece was centred on a libel claim the prime ministers chief of staff had brought against a former opposition politician over comments the latter made about corruption.
There are crooks everywhere you look now, she wrote. The situation is desperate.
Caruana Galizia presumably feared for her safety: two weeks ago she filed a police report, notifying them that she was receiving threats.
Caruana Galizia was named by Politico as among the 28 Europeans who are shaping, shaking and stirring Europe. She had exposed that Muscats wife, Michelle, as well as Muscats energy minister and the governments chief of staff, held companies in Panama. Muscat and his wife deny any wrongdoing.
Caruana Galizia has racked up libel suits through her popular website, Running Commentary. Opposition leader Delia sued her over a series of stories linking him to a prostitution racket in London. Economy Minister Christian Cardona claimed libel when Caruana Galizia wrote that he visited a brothel while in Germany on government business.
Caruana Galizia often castigated the prime minister and his aides in her work. In a post dated Aug. 25, she takes aim at a photograph of him and his wife, sarcastically relating life under his leadership as one set in a crime novel.
Another calls into question Muscats use of what appears to be an unofficial email server. Commentary on an anti-laundering bill reading in Parliament ends with Caruana Galizia rhetorically asking, Are we supposed to laugh, or what?
Caruana Galizia is survived by her husband and three sons. One son, Matthew, was on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its work on the Panama Papers scandal.
Writers, politicians, news organizations and others extended their condolences to the controversial figure known for her dogged reporting and rabble rousing.
The World Editors Forum and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers weighed in on the incident, too, denouncing the violence.
We condemn this shocking attack, which targeted not just one of our bravest and brightest but also our very mission as truth seekers, said David Callaway, president of the World Editors Forum.
Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, chimed in on Twitter, offering a reward of about $30,000 to secure more details pertaining to the attack.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which co-ordinated reporting on the Panama Papers with journalists around the world, said in a statement it is shocked by Caruana Galizias death.
ICIJ condemns violence against journalists and is deeply concerned about freedom of the press in Malta, the statement read. ICIJ calls upon the Maltese authorities to investigate the murder and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The Panama Papers project, which involved the collaboration of 100 media outlets, including the Star, won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting this spring. The team of journalists from 80 countries poured over 11.5 million leaked files amassed from Mossack Fonseca the law firm at the pit of the international white-collar crime scandal specializing in the development of offshore agencies.
The stories exposed more than 140 politicians from more than 50 countries with alleged connections to the tax havens, including 14 current or former world leaders, according to a statement by the consortium of journalists, released this spring. The Star published more than 50 exclusive stories; Star reporters Robert Cribb, Marco Chown Oved and Tanya Talaga contributed.
In June, Muscat was sworn in for a second term following snap elections he called to reinforce his government, as the Panama Papers leak indicated his wife owned an offshore company, which she denies.
Caruana Galizias family has asked the courts of Malta to replace the magistrate assigned to conduct the inquiry into the journalists death.
The family said the magistrate, Consuelo Scerri Herrera, in her personal capacity, had launched judicial procedures against (Caruana Galizia) regarding comments she had written.
Caruana Galizia for many years was a harsh critic of Maltas Labor party and government. More recently she had expanded her criticism to include the opposition Nationalist Party.
Her slaying drew swift denunciations in the tiny EU nation.
Daphne played a vitally important role in unearthing serious allegations of money laundering and corruption in Malta, including those involving senior figures in the Maltese government, said Sven Giegold, a Greens member in the European Parliament.
Italian newsweekly LEspresso, which has also written about alleged corruption linked to Malta, said the reporters murder demonstrated that a well-documented expose is perceived as a danger by the powerful and by organized crime.
European Parliament President Antonio Tajani in a tweet called the development a tragic example of a journalist who sacrificed her life to search for the truth.
With files from The Associated Press
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TWIN FALLS Identifying new diseases or infections in livestock is key to isolating the problem and reducing losses. But ensuring the information is shared with producers and organizations to stop an epidemic can be difficult.
Thats particularly true in the trout industry, which is relatively young in Idaho and has not developed partnerships with state and federal agencies as other livestock industries have. To help remedy that shortfall, trout producers are taking a close look at the Commercial Aquaculture Health Program Standards (CAHPS) and how it might help protect their operations from emerging pathogens.
One concern Idaho trout producers have is that federal intervention in case of a disease outbreak is limited to pathogens listed by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). That list includes 10 fish pathogens but not the ones Magic Valley trout producers are most concerned with.
Getting a disease listed is extremely difficult because its an international process, explained Randy MacMillan during the joint Idaho Aquaculture Association/U.S. Trout Farmers Association meeting held in Twin Falls last month. We cant afford to wait.
MacMillan is the vice president of research and environmental affairs for Clear Springs Foods Inc. in Buhl.
The CAHPS process is more nimble and allows producers and agencies to address pathogens or diseases that are not on the OIE list. The Commercial Aquaculture Health Program Standards are a non-regulatory framework for improving and verifying the health of farmed aquatic animals.
While producers who are already moving live fish across state lines must meet certification requirements, producers who sell directly to processors are not covered.
CAHPS includes three major categories: individual farms, a cluster of farms and security zone.
Fish health management and clinically diagnosing diseases and pathogens is the focus at the individual farm level, MacMillan explained. A group of neighboring farms who are using the same management strategies would make up a cluster. A specific geographic area, such as the Magic Valley, constitutes a security zone.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing seed money and expertise to help aquaculture producers along with state and federal hatcheries explore whether CAHPS is a good fit for the Magic Valley. A committee is developing goals and establishing research priorities.
Part of the process is to develop a list of pathogens and specific genotypes of pathogens that are of concern in southern Idaho. A common pool or library would be created with samples from periodic testing so that if a pathogen was found on one farm, everyone would be notified. The identify of the farm where the pathogen was found would be kept confidential.
The cost of doing that level of health surveillance is a concern for both small producers and fish processors.
To make this program work, we have to show value for everyone, MacMillan said.
North Carolina has a CAHPS demonstration project but not for trout production. Still the discovery of an extremely rare fish pathogen on two trout farms in 2011 illustrates how a CAHPS program might benefit trout producers in the Magic Valley.
Weissellosis, a gram-positive bacteria, is an emergent fish pathogen. It was first identified in China in 2007 followed by in Brazil in 2009 and then North Carolina. The disease is unusual because discovery has been limited to individual farms instead of widespread distribution usually associated with global outbreaks. One commonality is that all the farms had experienced periods of high water temperatures before detection.
The bacteria causes the cornea to rupture giving the fish a pop-eye appearance. If the fish survive, they are blind. Autopsies on deceased fish show brain hemorrhages.
The farms in North Carolina were owned by brothers who shared equipment, workers and a water source. They reported losing large numbers of market-ready fish on a daily basis.
Early identification is very rare, explained Tim Welsh, a microbiologist with the Agricultural Research Service in Kearneysville, W.Va. It provided us with a unique opportunity to implement a control strategy before it became a bigger problem.
Researchers spent the winter after weissellosis was first discovered developing an injectable vaccine, a practice used by farms in North Carolina. Hot water temperatures the following summer brought a reappearance of the disease.
A decision was made to aggressively vaccinate fish on both infected farms, Welsh said. Producers on neighboring farms were persuaded to vaccinate also to create a zone of protection.
All trout farms in North Carolina are now monitored annually for weissellosis and another infected farm was identified in 2014. Researchers thought the farm had been vaccinated in 2012 but the owner had opted not to.
That highlighted that the pathogen is still present and the vaccine is effective, Welsh said. The original outbreak farms continue to vaccinate annually and have not had a new case since 2012.
Adopting CAHPS would help trout producers along with public hatcheries and other agencies develop partnerships to respond quickly should a new pathogen that impacts production be identified in southern Idaho. CAHPS could also help reassure consumers that farmed raised trout is safe and sustainable, MacMillan said.
Getting a disease listed is extremely difficult because its an international process. We cant afford to wait. Randy MacMillan, vice president of research and environmental affairs for Clear Springs Foods Inc. in Buhl
PORT ARTHUR, TEXASThe church was empty, except for the piano too heavy for one man to move. It had been 21 days since the greatest storm Wayne Christopher had ever seen dumped a years worth of rain on his town, drowning this church where he was baptized, met his high school sweetheart and later married her.
He had piled the ruined pews out on the curb, next to water-logged hymnals and moulding Sunday school lesson plans and chunks of drywall that used to be a mural of Noahs Ark. Now he tilted his head up to take in the mountain of rubble, and Christopher, an evangelical Christian and a conservative Republican, considered what caused this destruction: that the violent act of nature had been made worse by acts of man.
I think the Lord put us over the care of his creation, and when we pollute like we do, destroy the land, theres consequences to that, he said. It might not catch up with us just right now, but its gonna catch up. Like a wound that needs to be healed.
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Jefferson County, Texas, is among the low-lying coastal areas of America that could lose the most as the ice caps melt and the seas warm and rise. At the same time, it is more economically dependent on the petroleum industry and its emissions-spewing refineries than any other place in the U.S. Residents seemed to choose between the two last November, abandoning a four-decade-old pattern of voting Democratic in presidential elections to support Donald Trump.
Then came Hurricane Harvey. Now some conservatives here are newly confronting some of the most polarizing questions in American political discourse: What role do humans play in global warming and the worsening of storms like Harvey? And what should they expect their leaders including the climate-skeptic president they helped elect to do about the problem now?
Answers are hard to come by in a place where refineries stand like cityscapes. Nearly 5,000 people work in the petroleum industry. Some have described the chemical stink in the air as the smell of money it means paychecks, paid mortgages and meals.
Christopher, like most people in Jefferson County, believed that global warming was real before the storm hit. Post-Harvey, surrounded by debris stretching for block after block, he thinks the presidents outright rejection of the scientific consensus is no longer good enough.
But how do you help the climate without hurting those who depend on climate-polluting industries?
Its a Catch-22 kind of thing, he said. Do you want to build your economy, or do you want to save the world?
Steroids for storms is how Andrew Dessler explains the role global warming plays in extreme weather. Climate change didnt create Hurricane Harvey or Irma or Maria. But Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, and most scientists agree that warming and rising seas likely amplify storms that form naturally, feeding more water and more intensity as they plow toward land.
It will be 60 inches of rain this time, maybe 80 inches next time, Dessler said of Harveys record-setting rainfall for any single storm in U.S. history.
As a private citizen and candidate, Trump often referred to climate change as a hoax, and since taking office he and his administration have worked aggressively to undo policies designed to mitigate the damage. He announced his intention to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, a global accord of 195 nations to reduce carbon emissions, and his administration has dismantled environmental regulations and erased climate change data from government websites. This month, his Environmental Protection Agency administrator promised to kill an effort to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired plants.
Anthony Leiserowitz, a Yale University researcher, traces the politicization of the climate to 1997, when then-Democratic Vice-President Al Gore brokered a commitment on the world stage to reduce greenhouse gases. The political parties have cleaved further apart ever since, and climate change denial reached a fever pitch as the Tea Party remade the GOP during former president Barack Obamas first term.
Americans tend to view the issue through their already established red-versus-blue lens, Leiserowitz said, but while there are fractions on each extreme, the majority still fall somewhere along a scale in the middle.
A new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds that 63 per cent of Americans think climate change is happening and that the government should address it, and that two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the way Trump is handling the issue. Most Americans also think weather disasters are getting more severe, and believe global warming is a factor.
As the downpour from Hurricane Harvey stretched into its second day, with no end in sight, Joe Evans watched from the window of his home in the Jefferson County seat of Beaumont, and an unexpected sense of guilt overcame him: What have we been doing to the planet for all of these years?
Evans, a Republican, once ran unsuccessfully for local office. He ignored climate change, as he thought Republicans were supposed to do. But Harveys deluge left him wondering why. When he was young, discussions of the ozone layer were uncontroversial; now theyre likely to end in pitched political debate.
I think its one of those games that politicians play with us, he said, to once again make us choose a side.
Evans voted for Trump, but hes frustrated with what he describes as the conservative echo chamber that dismisses climate change instead of trying to find a way to apply conservative principles to simultaneously saving the Earth and the economy. Even today, some Republicans in the county complain about Gore and the hypocrisy they see in elite liberals who jet around the world, carbon emissions trailing behind them, to push climate policies on blue-collar workers trying to keep refinery jobs so they can feed their families.
Evans isnt sure if the disastrous run of weather will cause climate change to become a bigger priority for residents here, or if as memories fade talk of this issue will, too.
I havent put so much thought into it that I want to go mobilize a bunch of people and march on Washington, he said. But it made me think enough about it that I wont actively take part in denying it. We cant do that anymore.
Most in Texas didnt believe climate change existed when Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, began evangelizing about the issue years ago. Now studies estimate that 69 per cent of Texans believe that the climate is changing, and 52 per cent believe that has been caused by human activity. Most resistance she hears now is not with the science itself but over proposed solutions that mean government intrusion and regulation.
Jefferson Countys refineries produce 10 per cent of the gasoline in the United States, 20 per cent of diesel and half of the fuel used to fly commercial planes, said County Judge Jeff Branick, a Democrat who voted for Trump and then switched his party affiliation to Republican, in part because of his disagreement with the Democratic Partys climate policies.
Branick doesnt deny that climate change exists, but he calls himself a cheerleader for the petroleum industry and believes environmental policies are job killers.
John Sterman, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, said addressing climate change will invariably lead to gradual job losses in the fossil fuels industry. But communities have lost a dominant industry before, and those able to diversify can prosper. Jefferson County could look to the renewable energy industry, with jobs that require many of the skills refinery workers have, he said. Texas already produces more wind power than any other state.
Angela Lopezs husband works in a refinery, so she understands the worry of the economic cost of addressing global warming. But her county is nicknamed cancer alley for its high levels of disease that residents have long attributed to living in the shadow of one of the largest concentrations of refineries in the world.
Its our livelihood, but its killing us, Lopez said, standing in what used to be her dining room. Now her house in Beaumont is down to the studs. As Harveys floodwaters rose, she tried to save what she could. She piled the dresser drawers on the bed and perched the leather couch up on the coffee table. It did no good. The water didnt stop until it reached the eaves, and the Lopezes lost everything they own.
Just about all of her relatives are conservatives, and indeed the political divides in the county run deep: Even as most of the communities along the Gulf Coast turned red years ago, Jefferson County clung to its Democratic roots. The county is ethnically diverse 41 per cent white, 34 per cent black and 20 per cent Hispanic with a historically strong union workforce. Trump won Jefferson by just 419 votes.
On a porch outside another ruined house nearby, two neighbours who both lost everything to Harvey started having that conversation.
Gene Jones, a truck driver who didnt vote, asked Wilton Johnson, a Trump supporter, if he thought climate change intensified the storm.
I dont think so, no, Johnson said.
You dont? You dont think about the chemical plants and the hot weather? You dont think that has anything to do with it?
I can understand people believing that, Johnson replied. But he blames natural weather cycles for upending their lives so completely.
Jones now lives in a camper in his driveway; Johnsons father has been sleeping in a recliner in his yard to ward off looters.
Johnson feels like hes gone through the stages of grief. At first, as he fled his home, he denied how devastating the storm might be. Then he got angry, when he realized nothing could be saved not the family photos or the 100-year-old Bible that fell apart in his hands. He grew depressed and now, finally, he thinks hes come to accept this new reality as something that just happened because nature is not always kind, and never has been.
And he remains unshaken in his support for Trumps environmental agenda.
We need to be responsible human beings to the Earth, but at the same time we shouldnt sacrifice the financial freedoms, he said. What good is a great environment if were poor and living like cavemen? And vice versa, I understand the other side of that: Whats great about living in luxury when you cant go outside?
I just dont think we should look at two storms and say, Were ruining the Earth! Shut the plants down!
There is a palpable intensity in the air, in the haze that hangs over the interstate. The region has warmed about two degrees in his lifetime, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and annual rainfall has increased by about 18 centimetres on average.
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BEIRUTA U.S.-backed Kurdish-led force battling Daesh in Syria will be in control of Raqqa within a few days after attacking the last militant-held pocket of the city, a spokesperson for the force said Monday.
Mustafa Bali of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, also said that fierce street battles were underway near the main hospital in Raqqa, once the de facto capital of the extremists self-proclaimed caliphate.
SDF fighters launched an operation to retake the last Daesh-held pocket of the city after some 275 militants and their family members surrendered over the weekend. The extremists still hold about 10 per cent of Raqqa, including the hospital and the main stadium, which is believed to be used by the militants as a jail and an arms depot.
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Activists said those who surrendered were taken to an SDF-run prison in the nearby town of Tabqa, where they are being interrogated before being put on trial.
We believe that it will be all over within a few days, Bali said. Those (Daesh) fighters who are still inside will fight to death.
Bali says SDF fighters are marching toward the hospital and the stadium under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition.
A senior Kurdish commander with SDF in Raqqa said that since Sunday night until the early hours Monday, civilians had trickled out of Daesh-held part of the city. The commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that more than 400 civilians have reached SDF fighters and are now with us.
More civilians are still expected to come out, he said, adding that 15 more Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, fighters have surrendered. The fighting has calmed down to allow civilians to leave.
We know there are groups of Daesh, specially the foreigners. We want to speed up the campaign, no more than two or three days, the commander said.
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces and their allies began a major offensive on Daesh-held neighbourhoods in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, according to state TV and the oppositions Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory said government forces are pushing through two neighbourhoods under the cover of airstrikes by Russian warplanes.
The move by government forces came just two days after Syrian President Bashar Assads troops captured the Daesh stronghold of Mayadeen, south of Deir el-Zour, in another blow to the extremists in eastern Syria.
The loss of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour would hand another major blow to Daesh, which has lost most of the territory it once held in Syria and Iraq. Iraqi forces captured the northern Iraqi city of Mosul the largest ever held by Daesh in July, and Syrias Mayadeen, near the border with Iraq, was retaken by government forces on Saturday.
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Palladium topped $1,000 for the first time in more than 15 years Monday as prices for the precious metal used in gasoline and hybrid fuel car engines continues to outperform commodity markets around the world.
Palladium hit $1,007.18 an ounce in early London trading, the first time it breached the $1,000 mark since 2001, extending its year-to-date gain past 48%. It crossed over the price of platinum for the first time in 16 years last month and has outpaced gains for its its sister metal by more than ten times so far this year.
Bloomberg's benchmark Commodity Index has fallen around 1.72% so far this year while the S&P GSCI Precious Metals Index has risen around 11.1%.
Shares in Impala Platinum Holdings (IMPUY) , the world's biggest producer, were marked 2.2% higher in Johannesburg Monday while London-listed Lonmin plc (LNMIY) was trading 0.3% higher in the opening hour of dealing.
Palladium, which is primarily used in the building of catalytic converters that reduce the toxicity of gases and pollutants from internal combustion vehicle engines that use gasoline or hybrid fuels. Platinum, however, is largely used in converters that work with diesel engines, which are being phased out in most major international markets over the next decade.
In fact, China will begin to phase-out the sale of fossil fuel-powered cars in 2019 with the introduction of production quotas for "new energy vehicles" in the world's biggest car market.
Producers and importers will need to get a clean energy score, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said, and prove that at least 10% of the cars they sell are "new energy vehicles", or NEVs, in order to avoid buying credits from the government or paying steep fines. Companies can also compile credits that can be sold to competitors if they sales and production rates top the minimum threshold.
The move comes on the same day that Toyota Motor Co. (T) - Get Free Report , the world's biggest carmaker, announced details of its new electric car venture with Mazda Motor Corp. (MZDAY) that Toyota president Akio Toyoda hopes to use as a springboard for sales into China.
Toyota has sold more than 800,000 cars in the world's second-largest economy so far this year, and hopes to lift that total past 1.2 million by the end of that year, a figure that would likely equate to around 10% of its worldwide total.
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Stocks retreated from intraday records on Monday, Oct. 16, as crude oil gains eased and West Texas Intermediate returned to a level below $52 a barrel.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.12% and was trading around 100 points from 23,000, a level it has never touched before. The S&P 500 gained 0.08%, and the Nasdaq increased 0.23%.
Any gains for the Dow and Nasdaq during Monday's session would put the two at new records. The Dow matched a previous record and the Nasdaq topped a new all-time high on Friday, Oct. 13.
Crude oil prices rallied on Monday morning as the potential for conflict in Iraq threatened to cut off exports. Reports indicated Iraqi forces have descended upon Kirkuk, a major oil-producing region in Iraq. The area had been occupied by Kurdish fighters. Troubles in the region have risen since a referendum in with the Kurds voted for independence.
Iraq is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a cartel that has agreed to limit production to address a global supply-demand imbalance.
Prices were also higher after President Donald Trump refused to certify that Iran was complying with a nuclear agreement. Trump also called for new sanctions against Iran. Previous sanctions had taken roughly one million barrels of oil per day out of global supply.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 0.8% to $51.86 a barrel on Monday.
The energy sector was the best performer on Monday. Major oil companies were higher, including Chevron Corp. (CVX) - Get Free Report , Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) - Get Free Report , ConocoPhillips (COP) - Get Free Report , PetroChina Co. Ltd. (PTR) - Get Free Report , Total SA (TOT) - Get Free Report , BP PLC (BP) - Get Free Report , and Statoil ASA (STO) . The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) - Get Free Report increased 0.5%.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen boosted speculation the central bank could raise interest rates for a third time in 2017 in comments over the weekend. Despite persistently low inflation, the U.S. economy is in strong shape, Yellen said at a Group of 30 conference on Sunday, hinting that the Fed's third interest rate hike this year could come in December as many have predicted.
"Economic activity in the United States has been growing moderately so far this year, and the labor market has continued to strengthen," Yellen said, noting that the impact from hurricanes is probably ephemeral. "The ongoing strength of the economy will warrant gradual increases" in interest rates, she added.
Yellen also forecast that soft inflation readings would not persist and higher inflation would come next year on the "ongoing strengthening of labor markets."
Manufacturing activity in the New York region hit a three-year high in October. The Empire State manufacturing index rose to 30.2 this month from 24.4 in September, according to the New York Federal Reserve. Optimism improved, while new orders fell.
Viacom Inc. (VIAB) - Get Free Report and Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) - Get Free Report agreed on a short-term extension of their renewal deadline, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, as the companies aim to avoid the immediate blackout of Viacom networks. If no deal is reached, 16.6 million subscribers of Charter's Spectrum service will lose Viacom's networks, such as Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon, Reuters noted.
Viacom and Charter are working to "reach a mutually beneficial deal," the source said. Viacom stands to lose $760 million, or about 16%, of its annual affiliate revenue if an agreement isn't reached, said an analyst at Gabelli & Co, Viacom's second-largest voting shareholder.
It's a busy week of earnings. Netflix Inc. (NFLX) - Get Free Report will report after the bell Monday, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) - Get Free Report , Harley-Davidson Inc. (HOG) - Get Free Report , Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) - Get Free Report , Morgan Stanley (MS) - Get Free Report and UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) - Get Free Report are set for Tuesday, Oct. 17. Other earnings of note this week include Alcoa Corp. (AA) - Get Free Report , American Express Co. (AXP) - Get Free Report , Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) - Get Free Report , General Electric Co. (GE) - Get Free Report and Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) - Get Free Report .
General Electric and Schlumberger are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio.Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells those stocks? Learn more now.
Just 6% of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings so far, the majority of which have bested profit and sales estimates. Analysts anticipate blended earnings growth of 4.4% in the third quarter, or 2.3% excluding energy, according to Thomson Reuters estimates. Revenue is expected to rise by 4.4%.
Exelixis Inc. (EXEL) - Get Free Report surged nearly 21% after the Food and Drug Administration granted priority review status for its supplemental New Drug Application for a kidney cancer treatment. The drug is for untreated advanced renal cell carcinoma. The FDA based its approval on mid-stage trial results.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) - Get Free Report added more than 1% after KeyBanc Capital upgraded its rating on the tech giant to overweight from sector weight, reversing a downgrade in June. Analyst Andy Hargreaves is optimistic over Apple's turn to "subscription-like qualities rather than a regular hardware business" including growth in its App Store. The firm had downgraded Apple midyear as growth in iPhone sales slowed.
Apple are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio.Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.
Updated from 9:34 a.m. ET, Oct. 16.
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Join us in New York City on Nov. 30 for The Deal Economy Conference, where leading industry experts and other influential members of the deal community will gather to discuss key issues that will confront dealmakers in 2018.
Join Jim Cramer, CNBC's Jon Najarian and Other Experts Oct. 28 in New York
Jim Cramer will host CNBC's Jon Najarian, TD Ameritrade's JJ Kinahan, famed analytics expert Marc Chaikin and other market mavens on Oct. 28 in New York City to share successful strategies for active investors.
You can join them as they discuss how smart investors can make the most of options trading, futures contracts, fundamental and quantitative analysis and great ETFs to buy right now. Participants will also get a chance to meet Jim and other panelists and take photos.
When: Saturday, Oct. 28, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
Where: The Harvard Club of New York, 35 West 44th St., New York, N.Y.
Cost: $250 per person.
Click here for the full conference agenda or to reserve your seat now.
Dubai has long been recognized as one of the most futuristic cities in the world, but it's about to take a huge step in cementing that title.
Police in Dubai will soon patrol the city on hoverbikes, according to Science Alert.
The electric-powered hoverbikes look similar to a cross between a motorcycle and a quadcopter drone and can travel for about 25 minutes at 44 miles per hour on a single charge. They're called the Scorpion 3 and are manufactured by Russian drone startup Hoversurf.
The Dubai police force has signed an agreement with Hoversurf developers to produce an entire fleet of Scorpion 3 hoverbikes in the coming years. While the prototype has a record flying height over 90 feet, the Dubai police will cruise only as high as about 16 feet for safety reasons.
The hoverbikes could prove especially useful in areas where police struggle to traverse in regular vehicles, and when the force needs to fly above traffic congestion to aid in an emergency.
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WASHINGTON The North American Free Trade Agreement is in its 23rd year. But there are growing doubts that it will survive through its 24th.
President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from the agreement if he cant get what he wants in a renegotiation. But what he wants from requiring that more auto production be made in America to shifting more government contracts to U.S. companies will likely be unacceptable to Americas two NAFTA partners, Mexico and Canada.
Round 4 of NAFTA talks began Wednesday in Arlington, Va. In a sign of how contentious things could get, the countries extended the negotiations for two extra days, through Tuesday.
What is the administration going to do? Are they going to be patient and work through these things? asked Phil Levy, senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Or are they going to take this as a pretext and say, We tried negotiations; they failed. Now we need to blow this up?
Blowing up the deal appears to be Trumps favored choice. On the campaign trail, he called NAFTA a job-killing disaster. And in an interview with Forbes magazine published Tuesday, Trump said, I happen to think that NAFTA will have to be terminated if were going to make it good. Otherwise, I believe you cant negotiate a good deal.
Levy pegs the chance of NAFTAs survival at less than 50 percent.
The end of NAFTA would send economic tremors across the continent. American farmers depend on Mexicos market. Manufacturers have built complicated supply chains that cross NAFTA borders. Consumers have benefited from lower costs.
NAFTA erased most trade barriers along the United States, Canada and Mexico and led to an explosion in trade between the three countries. But critics say the pact sent hundreds of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico, where corporations took advantage of low-wage labor.
Before the renegotiation began in August, many business and farm groups hoped the Trump administration would settle for tweaking rather than abandoning the trade deal updating it, for example, to reflect the rise of e-commerce. But U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer declared at the outset that the U.S. wouldnt be satisfied with anything but a major overhaul.
So the administration has been seeking to ensure that more auto production be made in America to receive NAFTA benefits, that more government contracts in the NAFTA bloc go to U.S. companies and that NAFTA expire unless the countries agreed every few years to extend it. It also wants to scrap a dispute-resolution process favored by Canada.
Those proposals are considered poison pills by Canada and Mexico.
Visiting Washington on Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that he thinks it is very important and very possible to get a win-win-win from the NAFTA talks. But he acknowledged that we have to be ready for anything and we are.
The negotiators are under pressure to reach a deal this year before presidential elections in Mexico and midterm elections in the United States raise the political temperature in 2018.
The administration set itself the task of doing a really radical overhaul and having it done by Christmas, says Levy, a former trade adviser to President George W. Bush. Im not surprised that Ambassador Lighthizer hasnt been able to square that circle.
Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Trade, says Trump very likely has the legal authority to withdraw from NAFTA on his own if talks collapse. But Congress can fight back. Lawmakers could pass a resolution calling on the president to obtain congressional authority before invoking the NAFTA clause that lets countries pull out. They could also threaten to block the presidents agenda unless he secures congressional approval to withdraw.
If the United States left NAFTA, trade barriers to Canada and Mexico would pop back up. Some of the tariffs wouldnt be especially high. But Mexican tariffs on many American farm products could soar to as high as 37 percent on corn, for example, notes Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at Peterson.
For that reason, many agricultural lobbies and lawmakers from farm states have urged the administration to do no harm in the NAFTA talks.
Daniel Ujczo, a trade lawyer with Dickinson Wright PLLC, predicts that Canada and Mexico would likely call a timeout if the United States insists on pushing contentious proposals.
The Canadian and Mexican strategy will be to take a pause, Ujczo said, and allow the U.S. domestic process to play itself out with business and farm groups and many lawmakers rising to defend NAFTA.
NAFTA supporters are already rallying.
Were going to fight like hell to protect the agreement, Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday in a speech in Mexico City.
___
AP writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.
I happen to think that NAFTA will have to be terminated if were going to make it good. Otherwise, I believe you cant negotiate a good deal. President Donald Trump, in an interview with Forbes magazine
The results are in -- and it doesn't look like activist investor Nelson Peltz will get a seat on board of Procter & Gamble (PG) - Get Free Report .
According to a securities filing with detailed preliminary results issued late Monday, about 973 million shares voted for Peltz while about 979 million shares backed his opponent for the seat, Ernesto Zedillo, a former Mexican president.
As a result, according to P&G, just under 50% of the yes or no vote, roughly 49.8%, backed Peltz, who appears to have just missed a change to land a seat in what became the largest boardroom battle in the history of U.S. and global proxy wars.
However, Peltz said in a statement on Monday evening said he wasn't conceding yet and that the results are still too close to call. His activist fund, Trian Partners, is still waiting for the final results tabulated by IVS Associates Inc., P&G's inspector of elections.
"The preliminary voting results P&G filed today, and relied on to declare victory at the annual meeting, are based on estimates and incomplete information reported by the company's proxy solicitors and were calculated without the full visibility into the proxies submitted by Trian to the inspector," Peltz said in a statement.
But one thing is clear - win or lose -- Peltz and other investors will continue to put pressure on the iconic American packaged goods company in the months to come.
"I would be surprised if Peltz goes anywhere in terms of selling the stock," said Ali Dibadj, a partner and senior analyst at Bernstein. "I think investors including Peltz will continue to put pressure on this company in 2018."
At issue is a massive boardroom battle, the largest ever in the U.S., which took place last week at Procter & Gamble's annual meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio. Peltz, who has $3.5 billion in P&G shares, had been seeking one seat on the $230 billion market capitalization company's board.
The results are preliminary and could still change once they are certified by IVS Associates, an independent election inspector.
They also come after some confusion erupted over the conclusion of the boardroom battle on Tuesday. After P&G closed the vote, its CEO, David Taylor said that shareholders had voted to keep Peltz off the board. Peltz, quickly responded that in point of fact the situation was "too close to call" and the vote was "plus or minus" 1%.
The detailed preliminary results were issued at exactly the end of the day on the last possible day permitted by Securities and Exchange Commission rules - P&G had four business days from Tuesday to release them in an 8-K filing.
Nevertheless, the backing of almost half of the vote in the largest proxy fight isn't something that can be ignored.
Consider the statement by Christopher Ailman, chief investment officer, at the California State Teachers' Retirement System, or CalSTRS: "Nearly 50 percent of shareholders-including large traditional passive asset managers made it clear that they are looking for the company to change direction."
The fund, which has invested with Trian since 2011, clearly believes that Peltz would be a constructive voice. Expect the insurgent fund manager to continue to put pressure on from the outside. A lot will depend on P&G's share price in the months to come. If it dips will Peltz threaten to launch another proxy fight in 2018? The idea isn't far-fetched.
Peltz threatened to launch another director battle at DuPont in 2016 after he narrowly lost a bruising battle with the chemical giant in 2015. In the months following his defeat, DuPont stock price dropped, and it subsequently replaced its CEO, Ellen Kullman. With Peltz hovering, DuPont began merger discussions with Dow Chemical, which was targeted by another activist, Dan Loeb. In the end, DuPont combined with Dow Chemical in a $150 billion merger to create DowDuPont, which will break up into three companies in the months to come.
The DuPont victory suggests that even though he lost Peltz's campaign will likely have an impact on P&G's future especially if the company's share price and total shareholder returns are lackluster in the months and years to come.
The Peltz battle also suggests that P&G at the very least will take more time to interact with its investors. Bernstein's Dibadj argued that P&G really wasn't taking much time to communicate with investors about their concerns prior to the contest.
And if P&G share price doesn't improve expect P&G to consider some of Peltz's proposals. At the center of the dispute was the investor's assertion that P&G suffers from "suffocating bureaucracy" and should be restructured into three global business units rather than the four it has now.
A massive restructuring into three businesses divisions rather than the four it has today, like what Peltz is seeking, is now extremely unlikely, especially if P&G performs well for shareholders in the months to come.
However, smaller changes Peltz had sought, like a push to make more small acquisitions to bring in innovative brands or a re-evaluation of its R&D spending, are things that the board could agree on in the wake of the election.
No matter the result, expect Peltz and other investors, to be watching.
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Aviva plc provides various insurance, retirement, investment, and savings products in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and internationally. The company offers life insurance, long-term health and accident insurance, savings, pension, and annuity products, as well as pension fund business and lifetime mortgage products. It also provides insurance cover to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses for risks associated with motor vehicles and medical expenses, as well as property and liability, such as employers' and professional indemnity liabilities. In addition, the company provides investment management services for institutional pension fund mandates; and manages various retail investment products, including investment funds, unit trusts, open-ended investment companies, and individual savings accounts for third-party financial institutions, pension funds, public sector organizations, investment professionals, and private investors. It markets its products through a network of insurance brokers, as well as MyAviva platform. The company was formerly known as CGNU plc and changed its name to Aviva plc in July 2002. Aviva plc was founded in 1696 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
HFF, Inc. provides commercial real estate and capital market services to the consumers and providers of capital in the commercial real estate industry in the United States. The company offers debt placement services, such as construction and construction/mini-permanent loans, adjustable and fixed rate mortgages, bridge loans, entity level and mezzanine debts, forward delivery loans, and tax exempt and sale/leaseback financing to the owners of various properties comprising office, retail, industrial, hotel, multi-housing, student housing, self-storage, nursing homes, condominiums and condominium conversions, mixed-use properties, and land, as well as senior, independent, and assisted living facilities. It also provides investment advisory services to commercial real estate owners; and equity placement, as well as assists clients in the sale of their commercial real estate debt note portfolios. In addition, the company offers private equity, investment banking, and advisory services, including equity capital to establish joint ventures relating to identified properties or properties to be acquired by a fund sponsor; structured finance; institutional marketing and fund-raising services for public and private commercial real estate fund sponsors; advisory services for mergers and acquisitions, sales and divestitures, management buyouts, and recapitalizations and restructurings; and private placements of preferred securities. Further, it provides loan sales and commercial loan servicing to life insurance companies. The company was founded in 1982 and is based in Dallas, Texas.
Most of the Wi-Fi routers and network gateways used by home customers are not secured properly. In fact, some are so vulnerable to attacks that they should be thrown out according to a security expert at the HOPE X hacker conference.
"If a router is sold at [a well-known retail electronics chain with a blue-and-yellow logo], you don't want to buy it," independent computer consultant Michael Horowitz told the audience.
"If your router is given to you by your internet service provider [ISP], you don't want to use it either, because they give away millions of them, and that makes them a prime target both for spy agencies and bad guys," he added.
Instead, Horowitz recommends that security-conscious consumers upgrade to commercial routers intended for small businesses or that they at least separate their modem and router by using two different devices. (Many gateway units supplied by ISPs can often act as both.) If either of these options are unfeasible, dont worry as Horowitz also provided a list of precautions that users can take instead.
Problems with consumer routers
Routers are the essential but unheralded workhorses of modern computer networking. Yet few home users realize routers are in fact full-fledged computers, with their own operating systems, software and vulnerabilities.
"A compromised router can spy on you," Horowitz said, explaining that a router under an attacker's control can stage a man-in-the-middle attack, alter unencrypted data or send the user to "evil twin" websites masquerading as often-used webmail or online-banking portals.
Many consumer-grade home-gateway devices fail to notify users if and when firmware updates become available, even though those updates are essential to patch security holes, Horowitz noted. Some other devices will not accept passwords longer than 16 characters the minimum length for password safety today.
Universal Pwn and Play
Millions of routers throughout the world, even some of the best ones, have the Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) networking protocol enabled on internet-facing ports, which exposes them to external attack.
"UPnP was designed for LANs [local area networks], and as such, it has no security. In and of itself, it's not such a big deal," Horowitz said.
But, he added, "UPnP on the internet is like going in for surgery and having the doctor work on the wrong leg."
Another problem is the Home Network Administration Protocol (HNAP), a management tool found on some older consumer-grade routers that transmits sensitive information about the router over the Web at http://[router IP address]/HNAP1/, and grants full control to remote users who provide administrative usernames and passwords (which many users never change from the factory defaults).
In 2014, a router worm called TheMoon used the HNAP protocol to identify vulnerable Linksys-brand routers to which it could spread itself. (Linksys quickly issued a firmware patch.)
"As soon as you get home, this is something you want to do with all your routers," Horowitz told the tech-savvy crowd. "Go to /HNAP1/, and, hopefully, you'll get no response back, if that's the only good thing. Frankly, if you get any response back, I would throw the router out."
The WPS threat
Worst of all is Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), an ease-of-use feature that lets users bypass the network password and connect devices to a Wi-Fi network simply by entering an eight-digit PIN printed on the router itself. Even if the network password or network name is changed, the PIN remains valid.
"This is a huge expletive-deleted security problem," Horowitz said. "That eight-digit number will get you into the [router] no matter what. So a plumber comes over to your house, turns the router over, takes a picture of the bottom of it, and he can now get on your network forever."
That eight-digit PIN isn't even really eight digits, Horowitz explained. It's actually seven digits plus a final checksum digit. The first four digits are validated as one sequence and the last three as another, resulting in only 11,000 possible codes instead of 10 million.
"If WPS is active, you can get into the router," Horowitz said. "You just need to make 11,000 guesses" a trivial task for most modern computers and smartphones.
Then, there's networking port 32764, which French security researcher Eloi Vanderbeken in 2013 discovered had been quietly left open on gateway routers sold by several major brands.
Using port 32764, anyone on a local network which includes a user's ISP could take full administrative control of a router, and even perform a factory reset, without a password.
The port was closed on most affected devices following Vanderbeken's disclosures, but he later found that it could easily be reopened with a specially designed data packet that could be sent from an ISP.
"This is so obviously done by a spy agency, it's amazing," Horowitz said. "It was deliberate, no doubt about it."
How to lock down your home router
The first step toward home router security, Horowitz said, is to make sure the router and cable modem are not a single device. Many ISPs lease such dual-purpose devices to customers, but those customers will have little control over their own home networks. (If you need to get your own modem, check out our recommendations for the best cable modem.)
"If you were given a single box, which most people I think call a gateway," Horowitz said, "you should be able to contact the ISP and have them dumb down the box so that it acts as just a modem. Then you can add your own router to it."
Next, Horowitz recommended that customers buy a low-end commercial-grade Wi-Fi/Ethernet router, such as the Pepwave Surf SOHO (opens in new tab), which retails for about $200 (though beware price gougers), rather than a consumer-friendly router that can cost as little as $40.
Commercial-grade routers are unlikely to have UPnP or WPS enabled. The Pepwave, Horowitz noted, offers additional features, such as firmware rollbacks in case a firmware update goes wrong. (Many top-end consumer routers, especially those aimed at gamers, offer this as well.)
Regardless of whether a router is commercial- or consumer-grade, there are several things, varying from easy to difficult, that home-network administrators can do to make sure their routers are more secure.
Easy fixes for your home wireless router
Change the administrative credentials from the default username and password. They're the first things an attacker will try. Your router's instruction manual should show you how to do this. If it doesn't, then Google it.
Make the password long, strong and unique, and don't make it anything resembling the regular password to access the Wi-Fi network.
Change the network name, or SSID, from "Netgear," "Linksys" or whatever the default is to something unique but don't give it a name that identifies you.
"If you live in an apartment building in apartment 3G, don't call your SSID 'Apartment 3G,'" Horowitz quipped. "Call it 'Apartment 5F.'"
Turn on automatic firmware updates if they're available. Newer routers, including most mesh routers, will automatically update the router firmware.
Enable WPA2 wireless encryption so that only authorized users can hop on your network. If your router supports only the old WEP standard, it's time for a new router.
Enable the new WPA3 encryption standard if the router supports it. As of mid-2021, however, only the newest routers and client devices (PCs, mobile devices, smart-home devices) do.
Disable Wi-Fi Protected Setup, if your router lets you.
Set up a guest Wi-Fi network and offer its use to visitors, if your router has such a feature. If possible, set the guest network to turn itself off after a set period of time.
"You can turn on your guest network, and set a timer, and three hours later, it turns itself off," Horowitz said. "That's a really nice security feature."
If you have a lot of smart-home or Internet of Things devices, odds are many of them won't be terribly secure. Connect them your guest Wi-Fi network instead of your primary network to minimize the damage resulting from any potential compromise of an IoT device.
Do not use cloud-based router management if your router's manufacturer offers it. Instead, figure out if you can turn that feature off.
"This is a really bad idea," Horowitz said. "If your router offers that, I would not do it, because now you're trusting another person between you and your router."
Many "mesh router" systems, such as Nest Wifi and Eero, are entirely cloud-dependent and can interface with the user only through cloud-based smartphone apps.
While those models offer security improvements in other areas, such as with automatic firmware updates, it might be worth looking for a mesh-style router that permits local administrative access, such as the Netgear Orbi.
Moderately difficult home router fixes
Install new firmware when it becomes available. This is how router makers install security patches. Log into your router's administrative interface routinely to check here's a guide with more information.
With some brands, you may have to check the manufacturer's website for firmware upgrades. But have a backup router on hand if something goes wrong. Some routers also let you back up the current firmware before installing an update.
Set your router to use the 5-GHz band for Wi-Fi instead of the more standard 2.4-GHz band, if possible and if all your devices are compatible.
"The 5-GHz band does not travel as far as the 2.4-GHz band," Horowitz said. "So if there is some bad guy in your neighborhood a block or two away, he might see your 2.4-GHz network, but he might not see your 5-GHz network."
Disable remote administrative access, and disable administrative access over Wi-Fi. Administrators should connect to routers via wired Ethernet only. (Again, this won't be possible with many mesh routers.)
Advanced router security tips for tech-savvy users
Change the settings for the administrative Web interface, if your router permits it. Ideally, the interface should enforce a secure HTTPS connection over a non-standard port, so that the URL for administrative access would be something like, to use Horowitz's example, "https://192.168.1.1:82" instead of the more standard "http://192.168.1.1", which by default uses the internet-standard port 80.
Use a browser's incognito or private mode when accessing the administrative interface so that the new URL you set in the above step is not saved in the browser history.
Disable PING, Telnet, SSH, UPnP and HNAP, if possible. All of these are remote-access protocols. Instead of setting their relevant ports to "closed," set them to "stealth" so that no response is given to unsolicited external communications that may come from attackers probing your network.
"Every single router has an option not to respond to PING commands," Horowitz said. "It's absolutely something you want to turn on a great security feature. It helps you hide. Of course, you're not going to hide from your ISP, but you're going to hide from some guy in Russia or China."
Change the router's Domain Name System (DNS) server from the ISP's own server to one maintained by OpenDNS (208.67.220.220, 208.67.222.222), Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1, 1.0.0.1).
If you're using IPv6, the corresponding OpenDNS addresses are 2620:0:ccc::2 and 2620:0:ccd::2, the Google ones are 2001:4860:4860::8888 and 2001:4860:4860::8844, and the Cloudflare ones are 2606:4700:4700::1111 and 2606:4700:4700::1001.
Use a virtual private network (VPN) router to supplement or replace your existing router and encrypt all your network traffic.
"When I say VPN router, I mean a router that can be a VPN client," Horowitz said. "Then, you sign up with some VPN company, and everything that you send through that router goes through their network. This is a great way to hide what you're doing from your internet service provider."
Many home Wi-Fi routers can be "flashed" to run open-source firmware, such as the DD-WRT firmware (opens in new tab), which in turn supports the OpenVPN protocol natively. Most of the best VPN services support OpenVPN as well and provide instructions on how to set open-source routers up to use them.
Finally, use Gibson Research Corp.'s Shields Up port-scanning service at https://www.grc.com/shieldsup (opens in new tab). It will test your router for hundreds of common vulnerabilities, most of which can be mitigated by the router's administrator.
Next: Now is the perfect time to set up a guest Wi-Fi network here's 3 reasons why.
[This story was originally published in July 2014 and has been updated with new information ever since.]
As more devices and appliances with Internet capabilities enter the market, protecting those devices from hackers becomes critical. Unfortunately, many of these non-computer, non-smartphone devices from toilets to refrigerators to alarm systems weren't built with security in mind.
So what can someone who's already bought one of these devices do? When it comes to the so-called Internet of Things and the connected home, it's best to proactively secure the home network. There isn't much antivirus software for a smart TV, but you can protect your Wi-Fi network so hacking the TV doesnt become a backdoor into your home.
The risks of the Internet of Things
The Internet of Things is a catchphrase referring to commonplace devices and appliances such as thermostats, automobiles and refrigerators that are connected to the Internet. It also includes Internet-connected "wearable" devices, such as fitness bands or Google Glass. The market for Internet of Things devices will hit $7.1 trillion by 2020, according to estimates from analysis firm International Data Corp.
Connecting everyday devices to the Internet seems like a great idea, but users need to be mindful of the risks, warned JD Sherry, vice president of technology and solutions at Tokyo-based antivirus-software maker Trend Micro.
"No one is going to keep the door to their house unlocked," Sherry said. "You need to think [the same way] about the appliances on your network."
MORE: Best Antivirus
For example, the best fitness trackers that monitor the wearer's location could give hackers details about daily routines and patterns. So could alarm systems that can be remotely accessed via smartphone apps. Burglars could use data stolen from either type of device to know when to break into homes while residents are away.
The good news is that many people already think about protecting their data, according to a survey of 1,801 tech-savvy homeowners in 11 countries conducted for network-security provider Fortinet.
In the "Internet of Things: Connected Home" survey, the results of which were released in June, 70 percent of respondents said they were somewhat or extremely concerned about the prospect of a data breach as a result of connected appliances.
Protecting the perimeter
What do Internet of Things devices have in common? They are all somehow connected to a network. Networking infrastructure is what makes the Internet of Things possible, and as more types of devices get assigned Internet Protocol addresses, it becomes even more important to stick to network-security basics.
"The sad part is that protecting the device itself is near impossible," said Christopher Martincavage, a senior sales engineer at cloud-security company SilverSky. "Consumers need to focus on their perimeter and do the basics."
First, accept that "you will be compromised," Sherry warned, adding that users should lock down as much as they can and invest in fraud monitoring and identity protection.
The Internet of Things is not a case of "just connect and you are done," Sherry said.
How to make your connected home more secure
Here are some steps to protect your home network and the gadgets connected to it.
Secure the wireless network. The old Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol is still widely used, but it is weak and easily compromised. Make sure the home wireless network is instead protected by the Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) protocol and a strong, complex password.
Give your Wi-Fi network an obscure name, or SSID, that doesn't give attackers personal information they can use in social-engineering attempts. For instance, don't call it "[Your Name] House." Instead, call it something random, such as "FBI Surveillance Van."
Disable guest network access entirely, and to be strict about who or what can get on the network.
Create two different Wi-Fi networks if your router can handle multiple SSIDs. Trey Ford, global security strategist at security company Rapid7, suggests one network for computers, tablets and smartphones used for online banking, shopping and general Web activity; another network can be for smart devices.
Good password management is essential. Neither network equipment (such as routers and switches) nor newfangled gadgets (such as smart TVs) should use default factory-set administrator passwords. Change each admin password to something suitably strong and complex, and regularly change them going forward. When possible, usernames should be also changed to make it even harder for attackers to brute-force their way in.
MORE: Your Router's Security Stinks. Here's How to Fix It
Firewall the network, either with a stand-alone appliance or software that ships with the router, to restrict incoming connections.
"Every home with an Internet connection should have [a firewall]," Martincavage said.
Most networked IoT devices include information about the ports, network protocols and IP addresses used in the owner's guide or the support website. Set the firewall to allow traffic on those specific ports and no others. Port restrictions will cut down on opportunistic network-probing attempts.
"If [devices] require a wide-open access to, or from, the Internet, beware!" Martincavage said.
Install a unified threat management appliance (UTM) if you have a highly-connected home, Martincavage suggested. It will handle intrusion detection and prevention, manage the Internet gateway and provide network antivirus protection.
A good UTM small-business models start at about $300 will have signatures and countermeasures to detect and stop the more common network entry points that attackers will use, Martincavage said.
Security tips beyond the network
Once the network is secure, examine each IoT device you own and what it is doing. Disable remote-management access and other powerful network tools if they won't be used.
Perhaps your car lets you connect to Facebook. If you dont plan to check your Facebook page while driving, don't hand over your credentials to set up the connection. Use your phone instead it's safer.
Install security software wherever possible, such as on mobile devices used to control IoT devices. If attackers can access a smart garage-door opener or a smart thermostat via a malicious Android app instead of by hacking the device directly, they will go with the easier option.
MORE: Best Android Antivirus
Check manufacturers' websites for firmware updates on a regular basis, as Internet of Things companies can be slow to patch vulnerabilities and push out updates. Install each update right away. Updating the firmware is particularly important for networking gear such as firewalls and routers.
Pay attention to brands. Consumers expect smart-device vendors to take proper steps to secure the platform, Martincavage noted. But if the manufacturers don't take security seriously, or claim the underlying platform is "hacker-proof," be wary. Better-known brands are less likely to risk their reputations this way, he said.
Things will get better
Security companies are well aware of the threats to Internet of Things devices and are developing new features and products, including remote-connection authentication, virtual private networks between end users and their connected homes, malware and botnet protection and application security, said John Maddison, vice president of marketing at Fortinet.
In Fortinet's survey, about 40 percent of respondents said they would definitely pay for a new router optimized for securing Internet of Things devices, and 47 percent said they might. More than 50 percent said they would pay their Internet service providers for security features to protect their devices.
"As the amount of smart devices increase, I predict we will see an explosion of consumer-level security devices that will allow the average home user to secure their network with little configuration," Martincavage said.
Attacks against Internet of Things devices are not yet imminent. Cybercriminals are not lurking on networks trying to hack into IoT devices, nor is malware waiting to scoop up personal information from smart refrigerators and hacked fitness devices.
However, the Internet of Things hasn't really hit the mainstream yet. Demand for connected devices is currently driven by early adopters, and Trend Micro's Sherry estimates that widespread adoption is still 18 to 24 months away.
In Fortinet's survey, 61 percent of U.S.-based respondents said the connected home would likely happen within the next five years. Regardless of when the tipping point actually hits, there is no doubt that criminals will be ready to take advantage of vulnerabilities.
"The battle for the Internet of Things has just begun," Maddison said. "The ultimate winners of the IoT connected home will come down to those vendors who can provide a balance of security and privacy vis-a-vis price and functionality."
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EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom was in South Africa on 16 and 17 October. The Commissioner attended a civil society forum in Johannesburg marking one year since the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and six countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) came into force provisionally.
Together with ministers from the region, she opened the high-level event with more than 150 civil society organisations. Afterwards, representatives of NGOs, trade associations and trade unions had the opportunity to comment on their experiences of the trade deal, one year on.
In her speech, Commissioner Malmstrom pointed out that companies, environmental campaigners, trade unions and human rights advocates all need to be closely involved in the monitoring of the EPA.
We need your input and ideas on how to make the implementation of the agreement and our cooperation on sustainable development stronger and more effective. If we do all of those things, the EU-SADC EPA will have a high chance of becoming a landmark deal for people on both sides, Malmstrom said.
Whilst in South Africa the Commissioner participated in a number of meetings, including with South African Minister of Trade Rob Davies, to discuss trade policy and the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement. She also visited Witwatersrand (Wits) University where she gave a lecture to students and members of the public on global trade issues.
There was also a trip to Liliesleaf Farm, a site of historical importance in the political struggle against apartheid, followed by a showcase of South African regional products to celebrate World Food Day.
During her trip, Commissioner Malmstrom also visited an organic farm managed by a young black female entrepreneur who intends to make use of the EPA to export certified organic agricultural products to Europe.
In her speech to students at Wits University, Commissioner Malmstrom raised the partnership between the EU and South Africa.
In our strategic partnership, we have shown the world that progress and fairness is possible. So let us keep working together, and let us keep in mind that we can still do so much more.
Trade with African, Caribbean & Pacific countries putting partnerships into practice
The SADC-EU partnership agreement will stay high on the agenda throughout the week on Friday, 20 October, Malmstrom will co-host a high-level roundtable in Brussels, together with fellow EU Commissioner, Neven Mimica, the trade ministers of Jamaica and Madagascar, and vice-president Van Ballekom of the European Investment Bank.
The event, entitled Partnership in practice: making EU trade work for ACP countries, will look at the current trade relationship between the EU and the 79 countries that make up the group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
The roundtable will consider EU policy tools such as those Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and ACP regions, as well as the External Investment Plan (EIP) for Africa, and trade-related development programmes. It will also examine how they are working at the moment to help ACP countries attract more investment, industrialise, integrate into global value chains, and create jobs in the process, as well as what lessons can be learned to further facilitate trade and investment.
The event on Friday will bring together businesspeople and representatives of civil society from ACP countries and the EU. It will include a discussion with a panel whose members are well placed to speak on these issues: for instance, the deputy executive director of Caribbean Export, the regions export promotion agency; the director of a textiles manufacturing firm in Madagascar; the international relations adviser of lobby group BusinessEurope; and a representative of the successful fisheries industry of Papua New Guinea.
I am determined that Economic Partnership Agreements should work for ACP and European businesses and communities and especially for young people and women, who are often excluded from job and business opportunities, Malmstrom wrote in a blog.
I want the agreements to help the participating ACP countries to diversify their economies and industrialise, so they move up global value chains and generate more growth and jobs in the process. I want them to encourage ACP countries to enact the reforms that will help them attract more long-term investment from overseas. And I want us to overcome the challenges we face as we put the EPAs into practice.
There have been encouraging signs already, for which EPAs can take at least some credit. One example is Madagascars textile and clothing industry. It has benefitted from the conclusion of the EPA with duty-free, quota-free access to the EU and improved rules of origin. After its EPA started to apply in 2012, Madagascar saw a rise in exports to the EU of almost 15% per year. In 2015, textiles and clothing were its main exports, worth more than 300 million euros. They accounted for almost one third of Madagascars total exports to the EU. And in South Africa, exports to the EU in sectors like fisheries and flowers have increased since the entry into force of its EPA.
These agreements also come with considerable aid for trade, to assist ACP governments and businesses in putting the agreements to work and make the most of them. For example, in Lesotho, the EU has funded a one-stop export application facility. It used to take seven days to complete export formalities and exporters used to have to fill in a 23 page document. Now it takes just 15 minutes.
Of course, the EPAs are not the solution to all challenges faced. But I believe they can play an important role in enabling the participating ACP countries to integrate more fully into the global economy and fulfil the aspirations of their people. Thats a goal we must all strive for.
Visit tralacs SADC EPA resources page for more.
The EU-SADC EPA: monitoring of the agreement and its impact
Speech by EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom at the High Level Dialogue with SADC Civil Society Organisations, 16 October 2017
Im delighted with the group of people we have here today on occasion of the celebration of the 1st anniversary of the entry into application of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and the Southern African Development Community.
We have organisations dealing with the environment, labour and social rights
groups representing companies involved with trade with the EU
and you all came here from six different SADC countries to discuss how the Economic Partnership Agreement, or EPA, is likely to impact the region, your country and the life of the people living there.
You have already heard this morning about the EPA, its key features and what we aim to achieve with the agreement. I am here now not to talk about trade policy or to give you an overview of the EPA. I am here to talk about people and listen.
I and the EU are strongly convinced that trade policy and EPAs, indeed, are not about abstract growth figures. They are about people and how people can benefit from the rules in place.
Trade is not about politicians like me posing for photos as we sign or discuss a treaty. Its about improving peoples lives, in the SADC region and in Europe.
And I am fully conscious that civil society here in the region, in South Africa in particular, has a lot to teach us Europeans civil society here has been and still is a force for good, with civil rights movements having played a crucial role in the recent history of your countries.
This is why Im delighted to have you all here, specifically for three reasons.
First, I support an open approach to trade policy that brings the full range of views on an issue together. Todays meeting is a reflection of that approach.
Since the beginning of my mandate as trade commissioner for the EU, Ive made openness and transparency the absolute priority for all EU trade initiatives and policies. Under my direct instructions, the October 2015 EU Communication Trade for All: towards a more responsible trade and investment policy clearly indicates that policymaking needs to be transparent, inclusive and the debate based on facts.
On the EU side, as a matter of principle, all stakeholders including social partners, NGOs, business representatives and all other types of non-state actors can channel their opinions to EU representatives in the context of regular civil society and citizens dialogues. And, once a free trade agreement with a partner is concluded, by participating in any body the agreement creates.
In addition, just recently on 13 September 2017, the European Commission issued a new trade package including a Communication titled A balanced and progressive trade policy. This policy paper, which outlines the EUs trade priorities for the next couple of years to come, suggests that the EU as a whole as a joint responsibility of all EU Institutions, all EU Member States and all national Parliaments delivers effective agreements through a negotiating process that is accountable, transparent and inclusive.
In this context, the Commission has decided to create an advisory group on EU trade negotiations, consisting of representatives of a wide and balanced group of stakeholders, ranging from trade unions, employers organisations, consumer groups and other NGOs. They will provide policy makers with high quality advice on areas subject to trade negotiations.
I understand some forms of interaction between your governments and civil society organisations in your country have already taken place, and I strongly encourage you to continue in this direction. As I said above, we Europeans can only learn from you, what you have done and what you are still doing.
The second reason I am happy to meet you here today is that as you understood from what I said before I do not believe a trade agreement can deliver real benefits to people if it is not implemented with the involvement of stakeholders in all partner countries.
You would certainly concur with me that only by monitoring the operation and the impact of the EPA we can ensure that:
the agreement is properly implemented, which in turn would ensure that
the objectives of this agreement are achieved, and
the benefits for the people, in particular the most vulnerable groups, are maximised.
The above is the EU-SADC EPA word-for-word, in which all Parties to the agreement
not only undertook to continuously monitor the agreement
but also to do it through appropriate mechanisms and timing
within their respective participative processes and institutions.
As you have heard this morning, the EU-SADC EPA, like all the other trade agreements concluded by the EU, includes a Chapter fully dedicated to trade and sustainable development.
This Chapter contains a comprehensive set of binding provisions, which are anchored in multilateral standards, notably International Labour Organisation conventions and Multilateral Environmental Agreements. This is aimed at ensuring that trade and investment favour sustainable development rather than undermine it.
The institutional structure of this Chapter, in the eyes of the EU, is designed to be inclusive, through platforms where civil society plays a crucial role. As a matter of principle, the EU always includes such structures in its agreements.
At domestic level, there are often Domestic Advisory Groups. They are mechanisms for each Party to the agreement to request and receive inputs from representatives of its civil society on any matter concerning the implementation of the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapters. The relevant provisions ensure a balanced representation of economic, social and environmental interests. This follows the three-pillar concept of sustainable development.
In addition, the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapters also typically establish a dedicated platform for joint dialogue of civil society organisations sides. This platform is managed and chaired by civil society, which sets the agenda and discusses all sustainable development aspects under the trade agreement in question. Civil society then proposes recommendations to the Parties of the agreement.
In the light of the above, you can understand why I am determined to build on the provisions of the EU-SADC EPA that enable and even require us to be inclusive and seek systematically the involvement of civil society.
For this reason, I have instructed my team to give utmost priority to seek agreement with other SADC EPA States on a joint platform like this. Pending this agreement, nothing prevents us from going ahead with meetings like the one we have today.
The third reason Im happy with todays meeting is that we are here to talk about how we can ensure all together that the EU-SADC EPA delivers real benefits to the people it is intended to help, both in the SADC countries as well as in the EU.
The objective today is to hear from you
what are the challenges that have prevented or might prevent in the future the EPA to deliver concrete benefits to the different stakeholders
what needs to be done to eliminate or reduce those risks
and what can be done to maximise the positive impact.
We all have a common goal: create prosperity for people in Southern Africa and in Europe.
Trade is a vital component in any successful development strategy. Whether in Africa, China, India, or Brazil, exports have been decisive in reducing poverty over the last four decades. Southern Africa is no exception.
EPAs like the one concluded between the EU and 6 SADC States create new opportunities for workers, consumers and entrepreneurs. That will help us rebuild struggling communities across our continents.
What we are asking you to do this afternoon is to launch a reflection on how the provisions included in the EPA can help creating these opportunities.
But our reflection cannot stop there. Because even the most die-hard free trader must acknowledge that trade agreements give us other questions to answer in one word: sustainable development.
It is important to assess whether there are risks as regards labour and social rights, and in terms of environmental protection, and how these risks can be eliminated or mitigated.
We need companies, environmental campaigners, trade unions and human rights advocates to be closely involved in the monitoring of the EPA.
We need your input and ideas on how to make the implementation of the agreement and our cooperation on sustainable development stronger and more effective.
If we do all of those things, the EU-SADC EPA have strong changes of becoming a landmark deal for people on both sides.
I have high expectations not only on the results of the discussion you will have in a few minutes, but mainly on the process that the meeting today is aimed at triggering.
I have given instructions to take note of the conclusions and recommendations stemming from your discussion this afternoon, with the purpose of assessing them carefully afterwards and discuss them between the EU and all the SADC EPA Parties.
I have also given instructions to organise this kind of meetings every year, and next year in the presence also of EU civil society organisations so that we can successfully create a joint platform for stakeholder involvement.
Thank you for your attention and your willingness to support our work today.
I look forward to some questions and to the discussion.
I recommend the BNCR - Banco Nacional as my current bank of choice. I have been able to take out an equivalent of over $700 CAD in one transaction on my CIBC debit. Yesterday I took out 220,000 colones on a different card that has a lower limit.
The BNCR does not add a charge on the cards I have used. So I only pay the charge my cards add - $5 a pop.
There is no BNCR machine at the airport. Like Canatico says, try to avoid the BCR - Banco de Costa Rica machines. But in a pinch, dont stress if you have to use their machines once
There is a real bank upstairs in the departures level of the airport where they will change your ISD at the normal bank rate. But dont know till what time it is open.
First things first a huge thanks to everyone who posts on here, both asking and answering questions. . I have been following this forum avidly over the past 7 months of planning, posting the odd question and Ive learned a great deal along the way. TA in general has some great people on it, and the ones on this board are very special and helpful.
I thought I would try a JBR in a slightly different way, starting off with a JATG (Just About To Go), as a bit of an introduction, to set the scene, to persuade me to complete a JBR when I get back, and honestly to be able to compare plans to reality!
I suspect our plans will attract some skepticism - despite the above mentioned wonderful advice, I have deliberately and willfully ignored some of the often-stated golden rules!!. Not because I want to, but because of circumstances. I know there will be a lot of tutting, but we have tried to design something which fulfills our requirements.
Quick introduction to the travelers myself (52) and 17yr old son from the UK. It was his choice to visit Vietnam and we have done the planning together. I think it may be a bit of a shock for him (which I am looking forwards to witnessing). His first time true long haul. His first time in SEA. I shall see if/how much it blows his mind.
So the first golden rule we are throwing out of the window is time-in-country. Basically it is working out that we are going to be spending not much more than a long weekend in Vietnam! Circumstances about which we can do nothing have meant the choice was either a very quick trip, or no trip at all. We went for the first option. Sue us! So our schedule is as follows:
We start tomorrow, Ophelia and Khanun willing Manchester- Heathrow, then Heathrow-Singapore. 4 hour layover in SIN to change terminals/airlines (our second TA taboo broken non-protected transfer!!), then Singapore to HCMC arriving at our hotel I hope by about 10pm. Why this routing? Well, courtesy of BA Avios plus Amex 2-4-1 ticketing, we have Club World on the BA flights. BA do not fly direct to HCMC or Hanoi, and you need to travel on BA metal in order to take advantage of the 2-4-1 voucher. I am hoping though that even though it is a schlep, with the aid of flat beds, lounges and a modicum of bubbly wine we will arrive in as good a shape as is reasonably possible on such a trip.
We intend to spend 2 nights in HCMC, staying at the Continental Hotel (War era connections you will note this theme running through our proposed itinerary).
The final TA faux pas is that, with the short time we have, we have planned with precision.
So, Thursday morning early Private Cu Chi tunnel tour. Afternoon is unplanned but we have some specifics on our list, especially trying to acquire old propaganda (or patriotic, depending on your viewpoint) posters. Hopefully we will get some sort of feel of the city in our wanderings. In the evening we are booked in for the XO foodie tour.
Friday, the morning and early afternoon we are relatively unrestricted but intend visiting the War Remnants Museum and Independence Palace. Any additional sightseeing, food eating and coffee drinking we get done before about 16:00 is a bonus. Then its back to the Airport for a domestic hop to Hue, where we will stay in the Saigon Morin.
Saturday morning free for us to wander, then in the afternoon we have booked a tour of the Imperial Palace/Citadel with Beebee. In the evening, more foodie motorcycle goodness, this time with I Love Hue.
Sunday is at least in terms of booking things our projected highlight, as we do the DMZ tour with the highly-spoken-of Mr. Vu. This is where we really would have loved significantly more time and been able to do some of the longer tours, possibly even with treks into the jungle areas. But we have to make do with what we have I am trying to be positive about what we are able to do, rather than the regrets over what we would have preferred!
Monday morning/early afternoon, we put ourselves back in the hands of the I love Hue ladies, for moped trips to the Emperors Tombs, old villages, abandoned water park and pagodas before getting back to the airport for a late evening return to HCMC.
An overnight stop at an airport hotel should have us ready for our early Tuesday morning flight back to Singapore, where we will have an afternoon and then most of the Wednesday to explore and indulge in a bit of luxury, staying at the Marina Bay Sands. Ive been to Singapore a couple of times before, so am happy that I know my way around and where we want to go to and what to see in the time we have. We finally depart Singapore at around midnight, in what I imagine will be a pretty exhausted state and will arrive back in Manchester, 9am Thursday morning!
Of course we would have preferred to be able to spend time visiting some of the wonderful places described on this forum but since we have had to visit like this, I thought it may be interesting to write a report for those who find themselves in similar circumstances and have to travel in this manner as there are several questions from those who also have a limited time frame to visit.
At least, thats all the theory. Whilst it is a packed plan, I am pretty cool if circumstances mean we have to change anything. Lets see how it all goes. Hopefully I will be back with you in a couple of weeks (after recovery!) to update you. I am prepared to take bets (at good odds) against our plan completion or even survival!
I only dived in Hoi An and Con Dao - and Con Dao wins hands down.
I heard mixed reviews about Nha Trang (it is apparently very cheap), and while Phu Quoc has some nice snorkelling I was advised by some dive guides (the ones from Hoi An who sent me to Con Dao) that it was the least appealing dive destination.
With August and September Phu Quoc is not a good destination, and Con Dao is a hit and miss, as it rains in the evening, but I delayed my arrival to the island by a few days in August 2015 due to a storm.
So your choice is between Hoi An and Nha Trang.
The diving in Hoi An is ok (like the other sites it cannot compare to the Red Sea or Bali), good enough to do the OWD. The dive cnetres are good there. I was happy with Cham Divers, and a friend I met on Con Dao did his OWD with Blue Coral diving. Hoi An also offers some culture with the beautiful Ancient Town, and some great food.
I cannot comment about diving in Nha Trang, but as Viet1 mentioned with the beaches and waterparks it is a good place for kids. I went to Nha Trang last year September and surprisingly I enjoyed my stay (based on the information I got i thought I would dislike it) It has some very nice areas and nice beaches. However, if I have to choose between Nha Trang and Hoi An as destination, I would choose Hoi An.
I hope this helps.
Hello,
I am planning to be in Japan for a total of 8 full days, arriving in Tokyo I would also love to see another "big" city for a 2 days 1 night trip.
Which city do you recommend? I was thinking about Osaka or Kyoto.
Also reading the previous post, it is recommended the bullet train versus a flight, if so is JR pass the best option?
Thank you!
Hi everyone,
I'm male, 24. I'm making my second trip to Japan this November(13-27), and it is going to be a solo trip. Last time I went during summer (July) with a group from the school 3 years ago, and visited the most famous places for tourists, I went to Tokyo, Nagoya, Nara, Kyoto and Oosaka.
I'm familiar with the language, so that won't be any trouble, but I'm lost in planning the places I want to visit, I just have some specific dates that I want to do specific activities. I hope you can help me think about which are must do activities, and which ones aren't worth it the time.
I already have the JR National Pass bought.
I haven't considered all the train times and things like that, but I'm planning to be active since early morning.
The ones with a + are the ones that are not movable.
Day 1(13th)
+Arrive early morning in Narita
-Visit Yamadera
-Visit Zao?
-Visit Matsushima
-Stay in Sendai
Day 2(14)
-Visit Zao Fox Village
-Visit Jodogahama
-Visit Lake Tazawa
-Stay at Nyuto Onsen?
Day 3 (15)
-Visit OsoreSan
-Visit Oirase Gorge
-Stay in Aomori/Hakodate?
Day 4 (16)
-Skii on Niseko
-Stay in Sapporo
Day 5 (17)
-Visit Otaru
-Visit Sapporo
Day 6 (18)
-Visit Asahikawa Zoo
-Visit Somtehing North Hokkaido?
Day 7 (19) My birthday :D
-Visit Lake Toya
-Stay in noboribetsu
-:( Need more ideas
Day 8(20)
+Flight to Oosaka (Autumn leaves time)
+Kyoto Autumn Leaves
Day 9(21)
-Shirakawa/Gokayama
-Kenrokuen
-Wajima?
Day 10(22)
-Kurobe Alpine Route?
Day 11(23)
+Fireworks in Nagano at evening
Day 12(24)
????
Day 13(25)
+Tokyo
Day 14(26)
+Tokyo
Day 15(27)
+Tokyo
+Return to my country
So, any suggestions for my trip?
Thanks all for the advice.
2 days in Hue and 2 Days in Hoi An is enough (unless you decide to go to Cham Island).
I spent 2 days and a half in each city, relaxing a little bit after 10 "stressful days" in the north.
You can easily reach Hoi An directly from Danang Arport, it's only 30 km, but. if you have a "spare day", you can also spend 1 day in Danang and see, for example, the Cham Museum, if you are interested in it or enjoy the city...
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- Raila Odinga has accused Jubilees DP Ruto of being the brains behind the idea of a coalition government
- The NASA leader said during a rally that it was the DP who brokered the deal back in 2008 that saw a power sharing resolution between ODM and PNU parties
- He was speaking in response to Rutos jibes during Jubilee rallies that Raila is keen on another coalition government similar to that in 2007/2008 election
NASA leader Raila Odinga on Sunday, October 15 sensationally claimed DP Ruto was the prime reason there was a coalition government following the 2007/2008 post election crisis.
Raila was speaking in a fiery response to William Rutos constant jibe that he was attempting to plunge the country into crisis to push for a nusu mkate government.
Addressing Mombasa residents at the Mama Ngina drive, Raila revealed that back in 2007 when Ruto was an ardent member of the ODM party, he had strongly recommended a coalition government.
NASA leader Raila Odinga in Mombasa. Photo: Facebook.com/RailaOdinga
READ ALSO: Mt Kenya politicians pile pressure on Uhuru and Raila to talk in bid to end political crisis
Raila would then go on to become the countrys first Prime Minister in 2008.
Ruto is so forgetful. He, alongside other leaders were the ones who sat in the talks. Raila Odinga was not present. How it turns out that I wanted a coalition government is surprising." The NASA leader jibed.
Raila Odinga addressing supporters at Mama Ngina drive. The NASA leader claims Ruto was the one who initially advocated for a coalition government. Photo: Facebook.com/RailaOdinga
READ ALSO: Uhuru Kenyatta unmoved by merciless rain during campaign rally in Nyahururu (Photos)
He further claimed Ruto , who represented ODM in the negotiation talks, was the one who urged him to accept the splitting deal with the then President Mwai Kibaki.
Raila and DP Ruto in their ODM days. Photo: Nation
READ ALSO: IEBC expresses fear in handling election in Raila strongholds, officials consider quitting
On the question of another coalition government, Raila insisted that he was not up for it as he already had the numbers for a full government.
Despite the confidence exuded by NASA, Raila remains defiant on participating in the repeat poll until their irreducible minimums are met.
Have anything to add to this article or suggestions? Share with us on news@tuko.co.ke
NASA demos unsuccessful as Matiang'i beefs up security:
Source: TUKO.co.ke
- NASA CEO Norman Magaya has gone into hiding after police officers attempted to arrest him
- According to reports, Magaya has been hiding since Thursday, October 12
- Acting Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i had ordered for the arrest of Magaya for the destruction of property during anti-IEBC demos
The NASA CEO Norman Magaya has gone into hiding after Acting Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi swore to take him to court.
The Opposition official is said to have gone underground since Thursday, October 12 with police hunting him down to no avail.
Matiangi vowed Magaya will be charged after NASA supporters engaged in looting and destruction of public property during anti-IEBC protests in Nairobi and Kisumu.
NASA CEO Norman Magaya who has gone into hiding.Photo:Nation.
READ ALSO: Those planning to vote in Siaya to be dealt with, Governor sends chilling warning
According to the Standard, police have been trying to arrest him by visiting places he frequents to no avail.
If you see him,tell him to report to police in Nairobi area, a senior police officer said as quoted by the news site.
According to the CS,Magaya must take responsibility for the unruly demonstrators who were on Wednesday, October 11 captured on camera stealing soft drinks belonging to Antonios Grill restaurant in Nairobi.
READ ALSO: Setback for Raila as Europe lauds IEBC's plans to conduct repeat poll
One of the vehicles destroyed by NASA supporters in Nairobi.Photo:Courtesy.
READ ALSO: One dead, several injured at Uhuru's campaign rally in Karatina
They also smashed windows belonging to private vehicles parked in the CBD.
Earlier on, the NASA protestors looted Tumaini supermarket in Kisumu and also destroyed water pipes leaving the city with no water supply.
As a result, the government then banned demonstrations in the Central Business Districts(CBDs) of Nairobi,Kisumu and Mombasa.
READ ALSO: Kamba elders urge Kalonzo to dump Raila for Uhuru
The Opposition condemned the move saying their supporters have a right to picket anywhere.
At the same time,Magayas lawyer, Apollo Mboya has written to the CS after he threatened to take the NASA CEO to court.
Mboya warned that the CS's move was illegal and against the constitution.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
- The EU observer mission in Kenya has lauded the IEBC for its preparedness for the repeat poll
- The mission says its impressed that IEBC has effected most of the recommendations it put across
- The mission has, however, expressed concerns on the hardline stances taken by Uhuru and Raila
- The mission wants the two to embrace dialogue and reach a common ground
The National Super Alliances (NASA) sustained calls for reforms at the IEBC ahead of the repeat poll have suffered a blow after the European Union mission in Kenya gave the electoral body a clean bill of health.
In a statement released Monday, October 16, EU observer mission in Kenya said it is impressed by the efforts the embattled commission has put in place ahead of the fresh election.
EU said IEBC had complied with most of the recommendations the mission had put across.
NASA leaders have dropped out of the race Photo: Facebook/Raila Odinga
READ ALSO: Kamba elders urge Kalonzo to dump Raila for Uhuru
If implemented as planned, they will provide a foundation for an improved technical process, with stronger transparency and integrity measures, their leader, Marietje Schaake, said in the statement.
However, the observer mission castigated NASA leader Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta for their hardline stances which have threatened the October 26 election.
The mission called on the two rivals to embrace dialogue and reach a common ground that will end the stalemate in the country.
READ ALSO: Babu Owino savagely attacks CS Matiang'i
Dialogue and cooperation are urgently needed for compromise so that there can be a peaceful electoral process with integrity and transparency and Kenyans can choose their president, Schaake added.
NASA has continuously claimed there will be no election on Thursday, October 26 with its leaders Raila and Kalonzo Musyoka withdrawing from the race.
Uhuru's party has passed electoral laws amendments Photo: Facebook/Uhuru Kenyatta
The opposition made the decision after IEBC failed to meet their irreducible minimums demands.
READ ALSO: Raila moves to court to challenge proposed law to announce presidential winner if another candidate withdraws
On its part, Jubilee party has passed controversial amendments to election laws. The amendments have drawn massive criticism even as Uhuru plans to assent.
NASA demos unsuccessful as Matiang'i beefs up security on TUKO TV
Source: TUKO.co.ke
- Uhuru Kenyatta has said that he will not allow anyone, including Raila Odinga to deny Kenyans their rights to express their will through ballot
- The President said his government will not watch as NASA demonstrators vandalize and injure innocent Kenyans under the guise of anti-IEBC demos
- Uhuru added that Railas fear of defeat should not mess with October,26 fresh poll
President Uhuru Kenyatta has rekindled his beef with opposition leader Raila Odinga and the larger NASA alliance.
Speaking in a Jubilee campaign trail in Kitui where he was accompanied by DP Ruto, Uhuru said his government will not watch as NASA demonstrators vandalize and injure innocent Kenyans under the guise of anti-IEBC demos.
Whereas we appreciate the constitutional right of every Kenyan to demonstrate and picket peacefully, we also as a Government understand our obligation to secure the lives and property of Kenyans who do not wish to participate in the demonstrations,Uhuru said.
READ ALSO: You can demonstrate daily but lets see if Raila will put food on your table-Uhuru to NASA supporters
Uhuru says he will not allow anyone to mess with fresh poll. Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta/Facebook
READ ALSO: Prepare to meet me at the ballot in 2022 if you are afraid of Uhuru - Ruto tells Raila
Uhuru said the government shall take action against anyone who chooses to destroy property and rob in the name of the demos.
And we shall take action against anyone who chooses, under the guise of demonstration to loot, to vandalise, to rob or to injure innocent Kenyans. he warned.
Uhuru added that he will not allow anyone, including Raila Odinga to deny Kenyans their rights to express their will through ballot. The president wrapped up by throwing jabs at Raila, saying he is fearing defeat hence bowing out of the race.
READ ALSO: Police recover guns and bullets in house believed to belong to top NASA financier
Railas fear of defeat should not mess with poll Uhuru declares . Photo: Uhuru Kenyatta/Facebook
READ ALSO: UK government denies using Raila to overthrow Uhuru
Uhuru confirmed that the October, 26 fresh poll will be conducted as scheduled even without the oppositions participation.The president termed the opposition as a group of self-seekers who have no agenda to transform the country.
Uhurus latest shade on NASA and its leadership comes barely days after the opposition leader Raila Odinga threatened to boycott the October,26 poll.
NASA demos unsuccessful as Matiang'i beefs up security -on TUKO TV
Source: TUKO.co.ke
It was fun in the sun on Sunday as the Aranguez savannah was the place to crown winners of t
Russian-backed militants launched 16 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas in last day. Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded.
This is reported by the ATO press center.
"Over the past day, illegal armed groups violated the ceasefire 16 times. The Ukrainian Armed Forces opened fire on the enemy 11 times. As a result of the fighting, two Ukrainian servicemen were wounded," the statement reads.
In Donetsk direction, illegal armed formations used small arms and heavy machine guns to shell Ukrainian strongholds outside Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk). The enemy also fired small arms at the outskirts of Kamyanka (62km south of Donetsk).
In Mariupol direction, ATO troops came under terrorist fire near Talakivka (20km north-west of Mariupol).
In Luhansk direction, ceasefire was observed.
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Sara D. Davis/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Former Taliban prisoner Bowe Bergdahl is expected to plead guilty to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy in a military hearing that begins at Fort Bragg as he doubts that he could get a fair trial following campaign statements by Donald Trump.
Despite surviving five years in a Taliban cage, Trump had called Sgt. Bergdahl a "traitor" who should be executed in several campaign speeches as a presidential candidate.
In an on-camera interview shot last year by a British filmmaker, obtained exclusively by ABC News and airing on Good Morning America, World News Tonight with David Muir and Nightline, Bergdahl says the words of the man who is now his commander-in-chief would have made a fair trial impossible.
We may as well go back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs that got what they wanted, Bergdahl said. The people who want to hang me, youre never going to convince those people.
The 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment trooper walked off his combat outpost in Afghanistan in June 2009 and was immediately captured by the Taliban. During his five years in captivity with the Haqqani network, the same Taliban faction that held American Caitlan Coleman and her family hostage for five years until being freed last Wednesday, Bergdahl endured what one U.S. official called the worst case of prisoner abuse since the Vietnam War.
He was released in 2014 in exchange for five Taliban prisoners who had been detained at Guantanamo Bay, a deal that was harshly criticized on the campaign trail by then-candidate Trump, who called Bergdahl "garbage and even suggested that he should have been summarily executed.
You know in the old days, Bing. Bong, Trump said as he mimicked firing a rifle. When we were strong.
Speaking to British war filmmaker Sean Langan, who was himself held captive by the same Taliban group in 2008, Bergdahl says he wants to fight back against what he calls a false narrative fueled by conservative outlets like Fox News that sought to portray him as a traitor and jihadi sympathizer who had been convinced to fight against the United States alongside his captors.
Such rumors were false, military officials have said.
You know, its just insulting frankly, Bergdahl told Langan. Its very insulting, the idea that they would think I did that.
In 2014, then Fox News correspondents Megyn Kelly and James Rosen reported on secret documents obtained by the network which purported to show that Bergdahl had shown affection for his captors, converted to Islam and become a Mujahidin, or jihadi, himself.
According to Bergdahl, however, he thought the conditions in captivity might kill him before his captors could.
It was getting so bad that I was literally looking at myself, you know, looking at joints, looking my ribs and just going, Im gonna die here from sickness, or I can die escaping, Bergdahl said. You know, it didnt really matter.
He attempted to escape twice, according to military officials, and he was severely punished after being re-captured. Terrence Russell, a military official who debriefs former U.S. captives for the U.S. Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, says Bergdahl was tortured in a way reminiscent of the brutality visited upon prisoners of war in Vietnam decades ago.
When they recaptured him and brought him back, the next day they spread-eagled and secured him to a metal bed frame, Russell says to Langan in another video. They took a plastic pipe and they started beating his feet and his legs repeatedly with this plastic pipe. The idea was to just beat him and injure his legs and his feet so that he could not walk away again.
Bergdahl also says he was confined for more than four years to a cage that was only seven feet long and six feet wide.
From first year, Bergdahl said when asked how much time he spent in that cage. So second, third, fourth and then into the fifth year.
It remains a mystery, however, why Bergdahl walked off his post in the first place.
Another senior official who spoke to Langan for his documentary was retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who as the former head of intelligence for special operations in Afghanistan and then as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency was deeply involved in the early search for Bergdahl.
He also briefly served as President Trumps national security adviser after working on his campaign, and he told Langan that he absolutely believes Bergdahl left the base with the intention to meet the Taliban.
But Bergdahl disputes that, claiming in a taped conversation with filmmaker Mark Boal that was broadcast in the second season of the Serial podcast that he walked off post in an attempt to report to senior officers that his platoon commander was unfit for his position.
Bergdahl has not been charged with any crime related to aiding the enemy.
Whatever his reasons were, at least two soldiers were seriously wounded during the search to find him, as ABC News first reported in 2014. Following his guilty plea, the question remaining before the military is what form of punishment Bergdahl deserves.
On that question, even Flynn doubted that justice would be best served by putting a former prisoner back in prison.
So the guy deserted his men, his soldiers, his squad no doubt, Flynn said. [But] I dont think he should serve another day in any sort of confinement or jail, or anything like that because frankly even though he put himself into this situation to a degree, we, the United States government and the United States military, put him in Afghanistan.
Copyright 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelian has said that one more highway is planned to be constructed in Ukraine.
"I have good news for Lviv. In addition to the construction of the Lviv-Budapest highway, which has been recently announced by Ukravtodor [Ukraines State Agency for Automobile Roads], we intend to build the Lviv-Dubno highway [Rivne region], Omelian said, while being on an official visit in Lviv region, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.
According to him, the project is being developed jointly with the World Bank.
The minister noted that the highway designing is planned to be completed in 2018, and construction work is expected to begin in 2019.
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President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has congratulated Sebastian Kurz on the victory at Austrias snap general election.
In a post on his Facebook page, President Poroshenko wrote: The win of Sebastian Kurz and Austrian Peoples Party - is a victory of a politician who has many times visited Ukraine and knows our situation firsthand. Its also a victory of a convinced European, who knows the true value of EU for peace on our continent.
The Ukrainian president also stressed that the long coalition negotiations awaiting chancellor Kurz, I am convinced: European values will be of central importance for this new government!
According to exit poll results, the Peoples Party (OVP), led by Sebastian Kurz, wins the Austrian snap general elections but is short of an absolute majority.
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World Bank President Jim Yong Kim will visit Ukraine in November to discuss the issues of key reforms being carried out in Ukraine.
Finance Minister of Ukraine Oleksandr Danyliuk said this following the meetings with the IMF leadership in Washington on Sunday, an Ukrinform own correspondent reports.
"I met with the World Bank Vice President [Cyril] Muller. It was a continuation of my meeting with the World Bank president in spring, when I invited him to visit Ukraine. He accepted this invitation. And were preparing this visit for the next month, the Ukrainian finance minister said.
He stressed that the visit of the World Bank president to Ukraine is "symbolic and important.
Danyliuk also informed that the main topics of the talks will be the issues of the World Banks support for the key reforms in Ukraine. "These include the spheres of healthcare, education, energy and land reform, which is about to be approved, Danyliuk added.
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Warsaw opposes the revision of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement and will urge Kyiv and Budapest to resolve the educational problem through dialogue, the Polish Foreign Ministry has reported.
"Poland does not see the possibility of reviewing the Association Agreement or the agreement on a deep free trade area with Ukraine. The Polish side will encourage partners from Hungary and Ukraine to resolve the controversial issue of the law on education through dialogue, taking into account respect for the rights of national minorities and taking into account international and bilateral agreements," the ministry said in response to a request from an Ukrinform correspondent.
The Polish Foreign Ministry noted that the methods of teaching the Polish language in Ukraine were somewhat different than the study of Hungarian.
"At the same time, we inform that the Polish ministries for foreign affairs and education closely monitor the issues of the impact of the relevant law on Polish education and are in constant contact with Ukrainian partners," the ministry said.
The statement notes that in this context Ukrainian Education and Science Minister Lilia Hrynevych is to meet with representatives of the Polish minority in Ukraine tentatively on October 26.
The document states that Poland attaches great importance to the study of the Polish language, not only in Ukraine, but in any country where the Poles live.
As reported, Hungary is demanding to review Ukraine's Association Agreement with the EU, because Ukraine, in the opinion of the Hungarian side, violates the provisions of the agreement, restricting by the new law on education the right of national minorities to study in their mother tongue. At the request of Budapest, this issue was included in the agenda of a meeting of EU foreign ministers, which will take place in Luxembourg on Monday.
The Foreign Ministry of Estonia, the country currently holding the EU presidency, opposed the revision of the Association Agreement with Ukraine.
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Acting Health Minister of Ukraine Ulana Suprun has called on the Facebook users to join the flash mob in support of the healthcare reform by setting temporary profile picture frames.
"Join the flash mob to support healthcare reform and make lawmakers hear and see how critically we need a system that would really take care of our health and health of our families. Set special temporary profile picture frames, tag members of Parliament and say the adoption of a healthcare reform is really important to you," Suprun wrote on her Facebook page.
As the government official reminded, the bills No. 6327 and No. 6604 on the healthcare system reform are planned to be submitted to the Parliament this week.
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Former Deputy Prosecutor General Vitalii Kasko has decided to resign from the Board of Transparency International Ukraine.
Member of the Board of Transparency International Ukraine, partner in the Vasyl Kisil and Partners law firm Vitalii Kasko gave up his membership, reads a report posted on the organizations page on Facebook.
Kasko explained his decision by the fact that, as a head of criminal law section of one of major Ukrainian law firms, he is likely to participate in defense of clients, including those suspected of corruption-related offenses. Thus, to avoid conflict of interest, he gave up his membership.
"The standard of rule of law in developed countries provides for quality defense for anyone, including persons suspected of corruption. We are thankful to Vitalii for our long-standing cooperation and support his decision to focus on his legal practice as a defense attorney, the quality of which is one of the basic characteristics of a fair trial," said Chairman of the Board Andrii Marusov, according to the report
President of the German Bundestag Norbert Lammert has expressed solidarity with filmmakers Oleg Sentsov and Kirill Serebrennikov.
He said this at the meeting of the 137th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in St. Petersburg, Russia, DW reports.
"We cannot talk about the importance of pluralism and at the same time prevent journalists and cultural figures from manifesting the pluralism inside the country, which happens in many countries of the world... Unfortunately, this happens in Russia as well," Lammert said.
In this regard, he recalled the case of Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who was sentenced by the Russian authorities to 20 years in a maximum security penal colony, and the case of Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, who is under house arrest now.
"On behalf of the German delegation, I would like to express our solidarity with such people as Serebrennikov and Sentsov wherever these people are," he said.
Earlier this month, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine called on the parliaments of the IPU member countries to boycott the 137th IPU Assembly initiated by the Russian side saying Russia violates the statutes of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the UN Charter. Thus, Ukraine does not attend the IPU events in St. Petersburg.
Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov was detained by Russian security services in Crimea in May 2014 on charges of plotting terrorist attacks on the peninsula. August 25, 2015, the North-Caucasian Military Court in Russia's Rostov-on-Don sentenced Oleg Sentsov to 20 years in a penal colony for alleged "plotting acts of terrorism."
Artistic director of the Moscows Gogol Center Kirill Serebrennikov was detained in August on suspicion of embezzling $1.1 million in government funds. Currently, Serebrennikov is under house arrest.
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On October 15, a monument to deported Ukrainians was consecrated in the city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan.
Director of the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations Iryna Kluchkovska wrote this on her Facebook page.
"On October 15, a monument to Ukrainians deported to Kazakhstan was consecrated in Karaganda. The monument was erected near the Greek Catholic Church. The crucified embroidered rushnyk as a symbol of the crucified soul of our nation was made and brought from Ukraine. The cross was made in Kazakhstan," she wrote.
As reported, the Forum of Migrants was held on October 13-14 in the city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Ukrainians to Kazakhstan.
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl told a military judge on Monday that he's pleading guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy.
"I understand that leaving was against the law," said Bergdahl, whose decision to walk off his remote post in Afghanistan in 2009 prompted intense search and recovery missions, during which some of his comrades were seriously wounded.
"At the time, I had no intention of causing search and recovery operations," Bergdahl said, but he added that now he does understand that his decision prompted efforts to find him.
Bergdahl, 31, is accused of endangering his comrades by abandoning his post without authorization. He told a general after his release from five years in enemy hands that he did it with the intention of reaching other commanders and drawing attention to what he saw as problems with his unit.
It wasn't immediately clear whether his defense has conceded that he's responsible for a long chain of events that his desertion prompted, which included many decisions by others on how to conduct the searches. Despite his plea, the prosecution and defense have not agreed to a stipulation of facts, said one of his lawyers, Maj. Oren Gleich.
This indicates that they did not reach a deal to limit his punishment, and that he may be hoping for leniency from the judge, Army Col. Jeffery R. Nance. The misbehavior charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, while the desertion charge is punishable by up to five years.
The guilty pleas bring the highly politicized saga closer to an end eight years after Bergdahl vanished in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama, who approved the Taliban prisoner swap that brought Bergdahl home in 2014, said the U.S. does not leave its service members on the battlefield, but he was roundly criticized by Republicans. Campaigning for president, Donald Trump suggested Bergdahl would have been executed in a previous era.
While Berghdahl's pleas enable him to avoid a trial, he'll still face a sentencing hearing scheduled to begin Oct. 23. His years as a captive of the Taliban and its allies could be factored into his punishment, but the hearing also will likely feature damning testimony from his fellow service members. The judge has ruled that a Navy SEAL who suffered a career-ending leg wound and an Army National Guard sergeant whose head wound put him in a wheel chair would not have been hurt in firefights had they not been searching for Bergdahl.
The defense also was rebuffed in an effort to prove that Trump had unfairly swayed the case with his scathing criticism from the campaign trail. The judge ruled in February that the new president's comments were "disturbing and disappointing" but did not constitute unlawful command influence by the soon-to-be commander in chief.
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AMMAN/NEW YORK, 16 October 2017 UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Muzoon Almellehan travelled to Jordan to meet children who, like her, fled the Syria conflict and are now determined to go to school despite extremely challenging circumstances. It was the first time Muzoon had returned to the country where she spent three years in refugee camps, before being resettled in the United Kingdom with her family in 2015.
Returning to Jordan to meet children whose hope has been restored through education has compelled me to raise my voice even louder for the 27 million children who remain out of school because of conflict. I recommit myself to represent all of the children whose voices have been silenced for too long and whose chance to learn, and of hope for a better future have been destroyed by war," said Muzoon.
Around 2.4 million Syrian children are missing out on education, including 1.7 million inside Syria and more than 730,000 Syrian refugee children in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Some Syrian children have never been inside a classroom, while others have lost five or six years of their education.
During her visit, Muzoon met children attending a UNICEF-supported Makani Centre in Amman including 14-year-old Sedra, who fled the conflict in Syria with her family when she was just 10 years old. She missed two years of school and now is getting the support she needs to catch up on her learning and join a public school soon. She dreams of becoming a legal advisor one day.
Makani Centres provide vulnerable children in Jordan including Syrian refugees with informal learning programmes, critical psychosocial support and life skills training. The centres also help children enroll into public schools.
"Hearing about Sedra's experiences took me back to when my family and I fled the war. I was so sad and scared to leave my home and school behind the only hope I held on to was to continue my education, said Muzoon.
When Muzoon was forced to flee violence in Syria more than four years ago, her school books were the only belongings she took with her. She spent nearly three years in Jordan, including 18 months in Zaatari refugee camp, where she made it her personal mission to get more girls into education. She went from tent to tent talking to parents to encourage them to get their children into school and learning. Her commitment as an education activist led to her appointment as UNICEFs youngest ever Goodwill Ambassador in June 2017.
Education equips girls and boys with the knowledge and skills to fully realize their potential. Schools also provide stability and a sense of normalcy that help Syrian children overcome the challenges of life as a refugee, said UNICEF Jordan Representative Robert Jenkins. Jordan has made an incredible commitment to enable Syrian children to access education, but urgent support is required from the global community to further build on progress achieved to date.
Since the conflict began, UNICEF has worked with partners to increase access to formal and informal education for children affected by the Syria crisis, including through the creation of double-shifting systems in nearly 500 schools in Jordan and Lebanon, back-to-learning campaigns, and rehabilitation of some 1,000 classrooms across refugee host countries. However, a devastating funding gap is preventing the organization from reaching more children. UNICEF has received only half of the funding needed to provide education for children affected by the Syria conflict.
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For more information, please contact:
Georgina Thompson, UNICEF New York, Tel: +1 917 238 1559, gthompson@unicef.org
Miraj Pradhan, UNICEF Jordan Tel: +962 (0) 790 214 191, mpradhan@unicef.org
Samir Badran [for Arabic], UNICEF Jordan Tel: +962 (0) 796 926 180, sbadran@unicef.org
A group of Asian parliamentarians on Friday condemned the Cambodian governments crackdown on the opposition, which it said was leading to one-party rule.
The group, Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), said in a statement that moves by the Cambodian Peoples Party to dissolve the Cambodia National Rescue Party and distribute its seats among minor political parties was a brazen attempt to legitimize a wholly undemocratic move: giving positions at all levels of government to parties who, instead of earning the vote of the people, sold their loyalties to the CPP.
The ruling party wants to be able to argue that Cambodia remains a multiparty democracy, but no one should be fooled, Charles Santiago, APHR chairman, said in the statement.
Make no mistake: if the CNRP is dissolved, the result will be the one-party rule in Cambodia. The government selecting its own competition and eliminating anyone who poses even the remotest threat doesnt constitute a genuine multi-party system, he added.
In September, Kem Sokha, CNRP president, was arrested on treason charges, becoming the latest opposition politician targeted by the courts on questionable charges.
Prime Minister Hun Sen and other officials have claimed the moves against the opposition, as well as the closure of independent media outlets and expulsion of U.S.-funded NGO the National Democratic Institute, are intended to protect Cambodian democracy against threats.
Sok Eysan, a CPP spokesman, said critics of the government should also blame Sokha for the governments actions. If they want to condemn those who caused a loss of democracy in Cambodia, they should put the blame on the opposition party, which committed offenses to violate democracy in Cambodia, where there is the rule of law, he said.
The opposition leader colluded with foreigners in an attempt to topple the legitimate government of Cambodia.
Sokhas treason charges stem from his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow Hun Sen, however, the only evidence so far produced by the government to back up its claim is an old video of a speech given by Sokha where he talked about receiving advice from the United States on setting up a human rights group to gain grassroots support.
The APHR statement came a day after U.N. rights envoy Rhona Smith said Cambodian democracy was in peril.
The president of Spain's region of Catalonia has responded to a Monday deadline, failing to clarify whether he will push ahead with efforts for the region to break away from Madrid and signaling that the secession crisis is far from over.
The Spanish government had given Catalonian leader Carles Puigdemont until Monday to provide a simple yes or no answer.
In a letter, Puigdemont told Spanish President Mariano Rajoy secessionists want to suspend initiating steps towards independence for two months. "For the next two months, our main objective is to bring you to dialogue," Puigdemont wrote.
Following an independence referendum on October 1, Puigdemont said last week he was prepared for Catalonia to "become an independent state," despite a court ruling that declared such a move would be unconstitutional.
But Puigdemont immediately said he was suspending the secession drive to allow time for negotiations with Madrid.
The contradictory statements prompted Rajoy to give Puigdemont until 10 a.m. (0800 UTC) Monday to clarify his position with a simple "yes" or "no" answer. Rajoy said Madrid was ready to suspend the region's autonomy and begin to exercise direct control if Puigdemont decided to continue pressing for secession.
Spanish officials had said they would consider anything other than a simple "no" answer an indication that the independence drive would continue and thus begin steps to strip Catalonia of its autonomy. After receiving Puigdemonts letter Monday, Spanish leaders indicated they would treat his reply as a yes.
He has not answered the question clearly, said Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria at news conference Monday. Saenz de Santamaria said the government would now give Puigdemont until Thursday to re-think his response.
Also on Monday, Spain's state prosecutor called for Catalonia police chief Maj. Josep Lluis Trapero, who is on trial for sedition, to be jailed without bail. A judge will rule on the recommendation later Monday, Spain's High Court said.
Catalonia, Spains most prosperous region, is home to 7.5 million people, has its own language and distinct culture, and is deeply divided over independence.
The Catalan government said that 90 percent of Catalans voted for independence from Spain in October 1 referendum. Many opponents of independence boycotted the vote, reducing turnout to around 43 percent.
Chinese leaders are expected to emerge from a party congress this month with signals on whether they will take a hard or soft stance toward the widely contested South China Sea, a region of concern from Southeast Asia to Washington.
China claims nearly the entire 3.5 million-square-kilometer, resource-rich sea between its south coast and the island of Borneo. Those claims overlap the maritime exclusive economic zones of four militarily weaker Southeast Asian claimants, many backed by the United States.
Future South China Sea policy
When Chinas ruling Communist Party holds its 19th National Congress this week, senior leaders have power to instruct the party on how to handle the maritime dispute over the next five years. They might agree to follow international law, for example, though without giving up sovereignty. They could also suggest a tougher approach or decide to take the current line expansion while giving aid to other claimants.
The most likely scenario is a reiteration of the established maritime South China Sea policy, said Fabrizio Bozzato, a Taiwan Strategy Research Association fellow. There might be a change of tone in a more muscular sense. Thats a possibility but not a certainty.
Closed meetings
The party that has single-handedly ruled China since the 1940s will meet largely behind closed doors during the Congress that opens in Beijing Oct. 18. Typically congresses touch on all major issues of concern to China and, where needed, come up with new ideas.
Change may be neither drastic nor significant after the congress, Bozzato said. China would still advocate peaceful support for easing disputes, he predicted.
China might use more of the language in the United Nations maritime law to explain its position, said Douglas Guilfoyle, associate international law professor at Monash University in Australia. China believes, for example, that larger islets under a countrys control should confer an exclusive economic zone in the surrounding sea.
Slight policy change possible
There does seem to be some very tentative signals that China might be attempting to re-frame or at least frame its position more in terms of generally accepted norms, Guilfoyle said. At the end of the day, its very difficult to maintain territorial or quasi-territorial claims that no one else will actively support.
A world arbitration court ruled in July 2016 against Beijings legal basis to claim much of the sea. China rejected the ruling, but since then it has tried to get along better with the rival Southeast Asian states. Those states are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Analysts expect no change in this element of Chinese diplomacy.
The other countries resent China for passing coast guard vessels through disputed waters and building artificial islands for reported military use.
China uses historic records to argue its claim to the sea, which is valued for commercial shipping lanes, fisheries and undersea fossil fuel reserves. The United States periodically irritates China by sending navy vessels into the sea to show its still open to all countries. Chinese and American media say one passed near the seas Paracel Islands in early October.
In other shows of worry about Chinas maritime control, India is backing Vietnams exploration for oil and gas in contested tracts, and in June Japan passed a helicopter carrier through the sea.
The Communist Party congress can also just acknowledge developments on a foreign policy issue without taking a position. At the congress in 2012, former chairman Hu Jintaos political report just noted greater instability and turbulence in the international system compared to five years earlier, a study by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University says. That comment referred to the 2008 financial crisis and its global repercussions, according to the study.
President Xi Jinping may become more powerful
China has already moderated its stance over the past year to ease tensions, evidenced by lack of new landfill for construction of artificial islands, said Oh Ei Sun, international studies instructor at Singapore Nanyang University. China would be able to hold this position if the congress appoints President Xi Jinping to another five years as party chair, he said.
The widely forecast reappointment would give Xi more authority and confidence to carry out policy, scholars believe.
I think after the 19th Party Congress, you will see this sort of stance be prolonged for quite a significant period of time, because theres no need to posture anymore, Oh said.
But outcomes of the congress may embolden China to go ahead with island building or military movements, especially if the United States antagonizes it, Bozzato said. Its logical Xi Jinping will have to show some muscles, he said.
Weight loss support
TOPS Club (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), a nonprofit weight-loss support group, will meet weekly at several locations.
The Twin Falls chapter will meet at 4:30 p.m. Monday at the Twin Falls Senior Center, 530 Shoshone St. W., 208-734-2641 or 208-734-5300.
Other local chapters will meet at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday at 2025 S. Highway 81 in Malta, 208-645-2438; 9:15 a.m. Thursday at the Jerome Public Library, 100 First Ave. E., 208-324-6693; 9:30 a.m. Thursday at 410 E. Third St. in Rupert, 208-436-6037 or 208-679-3518; and at 5:30 p.m. Friday at 1800 J St. in Heyburn, 208-678-8706 or 208-678-2622.
Yoga
Morning Bliss Yoga, 9 a.m. Tuesday and Saturday at the Magic Valley YMCA, 1751 Elizabeth Blvd. Stretch and strengthen your muscles through yoga.
Free to the community. Information: ymcatf.com or 208-733-4384.
Yoga workshop
CSI Community Educations How Yoga Works class, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Oct. 17 through Nov. 28, at the CSI Mini-Cassia Center, room A22, Burley. Shalamar Summers instructs the mixed six-hour yoga course to introduce yoga poses, breathing techniques and Patanjalis eight limbs of yoga to help manage stress and for moderate exercise. Bring a yoga mat.
Cost is $50; preregister: offcampus.csi.edu/minicassia or 208-678-1400.
Yoga
Prenatal Yoga classes, 6:45 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday at Center for Physical Rehabilitation, 754 N. College Road, Suite D, Twin Falls.
All levels are welcome to join and exercise safely. Sami Ashenbrener, doctor of physical therapy at Center for Physical Rehabilitation, is also a certified yoga instructor with specialized training in prenatal yoga.
Equipment is available, or bring your own equipment if desired. First class is free.
Alzheimers support
Alzheimers Association, Greater Idaho Chapters Caregiver Support Group meeting, 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Twin Falls Senior Center, 530 Shoshone St. W.
The group meets on the third Wednesday every month.
Information: Pattie Dennis, 208-734-4264 or 208-539-4290.
Flu shots
Flu shot clinic sponsored by Walgreens, 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Twin Falls Senior Center, 530 Shoshone St. W.
The shots are free for those on Medicare and $31.99 for others. Pre-register at the senior center: 208-734-5084.
CPR, infant safety
Infant safety and cardiopulmonary resuscitation class, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Oak Rooms 2-4 on the lower level of St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.
New parents, grandparents and caregivers learn CPR and what to do if an infant chokes. The class isnt a certification course.
Free; no registration required. 208-814-0402.
Nutrition
Jerome Recreation District offers The Basics of Diabetes and Sugar nutrition class, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at 2032 S. Lincoln in Jerome.
Learn the basic components of foods; fats, proteins and carbohydrates, and how these affect blood sugar.
Free; all ages welcome. Spanish will be offered. Information: 208-324-3389.
Asthma education
Free asthma education class for patients and caregivers to assess and manage asthma will be at 6 p.m. Thursday. The class is presented by St. Lukes Magic Valley and meets on the third Thursday of each month.
Pre-registration is required. To register and for location of the class: 208-814-8765.
Anxiety support
Anxiety Support Group, 6 p.m. every Thursday at Magic Valley Fellowship Hall, 801 Second Ave. N., Twin Falls.
Support for those who experience anxiety, panic attacks or depression. Learn about the signs, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and coping skills.
Information: Cathy Shaddy, 208-410-2768.
Recovery support
Safe Harbor will hold Recovery group meetings at 7 p.m. Thursdays at 213 Fifth Ave. W. in Twin Falls. A donation meal begins at 6 p.m.
Ongoing food donations are welcome. Information: 208-735-8787.
Rides for treatment
The American Cancer Societys Road to Recovery program provides free transportation to and from treatments for people with cancer who do not have a ride or are unable to drive. There are several volunteer drivers in the Mini-Cassia area who donate their time and the use of their car so patients can go to their treatments.
To schedule a ride to treatments, call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 to be matched with a volunteer driver.
Seniors wellness
The Twin Falls Senior Center will hold a presentation for senior citizens at 12:15 p.m. Oct. 23 at 530 Shoshone St. W.
Connie Campbell of Syringa Place will talk about vitamins and minerals for seniors.
Free; 208-734-5084.
Childbirth
St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Centers prepared childbirth classes, 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays, Oct. 24 through Nov. 21, in Oak Rooms 2-4 on the lower level of St. Lukes, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls.
Topics: Wellness during pregnancy; labor and delivery process with relaxation and breathing techniques; caesarean birth; postpartum care for mother and newborn; infant CPR; car seat and home safety; and a tour of the maternal and child units. Bring a labor-support person if possible.
Cost is $25 for a five-week session. Pre-registration is required: 208-814-0402.
Seniors wellness
Patient Financial Navigators Turning 65 community boot camp, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 28 at the College of Southern Idaho Fine Arts building, 315 Falls Ave., Twin Falls.
Free admission. No registration is required.
To do for you is a listing of health-related activities, events and education. Submit information by noon Thursday for publication in the following Mondays edition to ramona@magicvalley.com.
Hillary Clinton has told an Australian state broadcaster that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was a tool of Russia in his release of hacked emails that hurt the U.S. Democratic presidential nominee's campaign.
Clinton told Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview broadcast on Monday that the Australian whistleblower had become a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He's a tool of Russian intelligence, and if he's such a ... martyr of free speech, why doesn't WikiLeaks ever publish anything coming out of Russia? she said.
Clinton was complaining about WikiLeaks' publication during the 2016 election campaign of politically damaging emails from the Democratic National Committee.
Assange, who is holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London, hit back at Clinton's interview, tweeting that she was not a credible person.
It is not just her constant lying. It is not just that she throws off menacing glares and seethes thwarted entitlement, he tweeted. Watch closely. Something much darker rides along with it. A cold creepiness rarely seen.
Concerted operation
In the interview, Clinton rejected reporter Sarah Ferguson's proposition that Assange was simply performing a journalist's role by publishing information.
There was a concerted operation between WikiLeaks and Russia and most likely people in the United States to, as I say, weaponize that information, to make up stories, outlandish, often terrible stories that had no basis in fact, no basis even in the emails themselves, but which were used to denigrate me, my campaign, people who supported me, and to help [Donald] Trump,'' Clinton said.
WikiLeaks is unfortunately now practically a fully owned subsidiary of Russian intelligence, she said.
The 45-year-old Australian fled to the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over an investigation of sexual offense allegations. Despite a Swedish prosecutor announcing in May that he was no longer the target of an active rape investigation, Assange remains in the embassy for fear of extradition to the United States on charges over WikiLeaks' aggressive publication of thousands of pages of classified U.S. government documents.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo in April denounced WikiLeaks as a hostile intelligence service and a threat to U.S. national security. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Assange's arrest was a priority as the Justice Department steps up efforts to prosecute people who leak classified information to the media.
Their condemnation of WikiLeaks differed sharply from President Donald Trump's past praise of the organization. Before last year's election, Trump said he was happy to see WikiLeaks publish private, politically damaging emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, John Podesta. He was less happy about the release of CIA tactics, which the White House said was different because it involved information about secretive national security tools.
The president said in April that he was not involved in the decision-making process regarding charging Assange but that the move would be OK with me.
President Donald Trump says his decision not to recertify Iran's compliance with the Iran nuclear deal could lead to its "total termination."
"That's a very real possibility," Trump said Monday as he began a meeting with his Cabinet at the White House. "Some people say that's a greater possibility."
In remarks that were at times prepared and other times off the cuff, the president said a lot of people agreed with what he did in pulling away from the 2015 accord, which Iran reached with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and the European Union.
None of the other parties to the agreement have endorsed Trump's move, however, and EU foreign ministers, meeting Monday in Luxembourg, dispatched top diplomat Federica Mogherini to Washington to fight for the deal.
"Clearly, the ministers are concerned about the fact that messages on the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] might affect negatively the possibility of opening negotiations or opening even the space for negotiations with the DPRK [North Korea]," Mogherini told reporters after the bloc's 28 foreign ministers held talks.
Trump defended the decision Monday, saying he felt strongly that something had to be done about a deal he has railed against, both as a candidate and as president, even though he twice recertified the agreement in the first months of his presidency.
"I'm tired of being taken advantage of as a nation," he said at the cabinet meeting, flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. "This nation has been taken advantage of for many, many years. For decades frankly, and I'm tired of watching it."
The president did, however, hold out hope that the deal might be improved to his satisfaction when it goes back to Congress for further consideration. "We'll see what phase two is. Phase two might be positive and it might be very negative," he said.
'More complete strategy'
Tillerson said Sunday that Iran is in "technical compliance" with the international agreement to curb its nuclear weapons development, but said Trump wants Congress to adopt "a more complete strategy" to fix what the U.S. leader sees as flaws in the pact.
Speaking to CNN, Tillerson said Tehran has a "demonstrated practice of walking right up to the limits" of the 2015 deal, prompting Trump's decision not to certify compliance.
Tillerson, apparently explaining what "phase two" may entail, said Trump wants Congress perhaps in a separate deal to fix "a number of weaknesses" in the nuclear agreement, and address "a much broader list of threats" Iran poses with its military aggression and "destabilizing activities" in the Middle East.
Tillerson said Iran's ballistic missile tests, which are not banned by the nuclear pact, must be curbed and a more definitive ban imposed on its nuclear program. He said the current pact "simply postpones the reckoning" over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
In the meantime, while Congress considers whether to adopt new sanctions, Tillerson said the U.S. and the other international signatories need to "fully enforce the agreement."
Trust factor
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who negotiated the pact for Tehran, told CBS' Face the Nation show that with Trump's opposition to the deal, "Nobody else will trust any U.S. administration to engage in any long-term negotiation because the length of any commitment, the duration of any commitment, from now on with any U.S. administration would be the remainder of the term of that president."
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told NBC, "I think right now you are going to see us stay in the deal, because what we hope is that we can improve the situation, and that's the goal. So, I think right now, we're in the deal to see how we can make it better, and that's the goal. It's not that we're getting out of the deal. We're just trying to make the situation better so that the American people feel safer."
Tillerson rejected the contention that Trump's decertification of the Iran deal weakens the U.S. position in dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat.
He said the U.S. stance on Iran means that it "will expect a very demanding agreement" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to end his nuclear weapons development.
Trump has told Tillerson that it is a waste of time to try to negotiate with North Korea, but Tillerson said the U.S. leader actually supports talks with Pyongyang.
"These diplomatic efforts will go on to the time the first bomb drops," Tillerson said in the CNN interview broadcast Sunday.
The European Union will send its top diplomat Federica Mogherini to Washington to fight for the Iran nuclear deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to scrap.
EU foreign, ministers meeting in Luxembourg Monday, echoed concerns from international leaders over Trump's decision to decertify Irans compliance with the accord.
With his announcement to decertify the nuclear agreement Friday, Trump left it up to Congress as to whether to reimpose economic sanctions that were in place before the United States, the European Union, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China reached the 2015 accord with Iran.
"Clearly, the ministers are concerned about the fact that messages on the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] might affect negatively the possibility of opening negotiations or opening even the space for negotiations with the DPRK [North Korea]," Mogherini told reporters after the bloc's 28 foreign ministers held talks.
None of the five other nations or the EU that reached the deal with Iran have agreed with Trump's stance against it.
The European Union has imposed new sanctions on North Korea aimed at punishing the country for its nuclear and ballistic weapons program.
EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to a total ban on EU investment in the communist country, a measure that goes beyond the latest U.N. sanctions. They also banned the sale of oil and refined petroleum products to North Korea, in a largely symbolic move aimed at encouraging countries that have more significant levels of trade with North Korea to follow suit.
The ministers also cut the amount of money that people can send to North Korea from $17,700 to $5,900, saying they believe the remittances are being used to back Pyongyang's arms program.
As part of the new sanctions, North Korean workers in the European Union will not have their work permits renewed when they expire, except for refugees and those needing international protection.
The measures also added travel bans and asset freezes to three more top North Korean officials and six businesses.
The EU said the new steps were taken because of the "persistent threat to international peace and stability" posed by North Korea's government.
Last month, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a tough new round of economic sanctions against North Korea in response to its September 3 nuclear test of a possible hydrogen bomb.
The church was empty, except for the piano too heavy for one man to move. It had been 21 days since the greatest storm Wayne Christopher had ever seen dumped a year's worth of rain on his town, drowning this church where he was baptized, met his high school sweetheart and later married her.
He had piled the ruined pews out on the curb, next to water-logged hymnals and molding Sunday school lesson plans and chunks of drywall that used to be a mural of Noah's Ark. Now he tilted his head up to take in the mountain of rubble, and Christopher, an evangelical Christian and a conservative Republican, considered what caused this destruction: that the violent act of nature had been made worse by acts of man.
"I think the Lord put us over the care of his creation, and when we pollute like we do, destroy the land, there's consequences to that," he said. "It might not catch up with us just right now, but it's gonna catch up. Like a wound that needs to be healed."
Jefferson County, Texas, is among the low-lying coastal areas of America that could lose the most as the ice caps melt and the seas warm and rise. At the same time, it is more economically dependent on the petroleum industry and its emissions-spewing refineries than any other place in the U.S. Residents seemed to choose between the two last November, abandoning a four-decade-old pattern of voting Democratic in presidential elections to support Donald Trump.
Then came Hurricane Harvey. Now some conservatives here are newly confronting some of the most polarizing questions in American political discourse: What role do humans play in global warming and the worsening of storms like Harvey? And what should they expect their leaders including the climate-skeptic president they helped elect to do about the problem now?
Answers are hard to come by in a place where refineries stand like cityscapes. Nearly 5,000 people work in the petroleum industry. Some have described the chemical stink in the air as "the smell of money" it means paychecks, paid mortgages and meals.
Christopher, like most people in Jefferson County, believed that global warming was real before the storm hit. Post-Harvey, surrounded by debris stretching for block after block, he thinks the president's outright rejection of the scientific consensus is no longer good enough.
But how do you help the climate without hurting those who depend on climate-polluting industries?
"It's a Catch-22 kind of thing," he said. "Do you want to build your economy, or do you want to save the world?"
___
"Steroids for storms" is how Andrew Dessler explains the role global warming plays in extreme weather. Climate change didn't create Hurricane Harvey or Irma or Maria. But Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, and most scientists agree that warming and rising seas likely amplify storms that form naturally, feeding more water and more intensity as they plow toward land.
"It will be 60 inches of rain this time, maybe 80 inches next time," Dessler said of Harvey's record-setting rainfall for any single storm in U.S. history.
As a private citizen and candidate, Trump often referred to climate change as a hoax, and since taking office he and his administration have worked aggressively to undo policies designed to mitigate the damage. He announced his intention to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, a global accord of 195 nations to reduce carbon emissions, and his administration has dismantled environmental regulations and erased climate change data from government websites. This month, his Environmental Protection Agency administrator promised to kill an effort to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired plants.
Anthony Leiserowitz, a Yale University researcher, traces the politicization of the climate to 1997, when then-Democratic Vice President Al Gore brokered a commitment on the world stage to reduce greenhouse gases. The political parties have cleaved further apart ever since, and climate change denial reached a fever pitch as the Tea Party remade the GOP during President Barack Obama's first term.
Americans tend to view the issue through their already established red-versus-blue lens, Leiserowitz said. But while there are fractions on each extreme, the majority still fall somewhere along a scale in the middle.
A new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll finds that 63 percent of Americans think climate change is happening and that the government should address it, and that two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the way Trump is handling the issue. Most Americans also think weather disasters are getting more severe, and believe global warming is a factor.
As the downpour from Hurricane Harvey stretched into its second day, with no end in sight, Joe Evans watched from the window of his home in the Jefferson County seat of Beaumont, and an unexpected sense of guilt overcame him: "What have we been doing to the planet for all of these years?''
Evans, a Republican, once ran unsuccessfully for local office. He ignored climate change, as he thought Republicans were supposed to do, but Harvey's deluge left him wondering why. When he was young, discussions of the ozone layer were uncontroversial; now they're likely to end in pitched political debate.
"I think it's one of those games that politicians play with us," he said, "to once again make us choose a side."
Evans voted for Trump, but he's frustrated with what he describes as the "conservative echo chamber" that dismisses climate change instead of trying to find a way to apply conservative principles to simultaneously saving the Earth and the economy. Even today, some Republicans in the county complain about Gore and the hypocrisy they see in elite liberals who jet around the world, carbon emissions trailing behind them, to push climate policies on blue-collar workers trying to keep refinery jobs so they can feed their families.
Evans isn't sure if the disastrous run of weather will cause climate change to become a bigger priority for residents here, or if as memories fade talk of this issue will, too.
"I haven't put so much thought into it that I want to go mobilize a bunch of people and march on Washington," he said. "But it made me think enough about it that I won't actively take part in denying it. We can't do that anymore."
___
Most in Texas didn't believe climate change existed when Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, began evangelizing about the issue years ago. Now studies estimate that 69 percent of Texans believe that the climate is changing, and 52 percent believe that has been caused by human activity. Most resistance she hears now is not with the science itself but over proposed solutions that mean government intrusion and regulation.
Jefferson County's refineries produce 10 percent of the gasoline in the United States, 20 percent of diesel and half of the fuel used to fly commercial planes, said County Judge Jeff Branick, a Democrat who voted for Trump and then switched his party affiliation to Republican, in part because of his disagreement with the Democratic Party's climate policies.
Branick doesn't deny that climate change exists, but he calls himself a cheerleader for the petroleum industry and believes environmental policies are "job killers."
John Sterman, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, said addressing climate change will invariably lead to gradual job losses in the fossil fuels industry. But communities have lost a dominant industry before, and those able to diversify can prosper. Jefferson County could look to the renewable energy industry, with jobs that require many of the skills refinery workers have, he said. Texas already produces more wind power than any other state.
Angela Lopez's husband works in a refinery, so she understands the worry of the economic cost of addressing global warming. But her county is nicknamed "cancer alley" for its high levels of disease that residents have long attributed to living in the shadow of one of the largest concentrations of refineries in the world.
"It's our livelihood, but it's killing us," Lopez said, standing in what used to be her dining room. Now her house in Beaumont is down to the studs. As Harvey's floodwaters rose, she tried to save what she could. She piled the dresser drawers on the bed and perched the leather couch up on the coffee table. It did no good. The water didn't stop until it reached the eaves, and the Lopezes lost everything they own.
Just about all of her relatives are conservatives, and indeed the political divides in the county run deep: Even as most of the communities along the Gulf Coast turned red years ago, Jefferson County clung to its Democratic roots. The county is ethnically diverse 41 percent white, 34 percent black and 20 percent Hispanic with a historically strong union workforce. Trump won Jefferson by just 419 votes.
"To come up with real solutions, you have to be honest with yourself about what causes something to happen," Lopez said. "It's not just because some storm came, it was bad and unprecedented. It was unprecedented for a reason, so we have to acknowledge that and start working toward being better. And part of that conversation should be climate change."
On a porch outside another ruined house nearby, two neighbors who both lost everything to Harvey started having that conversation.
Gene Jones, a truck driver who didn't vote, asked Wilton Johnson, a Trump supporter, if he thought climate change intensified the storm.
"I don't think so, no," Johnson said.
"You don't? You don't think about the chemical plants and the hot weather? You don't think that has anything to do with it?"
"I can understand people believing that," Johnson replied. But he blames natural weather cycles for upending their lives so completely.
Jones now lives in a camper in his driveway; Johnson's father has been sleeping in a recliner in his yard to ward off looters.
Johnson feels like he's gone through the stages of grief. At first, as he fled his home, he denied how devastating the storm might be. Then he got angry, when he realized nothing could be saved not the family photos or the 100-year-old Bible that fell apart in his hands. He grew depressed and now, finally, he thinks he's come to accept this new reality as something that just happened because nature is not always kind, and never has been.
And he remains unshaken in his support for Trump's environmental agenda.
"We need to be responsible human beings to the Earth, but at the same time we shouldn't sacrifice the financial freedoms," he said. "What good is a great environment if we're poor and living like cavemen? And vice versa, I understand the other side of that: What's great about living in luxury when you can't go outside?
"I just don't think we should look at two storms and say, 'We're ruining the Earth! Shut the plants down!'"
___
When Wayne Christopher was a boy in Jefferson County, it got so hot he remembers frying eggs on the sidewalk. It has always been hot here, and there have always been hurricanes.
But it seems to him that something is different now. There is a palpable intensity in the air, in the haze that hangs over the interstate. The region has warmed about two degrees in his lifetime, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and annual rainfall has increased by about 7 inches on average. Christopher counts the number of times a beach road he's driven on all his life has had to be rebuilt because the ocean overtook it.
"The sea keeps moving in water rising, land disappearing or eroding or whatever you want to call it it's happening," said Christopher, who is 66 now and retired after toiling more than 40 years for the railroad. "I think Mother Nature can come back, but there's a point to where, if we just keep on and keep on, I don't know if she can come back."
He thinks the president he helped put in office should do something: take the threat seriously, research before he talks or tweets, not dismiss established science as a hoax because acknowledging it's real would mean acknowledging that something must be done.
But like many others here, Christopher is not pushing to stick with the Paris climate agreement or other global coalitions because he's not sure it's fair that the United States should invest in clean energy when other countries that pollute might not. He worries that could cause more job losses to overseas factories, put a squeeze on the middle class and forfeit a slice of American sovereignty.
His wife, who also supported Trump, cocked her head as she thought about that sentiment.
"I can see the pros, I can see the cons," Polly Christopher said. "But if you were to simplify it to your children, and they say, 'Well, everybody else is doing it, if I do it what difference is it going to make?' you would just get on them and say, 'You've got to do the right thing. Right is right, and wrong's wrong.'"
For weeks, the couple have been gutting Memorial Baptist Church, a place they consider their home. The congregation dwindled over time to about 45, mostly older people, and it was so hard to make ends meet the church canceled a $19,000-a-year flood insurance policy just two months before Harvey hit. Now it could cost some $1 million to rebuild, meaning the church may never be rebuilt at all.
So when Christopher's granddaughter came by to help, found the piano in the otherwise empty sanctuary, sat down and started to play, he was overcome with a sense of grief.
"In my head I was thinking the whole time, this could be the last time that piano is played inside the auditorium," he said. Then she started to sing: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound ..."
"It did something to me," he said.
Both he and his wife believe President Trump has a responsibility to look at the destruction Harvey left them with and act accordingly.
"He's got a business mind. Whatever it takes to make money, that's what he's going to do to make America great again," Christopher said, and that's why he voted for Trump. "But it does make me wonder if he looks at global warming as a real harm. Because you can make all the money in the world here. But if you don't have a world, what good is it going to do you?"
Among the 1900s-era row of brick buildings on a Queens, New York Avenue, Lotus Deli is a one-stop shop for warm breakfast sandwiches, batteries, cigarettes, and late-night craft beer.
Owner Hatem El-Gamasy is the first New Yorker to greet you in the morning, and the last to say good night. To his diverse customer base, he is known as "Timmy," a father of two who safeguards neighbors' deliveries, holds keys for visiting in-laws, and greets your dog by name.
But to viewers 9,000 kilometers east of New York City, El-Gamasy a Qewaisna Al Balad-native Egyptian-American and graduate of Menoufia University is known as a self-assured TV analyst, specializing in U.S. foreign policy and Middle Eastern affairs.
"I have four people working for me, this [deli] is how I feed my family," El-Gamasy said. "At the same time, I'm doing great discussing politics."
In a moment's notice, El-Gamasy, 48, loses the paperboy cap, slips into his repurposed back room, and fixes his necktie. He is Skype debate-ready in minutes.
"When they have breaking news, they may call you immediately," El-Gamasy explains of TV newsrooms.
Generating controversy
El-Gamasy had written opinion pieces for years, but generally went unnoticed by Egyptian broadcasters. That changed last year, when he predicted Donald Trump would win the presidential election even though democratic opponent Hillary Clinton was far ahead in the polls. Nile TV, a state channel, caught wind of the piece and interviewed El-Gamasy. After that, his phone rang a lot.
In September, The New York Times published an exclusive feature on El-Gamasy, revealing his unconventional TV reporting life to his audience and the world outside Ridgewood, Queens.
Nationally, discussion boards heralded his journey as an epitome of the "American Dream" the notion that hard work plus equal opportunity may earn you limitless possibilities.
Abroad, his reception was varied.
"The late [professor and writer on Middle Eastern Affairs] Fouad Ajami, who was both an academic and a successful commentator, used to joke that he wanted to open a restaurant though he never did," wrote Edward Yeranian, a foreign correspondent in Egypt who reports for VOA, "so I wouldn't judge the man because he owns a deli shop."
But news outlets and social media forums across Egypt and the Middle East were more critical of El-Gamasy's credibility.
An Arabic-language video by the online outlet Rassd News Network, which has gathered more than half a million views on Facebook, mocks El-Gamasy while falsely claiming that he actually lives in California. In the comments section, a language barrier-transcending "crying with laughter" emoji is prevalent.
The Lens Post, a bilingual English and Arabic site that claims to be by Arab youth, "for Arab youth," calls El-Gamasy's story "scandalous," and an example of "many fake political analysts" who appear on Egyptian TV news.
Backlash
"Oh, the political analyst Mr. Gamasy is just a sandwich guy; he's a pancake guy; he's this and this, nothing else,'" El-Gamasy recalls the commentary, "as if owning a small business is something I should be ashamed of. ... I have nothing to regret."
El-Gamasy has not been shy with his on-air criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Qatari government, and "fanatic religious groups," views which he believes fueled an offensive among his disparagers.
The reaction was swift and apparent. In the four weeks since The New York Times' article was published, Egyptian television outlets which used his commentary most CBC eXtra News, ONtvLIVE, and Nile News stopped calling.
Eventually, he stripped the matching $2.99 maps of the United States the backdrop for his Skype recordings from the walls. The padlock dangling against his orange back door, separating the deli from his studio, has since been clamped shut.
But behind it, one remnant of El-Gamasy's TV appearances remains: a single hanging black suit, together with a knotted gray tie and red Van Heusen button-down shirt.
"I'm not totally dead, you know," he smiled.
Once a pundit
When he's not ringing up customers or discussing politics over coffee behind the counter, El-Gamasy spends hours honing his poetry and short stories, while keeping tabs on White House and Department of State email updates on foreign policy.
Late at night, El-Gamasy still pores over his many composition notebooks penning, drafting and re-drafting articles for accuracy and eventual publication.
"Politics is like a running river," he said. "Nothing stops."
Following the October 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas, El-Gamasy was invited to participate in a live 30-minute news discussion with U.S. Arab Radio, a platform dedicated to providing news and analysis to the U.S. Arab diaspora.
Refaat Abid, U.S. Arab Radio's New York-based host, says he sought out El-Gamasy after viewing one of his TV appearances in May. El-Gamasy had been talking about FBI director James Comey's firing and investigations into possible Russian interference in the U.S. election.
"He has a beautiful voice, like a poet," Abid said.
While he doesn't know whether he'll return to TV political analysis, El-Gamasy says other doors such as the radio appearance have opened for him.
'To realize one's destiny'
As the evening's golden hour sets upon Lotus Deli, El-Gamasy basks in the quiet from behind the counter.
His index finger skims, line to line, through Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, a book he has read several times.
He stops at a well-known passage and reads aloud:
"To realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation. All things are one. And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."
El-Gamasy takes a sip of coffee: "It's really an inspiring book."
Content but tired, he contemplates a short nap. The night is young, and the week is long.
And there are many blank pages to fill.
Iraqi forces advanced rapidly through the northern reaches of the country Tuesday, recapturing territory and the two largest oil fields from Kurds, virtually ending their hopes for an independent state.
A day after seizing Kirkuk, a city of a million people, Baghdad's troops took back towns and the countryside, with the Kurds retreating without a fight.
The Bai Hasan and Avana oil fields accounted for about 250,000 barrels of production a day of the 650,000 the autonomous Kurdish region exported to finance its operations. Their loss deals an economic blow to Kurdish efforts to declare independence from the central government in Baghdad. Kurds voted in a referendum last month for a separate state, but Baghdad declared the vote illegal.
Iraqi oil minister Jabar al-Luaibi said Baghdad would now try to boost production at the Kirkuk oil fields to more than one million barrels a day.
The U.S. has trained both the Iraqi forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, aligning with them jointly in the fight against Islamic State jihadists. U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. has taken no sides as the balance of power shifts in northern Iraq.
WATCH: US Not Taking Sides in Iraqi-Kurdish Skirmishes
'Peaceful handover'
U.S. Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the U.S.-supported coalition fighting Islamic State, said, What we have seen is a peaceful handover of areas around Kirkuk. They handed over the keys if you will.
He said that aside from a skirmish south of Kirkuk early Monday that claimed the lives of Iraqi forces and Peshmerga fighters after miscommunications at a Kurdish checkpoint, there have been no further reports of armed conflict or contact between the two groups.
He said U.S. military commanders are continuing to monitor the situation, and our leaders, talking with counterparts in both the Iraqi Security Forces and the Peshmerga, urge all sides to avoid escalation. These tensions distract from our unified fight against ISIS, which remains a very real threat here in Iraq.
A Yazidi group allied with Baghdad also took control of the town of Sinjar, with Kurdish forces leaving before dawn Tuesday. The Peshmerga also pulled out of the long-disputed Khanaqin region near the Iranian border.
The Kurds had taken control of the territory they yielded this week in the chaos following the Islamic State advance through northern and western Iraq in 2014. Now the jihadists have also lost much of the vast sweep of lands they claimed in Iraq and Syria, including Raqqa in northern Syria, once the self-proclaimed capital of their religious caliphate.
Iraqi flags raised
Tuesdays developments followed a swift move by Iraqi government forces Monday to capture the Kirkuk governor's office, key military sites and an oil field. The U.S.-trained troops, acting on orders from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, raised Iraqi flags in place of Kurdish banners.
The U.S. Defense Department, which has supported the Iraqi forces and helped train Kurdish fighters in the battle against Islamic State militants, said Monday the Iraqi troop movements were coordinated with Peshmerga force withdrawals.
We continue to support a unified Iraq. Dialogue remains the best option to defuse ongoing tensions and longstanding issues, Pentagon spokesman Army Colonel Robert Manning told reporters Monday.
'Heavy price'
However, the Peshmerga said Baghdad would pay a heavy price for the war on the Kurdistan people.
When asked about the situation during a press briefing at the White House, Trump said the United States is remaining neutral, noting the very good relationship with the Kurds and that we've also been on the side of Iraq.
We don't like the fact that they're clashing, Trump said. We are not taking sides in that battle.
Carla Babb, Nike Ching, Michael Bowman, Serhan Akyildiz and Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an appeal from the Justice Department on whether U.S. investigators can obtain emails stored overseas if they have a search warrant.
Since 2013, Microsoft has defied U.S. authorities in turning over emails that were stored on a data center in Ireland. While the investigators had a search warrant to obtain private records - in this case, emails - regarding a drug-trafficking case, Microsoft argued the warrant was valid under U. S. law but did not apply to other countries.
Microsofts lawyers maintained that the Stored Communications Act of 1986, the federal law that regulates electronic records, does not extend beyond the United States. Under the same logic, the tech company argued foreign governments could cause Microsoft to turn over data stored on U.S. servers.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court in New York overruled the Justice Department in favor of Microsoft. The Microsoft-Ireland decision, as it has come to be known, set a precedent for tech companies on U.S. soil. Essentially, tech companies can withhold digital evidence of crimes in the United States if the data is on a foreign server.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of investigations of crimes - ranging from terrorism to child pornography to fraud - are being or will be hampered by the governments inability to obtain electronic evidence, Jeffrey Wall, Deputy Attorney General, said in the appeal, which was made in June. The decision protects only criminals whose communications are placed out of reach of law enforcement officials because of the business decisions of private providers.
The Supreme Court will hear the case early next year. Unlike most cases regarding privacy, the case does not hinge on Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure, but the Stored Communications Act of 1986 on electronic records and privacy.
Protesters in the Kenyan city of Kisumu defied a local government ban on rallies Monday to demand reforms in the country's electoral commission. This is the fourth Monday in a row demonstrators have marched on the commission's offices.
The morning was relatively peaceful when protesters marched to the offices of the electoral commission offices in Kisumu's city center. But in the afternoon, police used teargas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. One person was killed.
John Omondi, a local businessman, was among those rallying in support of opposition leader Raila Amolo Odinga.
We are in the street because we want change in Kenya, because Raila Amolo Odinga has fought for change for so long and we have not managed or [have been] able to get that change. We will still push on for the demonstration so that we get that change, Omondi said.
Kisumu is Odingas hometown and he enjoys strong support in the city.
Odinga, who ran against incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta in an August election, challenged Kenyattas win in the poll. The Supreme Court overturned the results, saying they were neither transparent or verifiable.
The court ordered the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, or IEBC, to conduct a re-run election within 60 days of its September 1 ruling.
Since then, Odinga has demanded the commission fire members who were allegedly involved in the August electoral irregularities. The commission has said it has no time to make personnel changes.
Last week Odinga withdrew from the October 26 re-run election blaming the commission and the ruling Jubilee party of planning to rig the vote.
Protester Omondi said Odinga has not gone away from the countrys political scene.
The fact that Raila Odinga withdrew from the presidential race doesnt mean that he withdrew it completely because he is still waiting for reforms at the IEBC and when any change takes place at the IEBC he still will be in the race, Omondi said.
However, the opposition has vowed to continue with its weekly protests at the commission offices.
Protester Joseph Otieno says more pressure must be put on the electoral commission.
"This demonstration is not that big as we wanted it. We want one that will take place every day and night. This is a joke and the only way we can get change is pushing for daily demonstrations."
Meanwhile, Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have accused Kenyas police of killing 33 people while breaking up post-election protests.
In a report titled Kenya: Kill those criminals: Security forces violations in Kenya's August 2017 elections, Amnesty documents what it calls the use of excessive force by authorities in quelling protests in opposition areas.
Police have previously denied killing protesters. The Interior Ministry did acknowledge nine people have died since August and three more on Friday in Bondo, in the west of the country.
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who withdrew from a presidential election re-run set for October 26 saying it should only take place once wide-ranging reforms are undertaken, urged his supporters on Sunday to hold protests.
Authorities have banned protests in central Nairobi and other hotspots in a bid to keep a lid on mounting political turmoil in the build-up to the repeat vote, in which Odinga had been set to challenge President Uhuru Kenyatta once again.
The Supreme Court nullified Kenyatta's victory in the original election on August 8, citing procedural irregularities.
On Friday, Odinga said his withdrawal meant the poll had been "cancelled" and that there should be fresh nominations for a new vote.
"Come out in large numbers tomorrow like you have done today and fear no one. This is your country and you have the right to protest," he told a crowd in the coastal city of Mombasa.
The election board has said the vote will go ahead, with Kenyatta facing six other candidates, none of whom polled more than 1 percent in August.
During a trip to London last week, Odinga told Reuters that he might consider returning to the Supreme Court for clarification on whether the October 26 poll was legal.
"I went to tell our friends in London the truth of what was happening here. Jubilee should know that we are not interested in a coalition government," he said, referring to Kenyatta's party.
Despite the ban, protests have taken place in the East African country - a regional and trade gateway which is the region's richest economy and an important Western ally in the fight against militant Islamists.
On Friday, Kenyan police shot dead two people and wounded a third when a crowd tried to storm a police station in the town of Bondo in the southwest county of Siaya during a rally.
Police also used teargas to break up small demonstrations in, Kenya's three main cities - Kisumu, the capital and the port of Mombasa - the same day, defying the ban on rallies in city centers. Hospital authorities said 20 people were injured in Kisumu, an opposition stronghold.
"I am ready to die for change in Kenya," James Orengo, an opposition senator and lawyer who led Odinga's successful petition at the Supreme Court, told the crowd in Mombasa, which numbered in the thousands.
TWIN FALLS Anticipating less state funding and more expenses, Trans IV Buses is asking for the citys financial support in the upcoming 2019 and 2020 grant years.
On Monday, the City Council will consider a request to provide matching grant funds of about $45,000 over both years to help Trans IV offset increased costs anticipated for employees, insurance and fuel, among other items.
Trans IV is managed by the College of Southern Idaho and has provided public transportation in Twin Falls since 1979. It offers scheduled demand response service to citizens, specifically aimed to help seniors, low-income individuals and people with disabilities.
Idaho Transportation Department, which funds Trans IV, has cut the programs yearly grant amount by $101,000 per year beginning in 2016. Meanwhile, CSI has been losing money on the program due to sources for its matching funds drying up, city grant writer Mandi Thompson said.
A study the city commissioned last year determined that a fixed bus route is premature for Twin Falls, but the city should take steps toward public transportation, including additional funding for Trans IV.
In May, Trans IV Buses was a recipient of a Municipal Powers Outsource Grant from the city for $25,000.
The City Council meeting begins at 5 p.m. Monday at 303 Third Ave. E.
At the beginning of the meeting, Vice Mayor Suzanne Hawkins will read a proclamation recognizing Oct. 22 as the bicentenary of the birth of Bahaullah, the founder of the Bahai faith.
Citizens regularly send in proclamation requests to the mayor, and they are approved at his or her discretion, Mayor Shawn Barigar said.
Its an opportunity to give some publicity and give attention to issues that are important to citizens, he said.
This is the first time Barigar could recall the city has formally recognized the birth of a religious leader.
I dont really find it to be a religious proclamation, he said.
The resolution recognizes that Bahaullah brought a message of human dignity, capacity and oneness suited to the requirements of contemporary life.
The proclamation urges all to promote in themselves and in their relations with others those qualities and attributes that will help bring about the recognition of the oneness of humanity; to embrace diversity; and to work for unity in our local community, in our country, and in the world.
Another proclamation to be read Monday will be in recognition of Oct. 20 as Breast Cancer Awareness Day in Twin Falls. Attendees are encouraged to show up in pink at the meeting.
Police officers and firefighters have been wearing pink this month and are supporting women in their lives to get regular screenings, city spokeswoman Joshua Palmer said.
Also on Mondays agenda:
Recognition of firefighter Jeff Millers promotion to driver/operator; and driver/operator Dave Owens promotion to captain.
An update on the city/Urban Renewal Agency Main Avenue Project.
A request to award a bid to Rosenbauer for a new airport fire truck for $640,172.16 under an FAA grant.
A request to adopt an ordinance annexing 2.19 acres at 491 Canyon Rim Road with a residential zoning.
A request to adopt an ordinance vacating the Garnand Subdivision Conveyance plant, excluding dedicated easements and right-of-way, on property at 129 Eastland Drive.
A request to approve a records destruction resolution.
A request to rezone 2016 Addison Ave. from R-2 to R-2 PRO to allow for a professional office.
Adjournment to executive session to consider the evaluation, dismissal or disciplining of, or to hear complaints or charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member, individual agent or public school student.
Iraqi forces shut down access both in and out of Kirkuk Monday as fighting with Kurdish Peshemerga forces grew worse.
Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) moved into Kirkuk in the early hours of Monday and continue to fight Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers in the contested oil city, in addition to occupying Kirkuk airport.
We were defending the city but eventually we had no choice but to retreat, said Jabar Kareem, 37, a Peshmerga soldier heading north out of Kirkuk on Monday afternoon, his eyelashes dusty from the crowded road. They are fighting with advanced weaponry.
By evening, PMU forces had moved to the northern part of the city and mortars fell as far as seven kilometers beyond Kirkuk. Peshmerga soldiers manning the last point outside the city fully controlled by Kurdish authorities told us they were also taking sniper fire and that families that wanted to flee are now trapped inside the city.
After about five minutes with the soldiers, they ordered us away, saying they could see two PMU vehicles rapidly approaching their position.
PMUs, locally known as Hashd Shaaby, are primarily a Shia fighting force formalized under Baghdad as they fought along other Iraqi and coalition forces during the battle with Islamic State militants. Allied against IS, Kurdish Peshmerga and PMU fighters have been facing off for days around Kirkuk, with both sides massing soldiers and heavy weaponry, and building berms and other defensive lines.
Volunteer fighters
Meanwhile Kurdish civilians are pulling out personal weapons and flocking towards Kirkuk as volunteers for the Peshmerga fighters. When we are attacked, we are all Peshmerga, says Renas Hassan, 27, normally a taxi driver but now armed and on his way to Kirkuk. We will not let our city go.
PMU forces are believed to be in the process of capturing Kirkuk oil fields, which could cut the road off from Irbil, the Kurdistan Regions capital.
Kirkuk has long been claimed as both part of the Kurdistan Region in the north and part of Arab Iraq. In late September, the Kurdistan Region voted overwhelmingly in support of independence in a referendum, despite objections from the Iraqi central government in Baghdad and the international community.
Baghdad responded by grounding international flights to and from the region and imposing other sanctions. Irbil calls the sanctions and the battle that began today an attack on Kurdistan.
'Federal authority '
But Baghdad says by taking Kirkuk, which was controlled militarily by Irbil and administered by both capitals, it is simply asserting its federal authority and blames the Kurdish leadership for the conflict.
In a statement posted online Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi calls the idea of Kurdish independence the establishment of a state on an ethnic and racial basis and says the referendum was a violation of Iraqi law and the will of the international community.
The seven defense lawyers of ousted South Korean President Park Geun-hye resigned en masse Monday to protest what they say is a biased corruption trial.
Speaking for the first time since the start of her trial, Park, who was removed from office and arrested in March, called the proceedings against her an act of "political revenge."
Park was impeached in December by parliament and in March fired by the country's top court, following revelations of her involvement in a massive corruption scandal centered on a friend of 40 years and some of the country's top businessmen, including Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong.
She faces charges of bribery, extortion, abuse of power and other high-profile corruption charges that could potentially send her to jail for life.
The lawyers' resignations were submitted because they took issue with the extension of her detention. Last week it was extended until April 2018.
The court said Park could destroy evidence if she were released.
One of the lawyers told South Korean news agency Yonhap, "Witnessing the grand principles of presumption of innocence and trial without detention helplessly collapsing, the lawyers feel no need to get involved in future court proceedings." He said, "As we've reached a conclusion that any defense argument for the defendant is meaningless, all of us decided to resign."
Park told the court "I've come to the conclusion that it's meaningless to believe that the court will handle the case only in accordance with the constitution and conscience."
The former president has maintained that she is innocent.
Park is the first elected leader to be removed from office in South Korea since democratic rule was established in 1987.
The man accused of planting two bombs in New York, leaving 30 people injured in September of last year, was found guilty of all charges Monday.
Twenty-nine-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahimi of Elizabeth, New Jersey, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for charges including counts of using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a public place.
In a Department of Justice statement, Acting Assistant Attorney Dana Boente said the verdict is an important step in holding Rahimi accountable for his crimes.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said "inspired by ISIS [Islamic State] and al-Qaida, Rahimi planted and detonated bombs on the streets of Chelsea, in the heart of Manhattan, and in New Jersey, hoping to kill and maim as many innocent people as possible. Rahimis crimes of hate have been met with swift and resolute justice."
The defense said it would appeal the verdict, which followed a two-week trial. But prosecutors noted an unusually high amount of evidence against Rahimi, including fingerprints and DNA found on the bombs, and dozens of videos tracking his movements throughout the night.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio congratulated all involved with the prosecution Monday.
The Chelsea bombing was an attempt to bring our city to its knees. Instead, our NYPD, FBI and federal prosecutors have brought Ahmad Rahimi to justice," he said in a statement.
The bomb detonated in the New York neighborhood of Chelsea on the evening of September 17, 2016. Rahimi allegedly planted a second a bomb near a Marine Corps charity footrace in Seaside Park, New Jersey, also September 17. The device detonated while a bomb squad was trying to defuse it.
1 Pedestrians cross the Millennium Footbridge with the sky darkened over London caused by warm air and dust swept up by storm Ophelia. The sun shone red and the sky darkened to a foreboding orange and brown across parts of Britain, as a storm swept air and dust in from southern Europe. Social media users shared pictures of ominous-looking clouds blocking out the sun, prompting London's Science Museum to joke on Twitter: "It's not the apocalypse!"
Bangladeshi police say a boat carrying at least 50 Muslim Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine State for Bangladesh capsized in the Naf River drowning at least five people four them children. Many more remain missing.
Authorities say rescuers recovered the bodies of one woman and four children from the scene Monday.
Officials say 21 people survived the incident.
More than half a million Rohingyas have crossed the border into neighboring Bangladesh in recent weeks, fleeing a crackdown on their minority community by the Burmese military after Rohingya militants launched deadly attacks on state security forces.
The crackdown, which has resulted in widespread atrocities, has prompted widespread international condemnation, including from France's U.N. ambassador Francois Delattre who last week called it "an ethnic cleansing happening before our eyes. Myanmar officials have strongly disputed such charges.
On Monday, top United Nations refugee, migration and emergency relief officials issued a statement highlighting the urgent need to help alleviate the "the world's fastest growing refugee crisis."
"Basic services are under severe strain. In some sites, there is no access to potable water, and sanitation facilities are absent, raising health risks for both the refugees and the communities hosting them," the U.N. joint statement noted.
U.N. officials praised the generosity of local communities in Bangladesh and called on all nations to donate relief funds towards a $434 million Joint Response Plan during a pledging conference on October 23.
Fleeing Rohingyas have told harrowing accounts of the military burning their villages in northern Rakhine state, rape, killings, looting and the laying of landmines to prevent people returning to their homes.
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour has said the crisis is currently quite possibly the most acute human rights crisis in the world.
The death toll in the Somali capital Mogadishu has topped 300 as rescue teams continue to search for survivors from a massive explosion blamed on Islamist militants.
Dr. Abdulkadir Adam, head of Mogadishu ambulance services, tells VOA Somali that 302 people are confirmed dead from the blast, which struck a busy intersection in the Somali capital late Saturday.
The government says 429 injured people have been taken to local hospitals, and that the death toll is likely to rise. More than 30 badly wounded patients were flown to Turkey on Monday for treatment, including VOA Somali reporter Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle.
There has been no claim of responsibility but Somali government officials and terrorism experts strongly believe that al-Shabab militants were behind the explosion.
"Whether they claim or not claim makes no difference, we know the act that has happened, its al-Shabab," former intelligence officer Abdi Hassan Hussein told VOA. "The information we are getting so far shows this is the work of al-Shabab, it has their hallmarks."
The group has stayed silent since the blast but has killed hundreds of people in recent years through attacks on Mogadishu hotels, restaurants and other public areas.
Former al-Shabab leader condemns attack
Monday, a former top leader of al-Shabab condemned the explosion. Mukhtar Robow, al-Shabab's former deputy emir, called the attack "barbaric" and "a massive tragedy."
"Those who are behind this, whose fingerprints are on this, must refrain from shedding the blood of Muslims and repent. You are not going to go to paradise by killing innocents," he told reporters.
"People who are doing this must stop. ... I mean al-Shabab," he said.
Robow, who recently defected to the government, was a founder of al-Shabab and the number-two leader of the group as it fought the government and African Union forces for control of Mogadishu between 2007 and 2011.
During that time, the group carried out several deadly suicide attacks on Mogadishu hotels, most notably a 2010 attack on the Hotel Muna that killed 33 people, including six members of parliament.
Rally against al-Shabab
Hundreds of residents on Sunday marched to the scene of the attack, condemning the militant group.
Some protesters wept as they reached the scene and saw the apocalyptic aftermath of the explosion. The truck bomb turned one of Mogadishus most beautiful junctions into death and destruction.
Mogadishu's hospitals have been struggling to treat the badly burned victims. "This is really horrendous, unlike any other time in the past," said Dr. Mohamed Yusuf, the director of Medina hospital.
Yusuf described what happened after the explosion Saturday afternoon. "We were preparing to leave work for the day but then huge blast occurred, we were shocked, within five minutes ambulances brought in the wounded," he said.
"We have received many dead people, unlike we have ever seen. The hospital is working, we are lacking intensive care equipment, we get support from ICRC but we are still lacking full capacity."
The Somali government has called for three days of national mourning and lowering the flag at half-mast.
In Washington, the White House strongly condemned "the senseless mass murder that targeted innocent men, women and children." It said U.S. citizens were among the casualties.
"Terrorist organizations are the enemies of all civilized people. The United States stands with the people and government of Somalia in their commitment to defeating these groups, ensuring the security of their people, and rebuilding their country," a statement said.
In Paris, the lights of the Eiffel Tower were turned off at midnight Monday night in a tribute to those killed in Mogadishu.
The victims
Maryan Abdullahi, 21, just finished Banadir University where she studied medicine. She left her voluntary work at Banadir hospital Saturday and was waiting a bus when the explosion occurred. She was killed instantly. Her mother Hindo Yuusuf called her daughter's phone number as soon as she heard about the location of the explosion.
"I called her number immediately but someone else answered and they said the owner of the phone died, her body is near the hotel [Safari]," she told VOA Somali.
Abdullahis father flew from London on Saturday to attend his daughters graduation from the university. He arrived in Mogadishu Sunday morning and attended her funeral instead.
Also killed were five members of the same family who were running a clothing shop.
Aweys Moallim Ali is a cousin to the family. He too was wounded in the attack. He said his relatives own two shops but they gathered into one before the explosion.
"They were doing accounting work about the sales made so far so that they can make zakat [alms] payment. They closed the other shop and were meeting in a shop near Hotel Safari," he said.
VOA's Fern Robinson and Dan Joseph contributed to this report.
The death toll keeps climbing after Saturday's massive truck bombing in Mogadishu. By Monday afternoon, the Somali government put the death count at 276 and wounded at 429. Analysts say the Somali government must be more vigilant against improvised explosive devices if the country is to avoid similar attacks in the future.
Its being called the single deadliest attack in Somalias history; a huge truck bomb that detonated in the middle of a busy Mogadishu intersection on Saturday. Its magnitude stunned a city already well-accustomed to deadly bombings by the al-Qaida-linked terror group al-Shabab.
Somalias president Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo accused al-Shabab of the attack, although no one has yet claimed responsibility.
No end in sight
Rashid Abdi, Horn of Africa project director for the International Crisis Group, says the horrendous loss of life eclipses anything seen in Somalia in the last two decades.
He says the government needs to take greater precautions against vehicle-borne explosive devices.
For the next decade, al-Shabab will continue to be a threat," he said. "And I think they will continue to launch these kinds of suicide attacks. So expectations are that as we go forward, Somalia will continue to improve its counter-measures in basically detecting and interdicting these types of VBIEDs.
Abdi says that the internal security apparatus in the country needs to be strengthened, but notes that the task cannot be completed in a day.
Security crisis
He notes the attack happened days after Somalia's defense minister and army chief of staff resigned.
And there have been consistent reports of friction within the security services themselves. So it is quite plausible that there was a serious lapse of security largely brought about by this crisis. That is quite conceivable, he said.
Abdirashid Hashi, executive director of the Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, believes that something positive needs to come from the situation.
So I think the government can do better, and the first order of business is to use this anger and this agony to galvanize the Somali people for a common agenda and a common interest, he said.
The president has declared three days of mourning, announced that flags would be flown at half-mast, and responded to the call for donated blood.
Former al-Shabab commander Mukhtar Robow also donated blood, saying, those who are behind this, whose fingerprints are on this must refrain from shedding the blood of Muslims and repent. You are not going to go to paradise by killing innocents.
More than 30 severely wounded patients were airlifted to Turkey Monday, including a VOA freelance reporter.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters "we'll take a look" at visiting the Korean Demilitarized Zone during his planned five-nation Asian trip next month.
South Korean media have speculated that Trump could go to the heavily-armed DMZ, the narrow strip of land separating South and North Korea that provides a vantage point looking into the reclusive and isolated nation.
Trump did not directly answer whether such a visit similar to the one Vice President Mike Pence made in April would be seen as provocative by the North Koreans.
"Every American president has visited the DMZ, and President Trump should, too," said a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and assistant secretary of state, Christopher Hill.
Hill, now dean of the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, added that "timing is also something to weigh."
Ned Price, a former National Security Council senior director and assistant to President Barack Obama agreed, saying "the North Koreans would interpret any visit as provocative."
Price told VOA that what the president says or does while at the DMZ "would determine just how the North Koreans react. Any blustery language such as what we've seen in recent weeks would be hugely detrimental to the cause of a diplomatic de-escalation."
Trump, during his upcoming trip to Asia, is looking to ramp up pressure against North Korea's nuclear weapons development, but also promote American economic interests in the region.
Trump has marshaled international support at the United Nations for economic sanctions against North Korea intended to deprive Pyongyang of export money to fund its nuclear weapons program. But North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has continued nuclear and ballistic missile tests, certain to be a focal point of Trump's talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Retired U.S. General Jack Keane, a former Army Vice Chief of Staff with close ties to the Trump administration, told VOA's Korean Service that if Pyongyang aims nuclearized intercontinental ballistic missiles ((ICBM)) at America and its Pacific territories, which include Guam, it would not be unrealistic for Washington to launch pre-emptive strikes against the isolated regime.
Keane said President Trump will consider that "an act of war" by the North. "We can say that war on the peninsula is not realistic," Keane said, "but if Kim Jong Un is going to bring it to that point, that is what is going to exactly happen."
The White House said Monday that Trump's trip from November 3 to 14 will include stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. The president is to hold talks with the heads of state at each stop. The president will also meet Japanese Emperor Akihito on November 6, as well as play a round of golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In Seoul, Trump is also to speak to South Korea's National Assembly.
In Japan November 5, Trump is meeting with American and Japanese service members and will hold talks with Abe, who is also hosting him for a meeting with families of Japanese nationals who have been abducted by the North Korean regime.
After the visit to South Korea, Trump heads to Beijing for his meeting with Xi, whom he has often praised for his attempts to curb North Korea's weapons development, as well as commercial and cultural events.
Trump's fourth Asian stop is in Danang, Vietnam, on November 10, where he is to meet regional leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and deliver a speech.
The White House said Trump will lay out "the United States' vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region and underscore the important role the region plays in advancing America's economic prosperity."
But Trump could face sharp questions about why he pulled the U.S. from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade deal that was years in the making and promoted, along with Japan, by former President Barack Obama as beneficial for businesses, workers and consumers.
Trump has said he favors one-on-one trade deals with other countries.
Officials from Tokyo are currently in Washington looking for a way forward on bilateral and regional trade.
Pence, on Monday, met Japan's deputy prime minister Taro Aso, also the finance minister, for the second round of the U.S.-Japan Economic Dialogue.
"We believe this dialogue has the potential to significantly deepen our bilateral economic ties and produce jobs, prosperity and growth on both sides of the Pacific," Pence said.
The vice president added the dialogue is focused on "a common strategy on trade and investment rules and issues to ensure a free and fair trading relationship between our two nations."
Also attending the meeting with the Japanese officials were Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, William Hagerty.
Trump on Monday left doubt as to whether he will visit the Philippines, which is the last country on his November itinerary in Asia.
"We've been invited to the Philippines, so I may be going to the Philippines," Trump said.
Trump is scheduled to meet Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, whose bloody crackdown on drug dealers has been condemned by some U.S. officials and much of the international community. But Trump, in an April phone call with Duterte, praised him for the "unbelievable job on the drug problem" he had launched in the island nation.
Turkey has offered assistance to the Iraqi government in its effort to take control of the city of Kirkuk from Kurdish peshmerga forces.
The offer was made in a statement by the Turkish foreign ministry: "We once again emphasize the importance we attach to the protection of Iraq's political unity and territorial integrity."
Ankara strongly backs Baghdad in its opposition to an independence referendum passed last month by Iraqi Kurds. Turkey fears similar secessionist demands from its own large restive Kurdish minority.
"Ankara's thinking is that if Kirkuk is taken back from Iraqi Kurds, then their dreams of independence are quashed permanently and there would be one less problem in Turkish foreign policy," said political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.
Kirkuk has approximately 5 percent of world's oil reserves, and Iraqi Kurds have been exporting around 60,000 barrels a day from the region under its control.
Pro-government Turkish media gloated over reports of the imminent fall of Kirkuk.
"[Kurdish president Masoud] Barzani's childhood dream shattered," wrote the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak. Despite Kirkuk's multi-ethnic population, the identity of many Kurds is linked to their capital. On Monday, Ankara stepped up its pressure on the semiautonomous Iraqi Kurdish region, announcing an air embargo in the latest sanction to protest the referendum vote.
Monday's foreign office statement also reiterated Kirkuk's multi-ethnic identity, underlining the importance of the Turkmen population.
"Our relatives, our kinsman, rhetoric re-emerged [for] a while now," observed former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who established Turkey's consulate in the Iraqi Kurdish region. "It proves the fact, the oncoming presidential elections which will be held in 2019 effect the foreign policy of Turkey."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing a widely predicted close re-election bid and is courting nationalist voters, many of whom care deeply about Kirkuk and the fate of their Iraqi ethnic kin.
"The nationalists consider Kirkuk and Mosul part of Turkey," said analyst Yesilada. "Kirkuk city and Kirkuk province, there are up to more than a million Turkmens more than 50 percent are Sunni and they have close ties to Turkey. This is an important issue for Turkey and, in particular, for [Turkey's Nationalist Action Party leader] Mr. [Devlet] Bahceli, who is an implicit partner for Mr. Erdogan's endeavors at home and abroad."
Last month, Bahceli declared that 5,000 of his party members would go to Kirkuk to protect Turkmen against the city's then-Kurdish rulers. But analysts warn the threat faced by Turkmen is far from removed, with Baghdad forces set to take back control.
"Baghdad's policy so far has been to disenfranchise the minorities, which are Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. And this policy, if the Shia or Iraqi army take over Kirkuk, I am fairly sure they will not treat minorities with grace or favor," Yesilada said.
Baghdad appears sensitive to such concerns.
"The Iraqi government was clever enough to use a Turkmen brigade among the PMU [Iraqi Shia militia force] that claimed Kirkuk province," said former senior Turkish diplomat Selcen. "And not only the PMU is being used, but also the main duties are on the shoulders of the Iraqi army and Iraqi special forces Golden Division [Sunni military forces] elements."
But Selcen says Ankara's offers of military assistance will likely be rejected politically. A planned visit Sunday by Turkish Prime Minster Binali Yildirim was canceled, as was a high-level Turkish minister delegation Monday because of the Iraqi military operation in Kirkuk.
Analysts point out that while Ankara and Baghdad have found common ground on thwarting Iraqi Kurdish independence aspirations, strategic differences remain that potentially could come to the fore over the fate of Iraq's ethnic Turks.
Turkey is expanding its latest military intervention in Syria rapidly, sending more special forces and commandos into Idlib as part of a high-risk effort agreed to with Moscow and Tehran to establish a de-escalation zone in the northwest Syrian province that is mainly controlled by an al-Qaida offshoot.
The intervention is the biggest incursion by the Turks in Syria since last year, when Turkish forces partnered with Free Syrian Army (FSA) militias, once aided by the U.S. but now dependent on Ankara, to clear Islamic State militants, as well as Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), from a stretch along the Turkish border in neighboring Aleppo province.
Analysts say the most recent incursion has several aims, including encircling a Kurdish enclave Turkey does not want the Kurds to unite with other territory they control further east. It marks a deepening of efforts by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran to try to shape an end-game to the long-running Syria conflict, independent of Western priorities and participation.
Turkish officials say the intervention in Idlib is part of a deal reached last month with Russia and Iran to reduce clashes between rebels based in Idlib and the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
For the Turks, the halting of clashes between insurgents, including al-Qaida offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Syrian regime, reduces the chances of refugee flight towards the Turkish border. More than two million people are estimated to be living in Idlib province, and prior to the agreement to set up a de-escalation zone there, the province was being targeted by Russian and Syrian regime warplanes in a vicious air campaign that killed hundreds of civilians.
Cengiz Tomar, an analyst with the Istanbul-based Marmara University, told a conference in Istanbul last week a key goal for Ankara is to prevent a new wave of refugees from Syria.
Damascus has raised objections to the Turkish intervention, denouncing the incursion as a violation of its sovereignty, and on Saturday demanding an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Turkish troops deployed to Idlib alongside FSA fighters militiamen. But the condemnation from President Bashar al-Assads government strikes many as a face-saving one.
A senior Turkish lawmaker, who is a member of President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling party, told the news outlet Al Jazeera the Syrian governments demand for Turkish troops to withdraw was for domestic Syrian public opinion and should not be taken seriously.
At the end of the day, foreign troops have entered the Syrian land and this has to be explained to the Syrian public one way or another, said lawmaker Kani Torun.
No objections from Russia
Russia, a key Assad ally, has raised no objections. On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the de-escalation zones a total of four across the country were conducted in the framework of the Astana talks with the participation of the three guarantor countries, Russia, Turkey and Iran.
Cooperation with Russia is one of the key elements of our foreign policy. We are in close coordination on Syria as well, Turkish Parliament spokesman Ismail Kahraman told reporters on Saturday in in St. Petersburg after a meeting with Russian officials.
The Turkish intervention began overnight Thursday when four convoys of armored vehicles, including tanks, crossed into Idlib near Bab al-Hawa.
On Saturday more convoys moved into position on the Turkish side ready to cross, say FSA commanders.
FSA rebels said the intervention force will probably go up to 40 kilometers inside Idlib province, giving the Turks and their FSA allies control of a large pocket of Syrian territory stretching from Bab al-Hawa to Jarablus city and south to the town of al-Bab, northeast of Aleppo city.
For Syrian Kurds aligned with the YPG, the Turkish incursion into Idlib represents a further threat to their interests and will block them from linking up territory they control along the Turkish border, some of it captured from FSA militias and jihadists.
Afrin, a Kurdish enclave the Turks have periodically bombarded, is potentially in Turkish cross-hairs. Ankara has threatened to expel Kurdish forces based there.
We have no tolerance for the smallest wrong in Afrin, Erdogan told reporters Friday while en route to Ankara from a trip in the Balkans.
But the intervention is high-risk for Turkey. There are many moving parts involved in what will be a phased operation, if the Turks are to be successful in pacifying Idlib. A key challenge will be constraining al-Qaida offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra.
Aron Lund, a Syria specialist at the U.S.-based think tank The Century Foundation, has questioned how Turkey will implement de-escalation.
The obvious stumbling block is the fact that much of Idlib is under the control of Tahrir al-Sham, which is viewed internationally as a terrorist group, he said.
So far, HTS has been withdrawing its fighters, allowing the Turks and their allies to move in. The al-Qaida offshoot also provided an escort for the initial Turkish convoys last week, helping the Turks complete an encirclement of Afrin. That has prompted Kurdish accusations of Ankara being in cahoots with the jihadist group.
But it isn't clear HTS has much choice but to comply - to do otherwise would risk the Turks moving against them, according to Yezid Sayigh, an analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center, a policy research group.
He argued even before the Turkish incursion was launched that Ankaras moves to set up a de-escalation zone could pave the way for an offensive against HTS.
An added complication for Turkey may come from a breakaway from HTS, which has sworn allegiance to a son of Osama bin Laden, Hamza.
According to the jihad and terrorism monitoring group the Middle East Media Research Institute, Ansar Al-Furqan Fi Bilad Al-Sham (the Supporters of the Qur'an in Syria) has sworn to target U.S. interests primarily but in statement released on October 10, the breakaway said it is also ready to fight the Turkish army.
As the tense nuclear standoff between North Korea and the United States continues to escalate, the risk of military conflict grows, while hopes for a peaceful solution remain remote.
On Sunday U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said diplomatic efforts to persuade the Kim Jong Un government to give up its nuclear and long range ballistic missile program will continue until the first bomb drops.
But President Donald Trump has been pessimistic on the prospect of finding any diplomatic solution. He has called Tillersons efforts a waste of time and indicated that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un cannot be trusted to adhere to any diplomatic agreement as the leadership in Pyongyang has repeatedly violated past denuclearization deals.
"I think I might have a somewhat different attitude, and a different way than other people. I think perhaps I feel stronger and tougher on that subject, than other people," Trump said last week.
Systematic preparations
The Trump administrations hardline stance demanding North Korea unilaterally stop developing a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the U.S. mainland could be a negotiating strategy, but critics fear it could also be laying the groundwork for the eventual use of military force.
This administration not just Trump, this administration is systematically preparing for a time not that far off in the future, basically next year the way I interpreted it in context, when diplomacy has failed, said John Delury, an international relations professor at Yonsei University in Seoul.
A recent poll shows increasing U.S. support among President Donald Trumps Republican supporters for a preemptive strike to take out North Korean nuclear or ballistic missile sites, although a strong majority of Americans still oppose the use of force.
While launching such a strike to prevent an imminent North Korean attack on the U.S. would be a justifiable use of force, it might be difficult to prove.
But any first strike military options, including possible cyberattacks to sabotage North Korean missile tests, or a decapitation strike to kill Kim Jong Un and the leadership in Pyongyang, would risk deadly retaliation against South Korea along with the 28,000 American troops stationed in the south, and could plunge the entire region into a nuclear war.
I think that would be morally, diplomatically, strategically, politically a great disaster, not only for the people of Korea and the region, but for the United States of America too, said North Korea analyst David Straub with the Sejong Institute.
Military brinksmanship
Yet neither side is acting to reduce tensions, as they remain locked in what seems a deadly game of brinksmanship.
The United States and South Korea began week-long joint Navy drills in the waters around the Korean peninsula that involve about 40 naval ships from both countries, including the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and U.S. submarine Michigan.
South Korean media is reporting that a U.S. Special Forces unit practicing for "decapitation" operations is taking part in the joint exercises.
The U.S. has also sent a B-1B Lancer strategic bomber and F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jets to participate in the Seoul air show this week.
And the U.S. forces in Korea will begin non-combatant evacuation training next week for service members and their families in case of a North Korean attack or other disaster.
North Korea in turn is expected to test another long-range missile soon. The Norths state news agency KCNA on Friday indicated a missile test might target waters near the U.S. territory of Guam." In August, Trump said the U.S. would respond with fire and fury to an earlier North Korean threat to target Guam.
Pyongyang says the Trump administrations hostile intent, and the increased military buildup, further justify its need for a nuclear deterrent.
U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan for five years before being freed in a prisoner swap, pleaded guilty Monday to charges that he endangered comrades by walking off his post.
At a court martial hearing in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Bergdahl pleaded guilty to charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. The latter carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban shortly after he left his remote post in 2009, prompting an extensive manhunt. The soldier from Idaho previously explained his actions saying he merely intended to cause alarm and draw attention to what he saw as problems with his unit.
Bergdahl was freed from captivity in 2014 in exchange for five Taliban detainees held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His high-profile case drew national political attention. President Barack Obama was criticized by Republicans who claimed the prisoner trade jeopardized the nation's security. Then-candidate Donald Trump repeatedly called Bergdahl a "traitor" who should be executed.
Speaking last year in an on-camera interview by a British filmmaker, which aired Monday on ABC News, Bergdahl said Trump's comments would make his chance for a fair trial impossible.
We may as well go back to kangaroo courts and lynch mobs that got what they wanted, Bergdahl said. The people who want to hang me, youre never going to convince those people.
U.S. Army Forces Command spokesman Paul Boyce told VOA ahead of Bergdahl's plea that the Army continues to maintain careful respect for the military-judicial process, the rights of the accused, and ensuring the case's fairness and impartiality during this ongoing legal case.
Venezuela's opposition coalition has rejected the results of Sunday's gubernatorial elections, in which the ruling Socialist Party won at least 17 of the countrys 23 states.
"We do not recognize any of the results at this time. We are facing a very serious moment for the country," said Gerardo Blyde, campaign director for the Democratic Union Roundtable (Mesa de la Unidad Democratica, or MUD). He called for a full audit of the results.
The opposition, which had been predicted to take at least half the seats, held control in just five states. Results were pending Monday in Bolivar, a state in the countrys east.
President Nicolas Maduro, 54, hailed the results as a win for "Chavismo," referring to the movements name for his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
"Today, Chavism devastated" the opposition, he exulted in a televised speech Sunday from the presidential palace. " Chavismo is alive, is on the street and is triumphant."
Maduro says voter turnout was a relatively high 61 percent, and he later tweeted that "the Venezuelan people have achieved the triumph of peace and democracy through the vote."
The United States applauds what the State Department calls the "courage, determination and the will of the Venezuelan people who tried to endorse their constitutional rights" by voting.
However, it says, their voice was not heard, as the election was neither free nor fair. It is spelling out a list of election irregularities, including a lack of independent credible observers, no announcement of last minute changes to polling place locations, manipulation of ballot layouts, a shortage of voting machines on pro-opposition neighborhoods, and a lack of a technical audit in the way the election council counts the votes.
The MUD opposition was unable to hold control of central Miranda state, which includes part of the capital city, Caracas. Opposition leader and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles was Miranda governor for nine years. The Maduro government had banned Capriles from seeking public office again.
When he went to vote Sunday, Capriles urged other Venezuelans to get past obstacles and cast their votes. He urged these "soldiers of the homeland to defend the sovereignty of the people."
Before Sundays vote, analysts had predicted losses for candidates of the government, which people blame for the severe economic crisis facing the oil-rich country.
Some journalists trying to cover voting were barred from entering polling places, even though they held accreditation, the National Union of Press Workers of Venezuela (SNTP) complained in a tweet.
The Venezuelan Penal Forum, a nongovernment organization, reported 32 detainees during the electoral process.
Maduro has said that governors, who have four-year terms, will report to the Constituent Assembly, a powerful super-congress made up of his supporters. Its 545 members, who include his wife and son, were chosen in a July election boycotted by the opposition and widely denounced as fraudulent. Shortly afterward, the United States imposed sanctions on Maduro and members of his inner circle.
The U.S. and European Union are considering additional sanctions against the Maduro government.
Hundreds of photos from active Krakatau volcano in the Sunda Strait, Indonesia. Most of them taken during our various expeditions to this fascinating volcano.
Q: My front walkway is made up of a concrete base covered by a pebble mixture. Over the years, some of the pebbles have come loose and disappeared, and in two places the underlying concrete is cracked. I like the walkway a lot and would greatly prefer to have the broken areas repaired and the missing pebble mixture replaced. These areas affect only about 10 percent of the surface. How do I find someone who still handles this type of surfacing?
Annapolis
A: The topping you have is probably epoxy-bonded stone, a mixture of pebbles and clear epoxy. In theory, patching the topping is easy: Clean the surface, let it dry, then stuff a mixture of two-part epoxy and pebbles that have been washed and dried into the gaps. Trowel the surface flat, let it cure for a day, and you're done. (Where the underlying concrete has cracked, you'd need to patch first, using a concrete patching product suited to the depth of the cracks.)
However, the huge challenge in patching the topping is finding pebbles that match in size and color mixture. Stone is a natural product, and although the size range can be controlled, the color mixture results from geologic processes that differ from place to place. If you knew the initial installers, your best bet would be to contact them to see whether they have leftovers from previous jobs. However, barring that, you will probably need to hunt around for the best match and then, if necessary, resort to picking out pieces with colors that clearly dont belong.
Vicky Rodriguez, who works in sales for McKinnon Materials (866-622-7031; mckinnonmaterials.com), a supplier of materials for decorative concrete and epoxy coatings, suggested prying off a sample of the stones and sending them in a zip-top bag to the company, at 5612 56th Commerce Park Blvd., Tampa, FL 33610. The company can compare the sample to stone selections available today and recommend the best match, she said. It also sells the two-part epoxy in a one-gallon kit for $45, enough for 150 square feet of pebble topping.
Dave Burroughs, an owner of J.A. Norris Concrete, a company in Hollywood, Md., that installs epoxy-coated stone using products from Sierra Stone (sierrastone.ca), also looked at a picture of your walkway. The pebbles don't match the color mixtures available through Sierra Stone, he said. "But I have several colors that I could probably blend to make something close." He suggested that you break off a piece of your topping and take it to his shop. He will try to help get you the pebbles you need, although the repair would be up to you. It wouldn't be feasible for him to send a crew to Annapolis just to install a couple of patches. You could arrange a time by phoning him at 301-904-9608 or emailing janorrisconcrete@gmail.com.
You can also try matching the stone by visiting companies in your area that supply stone for landscaping and concrete work. Chaney Enterprises (888-244-0411; chaneyenterprises.com), which is based in Gambrills, Md., and has outlets in Annapolis and numerous other area locations, might be a good place to start. Sal Bianco, who works in sales for the company, looked at the pictures you sent and suggested that the company's pea gravel might work. The maximum pebble size in this mixture is three-eighths of an inch, which might be bigger than what is in your walkway. Including a quarter or a pen in your picture would make it easier to gauge pebble size, Bianco said. You can visit the company's outlet in Annapolis, at 2015 Industrial Dr., to judge for yourself. "Yes, they can purchase a small amount," Bianco wrote in an email. "If they only need a gallon and ask nicely, we may be able to give them a sample bag to complete their project."
And a pet store might also have what you need. Check out gravel sold for aquariums.
DeRionne P. Pollard, center, president of Montgomery College, with Scott Ralls, president of Northern Virginia Community College, left, and Angel Cabrera, president of George Mason University, at a forum Monday on issues related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, hosted by Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
Brenda Medrano-Frias arrived from Bolivia when she was 3. Cristina Velasquez left Venezuela at age 6, and Luis Gonzalez crossed over from Mexico at age 8. All three are now pursuing a bachelors degree at schools in the Washington region.
They also are among the hundreds of thousands of young immigrants whose future is in limbo as Congress debates offering them a reprieve after President Trumps decision to end an Obama-era initiative that shielded certain undocumented immigrants from deportation if they arrived as children.
On Monday, the three students joined college presidents in a forum at Georgetown University that sought to publicize the plight of those who could soon lose protection from the program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA, as it is known, is a major issue on campuses nationwide.
[Universities fear what Trump policy shift could mean for dreamers]
I am insanely worried, Medrano-Frias said. Ive been here since I was 3. This is all that I know, as far back as I can remember. This is it.
Brenda Medrano-Frias, 19, is a student at Northern Virginia Community College. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
Now 19, Medrano-Frias is a second-year student at the Woodbridge campus of Northern Virginia Community College and serves as a student liaison with the colleges leadership. She hopes to transfer to Georgetown to study government and philosophy. Eventually, she wants to be an immigration lawyer.
Its a passion, she said. Ive lived through it myself. DACA protection enables her to have a work permit and qualify for in-state tuition.
Higher education leaders nationwide are mobilizing to advocate for students like these, known as "dreamers," as their fate hangs in the balance on Capitol Hill.
The Trump administration announced Sept. 5 that it would stop accepting applications for the program and stop issuing renewals for DACA beneficiaries, except for certain cases in which requests were filed by Oct. 5. The administration's action gave a six-month window for the Republican-led Congress to act before work permits would start to expire.
Trump has sent mixed signals, saying he wants to work with Democrats on a deal to help the dreamers but also announcing this month a set of hard-line immigration principles including funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall that could jeopardize prospects for a bill. Republicans have focused on border security. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said last week that Congress "cannot fix the DACA problem without fixing all of the issues that led to the underlying problem of illegal immigration in the first place."
But Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) expressed optimism that a deal will be settled by years end. It is likely that Congress will respond, he said. I dont believe that Democrats are going to cooperate with Republicans on an end-of-year bill that does not include DACA.
Cardin met with a small group of DACA beneficiaries Monday at the University of Maryland at College Park. He said he was struck by their talent and drive to help this country, in health care, in business, in economics.
At the White House on Monday, Trump reiterated in a news conference that he expects Congress should be able to do something for the dreamers, while adding: We do want the wall.
Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia urged Congress to give the dreamers a path to citizenship. Each of them belongs here, DeGioia said in the gathering on campus at Copley Hall. Their membership in our community is not only welcome but vital.
DeGioia estimated that 50 to 60 of the 18,500 students at the Jesuit university are DACA beneficiaries. One is Luis Gonzalez, 20, a junior double-majoring in American studies and government who grew up undocumented in Orange County, Calif. He is active in a campus group called UndocuHoyas, a reference to the schools mascot.
Gonzalez told the forum that DACA has been essential for his peace of mind as a student, giving him the confidence and security I had not had before.
With DeGioia and Gonzalez on Monday were the presidents of George Mason University, Northern Virginia Community College, and Montgomery College. Together, those three public schools have more than 1,600 DACA students.
[At Montgomery College, undocumented students hope for dream]
I have a personal passion for this, George Mason President Angel Cabrera said. We have to figure out a solution.
Thats what Cristina Velasquez craves. A senior in Georgetowns School of Foreign Service, the 23-year-old plans to graduate in December with a bachelors degree in international politics. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, she flew with her mother to Madison, Wis., in 2000 and eventually settled in the Miami area.
She said she was unaware of her problematic immigration status until she was blocked as a teenager from obtaining a drivers license. She graduated from high school in 2012, with stellar grades but unsure how she would afford college.
We were living in the shadows, she recalled.
A few days after Velasquezs graduation, President Barack Obama announced DACA. Velasquez said she took a gap year, started at Miami Dade College and later transferred to Georgetown. Along the way, she got DACA protection. It will expire in 2019.
The fact that my life is in the hands of Congress is difficult, she said.
She urged lawmakers: Act now.
The room was crowded with audience members, including DACA-protected student Cristina Velasquez, center left, attending a Georgetown University forum on issues related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on Monday. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
David Nakamura contributed to this report.
Alan Lewis stands next to some of the movie cameras he has collected over the years. He recently donated more than 200 cameras and projectors to the Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)
Columnist
In a roundabout way, Adolf Hitler and Emperor Hirohito turned Alan Lewis into a nerd.
The Axis leaders started World War II. When that war ended, a standard piece of equipment at U.S. military briefings was made surplus. Bell & Howell movie projectors started flooding Americas schools, such as the one Alan attended in Miami Beach.
It was a model like that that first got me started as an AV kid in the ninth grade, Alan, 80, told me recently as we stood near a Bell & Howell projector in the living room of his Northwest Washington home. School systems would buy them up as they were able to get back into AV after the war.
Said Alan: I became a nerd, before nerds were even invented. The nerd kids were the ones who ran the projectors and set up the microphones in the school auditorium.
Frankly, Alan became doubly nerdy. Not only did he push an AV cart around in high school, but he also grew up to become an archivist, working for various agencies and organizations to collate and oversee their moving image collections. Along the way, he decided to collect examples of the equipment that regular Americans used to make and show movies.
A few of the old movie cameras in Alan Lewiss collection. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)
On a recent morning, I went to Alan's house to watch as nearly 200 cameras and about 50 projectors were packed up by Rachael Stoeltje and Andy Uhrich of the Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive, the new home of the Alan Lewis Collection.
There were 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm Kodaks, Bolexes, Wittnauers, Canons, Yashicas . . .
Thats the first camera I acquired, at a flea market in Columbia, Maryland, Alan said, pointing out a Bell & Howell camera once owned by a TV newsman in Baltimore. It had a sleek, 1950s sci-fi design, with three lenses and viewfinders that rotated like turrets.
Theres still film in it, Alan said.
Oh, there is? said Rachael, director of the Indiana University archive. Is it exposed?
I believe it is, Alan said.
Well, we should process it, she said.
An old movie projector is seen in Alan Lewiss home. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)
When most of us think of film collections, we think of the film. Indiana University has plenty of that, including the Encyclopaedia Britannica educational films we squirmed through in school ("We're digitizing 1,500 of them now, and we're going to put them online," Rachael said) and famed director John Ford's home movies ("They're gorgeous," Rachael said). But she thinks it's important to understand the machinery, too, the Bell & Howell hardware to the Kodachrome software.
This technology documented our country for so long, she said.
Its the whirring box that Uncle Bob raised to his eye when Susie blew out her birthday candles. Its the projector that later cast Susie upon a screen set up in the living room, the bright light picking out the dust motes that floated through the air.
Besides, home movies are hot these days not just our own, but other families. Why is that?
Youre seeing everyday life that isnt in your Hollywood movies, Rachael said.
Alans father died when he was 10 so I have very limited memories of him, he said. But my uncle, who was the family film shooter, did capture some scenes with my father in them. Those are the only moving images that I have of him other than the stuff I remember about him.
Ever the archivist, Alan convinced his cousins to donate those home movies to a university in Florida.
And what about you, Alan? You have kids, now grown. Did you record their first steps, first day of school, senior prom?
I was more an administrator than I was a filmmaker, he said sheepishly. I have four rolls, two on regular 8mm and two on Super 8. They are double-bagged in Ziploc bags, and theyre in our freezer. VHS copies were made a generation ago.
Rachael nodded approvingly.
Hes properly archived them. Colder and drier is better, otherwise they start to deteriorate. Im pleased to hear theyre double-bagged in your freezer, Alan, but we should digitize them for you.
From another room came Andys voice: Were going to need more bubble wrap. The dining room table was covered with old projectors he was carefully packing.
Andy is a film archivist and trained projectionist. He has an idea to set up dozens of projectors around the Bloomington campus and have them all running simultaneously.
We would just show a variety of stuff: home movies, educational films, Hollywood films, Andy said. It would be like a snapshot of our collection all at once.
Alan listened.
Where are you going to find all the nerds? he asked.
Action!
Saturday is Home Movie Day, when film buffs will gather at museums around the world to screen their family memories and watch others'. Locally, it's happening at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Registration is required.
For information, visit CenterForHomeMovies.org or search "DC Home Movie Day" on Facebook.
Twitter: @johnkelly
For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
Lawrence Argent stands under, "I See What You Mean", a 40 foot tall sculpture of a blue bear that peers into the east windows of the Colorado Convention Center. (RJ SANGOSTI/THE DENVER POST)
Lawrence Argent, a sculptor whose monumental, brightly colored works including a 40-foot bear of lapis lazuli blue, perched on its hind legs and peering inside the Denver convention center brought a sense of lighthearted wonder to public spaces on two continents, died Oct. 4 at a hospital in Denver. He was 60.
The cause was cardiac arrest, said David Hemsi, studio manager at Argent Studio.
Mr. Argent, a onetime medical student in Australia who went on to lead the sculpture program at the University of Denver, spent more than three decades creating playful photographs, sculptures and art installations, often featuring found objects and what Mr. Argent called an edge of humor.
Hanging two blood-red street sweeper brushes together, he formed a testicular work he titled "Cojones" (1999). Pairs of antique women's gloves, framed side by side in polyester resin, created a "Library of Applause" (1994), and the birth of his sons inspired a series of abstract, 250-pound bronze and marble sculptures in the shape of pacifiers.
Mr. Argent became best known as a whimsical artist of the public realm beginning with I See What You Mean, erected just outside the Colorado Convention Center in 2005. Commonly known as the big blue bear, the work has become an emblem of hip, 21st-century Denver, though its construction initially led some friends to ask whether Mr. Argent was now working for Disney.
Leap, a glass and aluminum sculpture of a rabbit that Mr. Argent completed at the Sacramento International Airport in 2011. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
Instead, he said, the idea arose from a photo of a black bear looking inside someones window a relatively common occurrence in Denver, where the animals sometimes rummage for food during droughts and a desire to play off outsiders expectations of art in Colorado, where depictions of mountains and bears have become staples of Western kitsch.
It was also a tongue-in-cheek comment on the nature of the convention center itself, a building used less by local residents than by out-of-towners who may not venture far into the city. This represents people who live here who are trying to figure out what is going on inside, Robin Ault, a member of the panel that selected Mr. Argents piece for the site, told the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News in 2005.
Built with polymer concrete on a shell of fiberglass molds, the 10,000-pound sculpture was designed with the help of computer software, placing Mr. Argent at the fore of a movement known as digital sculpture.
"He really understood how combining traditional and advanced technologies could help create art that was truly moving," said Dan Jacobs, director of the Vicki Myhren Gallery at the University of Denver, in a statement upon Mr. Argent's death.
Mr. Argent was on the board of the Digital Stone Project, a nonprofit that supports artists trying to use emerging technologies such as robotic stone cutting. In recent years, he used computer-aided design software to create sculptures with once-impractical whorls, warps, swirls and bends.
Elsewhere in Denver was "Pillow Talk" (2001), a stack of marble pillows carved with enough size and skill that they could fit on what might be called a Colorado king-size bed. There was also, on the campus of the university where he taught, "Whispers" (2002), a set of limestone columns and benches carved in the shape of lips. Sitting on a bench triggers an audio recording of a lecture on poetry, science or the theory of rhetoric.
Mr. Argent seemed to have a particular fascination with the undulating shape of human lips, drawing on them again for a granite sculpture, "Pieces Together" (2014), at a hospital near Los Angeles. The lips were assembled in the shape of puzzle pieces and inspired by the mouths of local residents whom Mr. Argent photographed and interviewed for the project.
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Much to his chagrin, Mr. Argent said he remained known as "the guy who does big animals." He designed "Leap" (2011) for Sacramento International Airport's Terminal B, creating an enormous red glass rabbit suspended from the ceiling mid-hop and headed toward an oversize granite suitcase near the baggage claim.
He also returned to bears for "I Am Here" (2014), creating a 13-ton giant panda that appears to be pulling itself onto the roof of a shopping mall in Chengdu, China. He said he turned down commissions for other massive animal projects, including a 100-foot outdoor bear, that seemed to call for more gimmick than art.
His most recent project, a sculpture-filled plaza near San Francisco's City Hall, features an undulating, 92-foot stainless steel sculpture inspired by the Venus de Milo. Just shorter than the Statue of Liberty, the piece was completed in May.
"I wanted to bring forth something that is like a genie in a bottle," he told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2016. The design, he said, was guided by the size of the 24-story buildings around the plaza. When the developer asked whether Mr. Argent could make his sculpture smaller, he recalled, "I said no."
Lawrence Nigel Argent was born in Essex, England, on Jan. 24, 1957, and raised in Melbourne, Australia. His father was an architect who designed modernist structures in Australia and Southeast Asia.
Mr. Argent initially studied to become a doctor, and he worked three years as a technician in an operating room before finding himself frustrated with what he described as the hierarchical nature of a hospital.
He received a bachelors degree in sculpture from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1983 and traveled to the United States to receive a masters degree, which wasnt offered in Australia at the time. He graduated in 1986 from the Rinehart School of Sculpture, part of the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore.
Mr. Argent joined the University of Denver in 1993 and was named an emeritus professor earlier this year, as he stepped away from teaching to focus on commissions and studio work.
His marriage to Anne Cashman ended in divorce. Survivors include their two sons; a brother; and a partner, Yazmina Abdul.
Mr. Argent said that his public art projects, in contrast to some of his studio work, were designed toward accessibility while retaining a sense of mystery: Why was the bear blue? Why was the rabbit hopping toward a suitcase?
"Art can seem inaccessible," he told Colorado Homes & Lifestyles magazine after completing his signature blue bear. "I thought it would be important to give people a sense of confidence, that they can participate in and understand art. I want to undermine this notion that art ought to be a certain thing."
Richard Wilbur beside his manual typewriter in his studio in Cummington, Mass., in 2006. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for poetry and was the second person named U.S. poet laureate. (Nancy Palmieri/AP)
Richard Wilbur, an American poet and translator whose precise, rhythmic verse employing classical forms in an era when experimental works and free-flowing confessionals reigned supreme earned him two Pulitzer Prizes and a reputation as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, died Oct. 14, at a nursing home in Belmont, Mass. He was 96.
The cause was not immediately known, said a son, Chris Wilbur.
Mr. Wilbur, a former Army infantryman who devoted himself to poetry after returning from World War II, was among the most prolific poets of his generation. A devotee of classical rhyme and meter, his work retained a sense of orderly elegance through the rise of confessional poets such as Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath, and in contrast to the often esoteric work of avant-garde writers like John Ashbery, who died last month at age 90.
"If Ashbery invented a whole new kind of poetry," said Robert Casper, head of the Library of Congress's Poetry and Literature Center, "Richard Wilbur reminded us of the enduring power of tradition: that poems about the natural world and about love, written in classical, traditional rhyme and meter, would continue to matter going forward into the future."
In an email, the Irish poet Paul Muldoon described Mr. Wilbur as the single greatest technician in American poetry of the last 70 years, adding: It was a technique perfectly at the service of tenderness and terror.
Mr. Wilbur won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his collection Things of This World. (AP)
Mr. Wilbur published his first book, The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems, in 1947, rendering his war experiences in a formal style that some critics derided as overly ornate and borderline baroque.
Within a decade, however, he had refined his voice, stripping away some of its poetic excesses. He won his first Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for Things of This World, which drew its title from one of Mr. Wilburs most widely anthologized poems.
The poem, "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World," began with a heavenly vision inspired in part by the "Confessions" of St. Augustine:
The eyes open to a cry of pulleys,
And spirited from sleep, the astounded soul
Hangs for a moment bodiless and simple
As false dawn.
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Outside the open window
The morning air is all awash with angels.
It was one of many poems that demonstrated Mr. Wilbur's deep-rooted belief that the universe was, as he put it in a 1977 interview with the Paris Review, "full of glorious energy . . . and that the ultimate character of things is comely and good."
My feeling, he continued, is that when you discover order and goodness in the world, it is not something you are imposing it is something that is likely really to be there, whatever crumminess and evil and disorder there may also be. I dont take disorder or meaninglessness to be the basic character of things.
In a sign of Mr. Wilburs stature in American poetry, he was appointed the second U.S. poet laureate, following Robert Penn Warren, in 1987. (The Library of Congress had previously named consultants in poetry.) Two years later, he received his second Pulitzer Prize, for New and Collected Poems.
His work extended well beyond that of sonnets and sapphics, to include acclaimed translations of the French playwrights Moliere and Racine and the poets Baudelaire and Brodsky. He contributed lyrics to Leonard Bernsteins 1956 operetta Candide, and inspired by the births of his four children even dabbled in childrens books, writing whimsical verses (What is the opposite of soup? / Its nuts) and books of pun-filled wordplay, including Opposites, a 1973 picture book that he illustrated himself.
"Throughout his career Wilbur has shown, within the compass of his classicism, enviable variety," The Washington Post book critic Michael Dirda wrote in 2004, reviewing a new collection of Mr. Wilbur's poetry.
His poems describe fountains and firetrucks, grasshoppers and toads, European cities and country pleasures. All of them are easy to read, while being suffused with an astonishing verbal music and a compacted thoughtfulness that invite sustained reflection. Besides, they are so beautiful one simply wants to go back to them again and again.
Richard Purdy Wilbur was born in New York on March 1, 1921, to a literary family that included a grandfather and great-grandfather who worked as editors. His father was a portrait artist.
Known to his friends as Dick, he graduated from high school in Montclair, N.J., and received a bachelors degree at Amherst College in 1942, before enlisting as a cryptographer in the Army. He served in Africa, southern France and Italy during World War II, a period that he said led him to versify in earnest.
One does not use poetry for its major purposes, as a means to organize oneself and the world, until ones world somehow gets out of hand, he told the biographical source Twentieth-Century Authors.
After graduating from Harvard University with a masters degree in 1947, Mr. Wilbur worked for many years as an English professor, including a two-decade stint at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In 1961, he was named chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, a position he held for more than 30 years.
His wife of 64 years, the former Charlotte Ward, died in 2007. Survivors include four children, Ellen Wilbur of Cambridge, Mass., Chris Wilbur of Arlington, Mass., Nathan Wilbur of Newburyport, Mass., and Aaron Wilbur of Wakefield, Mass.; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
His books were, in the eyes of some critics, too orderly well balanced in each line, showing the hand of a true literary craftsman, yet displaying little in the way of heart and emotion. Mr. Wilbur, literary critic Randall Jarrell wrote in an oft-cited review of his second collection, Ceremony and Other Poems (1950), never goes too far, but he never goes far enough.
In part, the criticism seemed a result of Mr. Wilburs writing in an explosive literary era, with one set of poets becoming increasingly political during the antiwar movement of the 1960s, and another set embracing obscurity in the experimental movement known as postmodernism.
Mr. Wilburs works earned near-unanimous praise in recent years, when he published collections such as Mayflies (2000) and Anterooms (2010), both of which featured new poems alongside translations.
By then, he had six decades experience in what he described as a slow and even arduous act, a process of thinking on the page in which a poem sometimes took years to coalesce.
I think inside my lines, he wrote in one 1966 essay describing his craft, and the thought must get where it can amongst the moods and sounds and gravitating particulars which are appearing there.
Roberto Medrano-Segovia, 21, of no fixed address, is accused of abducting a teenage girl and pulling a knife on people who tried to help her after the two got into a fight at a weekend party in Virginia. (Courtesy of Prince William County Police)
A 21-year-old man who claimed ties to the MS-13 street gang is accused of abducting a teenage girl and pulling a knife on people who tried to help her after the two got into a fight at a weekend party in Virginia, authorities said.
The incident unfolded Sunday just before 2 a.m. in the 14800 block of Danville Road in Woodbridge, Va., according to Prince William County police. A 16-year-old girl went to a house party with 21-year-old Roberto Medrano-Segovia, of no fixed address, who was an acquaintance of hers.
During the party, the two got into a verbal and then physical fight. Others tried to separate them. At one point, police said, Medrano-Segovia displayed a knife to some of the witnesses and said he was a member of the criminal street gang MS-13, according to police.
Medrano-Segovia left the party and later came back with others. Police said he then used a sharp instrument to deflate three tires on a vehicle that belonged to a witness who had tried to help the victim.
He and the victim again got into another argument. At that point, police said, witnesses saw Medrano-Segovia forcibly placed the victim in a vehicle, against her will.
An AMBER Alert was issued for the teenage girl, Sinahi Aguilar-Cruz. Authorities had issued the alert, saying they believed she was in extreme danger.
About 2 p.m. Sunday, police said they found the victim, along with Medrano-Segovia, at an address on Barksdale Street in Woodbridge.
[Amber Alert canceled after teen said to be in extreme danger found safe]
Police said the victim and Medrano-Segovia initially gave false identifications to police. They were later positively identified and questioned about the incident, according to officials.
The victim was unharmed and reunited with her family, police said in a statement.
Medrano-Segovia was arrested and charged with abduction, gang participation, destruction of property and providing a false name to law enforcement.
He is being held without bond, pending a November court date. It was not immediately clear if he has an attorney.
People march as they participate in the '#NoMuslimBanEver' rally in downtown Los Angeles, Calif. Sunday. A federal court in Maryland on Monday heard arguments on whether the third iteration of President Trumps travel ban is lawful. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
A federal judge on Monday launched skeptical questions at both government lawyers and those challenging the latest iteration of President Trumps travel ban probing at what government officials intent was in barring various types of people from eight countries from coming to the United States.
At a hearing in federal court in Greenbelt, Md., U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang asked government lawyers about the extent of Trumps involvement in coming up with the latest ban and what those opposed to the measure felt the president could do so it would pass legal muster.
This isnt something the president came up with on his own, correct? Chuang asked at one point during the proceedings.
[Latest travel ban will probably affect tens of thousands, and it could short-circuit the court battle]
The hearing marked one of the last opportunities for challengers of the newest ban to make their case that the judiciary should block the measure before it fully goes into effect Oct. 18. The challenge was brought by advocacy groups including the International Refugee Assistance Project and Muslims who say they will be negatively affected by the ban.
The case in Maryland is critical, as Chuang blocked the last version of Trumps travel ban. Those suing hope he will do so again, though judges in Hawaii and Washington, who have also blocked previous versions of the ban, are considering separate requests to intervene.
Trump's latest travel ban, the third iteration of the measure, affects citizens of eight countries, though some are more completely blocked from coming to the United States than others.
For Syria and North Korea, the directive blocks immigrants wanting to relocate to the United States and non-immigrants wishing to visit in some capacity. For Iran, it blocks both immigrants and non-immigrants, though it exempts students and those participating in a cultural exchange.
The ban blocks people from Chad, Libya and Yemen from coming to the United States as immigrants or on business or tourist visas, and it blocks people from Somalia from coming as immigrants. The proclamation names Venezuela, but it blocks only certain government officials.
At the hearing in Maryland, Chuang asked about the information used to develop the list of banned countries and whether he should consider Trumps past remarks about Muslims when deciding whether to block the executive order.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Hashim M. Mooppan stressed that it was officials at the State Department and Department of Homeland Security who helped craft the new directive, which he asserted had nothing to do with religion.
Challengers countered that the measure was not as targeted as it could be and that it was poisoned by the presidents past comments about wanting a ban on Muslims. The only explanation for the latest ban was that it was produced of out desire to express animosity towards Muslims and Islam, said lawyer Gadeir Abbas.
Legal analysts have said the new measure is more defensible than the previous versions, and those wanting it blocked might have a tougher time convincing a judge to do so. That is because the eight countries affected are not all Muslim-majority perhaps undercutting the argument that the ban was intended to discriminate on the basis of religion and Trump signed the measure after an intensive process of assessing the information other countries were able to provide about their travelers.
Chuang did not indicate when he would issue a ruling.
In an earlier version of this article, Hashim M. Mooppan was incorrectly identified as Deputy Attorney General. He is a Deputy Assistant Attorney General.
This courtroom sketch depicts Ahmed Abu Khattala listening to an interpreter through earphones during the Oct. 2 opening statement by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb, second from left, in U.S. District Court in Washington. (Dana Verkouteren/AP)
The government's effort to prove Ahmed Abu Khattala responsible for the September 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, after days of wrenching testimony by victims, has turned to a witness who for the first time directly implicated him in planning the assault.
A Libyan military commander said in recorded video testimony played to jurors Thursday and set to continue Monday that a year before the terrorist attacks that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, he heard Abu Khattala incite dozens of revolutionaries at a meeting in Benghazi by speaking out against an alleged U.S. intelligence post operating out of a diplomatic mission in the city.
The commander, testifying under the pseudonym Khalid Abdullah for his and his familys safety in Benghazi, added that days before the attacks, Abu Khattala told him of his plan and asked for armed vehicles, which the commander said he took as a message to his roughly 400-man force not to interfere.
The officers testimony did not go entirely smoothly for the prosecution, as his credibility, motivation and actions came under harsh challenges from the defense team. In testimony set to be played Monday to the jury, the commander defends Facebook posts that allegedly show his bias and lethal excess against Islamist militants.
The unusual circumstances of his appearance recorded at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo in July underscored the security challenges of gathering and presenting evidence amid the bloody civil war in Libya and shifting political alliances.
Members of Libyan special forces loyal to Khalifa Hifter, shown honored on a billboard, patrol the streets of Benghazi on Sept. 19, 2017. (Abdullah Doma/AFP/Getty Images)
Abu Khattala is the sole person to go to trial in a U.S. courtroom in the terrorism case over night-long attacks Sept. 11 and 12, 2012, in which militants overran and burned a State Department special mission about 10 p.m. and hit a nearby CIA annex with mortars after 5 a.m. The four Americans were killed in the assault.
He has pleaded not guilty to 18 charges filed after his June 2014 capture in Libya by U.S. commandos.
Prosecutors say that while others participated in the attacks, Abu Khattala told individuals that he masterminded the affair, directed underlings at the mission, and delivered training and maps that made the precision mortar attack possible.
Defense lawyers counter that Abu Khattala is merely an outspoken militia leader scapegoated by Libyan power brokers to shield others in their ranks against whom the U.S. government has evidence.
The defense team notes that influential Islamist militias other that Abu Khattala's played a role in the attacks, such as the February 17 Brigade, which the U.S. government paid to protect its facilities, and that all of them have contended in a violent political power struggle with Abdullah's secular, Egyptian-backed Libyan National Army, now rising and led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter.
Hifter, a former CIA asset who spent years in exile in Northern Virginia, launched his anti-Islamist "Operation Dignity" offensive the month before Abu Khattala's capture by U.S. commandos in June 2014.
[Thirteen days in the history of the accused leader of the Benghazi attacks]
Ahmed Abu Khattala was photographed shortly after his apprehension by U.S. Special Forces near a villa south of Benghazi, Libya, on the evening of June 15, 2014. (U.S. Attorney's Office for the District)
The commander and his allies will do, say anything to get their enemies, and whether they can kill him [Abu Khattala] on the battlefield, or have him locked away in the United States, their mission would be accomplished, defense attorney Jeffrey D. Robinson told jurors.
The commander was the first witness to allege that Abu Khattala conspired in the attacks and the only one so far to testify to events before the attacks took place. The trial, which began Oct. 2, poses a high-profile test of U.S. counterterrorism policies developed in recent years to capture terrorism suspects abroad and interrogate them for intelligence purposes, while preserving the right to prosecute them in U.S. civilian court.
The commanders video deposition was played to jurors after U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper in Washington issued opinions last week explaining that in March 2015 he had granted prosecutors request to take the commanders sworn testimony before the trial started because the witness could be killed before the case came to a courtroom.
Cooper wrote that in June he granted a second request by prosecutors to take the deposition overseas, because the commander was unable or unwilling to travel to the United States for security reasons.
The commander was deposed over seven hours on July 28 at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, in the presence of an interpreter, lawyers from both sides and counsel of his own, with the judge participating by live video link from Washington.
Abu Khattala and additional lawyers from his defense team observed in Washington and could communicate with their colleagues in Cairo by phone.
The proceeding was videorecorded, and more than four hours of the session were played to jurors Thursday, with another 1 1/2 hours to be played Monday. A full transcript of the proceeding was unsealed Friday.
The commander, a 44-year-old father of five from Benghazi who served briefly in the military under dictator Moammar Gaddafi in the 1990s, said in testimony played Thursday that in 2012 he commanded a Libyan National Army unit called Security Support for Military Intelligence that had been formed in 2011 against Gaddafi.
In 2011, the commander said, he attended a meeting of dozens of revolutionaries where Abu Khattala accused the United States and Red Cross of spying from their facilities.
As revolutionaries, how can we allow the presence of intelligence, a foreign intelligence entity amongst us in Benghazi? Abu Khattala asked, according to the commanders testimony. He was inciting the people.
In September 2012, Abu Khattala appeared at the door of the officers home, where the two spoke alone, he said. Abu Khattala asked for equipment from the officers 370- to 400-man unit, he said in the recording played in court.
I want you to provide me with military cars, armed cars, the commander quoted Abu Khattala as saying. He said he wanted to attack the American consulate.
The commander testified that he did not expect Abu Khattala to follow through with an actual attack, did not discuss timing or details, and did not provide any equipment. But he took the request as a message to the army. Dont allow your men to interfere during the attack, he said under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Julieanne Himelstein.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Michelle M. Peterson, however, he admitted that his recollection had changed since his initial statement to the government by adding mention of the Red Cross and dropping a claim that Abu Khattala had told him an attack was imminent during their talk at the commanders home. He also testified that he told no one about Abu Khattalas alleged involvement before the attacks, and did not speak with Americans until October 2014.
The commander said that others knew his account earlier and that a brother of his was separately speaking with Americans. But he acknowledged that he directly spoke with American investigators only after one of his brothers had been kidnapped and killed and another had been wounded in an assassination attempt by Islamist terrorist organizations.
At that point, his family also was in talks that eventually resulted in about 10 members of the extended family being allowed to move to the United States and the U.S. governments paying $170,000 to cover those relatives expenses.
The commander testified that his wife and children, however, lived in Egypt for much of the past three years before returning to Benghazi, where he and they remain.
How can you put a value on the testimony that I will be giving? an agitated and combative commander said at one point when Peterson questioned his motivations.
I did not come here except to present the case of those who met their fate, died, at the embassy during the attack. Nobody forced me to come or made me come, he said at another point in the testimony played Thursday.
According to the unsealed transcript of the Cairo session, jurors Monday are set to hear of other acts in Libya by the commander, and his response to questioning about specific social-media posts and whether they show him endorsing extrajudicial killings or wounding of terrorism suspects.
The transcript from the Cairo session scheduled to be played Monday in court has the commander acknowledging that in one social-media post in Arabic that appeared under his real name, he wrote, The real meaning of to tread underfoot, next to a photograph of an armed soldier standing atop the bodies of two dead militants.
Referring to Abu Khattala, the commander said hes well-known that he is takfiri, and a leader of terrorist groups and organizations that are well-known to have killed and slaughtered people, according to a part of the deposition set to be played Monday. The reference uses the Arabic word for a Muslim apostate, a term extremists groups have invoked to justify the execution of moderate opponents and which some mainstream leaders have adopted in referring to armed extremist groups.
You have decided that Mr. Abu Khatallah is a bad person before you came in here today, didnt you? Peterson, the defense lawyer, asked in the transcript, saying there was no greater bias than the commanders conclusion Abu Khattala is a terrorist.
Why would the United States grab Abu Khatallah in Libya? Because he is a good man? the commander replied.
The U.S. government alleges that the Benghazi attacks were carried out by members of Ansar al-Sharia, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that seeks to establish Islamic law in Libya and includes a component known as Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah that Abu Khatalla commanded.
The commander in his testimony identified Abu Khattala as one of several terrorist enemies that Hifters forces have battled, along with leaders of the February 17 Brigade.
A man was shot and killed by Charlottesville, Va., police last week in a confrontation that followed a reported robbery and sexual assault of a 72-year old woman, authorities said.
During the confrontation, which occurred Friday, the man ran into the Rivanna River, and pointed a handgun at police, according to the Virginia state police which is investigating the matter.
After the man pointed the gun toward three officers they fired, state police said. They said he was hit and fell into the river.
The man was identified as J.C. Hawkins Jr., 42, of Charlottesville.
According to state police, Charlottesville officers responded about 1 p.m. to a house in the 300 block of Riverside Avenue. The site, is near the river, which forms part of the eastern boundary of Charlottesville. It is a little more than two miles east of the University of Virginia.
The officers went to Riverside Avenue after a call to 911 reported an attack on the woman. Police said she was taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening.
They said a man fled on foot from the scene of the the reported attack.
While officers began searching in the area for the womans alleged attacker, they found a man who appeared to fit the description they had. He was on a trail that runs along the river near the site of the attack.
As officers approached, the state police said, he ran into the river, pointed the gun and was fatally wounded.
The gun was later recovered, the state police said.
State police said they are investigating the matter at the request of Charlottesville police chief A.S. Thomas.
The officers involved were not identified. It was not known how many times Hawkins was hit.
The investigation is continuing, and an autopsy is to be conducted, the state police said.
The site of the shooting is about one mile and a half east of Emancipation Park The park is home to the controversial Robert E. Lee statue that figured in a demonstration last August that turned deadly. Charlottesville, a city of about 47,000, is about 115 miles southwest of Washington.
Oh Suk Kwon still gets emotional when he talks about the IRS investigation that ruined his business. He now lives in Aldie, Va. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
Columnist
The service station along the National Pike in Maryland was an immigrants prized small business. He was the one in overalls, his wife ran the office.
Oh Suk Kwon, who left South Korea for America in 1976, served as a fleet mechanic in the U.S. Army. After four years in the military, decades of working in an electrical plant and as an auto mechanic, after raising the kids and seeing them off to their adult lives, Kwon finally bought a gas station in Ellicott City in 2007. It meant everything to him.
Just a few years after he opened it, zealous government investigators fishing for criminals seized all of the stations money on a hunch and wiped the family out.
No, they werent money launderers or terrorists or mobsters or tax evaders. The government found no evidence of criminal activity.
But after the investigation ended, after the gas station went under, and Kwons wife died amid the stress of it all, after he moved from his neighborhood in shame and the Internal Revenue Service changed its policy so no other small business would get steamrolled this way the agency wont give Kwon his money back.
Thats $59,117.47 the IRS is holding on to.
As recently as August the last time Kwon, now 73, asked for his money back the IRS said no.
Hes heartbroken that the country he loves is treating him this way.
Kwon was 32 when he came to the United States with his wife, son and daughter. He immediately enlisted in the Army. When I came to the United States, I had to do something for the country, said Kwon, who became a U.S. citizen.
After four years and an honorable discharge, he built his life as a solid American. My whole life was work, work, work, he said.
His nightmare began in 2011, when he found federal agents on his doorstep. They accused him of structuring depositing money in increments of less than $10,000.
A 1970 law called the Bank Secrecy Act requires banks to report any transactions bigger than $10,000. This is why terrorist groups, organized crime, money launderers, tax cheats and other bad hombres deposit their cash in chunks less than $10,000. And its why banks are supposed to report people who make lots of cash deposits in smaller amounts, because it looks like theyre structuring their deposits to evade scrutiny.
These deposits are a crime only if they are done with the intention of staying beneath the radar. So the government has to know whats in your heart to charge you. In lots of cases, the bank deposits are a trail of bread crumbs leading to bigger crimes.
That simply wasnt the case with Kwon. He paid all his taxes, reported what had to be reported.
Of all the cases I have worked on, this one stands out for me, said attorney Edward Griffin, who is now fighting to help Kwon get his money back. I firmly believe that the government did wrong in choosing to prosecute Mr. Kwon and seize his assets. There was no good policy purpose for the prosecution. They did it for money, and they destroyed a good and honest man. It is shameful. Which is why I am still fighting for him.
The IRS wouldnt comment on Kwons specific case, but a spokesman noted that he pleaded guilty to the structuring charge.
When Kwon opened the gas station for business a decade ago, the teller at his local bank told him that deposits larger than $10,000 require a lot of paperwork, so she suggested he deposit less cash, but more frequently, he told me.
So he did that. This is all he was guilty of. Lots of other small-business owners operate the same way.
But around 2011, fervent investigations targeted scores of small businesses in Maryland. The best known of these was South Mountain Creamery, the Maryland farm that delivers eggs, dairy and produce to doorsteps throughout the D.C. area.
When the creamery was accused of structuring farmer Randy Sowers also said his bank teller told him to keep the deposits under $10,000 to cut paperwork the farms entire operating budget was seized.
[A dairy farmer battled the IRS and won]
The government eventually found out that the cows werent drug mules and the chickens werent gangsters and allowed Sowers to sign a settlement agreement to get back half of about $60,000 that the IRS took. Sowers did it because he needed that money to keep the farm going.
Another Maryland farmer, Calvin Taylor, had about $90,000 seized in 2011 after the government snagged him in a similar investigation. He couldnt take the time to fight the charge, either, and agreed to a settlement where the government returned about $41,000.
Kwon went one step further, pleading guilty to the technicality of a structuring charge. Yes, he repeatedly deposited less than $10,000 cash, he reasoned. And yes, he did it to avoid paperwork. But the courts didnt see what was missing in his heart criminal intent.
The guilty plea killed his business, and he watched helplessly as his wife battled cancer and died. He still thinks her death was hastened by their legal troubles.
The farmers didnt walk away from the fight. Backed by the libertarian Institute for Justice, Sowers, Taylor and others testified before Congress, petitioned and fought for three years to get their cash back. The IRS changed its guidelines in 2014, saying it would seize assets that came only from criminal activity. And less than a year later, the Justice Department announced it would follow suit.
That should mean that Kwon gets his money back too, right?
Wrong.
Griffin petitioned the IRS and Department of Justice again this summer, citing the 2014 change and Kwons clean record.
But Kwon has not provided any additional information in his case, wrote Claiborne Porter, the Justice Departments acting principal deputy chief of money laundering and asset recovery, in the latest response to his remission request.
Even if the IRS finally returned his $59,117.47, Kwon said the damage can never be undone.
It wouldnt get him his gas station back, it wouldnt bring his wife back and it wouldnt get him his honor back.
He was shamed, he said, when his neighbors were interviewed during the investigation.
They saw me as Korean. As a veteran, he said. They were surprised to see me as a criminal. I will never forget that.
Twitter: @petulad
THE DISTRICT
Two men wounded
Saturday in shooting
Two men were wounded when an unknown assailant opened fire in Southeast Washington on Saturday night, authorities said Sunday.
Police said the double shooting occurred in the 4900 block of G Street SE, about three-quarters of a mile south of the Benning Road Metro station.
Officer Hugh Carew, a police spokesman, said the injured men were taken to a hospital, but their condition was unknown. Both men were conscious when they were taken to the hospital.
The gunfire erupted about 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Police did not have a description of the perpetrator. Authorities continued to investigate Sunday.
Faiz Siddiqui
4 teens arrested in
downtown robbery
Four teenagers two male and two female, none older than 16 were arrested last week in connection with a daytime robbery that occurred last Monday in the heart of downtown Washington, according to the D.C. police.
The victim was walking in the 1000 block of H Street NW about 10:20 a.m., the police said, when four robbers assaulted him.
The robbers took two cellphones, police said.
They said the two females arrested were 13 and 15 and from the District. One of the males was 16 and from the District; the other was 15 and from Prince Georges County, the police said.
Martin Weil
One hurt in apartment blaze in Northeast
One person was injured Sunday when fire broke out in an apartment in a building near the eastern edge of the District, authorities said.
The blaze in the 900 block of 52nd Street NE sent flames leaping from a second-floor window of the apartment, which is in a three-story brick building.
The condition of the person who was injured was not known. A second person who was extricated from the apartment was not injured, according to the D.C. fire department.
The cause of the fire could not be immediately learned.
The site was near both the Deanwood and Burrville neighborhoods. It was about 200 yards from Eastern Avenue NE, the boundary between the District and Prince Georges County.
Martin Weil
Maryland
Driver dies in
crash in Annapolis
A motorist was killed early Sunday in a single-vehicle crash in the Annapolis area, Anne Arundel County police said.
They said David Anthony Nawrocki, 21, of Annapolis was driving north on College Parkway near Cape Saint Claire Road about 3:30 a.m. when his car veered off the road and struck an embankment.
The car rolled over on its roof, and the driver was found pinned beneath, the police said. He was not wearing a seat belt, they said. The road was wet at the time, and road conditions likely played a part in the crash, police said.
Three passengers were in the car; none suffered a serious injury, police said.
Martin Weil
THE REGION
One more of those
warm autumn days
The Washington region basked in one more of those unusually warm October days Sunday, with the temperature once again exceeding the norm by double figures.
At Reagan National Airport, the high temperature was measured at 79 degrees, making Sunday the seventh day this month on which the high was at least 10 degrees above normal.
At Dulles International Airport, the mercury also reached 79. Sunday became the eighth day there this month on which the average temperature was at least 10 degrees above normal. That means that at Dulles more than half the days this month have been more than 10 degrees above normal.
Monday is expected to be a cooler day.
Democratic candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, left, shakes hands with Republican challenger Ed Gillespie after a debate at the University of Virginia-Wise in Wise, Va., on Oct. 9. (Steve Helber/AP)
Last year, Elias Murillo was all about the politics. He was really into Bernie Sanders, even went to a Sanders rally in Fairfax County. When Sanders lost, Murillo switched to Donald Trump, the other guy he figured would step up for regular people. It was all very exciting, a show that just kept on going. For a while, he even felt hopeful.
Now, Murillo knows Virginia is electing a new governor in three weeks, but hes paid little attention.
Everybodys put it aside, said the 31-year-old graduate student and part-time office cleaner. With all the hate and all the tragedies going on, with Las Vegas and natural disasters and threats and the back-and-forth with the president and North Korea, it makes it hard to vote for governor. Its just become so hard to focus, to keep up with it all.
Virginians speak of being exhausted by events. They say that they have only so much bandwidth and that President Trump takes up most of the space they allot to politics. They say they havent heard much about the governors race in the news, which seems devoted mainly to the presidents doings and sayings.
As the nations only competitive statewide contest this year, the Virginia race has been viewed by people in the politics business as a crucial bellwether, an early measure of whether voters are motivated to push back against an unpopular president or double down on their drive to disrupt Washington and drain the swamp.
View Graphic The latest stories and details on the 2017 Virginia general election and race for governor.
But far fewer Virginia voters are closely following the campaign than at similar stages in the past three gubernatorial elections, according to Washington Post polling.
Even those who might be assumed to be searching for a way to send a message about a president they consider inept or dangerous say they are paying little attention to the Virginia race.
Martin Cox, who works for a defense contractor in Leesburg, is a steady Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton last fall and considers Trump bombastic and noisy. Cox, 35, usually follows campaigns for governor closely, taking weekend time to thoroughly research the candidates views.
Not this year.
Given Trumps penchant for sucking the air out of the room, this election could be a way to send a message that he needs to start listening to all sides and tone down the way he speaks, Cox said. But I havent really heard much about the candidates and I havent done my research. When I look at the news now, its about Trump saying the latest crazy thing, and thats where the attention focuses.
Virginias unusual practice of picking a governor the year after presidential elections has historically led to low turnouts; in 2013, a year after 71 percent of Virginia voters cast ballots for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, only 43 percent came out to the polls to choose Democrat Terry McAuliffe as governor over Republican Ken Cuccinelli II.
This years highly polarized politics have led activists on both the pro- and anti-Trump sides to anticipate stronger than average engagement in the governors race, if only as a proxy by which voters could express their views on the president. Both parties are eager to urge Virginians to see the governors race through a national prism; Obama and former vice president Joe Biden are campaigning for Democrat Ralph Northam, and Vice President Pence appeared with Republican Ed Gillespie on Saturday, as Trump may yet do later in the month.
Former vice president Joe Biden and Ralph Northam in Reston, Va., on Oct. 14, and Vice President Pence and Ed Gillespie in Abingdon, Va., on Oct. 14. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post and Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)
[Trump dives into Virginia governors race, via tweet]
Voters and political experts alike offer three main theories to explain the indications of deflated interest:
The Trump effect, in which the presidents big personality and ability to dominate the news steals attention that would typically gravitate toward the governors race.
Decreased news coverage of the governors race resulting in part from the dramatic decline in the number of reporters covering state news and the amount of space and time devoted to the campaign in newspapers and on TV.
Unusually low-key candidates who have failed to excite voters. Northam, the lieutenant governor, and Gillespie, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, are both more moderate in their politics than the most popular figures in their parties. Compared to the candidates both parties put up for governor four years ago, Northam and Gillespie seem like throwbacks to a quieter, gentler time.
[If Trump was a rock star, the Virginia candidates are more like wallflowers]
No one in their right minds would call Ralph Northam or Ed Gillespie firebrands, said Pete Snyder, chairman of Gillespies campaign and chief executive of Disruptor Capital, an investment firm in Alexandria. Theyre campaigning in their Virginia gentlemanly way, and weve built into our modeling that were going to have a low-turnout election.
[Pence travels to Virginia to stump for Gillespie]
The Democratic contest in the spring primary drew unusually strong turnout, raising Democrats hopes that an anti-Trump backlash might fuel support for Northam in November. But in past governors races, Republicans have proved themselves more likely than Democrats to vote in off-year elections. Voters in both primaries last spring chose milder, more moderate alternatives to more populist candidates, Democrat Tom Perriello and Republican Corey A. Stewart.
And even some voters who have paid little attention to this years campaign say theyre in the mood for something a bit less volatile.
These guys are both dulled-down, watered-down versions of where the parties are now, said Murillo, who lives in Manassas. Theyre not a brand name, and maybe thats a relief after a president whos so vocal.
Patrick Day, a 35-year-old teaching assistant at a Virginia Beach elementary school, said he got caught up in the frenzy of last years election and voted for Trump mainly as a way of rejecting Clinton. I knew this guy was a crapshoot, and man, what a crapshoot he is, said Day, who now wishes hed cast his ballot for the Libertarian Party candidate. Trumps making a great argument that maybe Hillary wouldnt have been so bad.
Despite his eagerness to shift directions, Day hasnt paid much attention to the governors race. For me, life got busy, he said. People are getting fed up with politics. It just never ends with our president. If he wouldnt talk or tweet, hed be a lot better. Theres so much hate going around on Facebook and everywhere else that nobody wants to talk about politics anymore.
Veterans of Democratic and Republican campaigns alike say they are seeing voters step back from the battlefield.
As people become more and more disillusioned with politics, they tune it out, said Mo Elleithee, a longtime Virginia Democratic strategist and executive director of Georgetown Universitys Institute of Politics and Public Service. A lot of people are just fed up and tired of everything, whatever side theyre on.
The media coverage of all things Trump virtually blocks out the sun for anybody else, he said. Our politics are becoming hyper-nationalized and celebrity-driven. Its hard for people who want to be informed to get the same access to information they once had.
Many news organizations in the state and especially the midsize newspapers and TV stations that in previous cycles had full-time political reporters based in Richmond have cut their staffs sharply as advertising dollars have shifted away from traditional news outlets and toward social media.
Nationwide, the number of reporters covering state houses plummeted by 35 percent from 2003 to 2014, according to the Pew Research Center. The trend has continued since then, as has the shrinking of overall staffing and space for news in many papers.
You had reporters fighting over desk space in the Capitol press room, said Bob Lewis, who covered Virginia politics for the Associated Press through the terms of five governors and now works at McGuire Woods, a law firm in Richmond. Now, theres nobody there. As newspapers and TV stations cut back, there was less money for reporters to travel around the state doing profiles of candidates or just talking to voters.
The result, some say, is a campaign that gets less coverage than many Virginia voters are accustomed to seeing. You had a press corps that was steeped in historical knowledge of Virginia and its politics, Elleithee said. You had multiple reporters from each paper writing about the candidates and issues. Most of the local and state news infrastructure has been decimated.
The remaining reporters still cover the campaign, but their stories just dont gain much traction, said Jeff South, a journalism professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who directs the schools Capital News Service, through which student reporters cover state politics. The amount of coverage has been at least as pervasive as in past years, but voters seem too exhausted to pay attention. Theyre so jaded by whats happening in Washington that that carries over to their views of the state election.
Jill Mulhall, a freelance editor who lives in Bristow in Prince William County, usually relies on local news outlets such as InsideNoVa.com and the Gainesville Times, as well as Facebook, to learn about the candidates. But this year, she said, the governors race is not getting the headlines like it used to. And theres not as much in the mail or people knocking at the door.
Mulhall, 47, is a Democrat and plans to vote for Northam, but he doesnt inspire me, she said. I dont have reservations about his competence, but I get the sense that both he and Gillespie are lying low. I guess its harder to grab attention with Trump in the White House: When one person fills up the whole room, there isnt a lot of space left over.
Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
The low-visibility Virginia attorney generals race is increasingly heated, as the Republican and Democrat push out ads attacking each other just days ahead of their second and final debate.
Incumbent Mark Herring, a Democrat, and his Republican challenger John Adams occupy opposite ends of the political spectrum, and their ads reflect their partisan views as well as their different ideas about the role of attorney general.
Herring has gone after the Trump administrations policies, challenging the constitutionality of the presidents first immigration ban, joining with other attorneys general in suing the administration over its decision to end federal subsidies to health insurers while also opposing the administrations move to end contraception coverage required by the Affordable Care Act.
Herring also joined a lawsuit that challenged Virginias ban on same-sex marriage, a case made moot by the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that gay Americans have the right to marry.
His campaign plans to focus on health care in the final three weeks, highlighting Adamss opposition to Obamacare and Medicaid expansion, as well as Adamss support for the Trump administrations decision to allow employers to deny workers insurance coverage for contraceptives.
Adams, a politically conservative attorney who works at a powerful Richmond law firm, charges that Herring should stick to the job of advising the General Assembly and defending state laws.
Adams said his personal beliefs he is opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage and requirements that employers provide contraceptive coverage will not influence his decisions as attorney general.
I think the attorney general needs to defend the laws that the citizens passed . . . not pick and choose, Adams told the Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial board recently.
The candidates accuse each other of misrepresenting their positions.
But Mark Rozell, dean of the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government, said both men are simply playing to their base, trying to turn out their voters in what is traditionally a low-turnout election.
Polls show that Herring holds a narrow but consistent lead over Adams, but many voters remain undecided.
"It seems that the candidates have all forgotten about appealing to the middle and mobilizing the independent voters, which is puzzling given that the Post/Schar School poll showed the Virginia electorate is about one-third independents," Rozell said. "Appealing to the independent voter used to have a moderating influence on campaigns. Now that candidates play mostly to the base, all restraint goes out the window."
View Graphic The latest stories and details on the 2017 Virginia general election and race for governor.
The candidates will meet Friday morning at a Leesburg event sponsored by the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce, and unlike their June 17 meeting, this one could be bare-knuckled.
With just three weeks to go before Election Day, each camp is running both broadcast and digital attack ads. Herrings latest, released Monday, calls Adamss health-care stance a disaster for Virginia families . . . seniors charged thousands more . . . denying coverage to thousands of veterans, children and the disabled.
The Adams campaign, meanwhile, tweaked an earlier ad that targeted Herring for failing to follow up a proposal by his predecessor, Republican Ken Cuccinelli II, who suggested setting aside money to build shelters for victims of sex trafficking. The new version removes disputed details but charges that Herring put his friends ahead of the needy, the vulnerable, victims.
The Republican Attorneys General Association has been the single biggest donor to the Adams campaign so far, giving $2.75 million.
The Adams campaign says three-quarters of its ad spending has been positive.
Our strong fundraising allows us to advertise statewide to introduce John, a first time candidate for any office, to Virginia voters and highlight what makes him the best choice to be the next Attorney General, campaign manager Nick Collette said in a statement. We also have the resources to educate voters on Herrings dismal record as Attorney General a record of pursuing his political agenda and ignoring the law.
The Democratic Attorneys General Association, Herrings top donor, has given more than $1 million to Herring, and Michael Bloombergs Independence USA PAC has contributed $825,000 in the past two years.
Pro- and anti-gun groups are also weighing into the race, with the National Rifle Association spending more than $600,000 on anti-Herring ads this election season, Zuckerman said. Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, an advocacy group funded by Bloomberg, is supporting Herring with $300,000.
Both campaigns reported raising about $1.6 million in campaign contributions in September. The Herring campaign reported that it started October with more than $2.5 million cash on hand. Adams raised $1.6 million in September, and as of Sept. 30, his campaign fund had $251,000 cash on hand, but the campaign said it added $1.6 million during the first two weeks of October.
Participants stand together following a reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek on Sunday in Middletown, Va. Reenactors chanted U.S.A. after their mock battle. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
Late Sunday morning, hundreds of Civil War reenactors concluded their battle on a rolling patch of grass 80 miles west of Washington.
In normal years, taps would be played and each side would march back to its tent encampments. But this was hardly a normal year. Last week, organizers announced they had received a letter threatening bodily harm to attendees. And Saturday, the battlefield had to be temporarily cleared because a suspicious device, possibly a pipe bomb, was found.
U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! the reenactors began shouting, underscoring not just their sense of patriotism but the umbrage many felt at having their hobby dragged into the national debate over race and Confederate-era symbolism.
We wanted to send a message, said Keith MacGregor, 56, from Lebanon, Pa., who was playing the role of a Union infantry captain for the reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek, held not far from here. We wanted to show the U.S. that we arent going to let some terrorist, or some nut, stop the event. I was never prouder of people in our hobby.
Before and after the minute-long U.S.A. chant, the two sides who acted out the battle came together and thanked each other for coming and for staying. The Star-Spangled Banner was played and sung. So was Dixie.
You did not see any reenactors in Charlottesville, said Confederate reenactor Terry Shelton, referring to the gathering of white supremacists in the Virginia city in August. The event turned violent and led to three deaths.
[One dead as car strikes crowds amid protests of white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville; two police die in helicopter crash]
The public was not allowed onto the battlefield or into the reenactor camps Sunday, but could watch the battle from a distance.
Local and federal law enforcement officials declined Sunday to describe the suspicious item found at the battlefield here about 4 p.m. Saturday, which prompted law enforcement to evacuate the immediate area. Several reenactors said they were told it looked like a pipe bomb.
In a statement Sunday, the FBI said that the device was located during an annual reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek. No persons were harmed and the device was rendered safe by the Virginia State Police.
Dee Rybiski, an FBI spokeswoman, said Sunday that the bureau was not elaborating on the device.
The FBI is investigating the incident, along with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Virginia State Police; the Frederick County Sheriffs Office; and the Middletown Police Department.
The battle reenacted Sunday took place on Oct. 19, 1864, and was a Union victory.
In August, a two-day reenactment in Manassas meant to show how Union and Confederate soldiers lived during the Civil War was canceled. Though there were no plans to reenact a battle, several organizers were worried about possible trouble, given the racially charged atmosphere nationwide over whether to remove Civil War monuments.
Last week, organizers of the Cedar Creek event posted a warning on the groups website.
We would like to make everyone aware that the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation has received a letter threatening bodily harm to attendants of this event, the foundation said in the statement. With this in mind security has been increased and we ask that everyone work with us for a safe and enjoyable event.
The two-day event started Saturday morning. Frederick County sheriffs deputies some on four-wheelers stood sentry at the staging grounds.
All the trappings of previous years events were on display. There were tent encampments, where the uniformed soldiers would spend the night. Other reenactors played the parts of surgeons, embalmers and priests. There were horses and cannons and lots of flags.
But as the day progressed, and reenactments began, spectator George Rust, from Winchester, Va., said he thought the threat had dissuaded people from coming out.
Theres not near the spectators, Rust said. Usually, on Saturday, you cant walk around here.
The 66-year-old construction worker, who wore a Pride of the South hat featuring Robert E. Lee and a Confederate flag, worried he might have come to the last reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek. He said that history is under attack and that its important, especially for younger people, to be learning about it.
Take that girl there, he said, pointing to a grade-schooler in pink shorts playing with her mom. Shes learning. Shes picking it up.
The Confederate camp looked to me only half-strength of what it was last year, said Mark Corley, 58, a former co-worker and friend of Rusts from Cumberland, Md.
You have to understand, a lot of this is family-oriented, said Corley, who is retired. So whether its going to materialize or not, whenever there is a threat like that made, of course your first concerns have to be for your wife, your children.
Its really sad that its gotten to this point where you have organizations or people who are threatening violence, said Robert Bailey, 62, a retired D.C. police officer who said he has been coming to the Cedar Creek reenactments for 21 years.
Bailey said he had heard the letter sent to the foundation threatened that excrement would be thrown or weapons fired at the reenactors.
I understand why people want to bring the statues down, why they want to get rid of the flag, he said, watching the battle from the rear because of a heart attack a year ago, a huge feather drooping from his officers cap. But even if you do . . . the history is still there.
He said he and other reenactors didnt hesitate to play the role of Union troops and were mostly focused on re-creating the battle as accurately as possible.
Karla Macias and her two daughters stood at an embalming tent, watching as a white actor operated on an African American mannequin draped in an American flag.
Macias, a 43-year-old teacher at a Christian academy in Inwood, W.Va., said protesters had blown things out of proportion. She said she and her daughters, who are Mexican American, dont take offense at the Confederate flag.
I have a hard time with people trying to erase our history, she said. A country cant be a country without a past.
This is exciting, said her elder daughter, Elizabette, 16. I wish theyd advertise this more.
Yoly Harrell, wearing a long brown dress and holding a parasol, said she had spent the morning making oatmeal, eggs and sausage patties for soldiers. A 55-year-old nurse in Fredericksburg, Harrell said she came to the United States years ago from El Salvador.
She said she wasnt put off by her history-teacher husband dressing up as a Confederate soldier. We had our own war, she said of El Salvador. History stays there, no matter what people say.
AFGHANISTAN
Police foil potentially massive suicide attack
Police arrested the driver of a truck carrying three tons of explosives in what appeared to be an attempted suicide bombing in a section of the Afghan capital near an engineering university, officials said Sunday.
The driver of the small cargo truck was approaching a security checkpoint near Kabul Polytechnic University just before midnight Saturday and ignored orders to stop, officials said.
Authorities said police at the checkpoint then fired at the truck, injuring the driver. They found 30 buckets filled with ammonium nitrate hidden beneath boxes of tomatoes in the trucks cargo hold.
Kabul has been on high alert since a May suicide bombing near the German Embassy killed scores and injured several hundred. Investigators linked that attack to the Haqqani network, an offshoot of the Taliban.
This could have been a massive suicide attack if it was not paralyzed, Mohamed Salem Almas, head of criminal investigations for the Kabul police, said of the Saturday night arrest.
In the same area of the city, investigators recently discovered a factory that they said was being used by the Taliban to make land mines and suicide vests.
Antonio Olivo
BANGLADESH
4 killed as elephants attack Rohingya camp
Wild elephants attacked a camp in southern Bangladesh where Rohingya refugees were sleeping, killing a woman and her three children, an official said Sunday.
A herd of elephants entered the Balukhali camp in Ukhiya town on Saturday and trampled tents where several refugees were sleeping, said district forest official Mohammed Ali Kabir.
Four other people, including the womans husband, were injured, Kabir said. Many others fled to safety when they heard the elephants approaching.
Officials said the new camp was built in a forest area that was earlier frequented by elephant herds.
More than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Burmas Rakhine state to neighboring Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when security forces responded to attacks by a militant Rohingya group with a broad crackdown on the long-persecuted Muslim minority.
Kabir said that the elephant habitat in Bangladesh was under threat and that the passages used by the animals to move from one place to another have been encroached by human settlements.
Associated Press
EGYPT
Militants kill 6 troops in northern Sinai
Suspected Islamic State militants on Sunday attacked six checkpoints in the turbulent north of Egypts Sinai Peninsula, killing six soldiers and wounding 37, according to security and hospital officials.
The officials said the near-simultaneous attacks occurred at and around the town of Sheikh Zweid, with dozens of militants using heavy machine guns and mortars. Apache helicopter gunships were called in to repel the attackers, the officials said.
An army statement said 24 of the attackers were killed. The area was being combed by troops in pursuit of the militants, the statement said.
Egyptian security forces have for years battled militants in northern Sinai, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel. But the insurgency there has gained momentum after the military ousted an elected Islamist president in 2013.
The insurgency is led by an affiliate of the Islamic State.
Associated Press
Leftist leader, relatives slain in Mexico: A regional leftist leader was killed and burned with his wife, mother-in-law and driver, officials in southern Mexico said. The bodies were found along a road in an impoverished part of Guerrero state contested by drug gangs. Ranferi Hernandez Acevedo, 50, was a founding member of Mexico's main leftist party, Democratic Revolution, and was a key supporter of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has led opinion polls ahead of the 2018 presidential election.
Alarm sounded over Antarctic penguin chick deaths: Starvation wiped out almost the entire cohort of chicks from an Adelie penguin colony in the eastern Antarctic in the summer in what scientists say is only the second such incident in more than 40 years. They said it occurred because unusually large amounts of sea ice forced penguin parents to travel farther in search of food for their young. By the time they returned, only two out of thousands of chicks had survived. Sea ice extent in the polar regions varies each year, but climate change has made the fluctuation more extreme.
From news services
THE URGENCY of criminal-justice reform has become a rare matter of bipartisan consensus in Washington. Yet a reform bill introduced two years ago with support from both sides of the aisle failed to make it through the Senate. Now the bills backers are renewing their effort to reduce the federal prison population.
The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, would be a significant step forward. But it would also be far from sufficient as a solution to overincarceration.
The bill seeks to lower mandatory-minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses and limit those enhanced sentences to only "serious" drug crimes though mandatory minimums would newly apply to offenders with serious violent crimes on their records. Judges could retroactively reduce the sentences of those who received a lengthy prison term under these requirements, except for prisoners who had committed a violent felony. Likewise, the bill would allow judges to reduce harsh sentences handed down for possession of crack cocaine by retroactively applying the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the disparity between criminal penalties for crack and powder cocaine. And courts would have flexibility to impose sentences lower than the minimum requirement in an increased number of drug cases.
Beyond decreasing sentences, the bill puts in place measures to reduce recidivism and allow a smoother reentry into society for offenders who have served their sentences. Certain prisoners with nonviolent offenses would be encouraged to participate in programs designed for rehabilitation and finish out their terms at halfway houses or with monitoring at home.
These are responsible proposals that deserve bipartisan consideration by Congress. But the problem of overincarceration will not be solved by curbing federal drug sentences. To begin with, the overwhelming majority of prisoners in the United States are incarcerated in state rather than federal prisons. And while about half of federal inmates were convicted of drug crimes, such offenses account for a much smaller proportion of state prisoners more than half of whom, in turn, have been imprisoned for violent offenses.
For this reason, it's notable that the bill also requires the creation of a bipartisan commission to examine the criminal-justice system on the federal, state and local level. Previous proposals for such a commission have received support from both civil rights and police organizations, all of whom agree that the justice system is overdue for review. Hopefully, a National Criminal Justice Commission would be empowered to produce recommendations for reform on all levels of government beyond the simple but insufficient fix of going easier on nonviolent drug offenders.
In 2016, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act never received a vote due to opposition from, among others, then-Sen. Jeff Sessions. As attorney general, Mr. Sessions has since made his opposition to sentencing reform clear by advocating for prosecutors to pursue the harshest penalties possible. Even without the support of the Justice Department, Mr. Sessions's former colleagues should back this much-needed legislation.
Columnist
On Friday, President Trump told Congress to fix the Iran nuclear deal for him and threatened that if lawmakers did not obey, he would "terminate" the agreement. Yet the administration's convoluted strategy virtually assures that Congress won't succeed foreshadowing yet another crisis over the deal and perhaps a U.S. withdrawal in just three months' time.
In a sense, the move was classic Trump. As with other campaign promises, including on health care and immigration, the president combined tough-sounding rhetoric about reversing part of President Barack Obamas legacy with a too-clever-by-half plan to avoid doing the heavy lifting himself. Now Congress is left to deal with the mess while the international community scratches its head.
"I am directing my administration to work closely with Congress and our allies to address the deal's many serious flaws," Trump said. "In the event we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated."
Set aside that the United States cannot "terminate" the deal and that if the United States withdrew unilaterally, our allies would likely stay in the agreement without us. What Trump is proposing is that Congress amend the 2015 law originally meant to oversee the agreement, which passed under the expectation that Congress would be checking a deal-friendly Democratic president.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson worked quietly for weeks with Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to craft a bill that would amend the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act. Their proposal would effectively change the terms of the nuclear deal by imposing new sanctions "triggers" if Iran got close to nuclear weapons capability and negating the "sunset" provisions easing restrictions on Iran in the deal's out years.
Tillerson unveiled the legislative gambit to reporters by framing it as the last chance to save the deal. He said the United States must "either put more teeth into this obligation that Iran has undertaken . . . or let's just forget the whole thing. We'll walk away and start all over."
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) told me that the president is putting the burden on Congress to avoid a withdrawal and that, if Congress fails, Trump will make good on his threat. Graham said the politics of the Iran issue favor Republicans, and the strategy is to present the new legislation as a reasonable fix to a bad deal.
If Congress does what the president wants, then the U.S. government can present a united front to European allies, and even Iran. It doesnt just put pressure on Congress, it puts pressure on the international community too, Graham said.
But congressional Democrats and international partners swiftly rejected Trump's plan. The leaders of France, Britain and Germany defended the deal Friday. Democrats in both chambers said they won't take part in what they see as a half-baked, ill-advised scheme.
The presidents plan doesnt make sense, said Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Negotiating additional terms to the nuclear deal requires a coalition of international partners, not unilateral congressional action.
Democrats know they are being set up to take the fall if Congress fails to act. They expect Trump to accuse them of being weak on Iran. Nevertheless, Senate Democratic aides said, they dont want to be complicit in a process that could lead to the United States being in violation of the agreement.
Some congressional Republicans are upset as well. GOP aides point out that Trump has all the authority he needs to set up triggers, reimpose sanctions or do anything else he is asking Congress to do. House leadership issued cautious statements reacting to Trumps announcement, stopping short of agreeing to take up the Corker-Cotton legislation.
They dont want to own it, said one senior GOP congressional aide of the White House.
When asked why the administration is punting the issue to Congress rather than dealing with it itself, Tillerson said that congressional action would bolster the administrations credibility both with allies and Iran. He claimed that could fuel a new diplomatic process to negotiate a follow-on agreement.
Tillerson didnt mention the downside risk of passing the buck to Congress. If Congress rejects the plan, the administration will lose credibility on the world stage, the government will look divided and the nation will be isolated. At that point, advocates for staying in the deal, including Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, will be out of options to present Trump for fixing the agreement.
Perhaps thats exactly what Trump wants to be able to withdraw from the deal in three months saying he would have fixed it but for congressional opposition and international intransigence. And if Trump has his mind set on that course, no confusing, far-fetched legislative scheme will be able to stop him.
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FOR A year and more, Iraqi leaders and the U.S.-led coalition that joined them to fight the Islamic State ignored warnings that unless cleavages among Iraq's ethnic groups over territory and political authority were addressed, a victory over the terrorists would be followed by yet more civil conflict. Now, within days of the fall of the last major Islamic State-held Iraqi town, that fight may be beginning. A forceful move by Iraqi troops and allied Shiite militias into the city of Kirkuk on Sunday, accompanied by scattered fighting with retreating Kurdish forces, threatens to touch off a wider sectarian war.
The president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, Masoud Barzani, did much to provoke the intervention by the Iraqi federal government of Haider al-Abadi. Seeking to bolster his own political position, Mr. Barzani insisted on staging a referendum on independence last month despite Mr. Abadi's strong opposition and that of the United States, Kurdistan's closest ally. He then extended the vote to areas in and around Kirkuk, even though they are outside the Kurdistan autonomous region.
Kurdish forces now have been forced to yield key positions in Kirkuk, including the airport, a military base and several oil fields. In a sign of the internal disarray that should have forestalled Mr. Barzanis referendum, some reports said that Kurdish fighters under the control of a political party opposed to him may have agreed to hand over the sites without opposition. U.S. officials, for their part, described the takeover as coordinated movements, not attacks, even though a number of people were killed in combat in and around the city.
Much will now depend on whether Mr. Abadis forces, and the Shiite militias under Iranian command, press their advantage or pause to negotiate. Kirkuk and its oil fields have long been disputed territory; never-implemented provisions of Iraqs current constitution call for a referendum on its future status. That is one of the key disputes that Iraqi leaders dodged during the war against the Islamic State, even though it was clear that it would surface immediately afterward.
Other unaddressed troubles are festering. The Shiite-led government has done little to rebuild majority-Sunni cities destroyed in the war, including Fallujah and Mosul, and nothing to delegate more power to their leaders. The result is that Iraqi Sunnis, many of whom supported or tolerated the Islamic State for sectarian reasons, may be open to backing other Sunni militants, including al-Qaeda.
Mr. Abadi has long promised to address the countrys sectarian divisions and appears genuinely willing to do so, but he has been hamstrung by opposition from Shiite hard-liners with Iranian backing. Kurdish moderates who believed the region should repair its crumbling political system, or negotiate with Baghdad, were steamrolled by Mr. Barzani. The United States, which once worked hard to broker sectarian deals in Iraq, walked away from such hard work several years ago. Both the Obama and Trump administrations have claimed that the only U.S. interest in Iraq is destroying the Islamic State. The consequences of that blinkered view can now be clearly seen in Kirkuk.
Daniel Hemel is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School.
Health insurance premiums are likely to skyrocket as a result of President Trump's announcement last week that his administration will halt subsidies for insurers that cover lower-income individuals and families. But while the president's decision appears to have been designed to disrupt the Affordable Care Act exchanges, states now have an opportunity to restore order to their insurance markets.
Specifically, states can step in to make the subsidy payments themselves and then turn around and sue the federal government for reimbursement. The law is on their side, and while it might take months or years, the states are highly likely to be repaid in full, plus interest. In the meantime, the backstop provided by the states will encourage insurers to stay on the exchanges rather than rushing to the exits.
The president's latest attack on the ACA takes aim at an important provision affecting silver-level plans, the most common plan on the ACA exchanges. The 2010 law requires insurers to make cuts to co-payments and deductibles known as "cost-sharing reductions" for lower-income households enrolled in silver plans. The statute also says that the federal government "shall make periodic and timely payments" to insurers "equal to the value" of cost-sharing reductions.
The trouble is that Congress refused to appropriate funds for those payments. The Obama administration decided to pay the subsidies anyway, reasoning that not doing so would lead to "bizarre consequences." Indeed, without these subsidies, insurers will have to charge significantly more for silver plans. The Urban Institute estimates that once the subsidies stop, the average annual silver-plan premium will rise by more than $1,000 per person.
If premiums go up, the size of the tax credit for lower-income households on the exchanges goes up commensurately. The IRS will therefore have to pay out more to lower-income households to offset the premium hikes. For these households, the consequences of Trumps decision may be contained.
But Trumps move is more problematic for households with incomes above four times the poverty line, which are ineligible for the tax credits. These households will face much higher premiums for silver plans without larger tax credits to offset the cost.
To be sure, these credit-ineligible households will still have the option to purchase other types of coverage that aren't directly affected by cost-sharing reductions such as bronze, gold or platinum plans. But across most of the country, the silver plans account for the lion's share of the individual insurance market: 70 percent of consumers on the ACA exchanges are enrolled in silver plans. The abrupt subsidy cut-off also may generate uncertainty and cause insurers to withdraw from the ACA exchanges entirely.
But creative state governments can avert these risks. As University of Pennsylvania law professor Tom Baker and I first suggested in April, states can make their own subsidy payments to insurers if the federal government won't. They can also take subrogation rights, meaning that if and when the federal government pays up, those payments will go to the states rather than the insurers.
The states can then sue the Department of Health and Human Services in the Court of Federal Claims for failing to follow through on payments required by law. As the Obama administration acknowledged, HHS would likely lose that lawsuit. Indeed, the Supreme Court has interpreted similar statutory language to require the federal government to make payments even in the absence of a congressional appropriation.
When an agency such as HHS loses a lawsuit, damages are paid out of the federal government's Judgment Fund. And while House Republicans have made noise about limiting the use of the Judgment Fund for ACA-related purposes, failure to pay a court-ordered judgment would mean defaulting on a federal debt. The fallout for financial markets should be dire enough to deter congressional Republicans from interfering with Judgment Fund payouts.
In effect, states would be playing a bridge-financing role. And if they can't come up with the money immediately, they can turn to the private sector for help. As Darien Shanske, a law professor at University of California at Davis, has suggested, states could raise funds by issuing tax-exempt "Obamacare bonds," repaying the bondholders when litigation with the federal government is resolved. Those bonds might be an attractive investment for wealthy liberals looking to add an anti-Trump asset to their portfolios.
Not every state is likely to pursue this approach. But even some Republican governors such as John Kasich of Ohio might be amenable to a plan that prevents chaos on their states' exchanges.
For much of the ACA's short life, the statute's reliance on states has been its Achilles heel. But now the best prospect for the law's survival is for states to fill in for a presidential administration that won't carry out the law. Hopefully, they can muster the will to do so.
Two signs show the Purple Line map and the new Purple Line Operations Center, during a groundbreaking ceremonyon Aug. 28 in Hyattsville, Md. (Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post)
AMONG THE problems that beset Metro is the stark fact that top officials from its three regional partners, Maryland, Virginia and the District, are strangers to one another. In recent conversations about the transit system, a prominent Virginia elected official mangled the names of D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D), who chairs the Metro board. A top aide to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said hed never heard of D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D). And a senior District official involved with Metro said hed never met or spoken with Marylands transportation secretary.
Add to those symptoms of Metros dysfunction the fact that any jurisdiction on the Metro board can veto decisions favored by the other two, and you have a recipe for gridlock.
Metro's fissures cracked open the other day when board members from the District, Virginia and the federal government suddenly balked at a land swap , potentially delaying construction of Maryland's light-rail Purple Line. The move, which infuriated Maryland officials, was not just gratuitous and greedy, although it qualified on both counts. It also threatened Metro's own interests.
At issue is a long-planned deal under which Metro would transfer land around its Silver Spring, College Park and New Carrollton stations to Maryland, so that construction work can start there on the Purple Line. In return, Metro would receive a parcel of state land and a 450-space state-owned parking lot.
The Purple Line, which runs like an eyebrow through close-in Maryland suburban neighborhoods just north of the District, isnt part of Metro, but it would provide a link among those three stations, as well as the Bethesda station. Metro would feed passengers to the Purple Line and vice versa. In partnership, the Purple Line and Metro are a win-win proposition until parochialism is factored into the equation.
With just weeks to go before work is scheduled to start on the Purple Line, Metros Virginia and federal representatives now say Maryland is underpaying, because the land Metro would receive, valued at about $17 million, is worth $7 million to $20 million less than the land it would give up. Separately, the Districts representatives on the Metro board are threatening to veto the land swap unless Maryland agrees to a reorganization of the boards committees.
Never mind that some of the land Metro would give up was granted at little or no cost to the transit system by Maryland or its localities in the first place. (One parcel, in Silver Spring, worth $8 million in 1990, was given to Metro in 2015, gratis.) Never mind that the Purple Line would provide a convenient new link for Metro passengers. And never mind that the stakes involved in streamlining the boards committee structure are minuscule.
The core problem is that Metro board members are so parochial and tunnel-visioned that they cannot discern the Purple Lines clear benefit to the region amid the clutter of their separate agendas. That they would threaten to delay the new light-rail line which has survived a welter of lawsuits and political obstacles is outrageous.
Former U.S. transportation secretary Ray LaHood has recommended getting rid of Metro's current board and replacing it with a much smaller body including no elected officials. Current members seem determined to prove the wisdom of his recommendation.
The Supreme Court on Monday accepted a second important case on digital privacy, agreeing to hear a dispute between the federal government and Microsoft about emails stored overseas.
The justices increasingly have been called upon to settle legal battles between law enforcement and technology companies, and to interpret laws written before the technology revolution that now raise pertinent questions about privacy.
The justices next month will hear a case involving prosecutors access to the historical data stored in cellphone tower records.
Legal experts noted that the court accepted both that case and the one involving Microsoft even though there was no split among lower courts on the law underlying the decisions, something that usually happens before the Supreme Court gets involved.
"It's plausible that the splitless grants in both [cases] signal a recognition among the justices of the tremendous importance of digital evidence collection," George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr wrote in a blog post. "Whatever the right answers are, the justices need to provide them."
The case the court accepted Monday began in 2013 when U.S. prosecutors got a warrant to access emails in a drug-trafficking investigation. It was served on Microsoft in Redmond, Wash. But the data sought was stored on its servers in Ireland. (The company has more than 100 centers in 40 countries.)
Microsoft turned over information it had stored domestically but contended that U.S. law enforcement couldnt seize evidence held in another country. It said that if it was forced to turn over such information, it would lead to claims from other countries about data stored here.
A judge upheld the warrant, but a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit overturned the ruling. The full circuit then split evenly on whether that decision was correct, and one judge wrote that the Supreme Court needed to provide the ultimate answer.
The Justice Department asked the justices to do just that and to reverse the lower court. It said that a domestic recipient of a subpoena is required to produce specified materials within the recipients control, even if the recipient stores the materials abroad.
Thirty-three states also urged the court to take the case, U.S. v. Microsoft. They said that the decision has implications for other technology giants such as Google and Yahoo and that it was "remarkable" that the 2nd Circuit had held "that a private company has unfettered discretion to shield evidence of crime from law enforcement, simply by electronically sending that evidence out of the jurisdiction."
Deputy Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall told the court that "hundreds if not thousands of investigations of crimes ranging from terrorism, to child pornography, to fraud are being or will be hampered by the government's inability to obtain electronic evidence."
But Microsoft contends that the Stored Communications Act of 1986 did not imagine a world in which a technician in Redmond, Washington, could access a customers private emails stored clear across the globe.
In a blog posted after the court's announcement, Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith wrote that the government's position endangers privacy.
If the U.S. government can unilaterally use a warrant to seize emails outside the United States, whats to stop other governments from acting unilaterally to seize emails stored inside the United States? Smith wrote. At a time when countries are rightly worried about foreign government hacking, the DOJs interpretation would open the door to accomplishing the same thing.
But the company had urged the court to stay out and allow Congress to amend the law, which Smith noted the Justice Department has asked Congress to do.
The current laws were written for the era of the floppy disk, not the world of the cloud, Smith wrote.
[U.S. battle over Microsoft emails could result in global free-for-all]
The justices already are scheduled to consider in late November whether police need a warrant to access cellphone location data held by wireless service providers, another major case involving digital privacy.
The court accepted two other cases Monday that touch on law enforcement.
In one, the justices will decide whether defendants can suppress wiretap evidence if the warrant that allowed collecting the data exceeded the courts discretion.
Brothers Los and Roosevelt Dahda were indicted on drug distribution conspiracy charges. In obtaining their convictions, the federal government relied on wiretaps authorized on several cellphones. Some of the incriminating evidence was gathered when the cellphones were outside Kansas, where the authorizing judge was located.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit agreed that a federal law seemed to say such evidence could be suppressed. But it reasoned that the evidence from the warrant did not violate Congresss core concerns of privacy and uniformity when it wrote the law.
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch sat on the panel that heard the case, although he was not part of the rendered decision. He recused himself from the case, Dahda v. U.S., when it got to the Supreme Court.
The court will also decide a double-jeopardy case from Virginia. Michael Currier was charged with three counts arising from the theft of a safe that contained cash and 20 guns. He was charged with breaking and entering, grand larceny, and being a felon in possession of a firearm, which referred to the guns inside the safe.
To keep the jury from being prejudiced by the knowledge that Currier was a felon, he and the commonwealth agreed to have the charges tried separately.
A jury found Currier not guilty of the first two charges, which involved stealing the safe. But over Curriers objections, prosectors then tried him on the third charge possession of the guns and this time a different jury convicted him. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Lower courts did not agree with Currier that the second trial was a violation of his constitutional protections against being tried repeatedly for the same offense.
The case is Currier v. Virginia.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a directive on Monday to limit the extent to which the EPA can reach legal agreements with groups suing to force it to take regulatory action.
Ending the practice known as "sue and settle" has long been a top priority for conservatives and business groups. In recent years, especially under the Obama administration, the EPA and other agencies resolved litigation over delays in issuing rules by agreeing to specific timelines to act and reimbursing plaintiffs' attorney fees.
In a news briefing, Pruitt said he was taking action to ensure that consent decrees are not used in an abusive fashion to subvert due process and to exclude the public from weighing in.
Its very important that we do not get engaged in regulation through litigation, he said. This is something that is a long time coming with respect to this agency.
Pruitt said his action will not bar the EPA from reaching settlements with outside litigants but that he wanted to block any agreements changing a discretionary duty to a nondiscretionary duty.
He said it also was important to end the payout of attorney fees, since such settlements have no prevailing party and some payments are part of informal agreements that cannot be easily tracked.
The directive will provide for greater disclosure of potential settlements by directing the EPA to publish any notice of intent to sue within 15 days of receiving it, contacting states and any other entities potentially affected by such suits, and posting any proposed or modified consent decrees and settlements for a 30-day public comment period.
It represents the latest example of how Pruitt is changing federal policy he once challenged in court. In 2014, while serving as Oklahomas attorney general, he joined forces with the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance to file suit against the Interior Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the grounds that they had used a sue and settle strategy with an environmental group to list several imperiled species.
But his push also is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to limit federal funding to outside groups as part of litigation. In June, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo to block payments to third-party, not-for-profit groups as part of environmental settlements. Instead of allowing defendants to fund environmental measures as a way of meeting their obligations for violating the law, Sessions said, such penalties should go directly to the U.S. treasury.
The attorney general is keenly interested and supportive of what were doing, Pruitt said, adding that other agencies are taking notice as well.
Environmentalists on Monday questioned Pruitts motivations.
Theres a general hostility to citizen enforcement of environmental laws, and it reflects the fact that Pruitt doesnt want these laws enforced, said Pat Gallagher, legal director for the Sierra Club.
[EPA settles with Canadian firm, reviving prospect of massive AK gold mine]
The Sierra Club and government watchdog groups question whether Pruitts directive inspired by a memorandum that Attorney General Edwin Meese issued in 1986 and that in 1991 was codified in the Code of Regulations will have much direct impact. The Clean Air Act and other environmental laws provide citizens and outside groups broad latitude to sue the EPA when it is failing to meet statutory deadlines, and the judge handling such cases typically determines the amount of legal fees the government must pay as part of any consent decree.
Thats not his decision to make, John Walke, director of the Natural Resources Defense Councils Clean Air Project, said in an interview Monday. A judge can impose attorney fees when an agency violates the law and citizens file suit to hold the government accountable.
Pruitt emphasized that some agreements the Obama administration reached with environmental groups, such as one aimed at curbing regional haze, were forged without the input of affected states. In that particular case, he noted, North Dakota sought to intervene but was excluded. Nonetheless, the consent decree imposed obligations on North Dakota because federal officials found the states plan to control pollution insufficient.
Its like these groups have an additional step in the process to influence the policy, said Daren Bakst, a research fellow in agricultural policy at the Heritage Foundation.
Bakst welcomed the idea of barring payment of plaintiffs legal fees, saying, You want to eliminate the financial incentives for these groups to bring these actions.
The Government Accountability Office, which published a 2014 report on the EPA's practice of settling with outside groups, found that the agreements it examined had only "limited" impact on the agency's rulemaking process. In February, a GAO report on endangered species found "settlement agreements did not affect the substantive basis or procedural rule-making requirements" that agencies pursued.
Pruitt, who will brief conservatives on this and other policy initiatives at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Tuesday, said he was not closing the door on settlements altogether. In May, for example, the agency struck a deal with a Canadian company hoping to build a massive gold, copper and molybdenum mine in Alaskas Bristol Bay watershed, which will allow it to apply for federal permits.
The Justice Department is sending a federal hate crimes lawyer to Iowa to help prosecute a man charged with fatally shooting a transgender teenager last year.
LGBT advocates have long been skeptical of Attorney General Jeff Sessionss pledge to prosecute acts of violence against transgender people. But the rare move, outlined in recently filed court papers, is a sign that he intends to do so even as the Trump administration has taken other steps to erode the rights of transgender people broadly. The New York Times first reported the decision Sunday.
The case involves Jorge Sanders-Galvez, 23, who is charged with killing Kedarie Johnson, 16, in Burlington, Iowa, in March 2016. Authorities have not disclosed a motive. But Johnsons relatives told local news outlets that they think the shooting was a hate crime.
President Trumps reelection committee spent more on legal fees over the summer as Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III pressed forward with his investigation into Russian medding. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
President Trumps reelection committee spent more than $1 million on legal bills last quarter as investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election pressed on through the summer, according to a disclosure filed Sunday with the Federal Election Commission.
The filing shows the committees legal consulting expenditures came to $1.1 million between July and September, including $802,185 paid to the law firm Jones Day, which has represented the campaign. Another $267,000 was paid to attorneys representing the presidents eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., in the Russia investigations.
Since the beginning of the year, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have spent $2.4 million on legal fees and the bills appear to be mounting. The latest FEC reports show that the campaign spent more on legal bills over the past three months than it did during the first and second quarters of this year combined.
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and multiple congressional committees have active probes into Russian interference. The RNC and the campaign are helping the Trump family and employees pay legal fees incurred by the various investigations, which is permitted under federal law as long as the costs are related to campaign activity. Last month, the RNC confirmed it had directed more than $427,000 to lawyers representing Trump and his eldest son.
[RNC taps legal account to help pay for lawyers for President Trump and son Donald Jr. in Russia probes]
Overall, the Trump campaign and two related fundraising committees collected $11.6 million between July and September and spent $5.6 million.
The Trump committee's payments included $237,924 to Alan Futerfas, a New York defense lawyer who is representing Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump Organization employees in the Russia probes. The campaign also paid $30,000 to the law firm Williams & Jensen, which has been working with Futerfas on matters concerning Trump Jr.
The younger Trump testified for five hours before a closed meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee in early September. During the session, he was asked for details about a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer who reportedly promised to provide negative information about Hillary Clinton, his father's Democratic opponent.
The campaign committee also reimbursed the presidents company, the Trump Organization, $25,800 for legal consulting.
During the first six months of the year, the Trump campaign reported spending $927,171 on legal fees less than the $1.1 million total spent in the last three months.
The numbers are likely to go higher as Muellers team, along with the Senate and House intelligence committees, continue their probes into Russian interference.
The special counsel has focused investigative attention on two former campaign advisers, Paul Manafort, once Trump's campaign chairman, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. On Friday, the special counsel's office interviewed Trump's former White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, for several hours behind closed doors.
Mueller's team has also expressed interest in interviewing White House counsel Donald McGahn and Communications Director Hope Hicks, according to people familiar with his requests. Neither the Trump campaign nor the Trump Organization responded immediately to requests for comment Sunday.
President Trump said on Oct. 16 that he will be looking into Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.), his nominee for White House drug czar. An investigation by The Washington Post and 60 Minutes showed that Marino was the chief advocate for a law that hobbled the DEA amid the opioid crisis.
President Trump said Monday that he will declare a national emergency next week to address the opioid epidemic and declined to express confidence in Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.), his nominee for drug czar, in the wake of revelations that the lawmaker helped steer legislation making it harder to act against giant drug companies.
Trumps remarks came amid widespread reaction across the political spectrum to a Washington Post/60 Minutes investigation that explained how Marino helped guide the legislation, which sailed through Congress last year with virtually no opposition.
Trump said were going to be looking into the investigation, while many Democrats and at least one Republican called for modification or outright repeal of the law. Democrats also urged Trump to drop Marino as his pick to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Trump defended Marino as a very early supporter of mine and a great guy. He said that he had seen the reporting in question and that the White House would review the information.
Trump said he would have a major announcement, probably next week about how his administration plans to tackle opioid addiction in the United States, a massive problem that he wants to get absolutely right.
This country and, frankly, the world has a drug problem, he said. Were going to do something about it.
Asked by a reporter whether he would be declaring the epidemic a national emergency, as he first promised in August but has not yet done, Trump said, Were going to be doing that next week.
A presidential declaration could allow the administration to remove some bureaucratic barriers and waive some federal rules governing how states and localities respond to the drug epidemic. One such rule restricts where Medicaid recipients can receive addiction treatment.
The president also said he had not yet spoken with Marino about the Post/60 Minutes report, but if he determines that Marinos work was detrimental to the administrations goal of combating opioid addiction, I will make a change.
[Read the investigation: How the drug industry derailed the DEAs war on painkillers]
On Monday, Democrats called on Trump to quickly discard Marino in the wake of the report, which detailed how a targeted lobbying effort helped weaken the Drug Enforcement Administration's ability to go after drug distributors, even as opioid-related deaths continue to rise.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said nominating the Pennsylvania lawmaker for drug czar is like putting the wolf in charge of the henhouse. The American people deserve someone totally committed to fighting the opioid crisis, not someone whos labored on behalf of the drug industry.
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said he was "horrified" to read details of the investigation and called for Trump to drop Marino because "there's no way that in having the title of the drug czar that you'll be taken seriously or effectively by anyone in West Virginia and the communities that have been affected by this, knowing that you were involved in something that had this type of effect."
Manchin told CBS Evening News on Monday that the bills intent was camouflaged so that all of us were fooled. All of us. Nobody knew! He added, That bill has to be retracted, has to be repealed.
Marino was first floated as a potential DEA administrator last spring but withdrew from consideration, citing a family illness. The White House formally nominated him for the post in September. The Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to set a date for his confirmation hearing because Marino has not sent back answers to a written questionnaire that all nominees must complete before a hearing, a spokesman said.
Members of the committee didnt immediately answer requests for comment on the nomination, or declined to comment. Ultimately, Marino could be confirmed by the Senate with a simple majority vote.
Across Capitol Hill, congressional Democrats and at least one Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), announced plans to address the reports findings.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Monday that she would introduce legislation to repeal the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act of 2016. The law, she said, "has significantly affected the government's ability to crack down on opioid distributors that are failing to meet their obligations and endangering our communities."
McCaskill, as the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has used her perch to probe opioid manufacturers and is pushing them for sales and marketing materials, studies of potential addictions, and whether the firms are donating to third-party advocacy groups that champion their work. It was unclear Monday afternoon how much support her bill would receive and whether it would be taken up for a vote in the GOP-controlled House and Senate.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also called for Trump to withdraw Marinos nomination, saying in an interview that the head of that office is supposed to be a watchdog, not a lap dog. He obviously is much more an industry representative than he is a whistleblower or watchdog.
It will be ugly if Trump continues with the nomination, Blumenthal said.
In the House, at least two Democrats Reps. Gerald E. Connolly (Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) were working on bills that would rescind the thresholds put in place by Marinos bill and give the DEA more authority to suspend a distributors license. Sinema is partnering with Fitzpatrick.
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), an original co-sponsor of Marinos legislation, said he supported the bill on behalf of a small drug distributor in Burlington, Vt., that had concerns about how the DEA worked with drug companies. He called on the House Oversight and Energy and Commerce committees to hold hearings on the legislation that would include testimony from current and former DEA officials.
One of Marinos home-state senators, Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), is withholding judgment on Marinos nomination, but a spokesman for the senator said that he believes the congressman should be asked to address this matter. Casey also believes that the legislation Marino backed should be repealed immediately and DEAs authority to hold drug distributors to tough standards should be restored, said spokesman John Rizzo.
Manchin, McCaskill and Casey face reelection next year in rural states that Trump won. Despite their concerns, they did not oppose the legislation when it passed in the Senate last year by unanimous consent. While her staff initially said McCaskill was absent on the day of the vote due to breast cancer treatment, the senator was in Washington and didnt object to the bill.
She told CBS News on Monday, "It's not unusual for something like this [bill] to roll through without much fanfare."
Manchin said in the Post interview that his aides responsible for tracking drug policy had raised concerns about Marinos legislation as it worked its way through Congress last year.
They had questions and they had concerns from the beginning, but they were laid to rest by the DEA. Were going to find out how that could happen and why, Manchin said.
As an alternative to Marino, Manchin suggested that Trump consider nominating Joseph T. Rannazzisi to head the DEA. Rannazzisi ran the DEA division responsible for regulating the drug industry and led a decade-long campaign of aggressive enforcement until he was forced out of the agency in 2015.
If Trump prefers to nominate a partisan figure, we can find a Republican who has a passion because of the devastation to their own family. That wont be hard to find in America, I can assure you that, Manchin said.
The office of Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), meanwhile, said that the senator supported Marino and that it was "ridiculous" to think the congressman and the Obama administration "conspired to exacerbate the opioid crisis. Every member of Congress supported the measure in question and the DEA did not voice any objections. If there is an unintended or unforeseen consequence of this legislation, Senator Toomey is open to working across the aisle to find a solution."
Fallout from the investigation also has spread to electoral politics. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who is running for the Senate in a state that has been hit hard by the opioid crisis, is also fielding attacks for being a lead sponsor of Marinos bill.
James Mackler, the Senate race's Democratic front-runner, criticized Blackburn for her involvement, saying in a statement late Sunday: "I'm running for U.S. Senate because Tennesseans need a senator that will stand up for them rather than catering to special interests and corporate lobbyists.
That Congresswoman Blackburn would champion legislation like this while Tennesseans face an opioid epidemic is all one needs to know about her priorities, he said.
[Rep. Marsha Blackburn draws campaign fire for shepherding bill that undercut DEA]
In April 2016, a handful of members of Congress, allied with the nations major drug distributors, prevailed upon the DEA and the Justice Department to agree to the more industry-friendly legislation, undermining efforts to stanch the flow of pain pills, according to the Post/60 Minutes investigation. The DEA had opposed the effort for years.
The law was the crowning achievement of a multifaceted campaign by the drug industry to weaken aggressive DEA enforcement efforts against drug distribution companies that were supplying corrupt doctors and pharmacists who peddled narcotics to the black market. The industry worked behind the scenes with lobbyists and key members of Congress, pouring more than $1 million into their election campaigns.
The chief advocate of the law that hobbled the DEA was Marino, who spent years trying to move it through Congress. It passed after Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) negotiated a final version with the DEA.
Hatch defended his support of the legislation and Marino on Monday, saying in a statement that he does not believe one flawed report should derail a nominee who has a long history of fighting illegal drug use and of helping individuals with chronic conditions obtain treatment.
Lets not ignore the full story here in the rush toward easy politics, Hatch added.
DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge John J. Mulrooney II has written a draft law review article critical of the legislation, saying it makes it "all but logically impossible" for the agency to take action against drug companies that fail to comply with federal law.
Hatch responded to the article, saying: "I'm disappointed that, after I spent months negotiating in good faith with DEA and DOJ, the bill is now being attacked by a DEA official who had no involvement in the negotiations. Members of Congress rely on agency experts to apprise them of potential problems with legislation. If the concerns Judge Mulrooney raises now were present in the agency at the time the bill was being negotiated, agency staff should have asked me to hold off on moving the bill. They did not do so. Instead, they agreed on compromise language that the Senate would move forward with. DEA should not be able to have it both ways."
Besides the sponsors and co-sponsors of the bill, few lawmakers knew the true impact the law would have. The White House was equally unaware of the bill's import when President Barack Obama signed it into law, according to interviews with former senior administration officials.
The DEA and the Justice Department have denied or delayed more than a dozen requests filed by The Post and "60 Minutes" under the Freedom of Information Act for public records that might shed additional light on the matter. Some of those requests have been pending for nearly 18 months. The Post is suing the Justice Department in federal court for some of those records.
An earlier version of this article reported that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) was absent from Congress at the time the DEA legislation was passed due to treatment for breast cancer. The senator's staff, which had provided incorrect information about her whereabouts, later said she was present when the bill was passed by unanimous consent. The article has been updated.
READ MORE:
The full investigation into the drug industry's triumph over the DEA
Analysis: This shows everything people hate about Washington
Joe Rannazzisi: The DEA official who fought the drug companies and lost
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is running for Senate in a state that has been hit hard by the opioid crisis. Now, she is fielding attacks for supporting a bill that weakened law enforcements ability to curb the flow of pain pills to the black market.
James Mackler, the Senate races Democratic front-runner, criticized Blackburn over her involvement in a bill that undercut the DEA as opioid deaths were on the rise in Tennessee.
Im running for U.S. Senate because Tennesseans need a senator that will stand up for them rather than catering to special interests and corporate lobbyists, Mackler said in an emailed statement Sunday night.
That Congresswoman Blackburn would champion legislation like this while Tennesseans face an opioid epidemic is all one needs to know about her priorities, he said.
Blackburn and Mackler are the best-known candidates running to replace Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). As a Republican, Blackburn has an immediate advantage in the state, which hasnt sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1990. But Mackler, an attorney and Iraq War veteran, could use an issue such as the opioid epidemic to peel off some of her support if they face each other in next years general election.
Blackburn co-sponsored the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, which raised the DEA's standard for freezing suspicious drug shipments. Her role in securing the bill's passage, as well as the pharmaceutical industry's contributions to her campaign, are detailed in a new Washington Post/"60 Minutes" investigation.
[Rep. Tom Marino: Drug czar nominee and the opioid industrys advocate in Congress]
On Monday, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) urged that President Trump withdraw the nomination of Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) as drug czar in light of the probe's findings.
Blackburns campaign did not respond to a request for comment Sunday night. Her office did not respond to Post investigators prior requests for an interview.
The conservative Republican and eight-term congresswoman announced her bid to replace the retiring Corker earlier this month. A surrogate for President Trump during the 2016 election, Blackburn is closely aligning herself with the White House in an effort to secure support from his base in the GOP primary.
"I'm politically incorrect and proud of it," Blackburn said in a video announcing her campaign. "I believe in President Trump's immigration ban, and I'll fight with him every step of the way to build that wall."
Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton by 26 points in Tennessee in November, although there are emerging signs of trouble for him in the state: A survey released last week by Morning Consult found that Trump's approval rating there has fallen 23 points since he took office.
In a sign that conservative support is coalescing behind her campaign, Blackburn has already received endorsements from the Club for Growth and Citizens United, the influential conservative outside group run by former Trump deputy campaign manager David Bossie.
We support Marsha Blackburn for Senate because she understands that you cant just talk about a conservative agenda, you have to fight for it and get it enacted, Bossie said in a statement Tuesday. Marsha Blackburn is a full spectrum conservative who fought the Obama agenda every step of the way and fully supports President Trumps agenda of repealing and replacing Obamacare, tax reform, and border security.
Blackburns support from Citizens United drew criticism from the Tennessee Democratic Party, which has accused her of being in thrall to big business.
It is no surprise that Rep. Blackburn would welcome the support of a dark money organization like Citizens United, said Mary Mancini, chairwoman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, in a statement Wednesday. She has been in Washington for 16 years doing the bidding of corporate special interests.
[Who is Joe Rannazzisi: The DEA man who fought the drug companies and lost]
Blackburn entered the race after Gov. Bill Haslam, who would have been a formidable primary opponent, decided he would not run.
She will face at least one other Republican conservative activist Andy Ogles in the primary. Another possible contender, former congressman Stephen Lee Fincher (R-Tenn.), is expected to announce this week whether he will enter the race.
Attempts to reach Ogles and Fincher were not successful.
Blackburns pitch to voters is centered on her conservative bona fides. In her announcement video, she slammed Senate Republicans for failing to pass a bill replacing Obamacare, calling it a disgrace, and she touted her winning fight as a state legislator to prevent the resurrection of an income tax in Tennessee.
In Congress, Blackburn is best known for leading a House investigation into Planned Parenthood and sponsoring legislation that dismantled Internet privacy rules this spring. She is one of House Republicans most senior and prominent women, making regular appearances on cable news shows.
Former speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) named Blackburn the head of the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives in 2015, tasking her with probing ties between abortion providers and medical researchers after conservative activists released secretly recorded videos they claimed revealed an illicit trade in fetal tissue.
Mired in partisanship from the beginning, the panel was dissolved in January. But Blackburns work as its leader received a new wave of attention this month after a controversy that could win her sympathy from conservatives.
In her announcement video, Blackburn claimed she stopped the sale of baby body parts, a comment that led Twitter to suspend the clip in promoted tweets for violating its advertising rules. A day later, after backlash from conservatives, the website reversed its decision.
[Partisan clash on Obamacare raises specter of government shutdown]
Blackburn reportedly sought to raise funds from the flap.
"I'm being censored for telling the truth," Blackburn wrote in a fundraising email, according to the Hill. "When I talked about our legislative accomplishments to stop the sale of baby body parts, they responded by calling our ad 'inflammatory' and 'negative.' "
A longtime member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Blackburn now leads the panels communications and technology subcommittee.
Earlier this year, she sponsored a bill to kill landmark privacy regulations that would have banned Internet providers such as AT&T and Comcast from storing and selling customers browser histories without their consent. Trump signed the killing measure into law in April.
[Consumer privacy] will be enhanced by removing the uncertainty and confusion these rules will create, Blackburn said this spring.
With her trademark heavy glasses and blonde sweep of hair, Blackburn is known as a colorful character on Capitol Hill, adept at throwing red meat to the conservative base.
In 2014, she debated the existence of climate change with the scientist Bill Nye on NBC. During the 2016 Republican convention, she quoted blue-collar celebrity Larry the Cable Guy in her speech endorsing Trump. That fall, during an appearance on CNN, she denied the existence of institutional racism and endorsed the New York Police Departments former stop-and-frisk policy as a tool for halting crime.
I know the left calls me a wing nut or a knuckle-dragging conservative, she said in her announcement video. And you know what? I say thats all right. Bring it on.
Read more at PowerPost
President Donald Trump has finally made good on his threat to decertify Iranian compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal. Despite warnings from his most senior national security officials Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster Trump is determined to eviscerate the legacy of his predecessor, Barack Obama, global security be damned.
Trumps decision flies in the face of eight reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency confirming that Iran is adhering to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which went into effect in January 2016. It also puts the U.S. at odds with its European, Russian and Chinese negotiating partners, all of whom have reiterated the importance of the agreement for global security and nonproliferation.
Trumps action doesnt in and of itself shred the nuclear pact: Congress now has 60 days to vote on that step, and the White House is asking it instead to set up a number of trigger points that would result in re-imposition of sanctions.
But dont be fooled: By decertifying in the face of all evidence that Iran is complying, Trump is in effect going rogue, and the consequences will be felt across the globe.
The U.S. and Europe brought Iran to the negotiating table after 10 years of coordinated and painstaking sanctions that targeted all aspects of Irans economy, including banking, energy and trade. Over two administrations (those of George W. Bush and Obama), Washington, in close cooperation with the EU effectively cut Tehran off from the global economy.
This was a remarkable act by the Europeans. Tehran, despite the 1979 Islamic Revolution, had robust commercial relationships with Europe. Iranians could travel with relative ease to Europe and, despite being isolated from the U.S., were getting essential goods and services such as medicine and technology from the EU.
With Brussels and Washington united, a good cop-bad cop routine was successful in extracting meaningful concessions from Iran which led to the nuclear deal.
In the two years since the deal was signed, Europe has slowly regained its access to the Iranian market. Irans economy is rebounding. EU foreign policy chief Frederica Mogherini has called the nuclear deal vital to international peace and security. French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May have gone on record saying the deal is doing what it was intended to do, prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. While neither are opposed to starting discussions on other troubling aspects of Irans behavior, so long as IAEA maintains that Iran is living up to its obligations, the EU does not want the nuclear pact abrogated.
Trumps actions, and any new sanctions from Congress, will drive a wedge between Washington and Europe on Iran. It would be virtually impossible to reconstitute that sanctions regime that was in place before the nuclear deal came into effect. Trumps decision will be viewed as callous disregard for multilateral negotiations and norms. It will reinforce the image that Iran often portrays the U.S. as being a bully on the world stage that does what it wants with reckless abandon alliances and commitments notwithstanding. Its an image that Trump embraces in both style and substance.
The implications for Europe go well beyond the Iran deal. With Trumps precedent of shunning the global security architecture that the U.S. has led for 75 years now in question, Europeans will be left wondering if the U.S. would really live up to its security commitments if, say, Russia became more aggressive in the Baltic states or Eastern Europe.
On top of that, as if one nuclear crisis wasnt enough, the message Trump is sending to North Korea couldnt be worse. If there is any hope of putting limits on that nations nuclear weapons program it would be to show its leadership that entering into multilateral negotiations and honoring their commitments would bring them back in from the diplomatic cold.
With the example of Iran complying and Trump refusing to certify that compliance, what incentive would Kim Jong Un have to abandon his nuclear arsenal? After all, Tehran never had the leverage that Kim has now, it never produced a nuclear weapon. It would harden the view of many in North Korea that they should never give up their nuclear capabilities or negotiate with Washington.
But perhaps the worst outcome of Trumps actions will be felt in Iran itself. Regime hardliners who never liked the nuclear deal will give relative moderates like President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif a collective I told you so. It will only re-enforce the perception that the U.S. cant be trusted and close the door on any future negotiations.
Hawks around Trump seem to think that this move will bring Iran to the table to discuss other legitimate issues of concern, such as Tehrans human-rights abuses, sponsorship of terrorism and efforts to destabilize the Middle East. Or perhaps to agree to add-on clauses to the 2015 deal putting new restrictions on Irans nuclear research.
These hopes fly in the face of reason. If the U.S. fails to live up to its own promises, it will just embolden Tehran to consolidate its gains and heighten tensions with its neighbors, particularly the Gulf Arab states, and accelerate its ballistic missile program. No future Iranian leader will be able to credibly make the case to his people that negotiating with the U.S. and compromising is better way forward than confrontation and defiance. Iran may yet stay in the deal, but it will be leery of any follow-on agreement on other aspects of its behavior.
It now falls on Congress to save the deal and restore U.S. credibility on the world stage. It should not re-impose sanctions absent an Iranian breach that is verified by the IAEA. It should strictly enforce the terms of the agreement and disentangle it from other aspects of Irans behavior that are troubling.
Still, no matter what decision Congress takes, the fact that an American president would not live up to the word of the U.S. is something the international community is not used to. It will further fragment partners and allies, and embolden adversaries. It will make the world a more dangerous place.
Josep Lluis Trapero, head of the Catalan regional police force, arrives in court in Madrid to face possible charges of sedition. His officers had declined to enforce a court order against the referendum. (Juan Medina/Reuters)
The independence-minded Catalonia region tried again Monday to dodge the question of whether it has declared a formal break with Spain, calling instead for talks and listing its grievances against Madrid's leaders.
The lack of clarity elicited a terse and frustrated response from Spains justice minister. Not valid, Rafael Catala said amid warnings from federal authorities that their patience was wearing thin more than two weeks after Catalonia backed secession in a referendum.
Catalonia's president, Carles Puigdemont, has carefully avoided a specific declaration of independence which could trigger harsh measures by Spain, including a takeover of Catalonia's security forces. Spain had given Puigdemont until Monday to clarify the region's status.
The question was clear, but the answer is not, Catala told reporters.
Instead, Puidgdemont appeared to be trying to buy more time.
In a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, Puigdemont declined to answer the question, calling instead for two months of dialogue and a halt to what he called Spains repression of Catalan citizens and institutions.
Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, Spains deputy prime minister, also rejected Puigdemonts letter. She called his appeal for dialogue not credible. Any further conversation should take place in the Spanish parliament, not between a particular region and the central government, she said.
She gave Catalan authorities a second deadline, Thursday, to return to obeying Spanish law.
[Spain asks: Did you declare independence or not?]
In his response to Puigdemont on Monday, Rajoy expressed much of the same sentiment as Saenz de Santamaria.
Your cries for dialogue in the name of Catalonia are not credible, when you refuse to speak with an important part of that society through its legitimate representatives, who as you have said hold fewer seats in parliament, but as you have hidden correspond to a larger number of citizens in terms of votes, the prime minister wrote in a letter circulated in Spanish media.
Last week, Puigdemont presented the results of the Oct. 1 referendum in Catalonia, Spain's wealthiest region. He affirmed Catalonia's right to be an independent country, before immediately delaying the secession process to allow for dialogue.
Spains Constitutional Court, meanwhile, declared the referendum illegal. Fewer than half of Catalan residents participated in the vote, but the vast majority of those who did voted for independence.
The suspension of the political mandate which arose from the polls on Oct. 1 shows our firm will to find a solution and not confrontation, Puigdemont wrote in the four-page letter to Rajoy.
Our proposal of dialogue is sincere and honest, he continued. Thus, for the next two months, our main objective is to urge dialogue and that all those international, Spanish and Catalan institutions and personalities who have expressed their will to open a path to negotiations have the chance to explore it.
The letter concluded, With good will, recognizing the problem and looking each other in the face, I am sure we can find a path to the solution.
[Catalonias leader: This is why we are voting to set our own course]
The letter arrived in Madrid hours ahead of a scheduled appearance by four people before the high court to face possible charges of sedition in relation to the referendum. Josep Lluis Trapero, head of the Catalan police force, was among those in court. His officers had declined to enforce a court order to prevent the referendum.
On Monday afternoon, the high court released Trapero but prohibited him from leaving the country and mandated another court appearance in 15 days. Prosecutors had requested the much harsher sentence of prison time without bail.
Rajoy had said he would begin invoking Article 155 if Puigdemont did not return to the legality of the Constitution. Article 155, known in Spain as the nuclear option, allows wide-ranging measures to uphold Spanish law in a renegade region, including assuming control of the police force and holding elections.
In Spain, a growing number of voices are calling for new elections in Catalonia to replace the sitting government.
In Barcelona, the seat of the Catalan government, the predominant view is still that the region can achieve independence or greater autonomy.
My governments priority is to intensively seek the path to dialogue, Puigdemont wrote in his letter. We want to talk, just as strong democracies do, about the existing problem that the majority of the Catalan people want to continue the path as an independent country in the European framework.
How an independent Catalonia would fit into a European framework remains an open question.
For the moment, officials across the European Union have mostly sided with Madrid, seeking to stave off a wave of separatist movements in the already embattled 28-state bloc. While many E.U. leaders have said that the referendum is an internal Spanish matter to be settled by Spanish authorities, other officials, notably in France, have said that their governments would not recognize a newly independent Catalonia.
McAuley reported from Paris.
Read more:
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Many Catalans dont want a break with Spain
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Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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Maxim Lapunov, 30, gives a news conference in Moscow on Monday, at which he described his detention and torture by Chechen police during a crackdown on gay men. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images)
MOSCOW For the first time since gruesome accounts of the systematic detention and torture of gay men began leaking out of Russias republic of Chechnya, a young man has gone public with his story. Maxim Lapunov, 30, told reporters on Monday that he was demanding justice from the Russian government for the 12 days he spent locked in a blood-soaked jail cell, led out daily with a plastic bag over his head to be beaten by police officers demanding he confess to being gay.
Human rights activists and journalists say that up to 100 people, mainly young gay men, were caught up in what has been called a "gay pogrom" carried out by Chechen police and officials earlier this year. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has denied the campaign of violence, saying that Chechnya "has no gays."
Lapunov, who moved to Chechnya in 2015 and made a living as an entertainer, said he was selling balloons in March near a mall in Grozny, Chechnyas capital, when he was detained by plainclothes police officers and forced into a car. He was driven to a police station.
The charge was that I am gay, Lapunov, dressed in a white T-shirt and blue cardigan, told reporters on Monday in a news conference at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which has published several explosive reports on the alleged torture of gay men in Chechnya.
When he refused a confession, he was led into a jail cell soaked with fresh blood, where he could hear screams and groans coming from somewhere in the bowels of the police station. Officers placed a plastic bag over his head with just a hole to breathe through, led him to an interrogation room, and forced his face against a wall and beat his legs, hips, buttocks, back, he said. They would stop briefly just to let me breathe. They made me get up when I was falling, and it went on and on.
I thought they would kill me no matter what happened, he said, wiping away tears.
Lapunov, who is ethnically Russian, is the first person to make a formal complaint to Russias powerful Investigative Committee challenging a government narrative that the gay pogrom in Chechnya never existed because no victims have come forward. Tanya Lokshina, the local head for Human Rights Watch, said that ethnic Chechen victims have been resistant to go public because of fear of retribution by their families.
On Friday, Tatyana Moskalkova, Russias commissioner for human rights, confirmed she had received a single complaint about the allegations of torture in Chechnya that she forwarded to investigators. Human rights activists working with Lapunov say there has been no progress in that investigation.
The bottom line is that we spent three weeks in Essentuki [the Investigative Committees regional center for the North Caucasus], and we saw that the investigation was not carried out, said Vladimir Smirnov, a lawyer for the Committee Against Torture, an organization working on Lapunovs case. We never went to Grozny, witnesses whom Maxim mentioned were never questioned. . . . Nothing was done in order to bring those who were guilty to liability.
Kadyrov, the powerful head of Chechnya, was installed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007 with wide-reaching powers to suppress a militant insurgency in the region. He has built a powerful cult of personality and championed conservative values in the mostly Muslim region.
"If there are any [gays], take them to Canada. Praise be to God. Take them far away from us. To purify our blood, if there are any here, take them," he told HBO in a televised interview in July.
Earlier reports in Novaya Gazeta and other local media told similar stories of nighttime detentions and the use of torture methods including electric shocks. The reports suggested that three men had been killed and dozens more detained in a campaign of violence that began last winter. Many men have been spirited out of Chechnya to other regions in Russia, as well as abroad to Europe, the United States and Canada.
Igor Kochetkov, a gay rights activist who heads the Russian LGBT Network, also said at Tuesdays news conference that as many as 15 men released by police to their families had later disappeared, raising the specter of honor killings.
But the actual number of those who died and have been tortured is still unknown.
The nightmares still happen, said Lapunov, who could barely walk when he was released after 12 days in captivity and has since received phone calls and text messages with threats not to speak out. By summer, he had decided to go public. Every evening, every night, they brought in another person accused [of being gay]. The screams and groans still come back to me.
Read more
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European court strikes down Russias gay propaganda law
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She broke the story of Chechnyas anti-gay purge. Now, she says she has to flee Russia.
Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
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Iraqi forces took control of the contested city of Kirkuk on Monday, as two U.S. allies faced off over territory and oil in the wake of the Kurdish region's independence vote last month.
Iraqi forces advanced into the disputed province with the goal of returning to positions they held before 2014, when they fled in the face of an Islamic State push. They recaptured military bases, an oil field and other infrastructure had since been taken over by Kurdish troops. But by the end on the day, they had gone further, taking control of the heart of Kirkuk which had been under Kurdish security control before Islamic States rise.
Video showed Iraqi forces lowering Kurdistans flag, and raising Iraqs flag at the citys provincial council building. Cars packed roads out of Kirkuk on Monday as some residents rushed to leave, others who had been unhappy with Kurdish rule, took to the streets to celebrate.
As well as highlighting the deep rifts in Iraq, the confrontation has also exposed splits among the Kurds themselves. Kurdish factions were divided on whether to allow in Iraqi troops or stand their ground, with some Kurdish fighters, known as peshmerga, ordered to give up their posts.
Washington has trained and equipped the advancing Iraqi troops and the peshmerga Kurdish forces on the other side.
We dont like the fact that theyre clashing, President Trump said at a Rose Garden press conference, adding that the United States had a very good relationship with both central government and Kurds.
We never should have been there, he said, referring back to the 2003 invasion, but were not taking sides.
The conflict between Kurdistan and the Iraqi government over land and oil is decades old, but a Kurdish referendum for independence last month inflamed the tensions. The Iraqi government, the United States, Turkey and Iran all opposed the vote. For Baghdad, it added urgency to a need to reassert its claims to the province, which has around 10 percent of the countrys oil reserves.
Kurdish forces took full control of the ethnically and religiously mixed city of Kirkuk in 2014 after the Iraqi military fled from large swaths of northern Iraq in the face of an Islamic State push. The Kurds also seized oil fields formerly run by Baghdad that pump hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day.
The skirmish between forces that fought together to oust Islamic State militants from their stronghold of Mosul in a brutal operation presented a major distraction for Iraqi forces, which had begun mobilizing westward for operations against the group in the last pockets it controls near the Syrian border.
Lt. Gen. Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, commander of Iraqs elite counterterrorism forces, said his units were in control of the K-1 military base outside Kirkuk on Monday, the Baba Gurgur oil field and the airport.
[Mattis worries Kirkuk tensions a diversion from defeating ISIS]
Iraqi forces also said they took key road junctions, police stations and military positions.
Some elements of Kurdistans Patriotic Union Party, or PUK, whose forces dominate in the area, agreed to withdraw in coordination with Baghdad. But the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, opposed a deal.
The general command of Kurdistans peshmerga slammed PUK officials for a major historic betrayal of Kurdistan by handing over positions, and the militia vowed to fight.
The KDP-affiliated Kurdistan Region Security Council said it destroyed five U.S.-supplied Humvees used in the advance by Iraqs popular mobilization units, an umbrella group containing Iranian-backed militias that fight as part of Iraqs security forces.
A video shared online showed six bodies of what appeared to be Kurdish peshmerga soldiers lying by a roadside near Iraqi vehicles. One wore the uniform of a lieutenant colonel.
This is the result of disobedience of Masoud Barzani, said the Iraqi fighter who was filming, referring to the leader of Iraqi Kurdistan and the KDP.
As well as having allies on both sides, the flare-up presents another awkward dilemma for the United States.
The Iraqi side is also backed up by Shiite militia forces close to Iran at a time when the Trump administration has intensified its rhetoric about trying to curb Iranian influence in the region, including increasing sanctions on Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps last week.
As the Iraqi flag was raised over Kirkuks provincial council building on Monday, both Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, leader of Iraqs populization forces
Kurdistans security council put out panicked public statements last week as Iraqi forces massed on the edges of the province.
[Iraqs vice president warned of civil war over Kirkuk]
Its comical, really, said a Kurdish official with the KDP, talking about U.S. silence given the presence of Iran-supported militias in the advance.
If you want to push back Iranian influence, dont stay quiet, the official said. In the Middle East, silence is taken as a sign of weakness.
But the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said in a statement that it supports the peaceful reassertion of federal authority, consistent with the Iraqi constitution, in all disputed areas.
It called for all parties to immediately cease military action and restore calm.
We are very concerned by reports of violence in Kirkuk and deplore any loss of life, it added.
The constitution mandated that federal forces should secure disputed territories during the transition period until a referendum could be held on the status of Kirkuk. That was slated to take place in 2007 after a normalization process to reverse demographic changes made by former dictator Saddam Hussein, who attempted to assert influence by moving in Arab residents. However, the vote was never held.
My duty is to work in accordance with the constitution to serve the citizens and protect the unity of the country, which was in danger of partition due to the insistence on holding the referendum, the prime minister, al-Abadi, said in a statement on Monday.
As Kurdish authorities warned they were about to come under attack last week, Abadi tried to defuse tension, taking to Twitter to assure that Iraqi forces cannot and will not attack our citizens.
Iraqi commanders initially dismissed troop movements as routine deployments aimed at securing nearby Hawija, recently recaptured from Islamic State militants.
But Shiite militia leaders close to Iran said they were there to move into the province and presented a list of demands to peshmerga commanders. They said they had set a 48-hour deadline for Kurdish forces to withdraw.
After the deadline expired, Abadi accused the Kurds of deploying militiamen from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a faction that has waged battles for autonomy in Turkeys Kurdish region for decades.
Abadi said it amounted to a declaration of war, but PKK fighters have been present in the city for several years.
[5 things to know about the Kurds independence vote]
Still in the hands of Kurds on Monday was the Bai Hassan oil field, which is under the control of the KDP and has a capacity of around 200,000 barrels of crude a day. Kurdistans regional government is heavily reliant on the field for its energy needs.
The orders are to surround K-1 and oil fields and stop and call on the Kurdish forces to retreat, said a counterterrorism officer who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic as the operation was launched. There are strict orders to avoid violence.
But militia commanders took a more combative tone.
Anyone who fights Iraqi forces is the same as ISIS, said Karim al-Nuri, a spokesman for Iraqs mobilization units, referring to the Islamic State. Iraqi state television said that counterterrorism forces, the 9th Division of the Iraqi army and federal police forces had taken large areas of the province without a fight. It said popular mobilization units took positions outside Kirkuk.
PUK officials on Sunday said that they had made an offer to Baghdad to agree to allow central government troops from the Presidential Guard, who are ethnically Kurdish, into the Kirkuk region. The KDP said it had not agreed to the deal, and hours later a large contingent of Iraqi forces, including counterterrorism troops, police and militiamen advanced.
We salute and appreciate the courageous position of the peshmerga fighters who refused to fight their brothers in the Iraqi forces, Qais al-Khazali, leader of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq Shiite militia, backed by Iran, said on Twitter.
Peshmerga fighters who were ordered to withdraw expressed frustration.
Why did they sell Kirkuk to Iran? said one fighter interviewed by Iraqs Beladi television station.
In addition to harboring Kurdish troops, the K-1 military base before the advance was also home to a contingent of U.S.-led coalition forces.
Col. Ryan Dillon, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said all coalition forces were safe and secure but that the tension was distracting from the fight against Islamic State militants.
Karen DeYoung and Alex Horton in Washington contributed to this report.
Read more
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This appeared in Saturdays Washington Post.
In an act of political vanity and geopolitical folly, President Donald Trump has made one of the most serious national security challenges facing the United States, that of Iran, considerably worse. His announcement Friday that he would report to Congress that the Islamic republic is not meeting the terms of the 2015 multinational accord limiting its nuclear program flouted the reports of international inspectors, the unanimous counsel of his national security team and the appeals of key U.S. allies. His threat to terminate the agreement if Congress and Americas allies do not meet his demands for revisions could easily lead to Irans resumption of a race toward nuclear weaponsa dangerous course that the deal brokered by the Obama administration succeeded in arresting.
The nuclear accord is flawed, including sunset provisions that remove restrictions on Iranian nuclear activities beginning eight years from now. But Trumps hyperbolic claim that the deal is one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into is belied by the fact that the regime has gone from being less than a year away from being able to produce a nuclear device, according to U.S. intelligence estimates, to having a fraction of the necessary material, and that under close international monitoring. The presidents contention that Iran is guilty of multiple violations of the agreement is belied by eight reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency as well as statements by his secretaries of state and defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Trumps advisers persuaded him not to withdraw from the accord directly, but instead to send the matter to Congress, which must vote within 60 days on whether to restore U.S. sanctions on Iran. But the president set a trap by vowing to terminate the deal if Congress did not impose new requirements on Iran, including an end to the sunset provisions. Any U.S. attempt to unilaterally revise the accord is doomed; it will be rejected not just by Iran but also by the other parties to the deal, including Russia, China and the European Union.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, says he will introduce amendments meant to satisfy Trump; he told us that we have no intention of passing a piece of legislation that violates the accord. But Democrats, including some who were critical of the original Iran deal, are understandably dubious. Sen. Benjamin Cardin, Md., the senior Democrat on the committee, vowed not [to] buy into the false premise that it is Congresss role to legislate solutions to problems of [Trumps] own making.
Trump promised additional action to address the non-nuclear threats posed by Iran, including its interventions in Iraq and Syria. The administration is justified in imposing sanctions on Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps. But it appears to have no clear plan to address Irans military entrenchment in Syria, which is threatening to touch off a new conflict with Israel. Rather than tackling those urgent challenges, Trump prefers to renounce the legacy of his political nemesis Barack Obama and thereby reopen the one front where Tehran is currently contained. North Korea will take note: The United States cannot be trusted to stick to any nuclear accord.
A jury convicted a New Jersey man Monday in a bombing last year that injured 31 people and sparked a frantic two-state manhunt. The verdict means the bomber, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison.
A jury in Manhattan federal court deliberated for just a few hours between Friday afternoon and Monday morning before finding Rahimi guilty of all eight counts against him for planting bombs in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea on Sept. 17, 2016. One bomb left on a sidewalk did not explode, but another, left inside a metal trash container, detonated, causing the injuries.
U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim called Rahimis conviction a victory for New York City, a victory for America in its fight against terror, and a victory for all who believe in the cause of justice.
Rahimi chose not to testify in his defense, and in closing arguments his attorneys did not dispute some of the charges he faced only the ones that with convictions would trigger a mandatory life prison sentence. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 18.
Prosecutors spent two weeks presenting the mangled metal dumpster and other evidence to the jury. Authorities say Rahimi, before planting bombs in New York, left a bomb that detonated, without injury, along the course of a five-kilometer charity race in Seaside Park, N.J. He also dumped a bag of pipe bombs outside a New Jersey train station before trying to disappear and evade police.
Rahimi was captured when police officers in Linden, N.J., found him sleeping in the doorway of a bar. Authorities say he pulled a gun from a waist pack and started shooting, striking one of the officers in his protective vest.
Prosecutors had a wide array of evidence to convince the panel, including fingerprints and records of his purchases of bomb parts.
Jurors watched security camera videos that showed him outside his residence on the day the bombs were planted, then showing the same person arriving at Penn Station in Manhattan. There was also video of his movements in the city and of him leaving one of the bombs on West 27th Street.
Among the most damning pieces of evidence was a letter written in a notebook Rahimi was carrying during his shootout with police. Stained by blood and torn in places, the letter is addressed to the U.S. government and describes his anger over U.S. foreign policy, indicates his admiration of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni American cleric and propagandist, and ends with the declaration: Inshallah the sounds of bombs will be heard in the streets. Gunshots to your police. Death to your OPPRESSION.
Rahimi is a U.S. citizen born in Afghanistan whose last name is sometimes spelled in government documents as Rahami. He faces separate charges in New Jersey for his alleged crimes there.
Counterterrorism officials have described Rahimi as a lone wolf who was not part of any broader conspiracy but was inspired by terrorist propaganda much of it from overseas and decided to act on his own. Prosecutors say a laptop in Rahimis home contained 14 issues of al-Qaedas Inspire magazine, which included various bombmaking recipes.
The Rahimi case also highlighted how difficult it can be to prevent such an attack, even when authorities have some inkling a person might be dangerous. The FBI briefly looked into Rahimi in 2014 after it learned his father had made comments to others indicating his son might be involved in terrorism. But that investigation ended after an FBI review found no links between Rahimi and terrorist groups.
The death toll from two truck bombs in Somalia's capital reached 300 on Monday, as the deadliest attack in the country's decade-long war with Islamist extremists signaled that the insurgency is far from defeated, despite years of U.S. counterterrorism operations.
Nearly all of the dead were killed by the first bomb, which exploded Saturday outside a popular hotel near a busy intersection in Mogadishu, sending a plume of smoke into the sky that could be seen across the city. The second truck bomb killed several more people nearby.
The Somali capital is a frequent target of attacks by al-Shabab, an extremist group linked to al-Qaeda, but residents said they quickly discerned that the twin blasts were of a different order of magnitude.
The death toll continued to climb Sunday and Monday.
On Monday morning, officials said they were still trying to calculate the number of victims. Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Aamin Ambulance Services in Mogadishu, told Reuters on Monday, "We have confirmed 300 people died in the blast."
A large swath of a city block appeared wiped out, and a tower of charred automobiles could be seen at the bombing site. A BBC reporter said people were trapped under the rubble of the Safari Hotel. Throughout Sunday, bodies were being extracted from the ruins.
[Exclusive: U.S.-funded Somali intelligence agency has been using kids as spies]
Somalia's president, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, declared three days of national mourning. The government blamed the carnage on al-Shabab, but the group has not claimed responsibility.
Todays horrific attack proves our enemy would stop at nothing to cause our people pain and suffering. Lets unite against terror, Mohamed said on Twitter.
Medical workers spoke about the scale of the attack, which quickly overwhelmed the citys few hospitals.
Today is the worst day of my life. We are overwhelmed by the high number of the casualties. I have been working at this hospital for more than seven years, and I never saw or heard this number of deaths, said Ahmed Osman, a nurse in Mogadishus Medina Hospital, where many of the dead and wounded were taken.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said five of its volunteers were among the dead. One volunteer who survived, Abdiasis Mohamed, said he and his friends were drinking tea when one of the bombs exploded. When he regained consciousness, he said, he was covered in blood and several of his friends had been burned to death.
Thank God I am fine, he said.
Two of Hawo Ahmeds sons, both shopkeepers, were killed.
They came home for lunch, and we had lunch together, she said. They were innocent and the breadwinners for my family.
Last year, she said, her husband was killed in an attack.
[The U.N. asked for billions to avert four hunger crises. The money didnt arrive.]
Somalia has been battling al-Shabab insurgents since 2007, with the help of 22,000 troops from the African Union and a U.S. counterterrorism campaign that has expanded under President Trump.
For years, drone strikes were the centerpiece of the U.S. military strategy, carried out with the expectation that the militant group would dissolve if its leadership was vanquished. That has not happened.
Although the U.S. and African Union operations forced insurgents from territory they once controlled, they have not curbed al-Shababs ability to launch deadly and frequent attacks in Mogadishu, mostly targeting restaurants, hotels and places where officials gather.
Earlier this year, the White House loosened the rules governing U.S. operations in the country, declaring parts of Somalia to be an "area of active hostilities."
A one-star general was assigned to coordinate operations from a compound within Mogadishus airport. The small, elite teams of U.S. Special Operations forces in Somalia were augmented with conventional Army troops who provide a variety of training for the Somali forces.
The Pentagon refuses to say precisely how many Americans are deployed to Somalia believed to be a few hundred at most but Defense Secretary Jim Mattis indicated earlier this year that the Trump administration would consider sending more personnel if asked by the Somali president.
Its unlikely, though, that the weekends attack will result in any substantial American military buildup. As in other unstable parts of Africa, the U.S. strategy in Somalia has been to support allied forces by sharing intelligence, providing training and equipment, and conducting precision airstrikes but not doing the fighting for them.
Mattis has characterized the objective in Somalia as "buying time" for the Somali government to assemble its own security forces. Still, the mission there remains dangerous. In May, a Navy SEAL was killed and two other U.S. commandos were wounded during a battle with militants west of Mogadishu. It marked the first U.S. combat death in Somalia since the early 1990s.
A number of officials were killed in Saturdays attack, including Mohamoud Elmi, the director general at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
In 2016, al-Shabab was the deadliest terrorist group in Africa, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset, killing 4,281 people.
Somalia has struggled to maintain a stable government or a defense force capable of challenging the Islamist militants. Last week, both the defense minister and the army chief resigned for reasons that remain unclear. Many analysts argue that Somalias undeveloped security sector has made it easy for al-Shabab to penetrate the countrys largest city with thousands of pounds of explosives.
Earlier this year, the country teetered on the brink of famine, in large part because of the fightings effect on agriculture and the distribution of humanitarian aid.
In the wake of Saturdays attacks, one Mogadishu ambulance service underscored the scale of the bloodshed.
In our 10 year experience as the first responder in Mogadishu, we havent seen anything like this, Aamin Ambulance Services said on Twitter.
In a statement, the U.S. Mission to Somalia called the bombings "cowardly attacks" that "reinvigorate the commitment of the United States to assist our Somali and African Union partners to combat the scourge of terrorism."
As rescue teams continued their work at the site of the bombing, residents of Mogadishu took to the streets to protest al-Shabab, shouting, We dont want bloodthirsty elements.
Mire reported from Mogadishu.
Read more
Al-Shabab militants storm army base in Somalia, killing dozens
Expectations run high for Somalias new president
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Folks tend to feel that government is wasteful, inefficient and generally irresponsible in using their taxpayer dollars. And some think anyone with a lick of business sense could quickly and easily clean up the mess and save a lot of money.
There are plenty of examples out there to support the first point just look at the fiscal fiascos in Illinois. The way the federal government spends our money is irresponsible. But, as a small-businessman and experienced legislator, let me assure you that claims like that about Idahos government are only spoken by those who lack experience and the understanding about Idahos fiscally conservative leadership.
A governor cant act alone. 105 legislators, who represent citizens in Idaho communities large and small, are equal and integral partners in the process. A governor needs to be judicious, thoughtful and work closely with our locally elected legislators.
All budget decisions are made jointly and collaboratively by the governor and the Legislature. In Idaho, we take pride in working together to find commonsense solutions. Governing is no different.
The Idaho Legislatures budgeting processes have been successfully refined over many years to specifically ferret out and eliminate waste, inefficiency and extravagance. High public confidence and Idahos sterling credit rating is proof of the states responsible approach.
Claiming to have a magical solution to a problem that doesnt really exist is an old political trick. But it lacks the thoughtful assessment, careful prioritization and healthy dose of reality that legislators employ to balance Idahos state budget every year. Remember, each legislator is elected by the voters.
The news media and every Idahoan should not settle for empty rhetoric and hollow promises like vowing to cut $100 million from Idahos state budget in 100 days. $100 million cut. Easy to say. Not easy to execute. Where do you start? Education makes up 63 percent of states budget, does that mean $63 million cut to education?
Regardless of the political bluster and posturing, lets consider some of the realities that Idaho would face if $100 million were suddenly slashed from our state budget without due deliberation:
You could cut $100 million from public schools, but that would erase virtually all the progress made by the Legislature this year on improving teacher pay and educational opportunities for Idaho children.
You could cut all state funding for community colleges and career technical education and save $106 million, but that would be a slap in the face to Idaho employers who desperately need more educated, trained and skilled workers.
You could cut the Department of Water Resources and save almost $20 million, but you also would be eliminating important water management programs including aquifer recharge.
You could cut the Idaho State Police and save almost $30 million, but there would be no troopers patrolling the highways or state support for local law enforcement.
Understanding the costs and the implications of cutting the budget is just as important as carefully deciding how taxpayer dollars are spent. Fortunately for Idaho taxpayers, their legislators utilize such a responsible, open and deliberative public process.
The bottom line: Anyone calling for quick and dramatic cuts to Idahos state budget whether for political advantage or because they dont understand how things work is not ready to govern.
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This article was published 16/10/2017 (1856 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A 14-year-old girl died Sunday afternoon after falling into a water-holding tank on a farm west of Brandon.
The girl was walking in the farmyard, located in the RM of Whitehead, when she stepped on the lid of the underground tank, knocking it off, Blue Hills RCMP said Monday. The girl who police said had supervision fell about six metres before hitting the water.
Emergency workers got her out and she was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
RCMP would not say how long the girl was in the water. They are continuing their investigation.
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This article was published 16/10/2017 (1856 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Sorrow, anger and song marked the testimony from families Monday at the start of five days of hearings in Winnipeg for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
The reason Im here is to pick up where my sister left off, to tell Nicoles story so people know she isnt just a statistic, that she was loved and that she came from a good family, Joan Winning told the commission.
Winning the aunt of Nicole Ashley Daniels, 16, who was found frozen to death behind an auto body shop on Regent Avenue in 2009 led the first of four families to offer testimony. The relatives were often weeping as they spoke, all of them visibly angry at authorities and blaming them for dismissing concerns when their relatives went missing.
A sunrise ceremony was held Monday morning by the monument in honour of Manitobas missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls at The Forks to mark the start of the commission's hearings in Winnipeg. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)
You ask if we have any suggestions? Look at us, the same way white people look at themselves. Thats all we ask. These girls were intelligent. They could have had success in life. We come from a good family. My sons all have university degrees. They all work. My mother raised 15 children and when she finished that, she went back to school to become a nurse. In her 40s. Paul Daniels, elder for the family of Nicole Ashley Daniels, 16. Nicole was found facedown in a snow bank near Regent Avenue in Winnipeg in 2009, the morning after meeting up with a stranger she met on a chat line. Police closed the case, after an autopsy ruling determined the death was from hypothermia .
Winning and her daughter, Isabel Daniels Winning, used harsh words as they flatly dismissed official accounts that Nicole died of hypothermia. They called on authorities to reopen the investigation.
The way Nicole was found, frozen, in a dark place and the circumstances leading to her death, I believe were the actions of one person, the person who took her, supplied her with alcohol so she couldnt walk And when he finished with her, he tossed her out and left her there, Winning said.
We need to focus on why these predators are picking on our women and why we are all disposable people, otherwise there will be more Nicoles, Isabel Daniels Winning said, adding police told the family during the investigation they had spoken to a 45-year-old Transcona man believed to have lured Daniels online, the night before her death.
He disposed of her like she was garbage (Yet) the police said this man is an upstanding member of society. Well, what the hell was she? I think its bull-, she said bitterly.
The pair painted a portrait of a girl from the projects whose family was poor but closely knit; Nicole was a budding artist, the oldest of six whose death destroyed the family and drove her mother to an early grave.
A family friend sang a song he composed as a tribute, accompanying the lyrics with guitar: When you were young, you were here / Now all we have is goodbye / All that is left is memories / Its a weight we can not bear.
More than 75 Indigenous families from southern Manitoba are registered to testify at the Winnipeg hearings, some in public, others in private during the five-day stop. There were pleas for the inquiry to also schedule hearings in Thompson for northern families.
The inquiry moves on to Saskatoon for another set of hearings next month. It ends the year with meetings in Nunavut in December. Teams are to be sent out in coming months to remote and rural First Nations to take testimony in mini-hearings starting in a few weeks.
Michele Audette, commissioner for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, at this morning's ceremony. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)
The Winnipeg hearings opened Monday with a sunrise ceremony at The Forks and carried on at the downtown Radisson hotel with speeches, drum songs and prayers before families started their testimony in the afternoon.
In one extraordinary session, members of the families of three women found brutally murdered, decades apart, testified as one group.
Jennifer Johnson was killed in an attack in her home, while her sister and her sisters children slept just metres away in 1980. In 2013, Johnsons niece, named for her slain aunt, was strangled and dismembered.
Jennifer McPhersons husband, Traigo Andretti, was convicted of first-degree murder after McPhersons remains were found scattered on remote Hanson Island, B.C.
After he was handed a life sentence, Andretti admitted to having slain another woman, Myrna Letandre, 36, strangling and dismembering her, shockingly burying her head in a crawl space beneath a Point Douglas rooming house in 2006.
The police bulletin described Jennifer as Caucasian and I told my mother they might not look for her if they knew she was Aboriginal. We thought nobody would take her (disappearance) seriously, if they thought she was Aboriginal. We know how society looks at Aboriginal women. That they go missing. So we made a conscious decision not to correct (the police bulletin). Kim McPherson, sister of Jennifer McPherson, 41. Her remains were found on remote Hanson Island, B.C., in 2013. Her husband, Traigo Andretti, was given a life sentence for first-degree murder in the slaying. He was also later convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Myrna Letandre, 36. Letandres remains were found hidden in the basement crawl space of a rooming house in Point Douglas. Andretti strangled and dismembered both women, who had been long-time Winnipeg residents
Betty Rourke McPhersons mother and the sister of Jennifer Johnson said in both cases, the men had histories of violence against women and they might still be alive had those men had been behind bars.
Incredibly, it was the families who led the investigation in her daughters death, Rourke said. Andrettis mother in a series of Facebook messages between the two mothers took the initiative to go to the remote island, find her son, get an account from him and call police to investigate.
She told me everything that happened. Then the RCMP called me and started to investigate, Rourke testified.
A sunrise ceremony was held Monday morning by the monument in honour of Manitobas missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls at The Forks to mark the start of the commission's hearings in Winnipeg. (Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press)
This man was a vile, evil being and had there been a thorough investigation, he wouldnt have taken lives, from my family and theirs, also, said Letandres sister, Lorna Sinclair.
I have a lot of guilt inside of me because I didnt do more. I did the best I could, Sinclair said, recounting repeated calls alerting police to her sisters disappearance. It would be seven years before the family saw justice at Andrettis trial.
I know the cops should have done more. More needs to be done when our people go missing.
The families of all three slain women are expected to continue testimony today.
alexandra.paul@fresspress.mb.ca
Opinion
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This article was published 16/10/2017 (1856 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Saudi Arabia is finally freeing itself from the grip of decades of religious fundamentalism. The key to this change? Car keys. On Sept. 26, the Saudi government formally announced that it would lift the ban on women driving.
Saudi writers have compared the struggle that led to this day to the battle of the royal decree to open the first government girls school in the kingdom. The decree came three decades after the founding of Saudi Arabia. But this revolutionary moment is about so much more than driving. It is about changing the very direction of the country.
Denying women the right to drive has imposed huge costs on Saudi citizens. Up to 1.5 million foreign men must be paid to work as drivers. Many neither speak nor read Arabic, and some of these drivers have never driven a car.
Hasan Jamali / The Associated Press files Saudi Arabias government announced on Sept. 26 that women will be granted the right to drive in June 2018.
A paltry 15 per cent of Saudi women work outside their homes, in part because hiring a private driver can cost between one-third and two-thirds of a womans salary. Saudi men must be responsible for the transportation of their wives, sisters and mothers.
In desperation, women without access to male drivers have put boys as young as nine years old behind the wheel, propped up on pillows to see over the dashboard. It is no wonder that the kingdom has among the highest traffic fatality rates in the world.
Beyond the social and economic costs, literally forcing women to remain in the back seat has hobbled Saudi Arabias global progress. It has the worlds second-largest proven oil reserves, but ranks behind Cyprus and Malta on the United Nations Human Development Index. Now, at last, we have a path forward: an open Saudi society for men and women.
Driving is a start. It can help end the larger oppressive guardianship system, which requires women to obtain permission from a male relative for the most basic decisions and activities. (Interestingly, the kingdom has announced that a woman will not need permission from her guardian to obtain a drivers licence.)
Today, guardianship and control over women are less about ancient traditions inside the kingdom after all, the prophet Muhammad married a successful businesswoman than about fundamentalist religious forces enforcing their grip on society. Many of the current restrictions on women were imposed after the neighbouring Iranian Revolution and the armed seizure of Meccas Grand Mosque by Sunni radicals for two weeks in 1979.
Following those events, women disappeared from Saudi state television and newspapers, coupled with a huge crackdown on female employment. Fundamentalists also renewed their calls to end womens education. But the current generation of Saudi women has refused to listen. Women now make up more than half of all Saudi university students 51.8 per cent as of 2015, according to the ministry of education.
For the first time, I dare to dream of a different Saudi Arabia in the coming years. I have 10 wishes for womens equality in my country: I wish for a kingdom where the guardianship system ceases to exist; where at 18 or 21 years of age, women are recognized by law as adults; where women can study for any college degree that they want, including the male-only degree of engineering; where women can work in any field they choose; where women who have been jailed do not need a male guardians permission to leave; where it is a crime to marry off a child; where women are appointed as ambassadors and ministers and heads of organizations; where Saudi mothers can pass their citizenship on to their children; where the law protects mothers and children; and where women can compete as athletes on any playing field.
More change is coming. For the first time in the kingdoms history, leadership is passing to a younger generation. Saudi Arabia has long been known for its octogenarian kings, but today the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is only 32.
As he told the Washington Posts David Ignatius in April, Im young. Seventy per cent of our citizens are young. We dont want to waste our lives in this whirlpool that we were in the past 30 years. We want to end this epoch now. We want, as the Saudi people, to enjoy the coming days, and concentrate on developing our society and developing ourselves as individuals and families, while retaining our religion and customs. We will not continue to be in the post-79 era. That age is over.
Seven years ago, I cried on the streets of Saudi Arabia. I cried because after a doctors appointment, I could not find a male driver to take me home. I had to endure harassment as I walked alone. I had an American drivers licence and I knew how to drive, but the government would not allow it. To drive while female was punishable by arrest and jail time.
Indeed, in May 2011, I was arrested and jailed after I drove on Saudi streets as part of the June 17 movement to protest the ban. On Sept. 26, I cried again, but my tears were tears of joy. In June 2018, seven years after that protest, Saudi women will be free not only to drive their own cars, but also to be the drivers of their own lives.
Manal al-Sharif, a womens rights activist, is author of Daring to Drive: A Saudi Womans Awakening.
Washington Post
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This article was published 16/10/2017 (1856 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Desta Nigatu, owner of Harmans Cafe (570 Sargent Ave.), a West End eatery known for its authentic Ethiopian fare, recently returned from a trip to Korem, Ethiopia where she supports a childrens home. Nigatu was the recipient of the YMCA Peace Medallion in 2015 due to her ongoing support of the home through profits she makes at her restaurant. Her most recent trip saw her in Korem for approximately a month, where she was able to meet and spend time with the children who live there.
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The October 4 killings of four US Green Berets in Niger has provided a rare glimpse into the far-reaching American military operations throughout the African continent which have been conducted almost entirely in secret.
Pentagon officials on Friday told reporters that the ambush was carried out by a self-radicalized group supposedly affiliated with ISIS. The Pentagon additionally admitted that at least 29 patrols similar to the one that was fatally ambushed have been carried out by American soldiers in Niger.
According to AFRICOM, the US military command based in Stuttgart, Germany, the US special forces deployed to Niger are tasked with providing training, logistics, and intelligence to assist the Nigerien military in fighting militants affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Mali and Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria. AFRICOM has officially stated that its forces interact with the Nigerien army in a non-combat advisory capacity.
The circumstances surrounding the ambush which resulted in the deaths of the four Green Berets expose AFRICOMs claim of non-engagement as a lie. The killings occurred during a joint patrol of elite American soldiers and Nigerien forces in a remote hostile region on the border with Mali known for frequent raids conducted by Islamist militants. Some 800 US commandos are deployed to bases in Niamey and Agadez making quite clear the offensive role that the American military is playing in Niger.
Underlining the incident is Nigers configuration in Washingtons imperialist offensive across Africa. The expanding levels of US military forces arrayed across the continent have increasingly taken on the character of an occupying army. According to the Pentagon, there are a total of 1,000 American troops in the vicinity of the Lake Chad Basin which includes eastern Niger, Chad, northern Nigeria and part of the Central African Republic. An additional 300 troops are stationed to the south in Cameroon.
After its establishment in 2008 as an independent command, AFRICOM has significantly expanded American military influence and troop deployments on the African continent. Measuring the breadth of US military expansion is the construction of a $100 million base in Agadez in central Niger, from which the US Air Force conducts regular surveillance drone flights across the Sahel region.
Augmenting the special forces contingent in the region are military personnel stationed at several dozen bases and outposts including a US base in Garoua, Cameroon.
The special operations units in Africa have their genesis in 1980, after the Pentagon created Special Operations Command (SOCOM) to conduct a raid on the US embassy in Tehran, Iran to rescue American hostages. Over the years, SOCOM has vastly broadened its scope, and currently has forces stationed on every continent around the globe.
Made up of various units of the US military, including Green Berets, Delta Force, and Navy Seals, SOCOM carry out a broad spectrum of offensive operations including assassinations, counter-terrorism, reconnaissance, psychological operations, and foreign troop training. Under AFRICOM, these forces form a subgroup of SOCOM designated as Special Operations Command in Africa (SOCAFRICA).
Between 2006 and 2010 the deployment of US special forces troops in Africa increased 300 per cent. However, from 2010 to 2017 the numbers of deployed troops exploded by nearly 2000 per cent, occupying more than 60 outposts tasked with carrying out over 100 missions at any given moment across the continent.
The scale of the military expansion which began in earnest under the Obama administration is part of a renewed scramble for Africa, comprised of a reckless drive for economic dominance over Africas vast economic resources which threatens to transform the entire continent into a battlefield.
The immediate roots of the Niger ambush can be traced to the 2011 US/NATO war in Libya which resulted in the removal and assassination of Libyas leader Muammar Gaddafi. Under the Obama administration, Washington cultivated and armed various Islamist militant groups with ties to Al-Qaeda as a proxy force to carry out its aim of regime change. The resulting US/NATO bombardment left Libyan society in shambles, and the Islamist fighters spilled forth and out across North Africa and south to the Sahel.
In 2012, as a consequence of a US and French backed coup against the government in Bamako, Tuareg rebels in northern Mali took advantage of the chaos resulting from the coup to stage a rebellion. After the Tuareg militants began taking control over cities and territory as it cut deeper into southern Mali, France with the Obama administrations backing deployed 4,000 troops to the country to neutralize the Tuareg rebels, eventually stabilizing the government it placed in Bamako.
While the Tuareg rebellion may have been halted by the US-backed French offensive, Islamist fighters from Libya were pouring into Mali, with many taking up arms against the Western backed puppet government. The Islamist fighters largely united into one large group, declaring allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The military forces of Niger and Chad which participated in the US/French intervention in Mali have become frequent targets by the Islamist militants who began conducting cross-border raids and launched attacks on patrols and garrisons.
The rise of these warring Islamist militias which have transformed West Africa into a battlefield is the end result of Washingtons decades-long strategy in cultivating these forces as a proxy army in its wars for regime change, at first, in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and subsequently in Africa.
Underscoring Frances military deployment are the French economic interests it seeks to protect not only Mali, but throughout West Africa, the region which was once part of its colonial empire. In Niger, the French energy giant Arven has established mining operations extracting the countrys rich uranium resources.
For its part, Washington has enlisted the participation of the military forces of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Mali in its drive for dominance of the Sahel and West Africa, with all of these countries featuring US outposts or bases.
A key element of Washingtons military expansion in the region is the significant economic resources that it aims to secure for American corporate interests. On behalf of these interests, and complementary to its military operation, Washington has constructed a $300 million embassy in Niamey.
Washingtons military interventions in Africa must also be seen as an effort to offset Chinas growing economic influence on the continent. Beijing in recent years has secured investment deals with African governments in nearly every sector of Africas economy.
China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) purchased the permit for oil drilling in Nigers Agadem Basin, and CNPC also constructed and operates the Soraz refinery near Zinder, Nigers second largest city. Deals by Beijing for the construction of pipelines traversing through Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon are currently in the development stage, causing no small amount of consternation in Washington.
The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS), headquartered in New York City, has bowed to pressure from right-wing Zionist circles, canceling two public events that were scheduled for the next few months. The cancellations are connected to a broader effort to derail the appointment of David Myers to head the Center for Jewish History (CJH), the umbrella organization of which the AJHS is a constituent part.
As reported by the New York Times this week, the reading of a play by Dan Fishback, as well as a separate panel to discuss the centenary of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, were both canceled after a vote by the board of the AJHS.
Playwright Fishback said his work, entitled Rubble Rubble, dealt with how Jewish families are broken over the politics of Israel-Palestine. He added, The people who made this decision had no access to my script. This was about my beliefs. The play reading had been originally scheduled for December 14. Fishback said he would attempt to have the reading staged elsewhere. I want to use this as an opportunity to shed light on negative effects of silencing in the Jewish community, he said. This play will see the light of day one way or another.
The panel on the Balfour Declaration, the document in which British imperialism accepted in broad terms the Zionist ambition for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, had been originally scheduled for October 26 and was canceled on barely two weeks notice. It apparently drew the ire of right-wing critics because it was co-sponsored by the group Jewish Voice for Peace, which opposes Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and argues that being Jewish and Judaism are not synonymous with Zionism or support for Israel.
The societys board issued a brief statement declaring, While the programs themselves may have merit, they do not align with the mission of the AJHS. The vague and mealy-mouthed announcement did not elaborate on why the programs, which had originally been scheduled months earlier, had suddenly been found to be out of alignment.
The Times reported that several figures in the arts had denounced the AJHS decision. Theater director Rachel Chavkin called it right-wing censorship. Ofri Cnaani, who is Israeli-American, removed an installation by her in the lobby of the CJH dealing with the life of anarchist Emma Goldman.
The Center for Jewish History, founded in 2000, is composed of five largely autonomous institutions. The AJHS, founded 125 years ago, is one of four libraries/archive members, including YIVO, dealing with East European Jewish history, and the Leo Baeck Institute, focusing on German Jewish history. The AJHS archives include an original manuscript copy of Emma Lazarus famous 1883 poem, The New Colossus, which is inscribed in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
David Myers, a well-known professor of history from UCLA in Los Angeles, was named to head the CJH last June. The right-wing Zionist lobby, and the Campus Watch website in particular, has since mounted a campaign demanding his removal.
Campus Watch, a web-based project of the Middle East Forum, was founded 15 years ago by Daniel Pipes. Pipes, who has claimed he is only publicizing and arguing against the views of his political opponents, has in fact campaigned to have academic figures and cultural officials removed and ostracized because of their political views.
In typical McCarthyite fashion, Campus Watch campaigns against those it deems unpatriotic. It combines an American super-patriotism with Zionist xenophobia in relation to the Palestinian people. Opponents of the Netanyahu regime and his ultra-right backers are smeared as anti-Semites. Numerous targets have reported receiving death threats in the wake of such smear campaigns. Similar efforts have also targeted Palestinian students and campus organizations.
Myers is far from an opponent of Zionism, but in the eyes of figures like Pipes he is beyond the pale. Myers crimes, according to a recent article on the Algemeiner website by Cinnamon Stillwell, the West Coast representative of Campus Watch, include an association with J Street, the liberal Zionist lobby.
The UCLA professor of Jewish Studies, who has warned that Israel is in danger of becoming an apartheid state, is a supporter of a two-state solution, the proposal for a Palestinian mini-state alongside Israel, which has all but been abandoned by official circles in Israel in recent years, and by the Trump administration as well. Myers has also been accused of insufficient opposition to the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, the protest campaign aimed at convincing Washington and other major capitalist governments to pressure the Israeli regime into ending its occupation of Palestinian land seized in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The attacks on Myers have provoked an angry backlash. About 500 academic figures in the field of Jewish studies, including noted Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt, have signed an online petition in defense of the UCLA professor. The petition declares that a small group of self-appointed vigilantes has mounted a scurrilous campaign demanding Myers ouster, claiming without any basis, that he holds anti-Israel views. These detractors are engaging in the worst kind of McCarthyism.
At least one of the signers of this petition, journalist Mark Oppenheimer, noted in an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times that even if Myers thought that Israels founding was a mistake, or that its privileging of Jews in law and immigration policy was wrong, that should not disqualify himself from running a scholarly center.
The WSWS has fundamental political differences with the supporters of a more liberal version of Zionism, who are well-represented in academic and intellectual circles, but have no answer to the crisis facing the Jewish and Palestinian peoples. However, the campaign against Myers, the latest in a long series by the Zionist right and by Campus Watch in particular, is a serious attack on democratic rights and academic freedom.
At the conclusion of a bellicose and dishonest speech on Friday, US President Donald Trump vowed to blow up the 2015 Iran nuclear accord unless it is rewritten in accordance with US demands.
The speech epitomized the arrogance and criminality of Americas ruling elite. Trump denounced Iran for spreading conflict, terror and turmoil throughout the Middle East and beyond. This from the leader of a country that has subjected the people of the Middle East to untold horrors, waging aggressive wars that have destroyed entire societies, causing the deaths of millions of people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria and forcing many millions more to flee their homes.
Trump denounced the 1979 Iranian revolution, painted Irans bourgeois-clerical government as an international outlaw regime, and cast the United States as the protector of the democratic rights of the Iranian people.
As if the Iranian masses have forgotten that the CIA organized the 1953 coup that overthrew Irans elected president, Mohammad Mossaddegh, and installed the Shahs savage dictatorship, which Washington maintained in power for the next quarter-century. Or that for the past four decades the US has carried out an unrelenting campaign against Iran, repeatedly threatening it with attack, supporting Baghdad in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), and imposing punishing economic sanctions that culminated, under Obama, in all-out economic warfare.
Trump made clear that his demands for correcting the nuclear accords many flaws are nonnegotiable. They amount to an ultimatum that Tehran unilaterally disarm while the US maintains an armada in the Persian Gulf and arms its Saudi and Israeli allies to the teeth. They would require Iran to accept permanent incursions on its sovereignty and its de facto reduction to the status of a vassal state.
The demands include: making permanent the stringent restrictions on Irans civil nuclear program, which are set to lapse in the agreements eleventh year; allowing unfettered International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of Iranian military sites; and dismantling Irans ballistic missile program.
European leaders responded by angrily denouncing Washington for acting as a law unto itself, inciting a global nuclear arms race, and heightening the danger of war in the Middle East and on the Korean Peninsula. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned that if the US persists on this path it will drive us Europeans into a common position with Russia and China against the USA.
What happens next is unclear. Much of the US political and military-security establishment, including Trumps own top advisersDefense Secretary James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMasterhave counseled Trump against jettisoning the Iran deal. Both Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, testifying last week before Congress, acknowledged that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear accord and said they believed upholding the agreement is in the United States interests.
This is not because Trumps generals are any less determined to bring Iran to heel and secure US hegemony over the Middle East, the worlds most important oil-exporting region and the strategic pivot between Asia, Africa and Europe.
Trumps Democratic Party and media critics are no different. The New York Times and the Washington Post have repeatedly urged a more aggressive US military and diplomatic offensive against Iran, beginning in Syria, where Tehran has played a major role in the defeat of the US-supported Islamist forces. In an editorial Saturday, Trump has charted a perilous course on Iran, the Washington Post accused the president of geopolitical folly and chastised him for having no clear plan to address Irans military entrenchment in Syria, which is threatening to touch off a new conflict with Israel.
The disagreements, while sharp, are entirely tactical. They revolve around the question of the appropriate target and timing of the next US war, amid widespread fears that a showdown with Iran will undercut Washingtons military-strategic offensives against China and Russia, and inflame relations with Americas traditional European allies, which, through NATO, continue to play a major role in projecting US global power, especially against Russia.
Opposition to Trumps plan to trash the Iran accord is a factor in the unprecedented political warfare in Washington, which has now reached the point of public discussion about using the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution to remove Trump.
With Trump planning to use Wall Streets dominance of the global banking system, and access to the US market, to bully the Europeans into imposing new economic sanctions against Tehran, the Iran issue threatens to further envenom the already fierce commercial struggle between the US and Europe, especially Germany. Already the European powers are talking of retaliatory action.
The European imperialists are no less predatory than Washington. They were key partners in the economic war against Iran. But the renewed US drive against Tehran threatens their plans to invest billions to economically exploit Iran, which has the worlds fourth largest oil reserves and the second largest natural gas reserves. Moreover, given their proximity to the Middle East and their dependence on Mideast oil, they fear the destabilizing fallout from another US warone that could quickly involve nuclear powers such as Russia and China.
While Trump is an accelerant, the basic source of the divisions within the US ruling elite over Americas policy toward Iran and its broader imperialist strategy lies in the failure of the drive Washington initiated, in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, to offset the erosion of its economic power by waging wars of aggression.
In the pursuit of global hegemony, the US has razed the Middle East. Iran has been a principal target of US aggression, with American troops invading two of its neighbors, Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet Iran has been able to expand its influence, while both Russia and China are now major economic and geopolitical players in the Middle East, combining to frustrate Washingtons plans to use Islamist proxy forces to overthrow Syrias government, as it successfully did in Libya.
US imperialisms response to these reversals is to accelerate its war plans, directly targeting its major rivals, beginning with China and Russia. Europe and Japan, for their part, are furiously rearming to assert their own imperialist interests in opposition to the US.
Mankind is faced with the real and present danger of being dragged by the imperialist powers into a Third World War, this time employing nuclear weapons.
There is no peace faction in the ruling class of any of the major powers. The social force that can halt the descent into a nuclear holocaust is the international working class, mobilized on the basis of a socialist and internationalist program directed at the overthrow of capitalism, the source of war, social inequality and dictatorship. The International Committee of the Fourth International is fighting to build a mass international antiwar movement on this revolutionary basis.
A California woman thought she'd lost her dog forever when the pup bolted from her arms as she and her husband fled the California wildfires on Monday.
But the family is now dubbing 9-year-old Izzy a "miracle dog" after she ran towards them when they returned the following day to check on the damage.
Katherine Weaver was convinced that the Bernese mountain dog was killed when a wildfire began to engulf their Santa Rosa neighborhood around 1 a.m. Weaver fled from her home with her husband and their dog, but Izzy jumped from her arms at the last minute.
Read: Runner Reunites With Gobi, The Dog That Raced Alongside Him on Marathon, After Pup Vanishes
When she opened the car door, Izzy bolted into the darkness, so she was just gone, Jack Weaver, Katherine Weavers son, told InsideEdition.com. "She screamed for Izzy, but at that point the flames were 30-feet tall, and they jumped in their car and went down the hill. They barely made it out.
Katherine Weaver was devastated that shed left her dog.
She was sobbing and felt horribly guilty, Jack Weaver said. It was her life or Izzy's.
Weaver decided to search for the dog with his brother-in-law, Patrick, the next morning but they didnt have much hope that theyd find Izzy alive.
As the pair hiked to Weavers parents' home, he pulled out his camera to show his parents what was left on their property.
In a video shared to Facebook, Weaver calls for Izzy and the dog comes running towards them.
Izzy came bounding out, Weaver said. I was happy and shocked. When we told my mom she just sat down and cried for like two hours.
The video has been shared on Facebook more than 33,000 times.
Read: This Dog Who Was Left For Dead Make A Miracle Recovery
Incredibly, Izzy had no injuries. She was just covered in soot and ash. The vet said that her thick fur likely helped her survive.
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Shes a miracle dog, Weaver said.
Watch: Dog Lost During Mountain Hike Reunites With Owner 6 Weeks Later
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James Corden apparently didnt get the memo that Hollywood isnt joking about Harvey Weinstein. A week after Saturday Night Live ignored the Weinstein scandal the NBC comedy gets a second chance tonight Corden dove in head first at last nights AmfAR Gala Los Angeles.
This is a beautiful room, Corden said, kicking things off. Its a beautiful night here in L.A. So beautiful, Harvey Weinstein has already asked tonight up to his hotel to give him a massage.
Corden hosted the event, held at the Beverly Hills estate of Ron Burkle, and took aim at Weinstein despite some nervous groans from the audience. Joked The Late Late Show host, It has been weird this week though, watching Harvey Weinstein in hot water. Ask any of the women who watched him take a bath.
And then this: Harvey Weinstein wanted to come tonight, but sadly hell settle for whatever potted plant is closest.
Neither AmfAR nor Corden have posted video of the monologue yet, but cell phone footage is making the rounds.
No word yet on how tonights SNL, with guest host Kumail Nanjiani and musical guest Pink, will tackle the scandal, though the question isnt so much how but when Weinsteins name gets first mention: Cold open or Weekend Update?
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James Corden Responds To Rose McGowan, Asia Argento Over Weinstein Jokes - Update
Weinstein accusers Rose McGowan and Asia Argento took to Twitter to speak out against Corden.
James Corden's Harvey Weinstein jokes didn't exactly soar at the amfAR gala in Beverly Hills on Friday night.
The Late Late Show host took to Twitter on Sunday to apologize for his comments, which made light of the sexual harassment and assault allegations against the producer -- and earned criticism from Weinstein's accusers, like Rose McGowan and Asia Argento.
Corden's set received mixed reviews from those in attendance, but a strong reaction from McGowan, who took to Twitter to share her disapproval.
"YOU MOTHERF**KING PIGLET," she wrote in response to Corden's jokes. "Hearing the audience's vile roars & laughs show EXACTLY what kind of HOLLYWOOD you really are."
RELATED: Bob Weinstein Admits to Knowing About Harvey's Alleged 'Cheating,' Claims Brother Verbally Abused Him
Argento, who accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in The New Yorker article published on Tuesday, expressed similar sentiments.
"Shame on this pig and everyone who grunted with him #amfARLosAngeles," she tweeted.
In his apology, Corden said he was trying to "shame" Weinstein, "the abuser, not his victims." "I am truly sorry for anyone offended, that was never my intention," he added.
RELATED: 'Saturday Night Live' Takes Aim At Harvey Weinstein Scandal, Pulls No Punches With Biting Commentary
The Weinstein scandal first erupted earlier this month, after The New York Times' initial article accusing him of sexually harassing women for three decades.
In a statement to ET, Weinstein's lawyer, Charles J. Harder, called the New York Times report "saturated with false and defamatory statements." He also said Weinstein and his team are planning to file a lawsuit, with any proceeds being donated to women's organizations.
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On Tuesday, Weinstein's spokesperson, Sallie Hofmeister, said in a statement to The New Yorker: Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. He will not be available for further comments, as he is taking the time to focus on his family, on getting counseling and rebuilding his life.
See more on the scandal in the video below.
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Harvey Weinstein was officially voted out of the Academy
The Harvey Weinstein news keeps on coming. After a growing number of women lobbed sexual abuse allegations at the movie producer and studio exec, justice is being served. On Saturday, Weinstein was voted out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The scandal became public after The New Yorker and The New York Times published accusations against the now-disgraced film exec. As a result, many female celebrities came forward with claims of Weinsteins sexual misconduct. Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Kate Beckinsale, Heather Graham, Rose McGowan, Cara Delevingne, and Mira Sorvino are some of them. Men are speaking out against Weinsteins actions too, including Joe Biden, George Clooney, and Ryan Gosling.
In light of this news, the 54-member Academy decided to meet and determine a course of action.
The Board, which includes Whoopi Goldberg, Steven Spielberg, and Tom Hanks, released the following statement on October 14.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors met today to discuss the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, and has voted well in excess of the required two-thirds majority to immediately expel him from the Academy. We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over. Whats at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society. The Board continues to work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all Academy members will be expected to exemplify.
Hollywood applauded the Academys decision to oust Weinstein, and many actors voiced their opinions on social media.
Rose McGowan, who named Weinstein as her rapist, immediately spoke up.
WE SLAY DRAGONS #ROSEARMY A post shared by Rose McGowan (@rosemcgowan) on Oct 14, 2017 at 2:04pm PDT
So did Mia Farrow.
Proud of the @TheAcademy! Harvey Weinstein is out. There are others- but hopefully we are witnessing the end of an awful era. Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) October 14, 2017
And Emmy Rossum.
Amen, the academy!!! Emmy Rossum (@emmyrossum) October 14, 2017
Leave it to Josh Gad to say what a lot of us are thinking.
So now that weve dealt with Weinstein what are we going to do about Trump? Josh Gad (@joshgad) October 14, 2017
Now that the Academy has served justice to Weinstein, we hope that the culture of protecting sexual predators might finally be coming to an end.
Hijabi teacher discriminated against by school. (Photo: Fouzia Khatun via Instagram)
A preschool English teacher was told to remove her hijab if she wanted to be hired by a school in Kuwait. The 23-year-old applied for a job in Kuwaits the English Playgroup. After an interview, she received an email from a school official saying that her new job depended on whether she was OK with teaching without a hijab on.
Fouzia Khatun shared a screenshot of the alleged email on her Instagram page. The email was sent by Caroline Brooks, a human resources employee from the English Playgroup, a prestigious education company dedicated to early childhood education, with over 25 schools throughout the country.
Brooks wrote, The customer (parents) do not want their children taught by covered teachers. It is an English school. She continues, if this isnt acceptable to you I wish you every success. This is s a non-negotiable.
Khatuns post has received nearly 2,000 likes and 1,000 comments. Khatun, who currently lives in the city of Bradford in England, shared a thorough message, reflecting upon the alleged discrimination.
The teacher wrote, I applied for a job in Kuwait where I felt I would easily fit in due to same religious beliefs and Islamic mind of thoughts, where I thought being a hijabi would be an honour rather than an accepted dress code, where I was hoping to feel free and liberated, only to go and be asked to take off the one piece of clothing that made me want to move to Kuwait in the first place.
I find It disgusting that you think its acceptable to ask your employees to remove such a personal and important thing for the sake of appearing physically acceptable to parents, when in fact you should be demonstrating to your students acceptance of all kinds of people and presenting this with your varied choice of employee.
She continued, There is enough discrimination against female Muslims from non-Muslim countries, its extremely sad to see that your school in a Muslim country like Kuwait also demonstrates this kind of discrimination and frankly such a superficial judgmental ethos! I am sorry that you have judged the capability of a teacher based on a piece of clothing that covers my hair.
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Please stop corrupting the minds of innocent angels and let them blossom into beautiful human beings and not the narrow-minded monsters that you are guiding them towards.
Khatun told Yahoo Lifestyle she is now suing the English playgroup. She declined to comment any further, citing legal purposes.
In a comment on her Instagram page, Khatun states that the school denied her allegations at first and said that they didnt have an employee named Caroline Brooks, but that they then changed their story. She wrote, If it was a one-man mistake, an apology would have sufficed but they disappeared for a few days then come back saying she doesnt work for them. Then come back again saying they didnt accept me because of my social media and that they have taken action against her.
The English Playgroup didnt respond to Yahoo Lifestyles request for comment, but it did release a statement on its private Instagram page.
Photo: Instagram
The statement reads, The English Playgroup and Primary Schools employ qualified teachers from all nationalities, religions and backgrounds who serve students as excellent and caring teachers. Allegations of discrimination against hijab-wearing staff are untrue. Our schools proudly employ many hijab wearing teachers and administrators across our schools. The allegations against the school have been disseminated by an unsuccessful overseas job applicant who was refused employment because of inappropriate behavior as illustrated on her social media platform. The opinions expressed by a new employee in the HR department are against company policy and necessary disciplinary action has been taken.
Khatun reported that her Instagram page was private before this incident, so the claim of inappropriate behavior on social media is false.
The English Playgroup then released several images on their Instagram of teachers wearing a hijab while on the job.
Photo: Instagram
Photo: Instagram
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My Mimi never had "everyday" china. For her, every meal was a formal occasion. Lunch, dinner, or dessert she served guests on the appropriate piece from her own wedding china. My Mimi, always the quintessential Southern Belle. When she left me her collection, I knew it would be so special someday to serve my guests on those same plates. The only problem: her intricate pattern is a far cry from my more modern taste.
onelove photography I reached out to Chelle Watson from The Ivy House in Dallas for some advice. She has helped dozens of brides find their style even when that means merging with another generation.
Pick A Few Pieces According to Chelle, most brides don't register for a five-piece setting in the same china pattern. So pick your favorite pieces from your grandmother's set to incorporate into your own. "I try to keep the dinner and bread and butter plates the same. So I'll tell a bride to use her family member's salad plate or dessert plate. It's like paying a little homage to someone special every time you set the table."
Julie Paisley Photography
Find a Color Pick colors you like from your grandmother's china to incorporate into your own pieces. For instance, if you inherited pieces of "Blue Willow," then find the same blue in solid color pieces or a pattern that speaks to you. Weaving one color throughout multiple patterns or pieces will help bring it all together when you set the table.
Play with Patterns If boho, rustic, or shabby chic styles appeal to you, then you might want to mix a coordinating pattern. Bring a piece of your Grandmother's china with you to the store. Then hold it up against patterns you like. According to Chelle, it's a really personal decision. "You have to play with patterns. Go to a specialty shop like The Ivy House, or any department store. You'll have more options and someone to help you pull it all together in a place setting." The key is finding something you like that complements the pieces you already have. If the china you inherited has a super busy pattern, then find something simple to put with it.
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Anna Delores Photography
Consider a Traditional Style Take a tip from the First Ladies in the White House. If you're preppy - or planning to host formal dinners - consider picking solid white or cream pieces with an accent monogram. A gold or silver monogram will go with everything, or you can choose a coordinating color (see tip above). Work in your grandmother's salad or dessert plates, cups and saucers, etc. to add pops of color to your traditional setting.
Moss + Isaac
Grab a Charger Chelle says this is the easiest way to change up a pattern. Chargers are the biggest piece under the place setting, used to pull it all together. (Since they're not used for food, you can find them in almost any material and color.) "Chargers can be so versatile and inexpensive. Grab a metallic color to bring modernize almost any vintage china pattern." This is a great idea for brides who don't choose to register for their own china patterns. Chelle put together an amazing place setting with my Mimi's china and the updated pieces I chose. To me, it was more than just picking plates to set the table. It was bringing together generations of women in my family who loved to serve others. Although I might not ever master her banana pudding recipe, I will be able to serve future guests just like my Mimi. In the South, we call that Modern Tradition. Style Me Pretty Contributor - Madeline Littrell is a corporate PR strategist and freelance writer. Born and raised in the South, she loves big hair, country music, and chicken fingers. Madeline lives in Dallas with her Sheltie puppy, Tennessee.
President Donald Trump has often suggested that the government should just let Obamacare fail. According to the leader of the free world, if the Affordable Care Act deteriorates that would force Democrats and Republicans to come together and create something more feasible than the health care law inducted by his predecessor President Barack Obama in 2010.
The only thing is, the American people actually dont want Trump to sabotage Obamacare. In fact, the majority of Americans would prefer for the president to try to make the current healthcare law work instead of taking actions to dismantle it.
A new poll conducted by Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation released on Friday found 66 percent of Americans thought it was more important for Trump and Congress to work on legislation that would stabilize the current marketplaces opposed to continuing efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Although more Democrats (85 percent) wanted Trump to work on stabilizing Obamacare than Republicans (51 percent), a whopping 71 percent of Americans said theyd rather see Trump doing everything he possibly could to make health insurance exchanges that are currently in place under Obamacare work.
Only 21 percent of adults agreed that Trump should let the law fail in an attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The surveys findings appear to be a stark contradiction towards Trumps rhetoric against Obamacare and the executive order Trump signed on Thursday that would start the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act by allowing his administration to create new policies aimed at increasing health care competition and choices.
Back in June, the president said that he was going to start taking more action to take apart Obamacare in a manner that would place the laws destruction on the shoulders of Democrats.
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Ive been saying for a long time: Let Obamacare fail and then everybody is going to have to come together and fix it and come up with a new plan and a plan thats really good for the people with much lower premiums, much lower costs, and much better protection, he said. Were not going to own it. Im not going to own it. I can tell you, the Republicans are not going to own it. Well let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us, and theyre going to say, How do we fix it? How do we fix it? Or how do we come up with a new plan?
While Trumps executive order would result in lower premiums for healthy U.S. residents, it could allow insurance companies to drive up the prices of co-payments and raise deductibles for sick policyholders.
The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll was conducted in early October and surveyed 1,215 U.S. adults. The poll has a margin of error plus or minus three percentage points.
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More than 300 people are feared dead with hundreds injured in a pair of bomb blasts that rocked Somalias capital of Mogadishu on Saturday.
Police said a truck bomb exploded outside a hotel near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the crowded K5 intersection. Two hours later, another explosion rattled the Medina district, which houses Somali National University. The attacks claimed more than 300 lives and injured another 300, according to the Associated Press, making it the deadliest attack in Somalias history and one of the worst in the world in recent years. The toll is expected to rise as excavations of the blast sites continue.
Who carried out the atrocity?
The attacks are believed to have been carried out by al Shabaab, an Islamist group with links to al-Qaeda, which has waged an insurgency against Somalias fragile U.N.-backed government since 2007, which is riven with internal clan schisms. The group, whose name means the youth, hopes to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law. It has received less attention than other terrorist organizations, and its operations have largely been confined to Somalia and its neighbors. The group has also vowed to expel any members allied to the Islamic State.
But hasnt fighting died down in Somalia?
The most intense fighting has subsided since Somalian forces allied with African Union peacekeepers drove al Shabaab out of Mogadishu in 2011. But the group has since carried out several high-profile attacks in East Africa, including an assault on Kenyas upscale Westgate shopping mall in 2013 that killed 67, as well as assaults on Somali military bases that have included suicide bombers. On Saturday, the group also seized the town of Bariire, 31 miles from Mogadishu.
Isnt the U.S. involved in the conflict?
Al Shabaab has vowed to escalate activities this year after both U.S. President Donald Trump and Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, who was elected in February, announced new measures targeting the group. Trump designated Somalia an area of hostilities in March while relaxing combat regulations that will allow more airstrikes with greater latitude for civilian casualties. Trump also reauthorized deploying regular U.S. forces in Somalia.
The U.S. mostly pulled out of Somalia after the Black Hawk Down incident in 1993, when 19 American soldiers were killed and two helicopters shot down over Mogadishu. But hundreds of American Special Operations forces remained in the country, training Somali and African Union forces and participating in raids. In May, one American Navy SEAL was killed in a shoot-out with al Shabaab, the first U.S. casualty since 1994.
A drone crashed into a commercial plane in Canada on Thursday, renewing the aviation industrys worries about the growing number of small hobbyist aircraft taking to the skies.
A landing Skyjet flight was less than two miles from Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec City when a drone struck the aircraft, according to CTV News. The plane landed successfully and only sustained minor damage, according to a Sunday statement from Canadian Transport Minister Marc Garneau.
This should not have happened, Garneau told reporters, according to CTV News. The drone should not have been there.
Garneau said that the flight crew followed emergency measures, ensuring a safe landing for the six passengers and two airline staffers on board. He added that its a serious offense to endanger aircraft in Canada, with potential penalties ranging from fines of up to $20,000 or prison time.
Transport Canada released in June interim safety regulations for drone usage, which stipulated that model aircraft may not fly higher than 300 feet above ground level or within 3.4 miles (5.5 km) of an airport. The drone in this case reportedly crashed into the plane at nearly 1,500 feet above ground level, according to CTV News.
A seriously worrying new hashtag celebrating extreme thinness is sweeping social media.
Teenage girls battling eating disorders are avoiding an online ban on pictures tagged thinspiration by searching for even more damaging pictures of bonespiration, a new study has found.
Research by the University of Exeter and published in the Journal of Eating Disorders has found that hundreds of young women are using Instagram and Twitter to search for and praise anorexic bodies using the hashtag bonespiration.
The hashtag bonespiration has been sweeping social media. [Photo: Pexels]
Catherine Talbot, a psychologist at Exeter University Medical School, and her team analyzed 734 images that used the hashtag and found that just over a quarter contained protruding hip bones, 2 percent showed protruding ribs, and just over a fifth (22 percent) collarbones, while 6 percent showed the spine.
Back in 2012, social media sites banned the use of certain hashtags, such as thinspiration and thinspo that could be seen as promoting eating disorders.
But users of the sites have found a way to work round the ban by varying the hashtags used, and the research team revealed they had discovered 140,000 images on Instagram linked to bonespiration.
Commenting on the findings, research leader Talbot said: Anorexia and extreme weight loss is a serious social and medical problem.
To tackle this social contagion we need to be aware of the social media platforms being used by young people mainly girls and young women which is encouraging extreme weight loss. This behavior could seriously damage their psychological and physical health.
Teenagers need to be taught about positive body image in schools, and we need to build resilience.
Girls are using social media to search for the hashtag bonespiration. [Photo: Pexels]
The concern about the power of these images has previously been highlighted by a study carried out in January by researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia.
The research found that women posting fitspiration posts on Instagram are more likely to be at risk of eating disorders.
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Bonespiration certainly isnt the only social media hashtag to spark concern. First came the thigh gap, which was swiftly followed by the bikini bridge and the A4 paper challenge.
Most recently, ribcage bragging saw a whole host of celebrities and social media influencers taking to their feeds to share images of their proudly protruding ribcages.
Thankfully, not all social media body trends are on the scary side, and last year we reported on the #MermaidThighs trend, which encourages women to embrace their natural body shape, touching thighs and all.
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The wildfires in Northern California are proving to be far more serious than anyone had anticipated. So far, the fires are responsible for 37 deaths and has wrecked as-yet unknown havoc on the states economy. Californias fertile agricultural lands yield most of the countrys produce, nearly all of our domestic wine, and weed. Lots of weed.
The New York Times reports that Mendocino County has been particularly hard-hit by the 2017 fires. At least seven farms had been destroyed, writes the Times and that number is expected to rise once farmers return their lands after the fires recede.
This natural disaster highlights a problem facing pot farmers: since cannabis is illegal at the federal level, many farmers have difficulty obtaining business insurance. A loss is devastating for their business because it cannot be recouped. Many farmers also had not yet harvested the plants, meaning that entire crops have been lost to the fire.
Weed farms that have survived the fires face another dilemma: the quality of their crops have suffered from the atmospheric effects of the fires. Soot carried through the winds can settle on the marijuana leaves, infusing the plant with the smell of smoke. If its supposed to smell like lemon and it smells like wildfire, thats going to be a significant detractor, the Times quoted Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association. The dangers arent purely aesthetic, either. The smoke may have deposited contaminants onto the plants, rendering them unsuitable for consumption.
All the factors combined point to a significant loss of revenue for Californias pot economy, the effects of which have yet to be calculated. The fires are still burning as of press time.
The burgeoning pot economy could be helped along if Attorney General Jeff Sessions wasnt so staunchly anti-pot. Sessions still envisions the War on Drugs as a policy worth spending millions of taxpayer dollars on, despite mountains of evidence proving that it has not worked. The Attorney General has no plans to reconsider the federal ban on marijuana, although public consensus for legalization is at a, well, high, with 60% of Americans favoring legalization. Several states have even enacted varying types of cannabis legalization most notably Colorado, which allows personal use and limited retail of marijuana, via a statewide referendum passed in 2012 and enacted in 2014. In the past three years alone, Colorado has seen their weed economy grow to rake in nearly $2.4 billion in revenue annually. Thats a lot of joints being sold, and a lot of tax money that goes back into Colorados state coffers.
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Californias weed legalization law goes into effect in 2018, and they were hoping for a slice of that edible. Unfortunately, it looks like many weed farmers wont have their crops ready by then the plant takes about 6 months to harvest when grown outdoors.
Photos via Getty Images / Justin Sullivan
Photos via Getty Images / Justin Sullivan
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Yaounde (AFP) - Cameroon's Prime Minister Philemon Yang on Monday began a visit to a troubled English-speaking region as part of what he termed a "dialogue" with the country's anglophone minority, state radio said.
Yang travelled to Bamenda, the main town in Cameroon's Northwest Region, where he met the heads of trade unions in the transport, education and shopping sectors, as well as with bankers and other business figures, Cameroon Radio Television (CrTV) said.
He delivered "a message of peace and living in harmony" while those who met him put forward proposals "for a definitive way out of the crisis," it said, without giving further details.
Cameroon, a francophone-majority nation in central-western Africa, has a large anglophone minority, comprising about a fifth of its 22 million population.
Gathered mainly in two regions, many English-speakers complain they suffer inequality and discrimination.
Their resentment has fuelled a breakaway movement that on October 1 culminated in a symbolic declaration of independence, creating the putative state of Ambazonia.
The government, firmly against secession or more moderate demands for federalism, has carried out a crackdown.
- '20 shot dead' -
Amnesty International says more than 20 people have been shot dead by security forces, and at least 500 detained. According to an AFP tally, at least 14 people died. The authorities give a toll that varies between 10 and 12 dead.
Yang, who is from the Northwest Region, went to the area "at the express instructions of President Paul Biya," CrTV said, adding that he would continue his visit on Tuesday.
A statement issued by Yang's office said Biya had asked the prime minister to send "elite delegations" of anglophones to the English-speaking regions to "have a dialogue" with the population and deliver "the president's message of peace and goodwill".
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In a post on Facebook, Felix Agbor Balla, a barrister who heads the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC), an NGO outlawed in January by the government, lashed out at the visits as a "provocation" given the scale of the crackdown.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called on Cameroon to probe the violence.
The anglophone minority is a legacy of European colonialism that saw the country split between Britain and France after the defeat of Germany in World War I.
China is holding a once-every-five-years meeting this week that is expected to usher in a new era of leaders but no change at the top of the totem pole. Held in the Chinese capital city of Beijing , the meeting is closely watched for signs of policy shifts in the world's second-largest economy. Even though the meeting is a major national event that is well-publicized it has a dedicated website and has been trending topic for days on Chinese microblog Weibo proceedings are shrouded in secrecy. The Party Congress will close on October 24 this year, after which the new leadership will be announced.So what exactly is the Chinese Communist Party Congress?In short, it's a meeting to vote on the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Held every five years, the event's duration is not officially reported, but the last Congress ran over eight days.About 370 full and alternate members of the party's elite Central Committee will be elected at the Congress. Full members have voting rights and they all come from a pre-selected pool of candidates.They are chosen by 2,287 delegates from diverse backgrounds and groups. Among them are farmers, professionals and academics.Those participants have been pre-screened and are deemed to have "unshakable belief," "correct political stance" and "good moral quality," among others, according to state-owned China Daily. The Chinese Communist Party boasts a membership of 89 million.At its first session, the new Central Committee will elect about 25 members of the powerful Politburo The Politburo will then choose members of its Standing Committee, China's top leaders. The group now headed by President Xi Jinping , who is general secretary of the Communist Party will be unveiled next Wednesday. Just how important is it?The Congress is more about ideology than policy, but it still charts the future direction for China and offers a glimpse into its opaque politics.At the 12th Congress in 1982, "Paramount Leader" Deng Xiaoping heralded in the age of China's socialist market economy that propelled the previously impoverished country into the world's second largest economy in just three decades.At the 17th Party Congress in 2007, Xi was appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee, which signaled to the world that he was primed to take the top spot in the country's leadership.Five years later, Xi took office as the general secretary of the Communist Party. He became president of China in 2013.What is expected to happen this time?Xi is expected to consolidate his power and remain at the helm. Described by observers as the most powerful Chinese official in decades, Xi last year was recognized as only the fourth person to earn the designation of "core" leader.China watchers are looking for an amendment in the party constitution at the end of the congress that will incorporate Xi's ideological doctrine in the charter. Some have even projected that the meeting will effectively appoint Xi as "emperor for life."Sounds like it's all scripted. Is it? There's little transparency into the process, but most outside observers say the congress is a largely scripted affair. Still, the lead-up to the meeting has been rife with speculation over the behind-the-scene political jockeying . The opacity over the meeting proceedings, however, is contributing to some concerns on the markets. That said, most analysts aren't expecting major developments that will significantly shake up economic forecasts or financial bets.Who are the key people to watch?The number one thing to watch is Xi's tightening grip on authority. But that might not be very exciting, as it's been deemed a virtual certainty that he keeps his position and cements influence.Next up for China watchers is Wang Qishan, who at 69 years is above the unofficial retirement age. The Xi ally played a pivotal role in the president's anti-corruption campaign (which some have alleged was simply an elimination of rival intra-party factions).Although Wang would normally be expected to retire given his age, many have suggested the retirement norm could be extended to accommodate another term for him on the Standing Committee.Premier Li Keqiang's job is also on the line, with some suggesting that Wang may replace the economic czar.Geopolitical consultancy Eurasia Group, however, said that's unlikely."We believe Li remains premier because he and Xi roughly share the same vision for China's economy and work reasonably well together, despite a lack of personal chemistry. Also, removing Li would be risky and disruptive at a time when China needs stability and continuity," Eurasia said in a recent note.What is more likely is that Wang steps down from the Politburo Standing Committee but continues to play a policymaking role, said Eurasia.The other major point of interest for the meeting's announcements will be whether a younger official is elevated to a station that makes them a prime candidate to replace Xi.Although it has been the norm of late for a leader to begin grooming a successor in his second term, some analysts are predicting that Xi will buck the trend and keep his authority to himself potentially setting himself up for a third term. Reuters contributed to this article. China is holding a once-every-five-years meeting this week that is expected to usher in a new era of leaders but no change at the top of the totem pole. Held in the Chinese capital city of Beijing , the meeting is closely watched for signs of policy shifts in the world's second-largest economy. Even though the meeting is a major national event that is well-publicized it has a dedicated website and has been trending topic for days on Chinese microblog Weibo proceedings are shrouded in secrecy. The Party Congress will close on October 24 this year, after which the new leadership will be announced. So what exactly is the Chinese Communist Party Congress? In short, it's a meeting to vote on the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Held every five years, the event's duration is not officially reported, but the last Congress ran over eight days. About 370 full and alternate members of the party's elite Central Committee will be elected at the Congress. Full members have voting rights and they all come from a pre-selected pool of candidates. They are chosen by 2,287 delegates from diverse backgrounds and groups. Among them are farmers, professionals and academics. Those participants have been pre-screened and are deemed to have "unshakable belief," "correct political stance" and "good moral quality," among others, according to state-owned China Daily. The Chinese Communist Party boasts a membership of 89 million. At its first session, the new Central Committee will elect about 25 members of the powerful Politburo The Politburo will then choose members of its Standing Committee, China's top leaders. The group now headed by President Xi Jinping , who is general secretary of the Communist Party will be unveiled next Wednesday. Just how important is it? The Congress is more about ideology than policy, but it still charts the future direction for China and offers a glimpse into its opaque politics. At the 12th Congress in 1982, "Paramount Leader" Deng Xiaoping heralded in the age of China's socialist market economy that propelled the previously impoverished country into the world's second largest economy in just three decades. At the 17th Party Congress in 2007, Xi was appointed to the Politburo Standing Committee, which signaled to the world that he was primed to take the top spot in the country's leadership. Five years later, Xi took office as the general secretary of the Communist Party. He became president of China in 2013. What is expected to happen this time? Xi is expected to consolidate his power and remain at the helm. Described by observers as the most powerful Chinese official in decades, Xi last year was recognized as only the fourth person to earn the designation of "core" leader. China watchers are looking for an amendment in the party constitution at the end of the congress that will incorporate Xi's ideological doctrine in the charter. Some have even projected that the meeting will effectively appoint Xi as "emperor for life." Sounds like it's all scripted. Is it? There's little transparency into the process, but most outside observers say the congress is a largely scripted affair. Still, the lead-up to the meeting has been rife with speculation over the behind-the-scene political jockeying . The opacity over the meeting proceedings, however, is contributing to some concerns on the markets. That said, most analysts aren't expecting major developments that will significantly shake up economic forecasts or financial bets. Who are the key people to watch? The number one thing to watch is Xi's tightening grip on authority. But that might not be very exciting, as it's been deemed a virtual certainty that he keeps his position and cements influence. Next up for China watchers is Wang Qishan, who at 69 years is above the unofficial retirement age. The Xi ally played a pivotal role in the president's anti-corruption campaign (which some have alleged was simply an elimination of rival intra-party factions). Although Wang would normally be expected to retire given his age, many have suggested the retirement norm could be extended to accommodate another term for him on the Standing Committee. Premier Li Keqiang's job is also on the line, with some suggesting that Wang may replace the economic czar. Geopolitical consultancy Eurasia Group, however, said that's unlikely. "We believe Li remains premier because he and Xi roughly share the same vision for China's economy and work reasonably well together, despite a lack of personal chemistry. Also, removing Li would be risky and disruptive at a time when China needs stability and continuity," Eurasia said in a recent note. What is more likely is that Wang steps down from the Politburo Standing Committee but continues to play a policymaking role, said Eurasia. The other major point of interest for the meeting's announcements will be whether a younger official is elevated to a station that makes them a prime candidate to replace Xi. Although it has been the norm of late for a leader to begin grooming a successor in his second term, some analysts are predicting that Xi will buck the trend and keep his authority to himself potentially setting himself up for a third term. Reuters contributed to this article.
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Jerusalem (AFP) - The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Monday for two rockets fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula into southern Israel.
The strikes hit the Eshkol region close to the border late Sunday without causing injury or significant damage, the army said.
The jihadist group claimed responsibility in a statement on its Amaq propaganda agency, saying the attack "targeted a Jewish community (Eshkol) with two Grad missiles".
IS-affiliated jihadists in the Sinai have been fighting an intense insurgency against Egyptian forces, with hundreds of troops and policemen killed since the army ousted Egypt's elected Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Six Egyptian soldiers were killed on Sunday, according to Egypt's army.
There have also been occasional incidents along the Israeli-Egyptian border, with IS claiming responsibility for a rocket attack in April.
Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system has intercepted previous strikes.
Sydney (AFP) - Hillary Clinton on Monday accused WikiLeaks of working with Russia to deflect attention from an infamous tape of Donald Trump bragging about groping women in the run-up to last year's US presidential election.
The former secretary of state's loss to Trump remains raw and she again lashed out at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his alleged role in damaging her candidacy.
"Assange has become a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator," she said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"WikiLeaks is unfortunately now practically a fully-owned subsidiary of Russian intelligence."
The US intelligence community concluded Putin ordered an influence campaign to discredit Clinton and had a "clear preference" for Trump in the election.
Clinton used the bombshell Trump tape as an example of how WikiLeaks allegedly tried to deflect attention from a bad news story, resurrecting the incident in the wake of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein's fall from grace over his treatment of women.
In the 2005 videotape, which surfaced in October last year, Trump bragged about being able to get away with groping women.
"When you're a star, they let you do it," he said. "Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything," Trump added.
Trump said the comments were "locker-room banter". Several women subsequently accused him of sexual misconduct, which he denounced as lies.
Within hours of the tape emerging, WikiLeaks published more than 2,000 hacked emails from the personal account of Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta, which she said blunted its impact.
"WikiLeaks, which in the world in which we find ourselves promised hidden information, promised some kind of secret that might be of influence, was a very clever, diabolical response to the Hollywood Access tape," she said, referring to the Trump recording.
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"And I've no doubt in my mind that there was some communication if not coordination to drop those the first time in response to the Hollywood Access tape."
Reacting on Twitter, Assange attacked Clinton as "creepy".
"There's something wrong with Hillary Clinton. It is not just her constant lying. It is not just that she throws off menacing glares and seethes thwarted entitlement," the Australian tweeted with a link to the ABC interview.
"Watch closely. Something much darker rides along with it. A cold creepiness rarely seen."
Clinton claimed WikiLeaks' actions were motivated by Assange's personal dislike of her.
"I had a lot of history with him because I was secretary of state when WikiLeaks published a lot of very sensitive information from our State Department and our Defence Department," she said.
"If he's such a martyr of free speech, why doesn't WikiLeaks ever publish anything coming out of Russia? You don't see damaging, negative information coming out about the Kremlin on WikiLeaks," Clinton added.
Assange has spent five years inside the Ecuador embassy in London amid fears that he will be arrested if he leaves, extradited to the United States and put on trial for WikiLeaks publishing leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.
Swedish prosecutors initially wanted Assange extradited to face allegations of sexual assault, but they dropped their investigation into him in May 2017. However, he still faces arrest by British police for violating the terms of his 2012 probation.
Assange has denied Russia was the source behind the leaked documents.
Hillary Clinton seems unsure why she did not win the 2016 presidential election, lashing out at James Comey over her defeat just one week after blaming herself for Donald Trumps victory.
The former secretary of state reiterated her view that a letter sent by then FBI director James Comey prior to the election was responsible for her loss, in an interview with CNN on Sunday.
Comey wrote a letter to Congress just before election day, to say his agents had found new evidence in the completed Clinton case, despite having announced the case was closed back in July.
Hillary Clinton
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
But shortly afterward Comey announced once again that the case was closedbut by that point, Clinton believes, her chances at the presidency had been badly affected.
"I would have won but for Jim Comey's letter on October 28," Clinton said in the Sunday interview.
"I think everyday that goes by, the evidence of that becomes clearer," she said, adding: And I don't blame any woman who hears that, 'Oh the FBI's opening another investigation into Hillary Clinton' for saying well, 'I'm not wasting my vote' or 'I can't vote for her' or 'I'm just not going to vote now.'"
Clinton has made similar statements before, also addressing the reasons why she lost the election in her book What Happened, but still seems unsure why she lost the election.
Just one week ago, the former presidential hopeful said she believed it was her fault Trump was in office as she did not find a way to defeat him.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, the former presidential hopeful said she had been surprised by the results of the November 2016 election; indeed polls largely universally predicted a victory for the Democrat ahead of the vote.
I thought Id be a damn good president, I did not think I was going to lose, Clinton told the publication. I feel a terrible sense of responsibility for not having figured out how to defeat this person. There must have been a way and I didn't find it."
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Colin Firth has said he feels shame for not doing more after a co-star told him about an distressing encounter with Harvey Weinstein.
The British actor spoke out after Sophie Dix, who starred with him in The Advocate, went public with allegations of sexual assault in a hotel room when she was 22.
Dix claimed that Weinstein invited her to a private room at the Savoy Hotel in London in 1990, where she was forcibly shoved onto a bed while Weinstein tugged at her clothes.
She told The Guardian that she managed to run to the bathroom and, after spending some time hiding in there, decided to try and escape the room. She claims she opened the door and found Weinstein facing her, standing there masturbating.
Dix says the incident left her traumatised. I decided if this is what being an actress is like, I dont want it.
Firth has now said that he remembers Dix being profoundly upset.
I am extremely pleased that Sophie is speaking out after so many years. I ran into her at a party some time after filming Hour of the Pig around 25 years ago. She told me she had had a distressing encounter with Harvey Weinstein.
I dont think she went into all the horrific detail Ive read in her interview. But I remember her being profoundly upset by it. To my shame, I merely expressed sympathy. I didnt act on what she told me.
He goes on to explain: It was a long time ago and I dont know if she remembers telling me, but the fact that I had that conversation has come back to haunt me in the light of these revelations. Its the only direct account of this kind of behaviour by Harvey Weinstein thats ever been told to me.
What I heard, it turns out, was part of a horrifying pattern. Other women have been hurt since. And those of us who didnt act on our one bit of knowledge and especially those of us who went on to work with Weinstein have that on our conscience.
He added: I admire Sophies courage. This cant have been easy.
Dix responded: I am delighted Colin has spoken and I remember him being very supportive at the time. Its never easy speaking out, but I wanted to help resolve this problem and show that women cannot be treated like this in the workplace.
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More and more women in Hollywood have come forward with accusations against the film mogul, including high profile actresses such as Kate Beckinsale, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cara Delevingne, and Mira Sorvino.
In a statement issued earlier this week, Weinsteins spokeswoman Sallie Hofmeister said: Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein. Mr Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.
He will not be available for further comments, as he is taking the time to focus on his family, on getting counselling and rebuilding his life.
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You might think that very attractive people who share pictures of themselves on social media would be not at all surprised by the attention they get. You might also think that it would go to their heads, making them very annoying to speak to. But Salt Lake City couple Thad Nelson and Aren Muse were absolutely not expecting their wedding photos from September to become the hottest thing on Twitter last week, and their humble and hilarious reaction to their sudden popularity is possibly even more attractive than their beautiful flowing locks.
IM MARRIED & THE HAPPIEST. This was the best day of my life, Nelson wrote when he posted the photos last Thursday. The sight of two handsome men with matching long hair looking wildly in love on a beach in Cabo San Lucas drove the internet crazy.
IM MARRIED & THE HAPPIEST. This was the best day of my life. 9/9/17 pic.twitter.com/x9eXBMhoUX Thaddeus Maximus (@thadnelson) October 13, 2017
Most of the reactions have been along the lines of @x0eliis: the most attractive couple i have ever seen ohmahgawwww. There are a few adopt me requests sprinkled in there, along with gushing congratulations from several thousand strangers.
Nelson, a service experience specialist at Nordstrom, said he has no idea how the pics went viral.
Photo: Courtesy of Ricardo Quintana @RicardoQPhotograph
I just wanted to share some photos from our wedding and express the joy that I had felt this past month of being married, he tells Yahoo. I posted just before bed, and by the time I woke up, it had taken off and I couldnt even trace the tweets all the way back So, thank you to whoever decided to share our incredible day!
On Friday, when Yahoo reached out to them both, Muse said he had to ask his husband what we were even talking about.
Photo: Courtesy of Ricardo Quintana @RicardoQPhotograph
In the digital age were accustomed to having complete strangers know things about us our own family wouldnt know if it were 99, the visual merchandiser and stylist said. Still, we wanted a very small, intimate ceremony, so its a little odd that a part of that has been viewed by thousands of people. The response has been wonderful though, so who can complain?
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The couple, who have been together since 2011, are overjoyed by the reaction, particularly because they feel grateful to be married men living in Utah during this divisive political time.
Photo: Courtesy of Ricardo Quintana @RicardoQPhotograph
Growing up, I thought that I might end up alone, or end up marrying someone I couldnt fully give myself to, but I got so lucky with Aren, Nelson said. I am so lucky to be free to love, and have so many supportive people around me. I feel love from every angle, and thats just so amazing, because I didnt know Id ever really feel that.
Muses favorite Twitter reaction speaks to that feeling as well.
everyone elses marriages are annulled https://t.co/U9TQPSfgGo spooky (@briar_burns) October 13, 2017
Watching the entire nation debate over whether or not your marriage is valid sucks, Muse said. Gay marriage was only just legalized nationwide. Having to ask permission, or convince someone your marriage is just the same as theirs is downright demeaning. The idea that our lil old second-class gay union would suddenly render everyone elses marriage null and void is hysterical.
Photo: Courtesy of Ricardo Quintana @RicardoQPhotograph
On a lighter note, Nelson has a favorite response too: I also loved all the comments about us looking like Interview With a Vampire because that may or may not be a Halloween costume weve been prepping, he told Yahoo.
The newlyweds were kind enough to answer a few other burning questions the internet has about them:
Are they models?
Model citizens, Muse quips.
It used to be something I was interested in, but its not something Ive ever felt a pull towards, Nelson says. Id love to do some modeling for fun as a side gig, but I dont see myself ever really having that be my career! I wouldnt mind doing some hair-care advertisements with Aren, though.
Still, fans can admire their amateur modeling efforts on Instagram @thaddeusmaximus and @arenmuse.
Will they adopt one of their many admirers or have babies with them?
So many people were making comments about babies, which made me so happy because Ive just always wanted to be a dad, Nelson says. I want kids so bad, and I so wish that we were able to create life together, but maybe someday in the near future, thatll be a possibility.
Not to be dramatic but I would die for my two gay dads https://t.co/uYvBW7w5J3 no biggie (@christolphi) October 13, 2017
How did they get that HAIR?!?
Though they never made the conscious decision to have the same haircuts, its become an unspoken thing in their six years together.
And If were being completely honest, the long hair is less a fashion statement and more so a result of not wanting to schedule a haircut, Muse admits. Hair appointments are inconvenient, especially when you have seven seasons of Game of Thrones to catch up on.
Their biggest hair secret is that they only wash it every few weeks.
Daily use of shampoo strips your hair and scalp of natural oils and also of its dignity, Muse advises. That pisses your hair and scalp off, so it starts producing those oils like crazy in order to combat your poor choices. Ultimately youre left with greasy hair by the end of the day, and your life is a mess and no one will talk to you. Its gonna be messy for a period of time, but your scalp will acclimate and youll be glad you did it. I firmly believe that most beauty and hygiene products are designed to create a dependency in order to make large corporations money.
So, OK, maybe the shampoo companies shouldnt be knocking down their door for a contract.
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BERLIN (Reuters) - If the United States terminates the Iran nuclear deal or reimposes sanctions on Tehran it could result in Iran developing nuclear weapons and raise the danger of war close to Europe, Germany's foreign minister said on Saturday. U.S. President Donald Trump refused on Friday to formally certify that Tehran was complying with the 2015 accord even though international inspectors say it is. He warned he might ultimately terminate the agreement. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told Deutschlandfunk radio that Trump had sent a "difficult and dangerous signal" when the U.S. administration was also dealing with the North Korea nuclear crisis. "My big concern is that what is happening in Iran or with Iran from the U.S. perspective will not remain an Iranian issue but many others in the world will consider whether they themselves should acquire nuclear weapons too given that such agreements are being destroyed," Gabriel said. "And then our children and grandchildren will grow up in a very dangerous world," he said. He said if the United States terminated the deal or if sanctions were reimposed on Tehran, it would give Iranian hardliners, who are against negotiations with the West, the upper hand. "Then they might revert to developing nuclear weapons," Gabriel said, adding Israel would not tolerate that and "then we will be back where we were 10, 12 years ago with the danger of war relatively close to Europe". He urged the United States not to endanger the security of its allies and its own people for domestic policy reasons. Hailed by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal was also signed by China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union. European allies have warned of a split with Washington over the nuclear agreement and say that putting it in limbo undermines U.S. credibility abroad. Trump has given the U.S. Congress 60 days to decide whether to reinstate economic sanctions on Iran that were lifted in 2016. (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
- LUSA
Portuguese authorities have said that at least 27 people have died as a result of wildfires sparked around the country amid high temperatures and strong winds fanned by the ex-hurricane storm Ophelia on Sunday.
It is hoped that the final death toll will be lower than the 64 who perished in Junes blazes around Pedrogao Grande in the centre of the country, but fire crews were still fighting more than 100 of the 523 wildfires registered on Sunday in what authorities called Portugals worst day of the year for fires.
A man combats a forest fire on top of his house in Viera de Leiria, Marinha Grande, Portugal Credit: Ricardo Graca/Lusa
I hope there are no more deaths, said Prime Minister Antonio Costa as he left an emergency meeting of Portugals Civil Protection authority in the early hours of Monday morning.
"Surely, these situations will repeat themselves," Mr Costa added when asked about the need to prevent further tragedies. "There are no magic solutions and we cannot deceive the Portuguese people about a problem that has been building up over decades.
Men gather cattle during a forest fire in Vieira de Leiria, Marinha Grande, Portugal
The deaths occurred in the central and northern regions of Coimbra, Castelo Branco, Aveiro and Viseu, according to Civil Protection.
As of 10am on Monday, firefighters continued to battle 108 blazes, with 33 said to be of extreme importance due to their proximity to settlements.
Firefighters battle a blaze in Vieira de Leiria, Portugal, as wildfire spreads through the forest Credit: Ricardo Graca/Lusa
In Penacova, Coimbra district, two brothers reportedly died in a burning shed after they had decided to check on their beehives.
According to the newspaper Jornal de Noticias, a 19-year-old pregnant woman was killed on Portugals A25 highway after her car was involved in a head-on collision with a vehicle being driven by a man who was speeding away from a blaze. He is reported to be one of around 15 people in serious or critical condition in hospitals around Portugal.
As wildfire moves forward in Chandebrito (Portugal), residents walk past the remains of a burnt out bus Credit: Alba Soleto/AP
In Galicia, the Spanish region to the north of Portugal, four people have died after more than 100 fires started on Sunday.
Despite the arrival of rains to many areas of Galicia in the wake of Ophelia, the regions leader described the situation on Monday morning as critical as 32 fires continued to rage, 17 of which were considered a threat to towns and villages. Alberto Nunez Feijoo blamed arsonists for the huge number of fires set deliberately when conditions made it impossible for 5,000 emergency workers to combat effectively.
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A firefighter tries to extinguish a forest fire in Zamanes area, in Vigo, Galicia, northwestern Spain Credit: EPA
Galicia is not burning; Galicia is being burnt. They are terrorists.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was due to arrive in Galicia on Monday afternoon to support the firefighting effort.
The region of Asturias is also fighting 30 wildfires, one of which has affected Muniellos natural reserve, one of the last strongholds of the brown bear.
By Abdi Sheikh MOGADISHU (Reuters) - More than 300 people died after twin bomb explosions in Mogadishu, an official said on Monday, as locals packed hospitals in search of friends and relatives caught up in Somalia's deadliest attack in a decade. The death toll has steadily risen since Saturday, when the blasts - for which no organisation had claimed responsibility by Monday morning - struck at two busy junctions in the heart of the city. "We have confirmed 300 people died in the blast. The death toll will still be higher because some people are still missing," Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of the city's ambulance service, told Reuters on Monday. Aden Nur, a doctor at the city's Madina hospital, said they had recorded 258 deaths while Ahmed Ali, a nurse at the nearby Osman Fiqi hospital, told Reuters five bodies had been sent there. Nur said 160 of the bodies could not be recognized. "(They)were buried by the government yesterday. The others were buried by their relatives. Over a hundred injured were also brought here," he told Reuters at the hospital. Some of the injured were being evacuated by air to Turkey for treatment, officials said. Locals visiting their injured relatives or collecting their bodies filled every available space in Madina hospital. "My last time to speak with my brother was some minutes before the blast occurred. By then he told me, he was on the way to meet and was passing at K5," Halima Nur, a local mother, told Reuters, referring to one of the junctions that was struck. "I am afraid he was among the unrecognized charred bodies that were buried yesterday. I have no hope of getting him alive or dead. But I cannot go home." DEADLIEST SINCE INSURGENCY BEGAN Saturday bomb attacks were the deadliest since Islamist militant group al Shabaab began an insurgency in 2007. Neither it nor any other group had claimed responsibility, but al Shabaab, which is allied to al Qaeda, stages regular attacks in the capital and other parts of the country. The group is waging an insurgency against Somalia's U.N.-backed government and its African Union allies in a bid to impose its own strict interpretation of Islam. The militants were driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 and have been steadily losing territory since then to the combined forces of AU peacekeepers and Somali security forces. But Al Shabaab retains the capacity to mount large, complex bomb attacks. Over the past three years, the number of civilians killed by insurgent bombings has steadily climbed as al Shabaab increases the size of its bombs. Some of those seriously injured in Saturday's bombing were moved by ambulance to the airport on Monday morning to be flown to Turkey for further treatment, Nur added. Workers unloaded boxes of medicine and other medical supplies from a Turkish military plane parked on the tarmac, while Turkish medical teams attended to the cases of injuries moved from the hospital for evacuation. (Writing by Duncan Miriri; editing by John Stonestreet)
Hillary Clinton was speaking at the Southbank Centre as part of the London Literary Festival: Getty
Hillary Clinton has said she fears Donald Trump may try to launch a nuclear strike and that no one would be able to stop him.
The former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate admitted she worries that the US President may launch a first strike in a fit of anger and said senior members of Mr Trump's cabinet are plotting to introduce new rules that would prevent him unilaterally ordering an attack.
Speaking at Londons Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival, which runs until 1 November, Ms Clinton said: There is such potential for miscalculation.
She referenced an advert her team ran during last years presidential campaign that featured a former military member of staff whose job was to take the order from the White House to launch a nuclear missile. In the advert, the veteran warned against giving Mr Trump access to the nuclear codes.
Ms Clinton said: A lot of people thought I was probably exaggerating it, but now we are worried and Congress is worried about whether they can take that power away from Trump so that in a moment of pique he doesnt pick up that phone and call whoever is sitting in the control centre today.
I tried to raise it before and Im raising it again here. Its why members of Congress on both sides are trying to work out how they can contain [Mr Trump]. There was a recent bit of reporting which said that [Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson, [National Security Adviser HR] McMaster, [White House Chief of Staff John] Kelly, [Defence Secretary James] Mattis theyre all trying to figure out how they prevent this.
Asked whether she thought Mr Trump may order a nuclear strike, she said: Im worried about that now. I had big differences with so many of the other people who have been President during my lifetime, but I never worried about that.
Republicans and Democrats are scratching their heads trying to figure out how they interpose maybe theyll say [a nuclear attack] has to be jointly signed off by the secretary of defence and the secretary of state. Some are even saying there should have to be a declaration of war [by Congress].
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Amid polls showing plummeting public support for Mr Trump, Ms Clinton said she believes Republicans will seek to challenge the billionaire businessman in 2020 in a bid to stop him winning a second term in office.
And she claimed Mr Trumps team are already plotting to oust US senators who have opposed or criticised him.
During an interview with BBC presenter Jim Naughtie in a packed auditorium, Ms Clinton accused the media of failing to challenge the US Presidents more outlandish claims.
She said: The press has to do a better job of calling out the lies Im critical because I think at varying important moments, they dropped the ball on coverage and information.
The 69-year-old re-iterated her belief that she would now be US President were it not for the decision of James Comey, then director of the FBI, to announce just ten days before polling day that he was re-opening an investigation into Ms Clintons use of a private email server.
Calling the decision inexplicable, she said: I absolutely think I would have won [had Mr Comey not intervened]It stopped my momentum and critically it stopped my momentum with white women voters.
Ms Clinton was speaking as part of a UK tour promoting her new book, What Happened. She struck an upbeat tone, urging supporters to oppose Mr Trump and work to recapture Congress from the Republicans in the 2018 mid-term elections.
Yet for all the defiance, there were numerous signs - flashes of anger aimed at opponents such as Mr Trump, Mr Comey and Bernie Sanders, a habit of returning to remind the audience of her achievements, the sarcastic asides, the hands clasped tightly in her lap - that her shock defeat just under a year ago is still painfully raw.
Recalling the moment in the early hours of 9 November 2016 when she phoned Mr Trump to concede defeat, she said it was clear to her that the property mogul had not expected to win the election.
She said: He sounded stunned, but incredibly ecstatic, as he should have been. You could tell that I never thought Id be making the call and he never thought hed be receiving it.
Having to phone Mr Trump directly was really terrible, she said, adding: It was just one of those surreal moments that you get through.
US President Donald Trump walks in a corridor of the White House to greet visitors, while a portrait of Hillary Clinton hangs on the wall, March 7, 2017 in Washington, DC: Getty Images
Donald Trump has said he wants Hillary Clinton to run again for president.
In a morning tweet, the President said: I was recently asked if Crooked Hillary Clinton is going to run in 2020? My answer was, I hope so!
Ms Clinton has said she is done with being a candidate.
However, she has expressed that she would remain active in national politics, telling CBS in September that she believed our countrys future is at stake.
Prior to her 2016 bid for the White House, Ms Clinton ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008, eventually losing to Barack Obama.
Following her loss to Mr Trump last year, Ms Clinton mostly disappeared from the public eye. But in recent months, while promoting her new book What Happened, the former senator and Secretary of State has been candid about her thoughts on Mr Trump and the events that transpired during the presidential campaign.
While speaking on Sunday at the Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival, Ms Clinton said she was worried that Mr Trump could in a moment of pique launch a nuclear missile. She also accused the President of picking fights with North Korea and Iran for the sake of point scoring.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump warned that threats from North Korea would be greeted with fire and fury like the world has never seen. The Trump administration is currently engaged in a standoff with North Korea over the regime's expanding nuclear weapons programme.
On Friday, Mr Trump struck a blow against the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement by choosing not to certify that Tehran is complying with the deal. In the Obama-era accord, Iran had agreed to restrict its nuclear programme for at least 10 years in exchange for the loosening of economic sanctions.
Along with calling the deal merely a temporary delay on Iran's path to nuclear weapons, Mr Trump said the removal of sanctions was giving the Iranian regime more funds to support terrorism.
In July, Mr Trump joked that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have preferred Hillary Clinton to be in the White House.
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[I]f Hillary had won, our military would be decimated, Mr Trump said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network. Our energy would be much more expensive. That's what Putin doesn't like about me. And that's why I say, why would he want me?
We're going to be exporting energy he doesn't want that. He would like Hillary where she wants to have windmills, the President added. He would much rather have that because energy prices would go up and Russia, as you know, relies very much on energy.
Mr Trump is expected to seek re-election in 2020.
By Robin Emmott and Gabriela Baczynska
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday reaffirmed its support for a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers despite sharp criticism of the accord by President Donald Trump, and it urged U.S. lawmakers not to reimpose sanctions on Tehran.
Trump defied both U.S. allies and adversaries on Friday by refusing to formally certify that Tehran is complying with the accord, even though international inspectors say it is, and said he might ultimately terminate the agreement.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg said a failure to uphold an international agreement backed by the U.N. Security Council could have serious consequences for regional peace, and also undermine efforts to check North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
"As Europeans together, we are very worried that the decision of the U.S. president could lead us back into military confrontation with Iran," German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters.
After a closed-door meeting chaired by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on how best to proceed on the Iran issue, the ministers issued a joint statement saying the 2015 deal was key to preventing the global spread of nuclear weapons.
"The EU is committed to the continued full and effective implementation of all parts of the JCPOA," it said, referring to the 'Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action', the formal name of the accord with Iran agreed in July 2015 in Vienna.
Foreign ministers said the accord was crucial to opening up Iran's $400-billion economy and finding a new market for European investors. Unlike the United States, the EU saw relations with Iran flourish in the late 1990s until revelations about Tehran's nuclear plans in 2002.
"Non-proliferation is a major element of world security and rupturing that would be extremely damaging," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters. "We hope that Congress does not put this accord in jeopardy."
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Mogherini said she would travel to Washington early next month to try to muster support for the accord.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran is complying with its commitments under the accord, which Trump has branded "the worst deal ever negotiated".
The EU still has sanctions in place against members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a major target of Trump's criticism.
The EU ministers also discussed on Monday Iran's ballistic missile programme, which they want to see dismantled. Tehran says that programme is purely defensive.
Mogherini said the ministers did not discuss new sanctions on Iran over that programme.
While several EU governments, including the Netherlands and Britain, said Iran's ballistic missiles and Tehran's interventions in Syria and Yemen were a concern, ministers said the immediate focus had to be saving the 2015 deal.
NORTH KOREA SPILLOVER
Negotiated after 12 years of talks that EU diplomats helped to initiate and carry through, the accord with Iran is the most significant diplomatic success for the bloc in several decades.
Many worry that the EU's reputation as an honest broker in a host of future conflicts may not recover if the U.S. Congress reimposes sanctions on Iran and causes the deal - which had the strong backing of Trump's predecessor Barack Obama - to unravel.
Most U.N. and Western sanctions were lifted more than 18 months ago under the deal, though Tehran is still subject to a U.N. arms embargo, which is not part of the deal.
EU foreign ministers also approved a new batch of economic sanctions on North Korea after its atomic test last month that included an oil embargo and investment ban.
But some still hold out hope of repeating the Iran nuclear deal with Pyongyang at some future date.
Sweden is one of only seven EU countries with an embassy in Pyongyang and its foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, reiterated that Stockholm could be counted on to help negotiate if asked.
But Germany's Gabriel warned that Trump's decision not to certify the Iran accord could scupper such hopes, a position echoed by Mogherini, although she stressed that no such EU mediation was underway.
"My concern is that, if we want to talk to North Korea now, the possible end for the nuclear deal with Iran would jeopardise the credibility of such treaties," Gabriel said.
(Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen in Luxembourg and Lily Cusack in Brussels; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Baku (AFP) - A European rights watchdog on Monday expressed concern over a wave of arrests in Azerbaijan last month of people who made "offers of sexual services" that human rights groups say targets the Muslim country's gay community.
In a letter to Interior Minister Ramil Usubov, the Council of Europe rights commissioner spoke of alleged "discrimination" against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Earlier this month, the interior ministry and prosecutor general announced that at least 83 people were arrested in raids from September 15 to 30, after they made "offers of sexual services to locals and tourists".
Nils Muiznieks wrote in the letter: "According to information at my disposal, the lawyers acting on behalf of the detainees have maintained that only a small number of those arrested were involved in sex work."
"Arrests based wholly or in part on sexual orientation or gender identity constitute discrimination".
Amnesty International had criticised the arrests, saying: "Clearly, LGBT community representatives were exclusively targeted in this raid and this was a blatant intimidation attempt by the authorities".
Usubov had denied targeting LGBT people then, and on Monday, he issued another denial in his reply to the Council of Europe.
""We received numerous complaints ... about a gross number of administrative violations of public order and persons involved in idleness, minor thefts or begging, as well as complaints about offering sexual services for money to locals and foreign tourists by sexual minority representatives," Usubov said.
"The only purpose of detention ... was to detect and prevent any facts which cause discontent of population as well as to protect public health".
Of the 83 people arrested, 56 were placed in administrative detention for 5 to 30 days, and 18 received fines, Usubov said.
He also addressed reports of discrimination, saying that LGBT people have sought "to insulate themselves from liability for any wrongful acts committed in our country by bringing to the forefront their sexual orientation".
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Muiznieks also asked authorities to shed light on reports that detainees were subjected to medical tests to ascertain whether they had any sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.
"While protecting public health is a legitimate aim, it cannot be pursued through forcibly checking the health status of persons after arresting and detaining them," he said.
Oil-rich Azerbaijan has repeatedly been accused by rights groups of increasingly repressive policies under President Ilham Aliyev's authoritarian regime.
By Kirsti Knolle and Francois Murphy VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria holds a parliamentary election on Sunday in which a young conservative star hopes to beat the far right at its own game with a hard line on refugees and pledging to prevent a repeat of Europe's migration crisis. Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, who is just 31, propelled his conservative People's Party (OVP) to the top of opinion polls when he became its leader in May, dislodging the far-right Freedom Party from the spot it had held for more than a year. He is now the clear favorite to become Austria's next leader. Kurz has pledged to shut down migrants' main routes into Europe, through the Balkans and across the Mediterranean. Many voters now feel the country was overrun when it threw open its borders in 2015 to a wave of hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere. Chancellor Christian Kern's Social Democrats (SPO) are currently in coalition with Kurz's OVP, but Kurz called an end to the alliance when he took over the helm of his party, forcing Sunday's snap election. Opinion polls have consistently shown the OVP in the lead with around a third of the vote, and second place being a tight race between the Social Democrats and the Freedom Party (FPO), whose candidate came close to winning last year's presidential election. "We must stop illegal immigration to Austria because otherwise there will be no more order and security," Kurz told tabloid daily Oesterreich on Friday night. Campaigning has been dominated by the immigration issue. Kurz plans to cap benefit payments for refugees at well below the general level and bar other foreigners from receiving such payments until they have lived in the country for five years. He says he wants to shake up Austrian politics, which for decades has been dominated by a coalition between his party and the Social Democrats. Kurz's opponents say he is merely a new face on an old party that has been in power in various coalitions for 30 straight years. As campaigning drew to a close over the weekend, the leaders of all three top parties warned voters to be skeptical about polling in an effort to improve their turnout. "You should not pay attention to opinion polls. You should instead go by the atmosphere here," FPO leader Heinz-Christian Strache said in front of cheering supporters at a shopping mall in Vienna on Saturday, adding that only Sunday's vote counted. LAST DASH With little daylight between Kurz and the FPO on immigration, the FPO has accused Kurz of copying its ideas. "He (Kurz) is an HC Strache impersonator," Strache said. Kern and his Social Democrats are hoping for a strong finish, having been sent into a tailspin two weeks ago by a smear scandal that forced their chairman to step down. "You must go out now, go to your neighbors, go into bars, go to your friends and tell them what is at stake," Kern told a party rally in Vienna on Saturday, depicting Kurz as the candidate of the rich and powerful. "If you do that, I guarantee you we will make a success of this election," he said, warning of a repeat of the coalition between the OVP and Freedom Party in the early 2000s that was marked by financial scandals. The winner of the election is traditionally tasked with forming a government, which will most likely require a coalition with one of the two other main parties. With Kurz and Kern at loggerheads, the FPO has a good chance of being kingmaker. Three smaller parties are polling between 4 percent -- the threshold for entering parliament -- and 6 percent. The last polling stations close at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT), with the first projections due minutes later. A final count is expected later in the evening. Any tight margins might not be settled on the night, however, since a record number of postal ballots have been issued -- even more than in the presidential run-off in May of last year, in which they swung the result, though a re-run was later ordered. The Interior Ministry said more than 889,000 postal ballots had been issued, enough for roughly a seventh of the 6.4 million registered voters. The counting of those ballots will not begin until Monday. They can also be cast in polling stations, including ones where the voter is not registered. (Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Following a report that his nominee to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy had played a leading role in weakening federal agents ability to stop suspicious shipments of opioids, President Trump told a press conference Monday that were gonna be looking into the choice, Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa.
An explosive investigation by the Washington Post and 60 Minutes found that Marino, who had accepted large donations from the pharmaceutical industry, had been a prime sponsor of legislation last year that undermined the ability of Drug Enforcement Administration agents to stop drug distributors from providing corrupt doctors with opioids for the black market. According to the reports, the companies had ignored DEA warnings to stop selling hundreds of millions of pills for years under suspicious circumstances raking in billions in profits.
Marino, who was an early supporter of Trumps presidential campaign, was the top advocate for the bill, the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act.
During a Monday afternoon press conference with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Trump was asked whether he still had confidence in Marino for the position sometimes called the nations drug czar.
Hes a great guy. I did see the report. Were gonna look into the report. Were gonna take it very seriously, Trump said.
The president said he will make a major announcement, probably next week, about combating the drug crisis and the opioid abuse epidemic in particular.
President Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Oct. 16, 2017. (Photo: Reuters/Yuri Gripas)
And I want to get that absolutely right. This country, and frankly the world, has a drug problem, Trump said. The world has a drug problem. But we have it and were going to do something about it.
Driven by the opioid abuse epidemic, drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 91 Americans die from an opioid overdose every day. More than 33,000 Americans lost their lives to opioid overdoses in 2015, and early figures suggest that number will be higher for 2016.
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Were gonna be looking into Tom, Trump said.
A representative for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told Yahoo News that they have not yet received Marinos questionnaire, and as such, have not yet set a date for a hearing to evaluate his qualifications.
Andrew Kolodny, the co-director of opioid policy research at Brandeis University, characterized Marino as having no real experience on this issue other than worsening the epidemic by working for years to push the bill through Congress.
I think Tom Marino is an awful pick. We need someone running the Office of National Drug Control Policy who can help tackle a complex problem and coordinate a federal response to a severe epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths. This is not a place for Trump to reward a friend with a political payback.
Thomas Marino, U.S. representative for Pennsylvanias 10th congressional district, is interviewed in his office in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 2, 2012. (Photo: Jake Danna Stevens/The Times-Tribune via AP)
As head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position that requires Senate confirmation, Marino would be tasked with promoting and implementing strategies to stop drug abuse and promote access to substance abuse treatment. Trump made the nomination on Sept. 1, 2017.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., published an open letter urging Trump to withdraw his nomination of Marino. He said Marinos advocacy has tied the hands of the DEA, and suggested that he does not understand the scope of the epidemic or simply values his industry ties more.
Congressman Marino no longer has my trust or that of the public that he will aggressively pursue the fight against opioid abuse, Manchin said.
I asked @realDonaldTrump to withdraw Rep. Tom Marinos nomination to lead the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. pic.twitter.com/H5bn1z7m8d Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) October 16, 2017
Although he says Marino is a poor choice, Kolodny doesnt blame the bill he sponsored for the opioid abuse epidemic, which has been building for years.
The roles played by opioid manufacturers and the failure of the FDA really played a much bigger role in creating the epidemic, he said. Certainly the failures of the DEA and the distributors helped fuel the problem, but the epidemic was caused by a sharp increase in the overprescribing of opioids.
Experts say this overprescribing of opioids was the result of a campaign mounted by manufacturers most notably Purdue Pharma and the FDAs failure to regulate doctors and pharmacies.
Another close friend of the pharmaceutical industry, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, helped finally get the law through the Senate in 2016.
Matt Whitlock, a Hatch spokesman, said the Washington Post story felt more like the plot from a Netflix original series than the actual drafting and passage of the bill in question.
There are critical checks and balances throughout the process of a bill becoming a law, and if the DEA and DOJ had the concerns then that they are voicing now, they had an absolute responsibility to use the many tools at their disposal to reshape the text or to prevent it from becoming law, Whitlock said in a statement.
If they were concerned, Whitlock continued, the DEA and DOJ should have encouraged congressional representatives to vote against the bill and told then President Barack Obama not to sign it into law. But the industry-friendly bill passed with unanimous consent, which is usually reserved for noncontroversial bills.
We cannot speak to the DEA or DOJs thinking, but we can only assume the reason they did not make a stronger effort to oppose the bill at the time was because they, like Sen. Hatch, believed this legislation would improve collaboration between law enforcement and industry members in combatting the opioid crisis, Whitlock said.
The Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA), an industry group, lobbied heavily for Marinos bill accusing the DEA of abusing its power and making it too difficult for legitimate patients to access opioids. After the Washington Post story appeared, HDA President and CEO John M. Gray released a statement defending the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act as a meaningful common-sense solution to create a pathway for information exchange between the DEA and its registrants that did not previously exist.
Read more from Yahoo News:
The family of a Muslim Marine recruit who died during boot camp at Parris Island last year is suing the U.S. government for $100 million for their sons death.
Raheel Siddiqui died on March 18, 2016, allegedly after falling three stories in an outdoor stairwell. He was 20 years old.
The suit, filed by The Shiraz Law Firm on behalf of Ghazala and Masood Siddiqui, claims the young recruit was targeted with hazing and abuse due to his religious affiliation. It also holds that the U.S. Marine Corps failed to address recurrent physical and verbal abuse of recruits by drill instructors and fostered a culture of abuse and hazing.
A representative for the U.S. Marine Corps said the military organization could not comment on ongoing litigation. The Corps has maintained that Siddiqui committed suicide, a conclusion his parents reject.
Siddiqui, the suit asserts, had no history of mental illness and had reportedly told his parents he was excited to become a Marine and said he wouldnt quit no matter how hard it is.
An investigation conducted by the Corps and released several months after Siddiquis death found that the Michigan native had been hazed, physically abused and called a terrorist by his drill instructor. The heavily redacted report also said that Siddiqui threatened to kill himself several days before his death but later recanted the threat and was not hospitalized.
On the morning of March 18, 2016, the report said, Siddiqui had complained of a bleeding and sore throat but was refused medical attention and was forced to run laps in his barracks. The report stated that when Siddiqui collapsed, his drill instructor slapped the recruit to revive him. At this point, the report alleged that Siddiqui got up and sprinted to the end of the barracks, opened a door and jumped over the railing of an exterior stairwell. He reportedly fell three stories and died several hours later at a hospital.
The Corps said in a statement in September 2016 that a number of drill instructors had been suspended and that 20 personnel were identified for possible disciplinary action.
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Two men connected with Siddiquis case face courts-martial, according to the Detroit Free Press. Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix, who was Siddiquis drill instructor, was already under investigation for allegedly abusing another Muslim recruit in 2015 by ordering him into a dryer and turning it on.
Lt. Col. Joshua Kissoon, who was the battalion commander, was accused of wrongly keeping Felix in charge of Siddiquis platoon despite his previous behavior toward a Muslim recruit.
The lawsuit filed by Siddiquis family claims Marine recruiters did not adequately inform him about possible hazing. It also raised questions about the reported time and cause of Siddiquis death.
Medical evidence of the injuries sustained by Raheel Siddiqui are inconsistent with death resulting solely from a fall, the suit states. Suicide is not the most conclusive manner of death in this case.
The New York Times also reported this summer that Siddiquis body had been returned to his parents covered in bruises:
A week after Raheel died, his body was sent back to his parents in Michigan. At the funeral home, the family stared down in horror at their son. His arms, chest, stomach and legs were purple. There were ligature marks, not unlike the ridges of a webbed military belt, around his neck, which had not been mentioned in the autopsy report. To Ghazala it looked as if her son had been tortured.
The lawsuit is requesting the U.S. government pay the Siddiqui family $100 million in damages. It may encounter difficulty, though, due to a U.S. Supreme Court decision known at the Feres Doctrine, which prevents those injured as a result of military service from suing the federal government.
Read a copy of the lawsuit below:
Also on HuffPost
A Muslim photographer is working on an ambitious project that he hopes will tackle stereotypes about American Muslims and showcase the communitys rich diversity. Since the fall of 2015, Carlos Khalil Guzman has been using his free time and his own funds to travel across the country to interview an array of Muslims. In the series, titled Muslims of America, Guzman is attempting to capture portraits of Muslims from all 50 states in the country. The series includes people of different sects of Islam, ethnicities and backgrounds from Native American Muslims to Syrian refugees to queer Muslims.
Check out photos from Guzmans project below, along with captions explaining each subjects favorite verse. Some of their responses have been edited for clarity. Follow the series as it unfolds on Guzmans Instagram account.
Myree, Medical Assistant, California
All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)
"This is so important to me not only as a Muslim but also as an Afro-Latina. This states that Islam is against racism and discrimination. All humans are created equal. All that matters to God is the good a person does and the devotion we have for our creator." - Myree
Shadi, College Student, Boston
Heaven lies under the feet of your mother - Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)
"This hadith is one of my favorites because it talks about being mindful of our parents. In todays world, a lot of people do not respect their parents and treat them as if they are nothing. Of course there are times when our parents get on our nerves but before I even think or dare to say anything to them, I remember this hadith and it brings me back to reality. It allows me to do good instead of bad and this has helped me build a stronger relationship with my parents." - Shadi
Kenneth, College Student, California
And whoever fears God -- He will make a way out for him. And will provide for him from where he never expected. Whoever relies on God -- He will suffice him. God will accomplish His purpose. God has set a measure to all things. - Quran Chapter 65 / Verses 2-3
"These verses remind me to always place my trust in God, no matter how hard things get. I have had lots of ups and downs in my life in terms of mental health. During my downs, I remember this verse and it motivates me to keep hope in the future, and to keep hope in myself. It reminds me of the power of prayer, as God can turn any situation around. When we have faith in God, He will set things moving for us in ways that we cannot even imagine." - Kenneth
Rula, College Student, Louisiana
And never say of anything, 'Indeed, I will do that tomorrow,' without adding, 'If Allah wills.' And remember your Lord when you forget and say, 'Perhaps my Lord will guide me to what is nearer than this to right conduct.'" - Quran Chapter 18 / Verses 23-24
"This verse, to me, is a significant reminder of Allah (God). Remembering to say 'inshallah,' if God wills, before speaking about plans is acknowledgement that as humans, we are not in control of everything. In a sense it is reassuring and personal because it relates to everybody. Growing up, its common that parents tell their kids 'inshallah' as a way to brush off their requests, as in 'OK, OK, if God wills.' I know my parents did. But as I grew older, I understood the value in relying on God and the love bestowed upon us. Its a reminder of our humanity, and how not everything is in our control. To see God in all things is to also see God in our daily lives in the smallest plans we make, such as studying for a test, or even getting coffee. God is so great, and it is a reminder not to stress with all the free will we have." - Rula
Fida, Librarian Aide, Oregon
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. [All] praise is [due] to Allah, Lord of the worlds. The Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful, Sovereign of the Day of Recompense. It is You we worship and You we ask for help. Guide us to the straight path. The path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray. Quran Chapter 1 / Verses 1-7
"I chose the verses from the first chapter (Al-Fatiha) of the Quran. These verses remind me of my childhood. My sisters and I would all gather together and we would recite it together or one by one. We were so proud of ourselves when we memorized it and we could see our parents were proud of us too. This surah (chapter) is the first in the Quran and I have always said it in times of fear, when I would think a ghost was in the room or if I was walking home late. I knew Allah (God) was watching and helping me. These words are powerful and they have helped me feel and be protected." - Fida
Osoul, Nursing Student, New Jersey
Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear. - Quran Chapter 2 / Verse 286
"This specific ayah has gotten me through so much in my life, Alhamdulillah [Praise be to Allah]. I have had to deal with a lot growing up, whether it was family, illnesses or loss. In a way I was forced to mature at an early age and growing up I always wondered, 'Why!' You know, like why things happened the way they happened. But once I started getting closer to Allah, I realized that asking why things happen the way they do is the wrong approach to life. Instead we should ask Allah to make us strong enough to handle any obstacles thrown our way. Now every time something happens, I read this ayah and I remember that Allah will not burden me with anything I cannot handle. Allah wont burden me with something that will destroy me, it will only make me stronger for what is ahead inshallah. It is kind of like a little hope, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel." - Osoul
Nooran, College Student, New Hampshire
And Yunus (Jonah), when he went off in anger and thought that We would not decree anything upon him. And he called out within the darknesses, 'There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers.'" - Quran Chapter 21 / Verse 87
"I think it's the story and context of that verse that makes it my favorite. It is a prayer said by the Prophet Yunus (Jonah), who is swallowed by a whale and seems in a hopeless situation stuck in its belly. He makes this prayer when he realizes he has disobeyed God, and continues to repeat it so often that all the fish in the sea can hear him reciting it. God spares Yunus and he is spit out by the whale. This verse teaches me two very important things that I try to apply to my daily life. The first is that when a situation seems hopeless, put all your faith in God and rely on Him to make things better. The second is that self-critique is necessary even in hard times. The Prophet Yunus could not understand why God was doing this to him until he reflected and realized that he had been of the wrongdoers. In that very same way, we should strive to always reflect and better ourselves even in the hardest of times instead of being frustrated or angry at God." - Nooran
Hana, College Student, Georgia
"[Moses] said, 'No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me.'" - Quran Chapter 26 / Verse 62
"An ayah (verse) so simple and powerful, yet can be difficult to recollect when we allow this reality and this world to cloud our own visions. When I thought I was capable of carrying and dealing with everything on my own, I found myself lost, hurt and misguided. I allowed myself to forget that Allah (swt) can heal all my wounds and guide me, if I just called on Him. I had willingly clouded my own vision.
No doubt, this life can be difficult at times. Hardship, confusion, pain and doubt are inevitable. All of humanity, believers and atheists, experience suffering and aching, however, the ones who truly believe and call on Allah (swt) will be at ease. Despite any circumstances, they rest knowing The Lord of Heavens, Earth and everything in between is in charge. They trust His plan and allow their hearts to focus. They know they are not capable of everything; they are simply imperfect humans. Humans who dont allow this reality to cloud their visions. A human I strive to be." - Hana
Bushra, College Student, Texas
And We have enjoined upon man [care] for his parents. His mother carried him, [increasing her] in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the [final] destination. - Quran Chapter 31 / Verse 14
"No religion puts greater emphasis on the status of parents in society than that which Islam puts. We always hear that a 'mother knows best,' but sometimes in life we get carried away by our own faults, forgetting to turn to those who know us the most. I'm always terrified that a day will come in which I can no longer write my mother's name and number as my emergency contact, whether it be for school or any other endeavor of mine. This verse keeps me grounded; it reminds me that life is short, so short, too short, and that one should never, ever take the lives of one's parents for granted." - Bushra
Zarin, College Student, South Dakota
And a sign for them is the night. We remove from it [the light of] day, so they are [left] in darkness. And the sun runs [on course] toward its stopping point. That is the determination of the Exalted in Might, the Knowing. And (as for) the moon, We have ordained for it stages till it becomes again as an old dry palm branch. It is not allowable for the sun to reach the moon, nor does the night overtake the day, but each, in an orbit, is swimming. - Quran Chapter 36 / Verses 37-40
"The reason I love these verses so much is that they are almost a reiteration of the age-old saying, and my personal favorite calming mechanism, that Allah does everything for a reason. If we ever look up to the sky to ask why the sun acts the way it does and why the moon acts the way it does, we can see that He has created a relationship between the two celestial bodies so that they work in harmony and makes sure that neither overpowers the other. It is also a beautiful image and representation and model of how we as humans should work, in harmony, never overtaking each other to benefit and 'over show' our power, but to work together and cooperate in peace as well as we can." - Zarin
Samah Safi Bayazid, Filmmaker, Washington, D.C.
Have you not considered how Allah sets forth a parable of a good word (being) like a good tree, whose root is firm and whose branches are in heaven. - Quran Chapter 14 / Verse 24
"This is one of my favorite verses in the Holy Quran. It really touches my heart, so I can relate to it in my life. 'Good word' and 'good work' is what I try to spread through my social media, where Im very blessed and honored to have over 200,000 followers. As a filmmaker, some of our works like the American drama series 'Inspiration' got millions of views and cleared many misconceptions about Islam and American Muslims. Many people tell me that my words/works have inspired them and touched their hearts and lives. This always makes me think about the power of sincere words and actions, and how words can really be like 'a good tree whose roots are firm and whose branches are in heaven.' I hope that some of my words and works can become like a good tree in my lifetime and after I leave this world too." - Samah
Yousef, High School Student, Chicago
Actions are according to intentions, and everyone will get what was intended. Whoever migrates with an intention for Allah and His messenger, the migration will be for the sake of Allah and His messenger. And whoever migrates for the worldly gain or to marry a woman, then his migration will be for the sake of whatever he migrated for. - Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)
"This hadith has had a great impact in my life. When I was a little younger, I loved to give charity to others in front of people. I wanted to be seen in the public eye as a good kid; it mattered what people thought of me. Little did I know I was only looking to gain the pleasure of the people around me and not the pleasure of Allah. I was not thinking whether or not what I was doing made Allah be pleased with me. Then one day I heard this hadith and I knew I had to change the way I did things and my intentions toward doing them. I realized that the way I thought was wrong and that if I wanted to do a good deed, I needed to do it for the sake of Allah only. I understood that only through the pleasure and love of Allah I could gain the love of the people." - Yousef
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Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - In war-scarred eastern Ukraine, the military look is all the rage this season, with fatigues and Soviet regalia a must-have for those who dress to impress in the battered crucible of the Russian-backed insurgency.
With international brands such as Zara and Levi's pulling out of the fighters' de facto capital of Donetsk, it has created valuable space for local designers who fill boutiques with clothes that reflect the bleaker realities of everyday life.
Designer Yulia Morozova, 27, says her most popular outfit for women in this industrial city is a number called "the little lump of coal" which she says symbolises eastern Ukraine.
The long black-and-grey gown is speckled with sparkles and topped off with a translucent scarf decorated in the blue-and-red motif of the flag of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).
The two-headed eagle -- the emblem of both the tsars and Vladimir Putin's Russia -- also features on a locally-designed evening gown.
The war in the European Union's backyard, which began in 2014, has claimed more than 10,000 lives -- most lost to indiscriminate shelling or mines planted in exorbitant numbers by both sides.
These days, the conflict has calmed to low-intensity fighting in which periodic truces are sometimes broken but eventually peter out.
Some southeastern regions of the former Soviet republic remain firmly under separatist -- and Kiev claims -- Russian control.
- Dressing the 'Young Republic' -
Clothes have inevitably come to reflect this reality and the military look along with old Russian standbys such as designs featuring nesting dolls loom large in adverts on the high street.
One of Morozova's more eye-catching dresses is called "The Young Republic" which is overlaid in white embroidery and has full-length sleeves in the colours of the Donetsk flag.
"We all live in a young republic -- it is only starting to grow," Morozova explains to onlookers at a special outdoor exhibition of creations by local designers.
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Another dress features the hammer and sickle design on it "because we were all born in the Soviet Union," she says.
- 'War reflected in design' -
Not everyone is so happy about the replacement of global brands by fashion "a la Russe".
Former languages student Yelena -- now unemployed and unwilling to give her last name for fear of retribution from pro-Russian rebels -- walks out of a large Donetsk shopping mall without making a single purchase.
"These military, pseudo-patriotic motifs, these nesting doll designs, embroidery 'A la Russe' -- none of it is quality material. I do not like any of it," the 27-year-old says.
"A lack of demand and warfare have simply pushed good clothes out of Donetsk."
The bustling city which was once home to nearly a million people has today been taken over by local businesses and a plethora of stores selling cheap knockoffs from Turkey and China.
Designer Tatyana Protchenko says her latest style inspiration came two years ago when the conflict was claiming lives almost every day.
"It was spring, trees were blooming, it was warm and beautiful outdoors but the shells were exploding and people were dying," Protchenko recalls.
"The war has made a profound impact on my collection."
- 'Why wear camouflage?' -
But she insists her designs are not meant to promote warfare.
"The idea is that despite combat, the women of Donetsk remain delicate and feminine."
But shopper Yelena questions why women would dress in military outfits or wear politically-charged flags of Russia and the two self-declared southeastern fiefdoms in times of war.
"You need this type of clothing for camouflage on the battlefield or to express your patriotism," she says.
"But why would young women dress up in camouflage, and how can she help her country by pulling on a dress that looks like a flag?"
She shakes her head in disbelief.
"I think these things should be left for the politicians and the army men."
The Daily Beast
Instagram/The Daily BeastThe four University of Idaho students allegedly slain in a home just off campus on Sunday were identified Monday as detectives continue to search for their killer. Police identified the victims are Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Kaylee GonCalves, 21. Cops have remained tight-lipped about what happened Sunday afternoon, declining to say how the four students were killed or what potential motive their killer may have had. Art Bettge, the mayor
Scientists for the first time have detected both gravitational waves and light from the collision of two dead, incredibly dense neutron stars.
Mondays announcement by American and European scientists, marked with news conferences and the publication of dozens of research papers, represents another huge leap forward in our understanding of the universe.
The neutron star collision also formed a number of other heavy elements like gold, platinum and lead, confirming decades of speculation regarding their origin.
While detectors in Louisiana, Washington and Italy registered the gravitational waves on Aug. 17, the collision itself happened about 130 million years ago. Researchers recorded a large burst of gamma rays from the same source, two seconds after the gravitational waves.
Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916, but it wasnt until 2016 that scientists were actually able to detect them and confirm their existence.
An artist's rendering of two merging neutron stars depicts gravitational waves rippling outward, while gamma rays burst out seconds later. (Photo: NSF/LIGO/Sonoma State University/A Simonnet/Reuters)
Imagine that gravitational waves are like thunder, astronomer Philip Cowperthwaite, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement. Weve heard this thunder before, but this is the first time weve also been able to see the lightning.
Unlike the 2016 detection of gravitational waves, which originated from the collision of black holes and was relatively brief, these new waves resulted from neutron stars. While black holes are so dense that light itself cant escape, neutron stars are not, thus explaining the surprising amount of energy in the August event.
Though not quite as dense as a black hole, neutron stars are still astoundingly dense: A teaspoon-full of neutron star has a mass of around 10 billion tons.
Previously detected black-hole mergers lasted for a second, maybe two seconds, Mansi Kasliwal of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena told Space.com. This latest event lasted nearly a whole minute.
Its energy was enough to outshine the 100 billion stars in our galaxy by about a billion-fold for the 50 or so seconds it took place, said Kasliwal, who participated in the research.
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A massive number of scientists collaborated on the research. According a CNN report, just one of the papers published on Monday had a list of thousands of coauthors, representing approximately 35 percent of the global astronomy community.
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Ain Issa (Syria) (AFP) - Foreign Islamic State group fighters have not been allowed to leave the one-time jihadist bastion of Raqa in Syria under a deal, a local council said on Sunday.
The statement from the Raqa Civil Council came after one of its members told journalists earlier that "a portion of the foreigners have left," in reference to foreign IS fighters in Raqa.
The RCC said "for clarification and accuracy, the foreign Daesh are not at all the concern of the Raqa Civil Council and the tribal leaders and they cannot be pardoned."
"Those who have surrendered are only Syrians, and they number a total of 275 including their families."
Daesh is an Arabic acronym for IS.
Local leaders have for days been working on a deal to allow the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces to secure the remaining 10 percent of Raqa under IS control while avoiding further civilian casualties.
On Saturday, a deal was announced and the US-led coalition said a convoy would leave the city, but there have been contradictory reports about whether foreign and Syrian IS fighters would be evacuated.
The US-led coalition has vocally opposed the exit of foreign IS fighters from the city, which the SDF has been battling to capture since June.
The SDF holds around 90 percent of the city, but has struggled to take remaining IS positions over fears of civilians being held as human shields.
Raqa was once the de facto Syrian capital of the Islamic State group's self-styled "caliphate" straddling Syria and Iraq.
Its loss would be the latest in a string of blows to the group, which has ceded large swathes of territory including Iraq's second city Mosul.
Washington (AFP) - Former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus submitted to questioning Friday by investigators looking into Russian meddling in the US presidential campaign and possible collusion by associates of President Donald Trump, US media reported.
Politico and the Washington Post quoted Priebus's lawyer William Burck as saying the interview with members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team was voluntary.
"He was happy to answer all of their questions," Burck said.
Priebus himself did not comment but Politico said he had been preparing for several weeks for the interview.
Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but Mueller's team has shown interest in the president's firing of former FBI director James Comey over his Russia probe, according to the reports.
Other areas of interest are reportedly Trump's eldest son's meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during the campaign and Trump's meetings at the White House with Russian officials.
Priebus participated in meetings where Comey's firing was discussed, and played a key role in the White House as well as during the campaign as head of the Republican National Committee.
Rescuers pull the wreckage of a propeller-engine cargo plane after it crashed in the sea near the international airport in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan - REUTERS
A cargo plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the international airport in Abidjan, killing four crew members and injuring six others, an Ivory Coast official said Saturday.
Ten people were aboard the plane that was approaching from the capital of neighboring Burkina Faso, Lt. Issa Sakho, commander of the military fire brigade, said on national television. The dead were four Moldovans, he said, adding that two Moldovans and four French crew members were injured.
The cargo plane was carrying French military cargo, a French military official said.
"We have six injured that we have evacuated to the Port-Bouet camp in Abidjan for treatment," the official said. He gave his name only as Lt. Villain, citing French protocol.
Earlier reports indicated the plane had taken off from Abidjan.
Ange Koutaye Ismael, a 19-year-old student, told The Associated Press he saw the four bodies carried out of the airplane, which had been broken in two in the shallow waters.
People pull the wreckage of a propeller-engine cargo plane after it crashed in the sea near the international airport in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan Credit: REUTERS
Ismael said he was at home Saturday morning when he noticed a plane flying low over his neighborhood. When he heard a plane had crashed on the beach, he ran down to film it.
Stormy weather likely played a role in the crash, he said.
"There was winds yesterday and I saw how planes seemed to have difficulties in getting up," he said.
Chrisian Kouame, who also lives near the airport, said he was awakened before 7 a.m. by a loud noise.
People pull the wreckage of a propeller-engine cargo plane after it crashed in the sea near the international airport in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan Credit: REUTERS
"We thought at the beginning it was the waves of the sea in the rain, but the cries of our neighbors caught our attention," he said. "When we went out we saw the aircraft broken by the beach. Airport authorities were alerted and rescue workers were immediately sent to help recover those wounded."
Hundreds of onlookers gathered at the beach. Rescue workers carried away what appeared to be a corpse in a yellow bag. The tail and propellers of the plane were exposed.
French soldiers and rescuers carry a body after a propeller-engine cargo plane crashed in the sea near the international airport in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, October 14 Credit: REUTERS
Air traffic at the airport in the West African nation appeared to continue after the crash, according to the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
In February 2000, a Kenya Airways Airbus 310 carrying 179 people destined for Lagos, Nigeria crashed into the ocean after takeoff from Abidjan, leaving only 10 survivors.
Paris (AFP) - A new law banning cat-calling and harassment of women on French streets will see men fined on the spot for lecherous and aggressive behaviour, France's women's minister said Monday.
The legislation is being piloted by 34-year-old Marlene Schiappa, a feminist and early supporter of French President Emmanuel Macron who wants to tackle sexist male attitudes in public spaces.
"It's completely necessary because at the moment street harassment is not defined in the law," she told RTL radio on Monday in a major interview to outline the law, which is to be voted next year.
The escalating scandal over Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual assaults on a string of actresses has rekindled debate on sexual harassment and predation in France.
The MeToo hashtag encouraging women to share their experiences is among the top 10 trends on French Twitter, and a new one has emerged -- #balancetonporc ("Expose the Pig") -- to report sexual harassment in the workplace.
Asked about the difficulty of drawing a line between harassment and flirtation, Schiappa replied: "We know very well at what point we start feeling intimidated, unsafe or harassed in the street."
She cited examples such as when a man invades a woman's personal space -- "by talking to you 10, 20 centimetres from your face" -- or follows a woman for several blocks, or "asks for your number 17 times."
A cross-party taskforce composed of five MPs has been asked to work with police and magistrates to come up with a definition of harassment that can be enforced by officers on the streets.
"The level of the fine is part of our discussions," Schiappa said, adding that neighbourhood police would act on complaints brought to their attention by women.
"The symbolic value of laws that outlaw street harassment is very great," she said.
The legislation will also include provisions such as lengthening the amount of time women have to lodge sexual assault complaints dating from their childhood and toughening laws on sex with minors.
Raphaelle Remy-Leleu of the feminist organisation Osez le Feminisme (Dare to Be Feminist) told AFP: "I hope that social tolerance will decrease after people become more aware" of sexual harassment.
"But there's a lot of work to be done."
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned on Monday that threats from U.S. President Donald Trump to pull out from the Iran nuclear accord could provoke military confrontation, adding such a move could also make exacerbate the North Korea crisis. "As Europeans together, we are very worried that the decision of the U.S. President could lead us back into military confrontation with Iran," Gabriel told reporters ahead of a meeting with fellow European foreign ministers. Gabriel said he would be discussing how to save the deal - to which Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, Iran and the European Union are also signatories - with his European Union colleagues. Senior Trump administration officials said on Sunday that the United States was committed to remaining part of the Iran nuclear accord for now, despite Trump's criticisms of the deal and his warnings that he might pull out. (Reporting by Peter Maushagen; Writing by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Michael Nienaber)
(Photo: Colombina Valera)
In June, a band of artists furtively installed a massive, red, digital clock on the exterior of a building on the Queens waterfront. The mysterious timepiece has been counting down, day by day, hour by hour, ever since.
The giant clock perhaps like you is marking the hours until President Donald Trumps first term comes to a close. The piece was executed by a group of New York artists and creatives including Brandon Stosuy, the editor of The Creative Independent, and multimedia artist Matthew Barney. It lives on the facade of Barneys Long Island City studio and is visible from Manhattan.
The creators of the project are doing their best to remain anonymous, hoping the mystery shrouding the installation will contribute to its impact on passersby. In an email to HuffPost, Stosuy wrote: People know who made it, but our ideal is for folks to focus on the clock itself, and not who made it, if that make sense.
(Photo: Eli Durst)
Last week DNAinfo published a piece connecting the clocks ticking digits to Trumps time left in office. Its a reminder that a lot [of] people cant wait until its over, as well as just a reminder, Stosuy said of the project. Its also a bit like a durational test a reminder to try to hold on until the end.
Right now the clock still has well over a thousand days to go. However, if by some chance Trumps term is terminated early, the clock is programmed to skip to zero. Its unclear how the clock will react if the world comes to an untimely end before election day 2020.
For those interested in visiting the physical embodiment of their unrelenting anxiety, head to the East River waterfront in Long Island City, Queens.
(Photo: Colombina Valera)
Correction: An earlier edition of this article mistakenly stated the clock was counting down until election day 2018. We regret the error.
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Caracas (AFP) - President Nicolas Maduro's government won a landslide victory in closely watched regional elections in Venezuela on Sunday, according to official results that the opposition said were "suspicious."
Maduro's socialist party won governorships of 17 of the 23 states with the opposition Democratic Union Roundtable (MUD) coalition taking only five, according to the results announced by the National Elections Council.
The official turnout was 61.14 percent.
Maduro said his government had scored an "emphatic victory" over its rivals.
"The opposition has five," Maduro underscored in a speech to supporters, adding that his party could win one further state where the results were still in dispute.
Public opinion surveys had predicted that the opposition would win a majority of state governorships despite alleged government dirty tricks to suppress a high turnout.
Sunday's vote came against the backdrop of an International Monetary Fund report in which it sees Venezuela's economic downturn, and the suffering of its population, continuing.
Venezuela "remains in a full-blown economic, humanitarian, and political crisis with no end in sight," the Fund said in a report on Latin American economies.
International powers accuse Maduro of dismantling democracy by taking over state institutions in the wake of an economic collapse caused by a fall in the price of oil, its main source of revenue.
Sunday's polls were the first contested by the opposition since legislative elections in 2015 that gave it a majority in the National Assembly.
The MUD has seen Maduro's hand strengthened after he faced down four months of protests that killed 125 people, forming a Constituent Assembly packed with his own allies and wresting legislative power from the opposition-dominated National Assembly.
For Maduro, the polls were an opportunity to counter allegations of dictatorship leveled at him at home and abroad after forming the Constituent Assembly.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expelled producer Harvey Weinstein on Saturday, after allegations that he sexually harassed or assaulted a number of women over the past three decades, a sharp smack for a Hollywood mogul known for powering a string of films to Oscar gold. The academy said in a statement that its 54-member board of governors "voted well in excess of the required two-thirds majority to immediately expel him from the Academy." A representative for Weinstein, Sallie Hofmeister, had no immediate comment. The expulsion from the film industry's most prestigious organization follows allegations reported by The New York Times and The New Yorker from a number of women that Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them in incidents dating back to the 1980s, including three who said they had been raped. Reuters has been unable to independently confirm any of the allegations. Weinstein, 65, has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. For Weinstein, who made a name for himself and his studio with the critical and commercial success of a number of small-budget independent films, the expulsion was just the latest fallout - both professional and personal - from allegations that have rocked an industry that has often looked the other way when confronted by reports of sexual misconduct. In announcing the decision to oust Weinstein, the academy said it was also telegraphing a broader goal. "We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues, but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over," the academy said. "What's at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society," it said. "The board continues to work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all Academy members will be expected to exemplify." The New York Police Department said this week it was investigating an allegation of sexual assault from 2004 against Weinstein. His accusers included the actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who told The New York Times that she was sexually harassed by Weinstein more than 20 years ago, and actress and director Angelina Jolie, who told the publication that she had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth and as a result chose never to work with him again. BROTHER ADVOCATED EXPULSION The academy's board gathered on Saturday to discuss the allegations against Weinstein and his inclusion in the organization, which comprises 8,000 people from the film industry and invites members to join based on their contributions to film. Governors include such luminaries as director Steven Spielberg and actors Tom Hanks, Laura Dern and Whoopi Goldberg. Weinstein is a member of the executives' branch of the academy and is also a member of the Producers Guild of America. The PGA board is to meet on Monday to discuss whether to begin disciplinary proceedings against Weinstein, who would have 15 days to respond to any decision by the board, including an expulsion. While Weinstein has driven numerous films to success at the Academy Awards over two decades, he has only won one Oscar himself, for producing best picture winner "Shakespeare in Love" in 1999. The fallout from the allegations has been swift for Weinstein. He was fired at the beginning of this week from The Weinstein Co, the independent studio he co-founded in 2005 with his brother Bob Weinstein. A spokesman for The Weinstein Co, in an email, cited Bob Weinstein's interview published on Saturday with The Hollywood Reporter, in which he said the academy should expel his brother. Bob Weinstein said he was aware of his brother's marital infidelities, but said he had no idea about "the type of predator that he was," according to the industry publication. Hachette Book Group, the U.S. publishing house of French group Lagardere, terminated the Weinstein Books imprint on Thursday. People magazine reported on Tuesday that Weinstein's wife, Marchesa label fashion designer Georgina Chapman, was leaving him. France has started the process of stripping Weinstein of his Legion of Honor, France's highest civilian distinction, President Emmanuel Macron's office said on Saturday. Also this week, Weinstein was suspended from the British film academy BAFTA. (Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy, Ben Klayman and Mary Milliken; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Yahoo News photo Illustration; photos: AP, Getty
WASHINGTON How did he get away with it for so long?
It is the vexing question at the heart of the Harvey Weinstein story.
The answer is simple and depressing: Nearly half a century after the start of rape law reforms pushed by second wave feminists and 31 years after the Supreme Court ruled that sexual harassment was a form of workplace discrimination prohibited by the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the legal system continues to struggle to provide justice for women who have been raped or otherwise sexually assaulted, except in the most extreme circumstances.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit may have been inspired by the real-life New York City sex crimes unit, but the real-life odds that a woman who has been sexually assaulted will ever see the inside of a courtroom are low. On television, half the drama is accused criminals being held to account by prosecutors; in real life, most sex crimes never make it before a judge or jury, or even get to the point of an arrest.
This fact complainants take on significant personal risks to their reputation and emotional well-being with only a small chance that their accused attacker will be prosecuted, let alone convicted is among the reasons many women do not report sexual assaults, including rape, to police.
Only one woman is known to have lodged a formal criminal complaint against Weinstein before the recent revelations, just as one woman reported Bill Cosby to police. Both saw their cases dismissed by prosecutors as unwinnable. In this, their experience is the rule, not the exception.
Not every city has published a comprehensive look at how cases are handled in their jurisdictions. But those that have paint a startling portrait of how sex crimes are handled.
In Washington D.C., for example, only 10.3 percent of sex crime complaints received by police were prosecuted in 2015, and only 1.2 percent of the complaints led to guilty verdicts, according to a report prepared for the mayors office in 2016. There were 1,177 reports of adult sexual assault or crimes with a sexual element made to police but just 14 guilty verdicts.
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Another 4.4 percent of cases, 52 of the 1,177, were settled by plea bargains.
Nearly half the reports were not even classified as crimes by police or forwarded to prosecutors. Of the remaining 671 cases, only 189 involved arrests, and just 124 of those saw prosecutors move the case forward post-arrest.
In Virginia, only 37 percent of prosecuted sexual assault cases led to a conviction between 2005 and 2013 in the city of Newport News and Williamsburg-James City, and because such a small fraction of reported cases were prosecuted, only 4 to 5 percent of incidents reported in those years have so far resulted in a conviction, the Daily Press reported in May 2015.
One reason Washington, D.C., has tracked these crimes closely is that the city was, until recently, doing even worse. In 2013, Human Rights Watch published a report alleging that a large number of sexual assault complaints made to police were never logged or investigated. The Metropolitan Police Department contested the findings.
Other major cities have suffered similar scandals over the poor performance of their police departments and prosecutors in addressing sex crimes in recent years.
In New Orleans, the citys inspector general released a report in 2014 concluding that only 14 percent of sex crime complaints sent to five special victims unit detectives were investigated. Of the 1,290 sex crime calls for service between 2011 and 2013, 65 percent were labeled as miscellaneous marking them as noncriminal incidents and no reports were taken. An initial investigative report was created for 35 percent of the calls. Of them, 271 cases were marked as crimes but not investigated past the initial report, and only 179 were further investigated.
That finding came on the heels of a 2011 investigation of the New Orleans Police Department by the Justice Department that found it systematically misclassified large numbers of possible sexual assaults, resulting in a sweeping failure to properly investigate many potential cases of rape, attempted rape, and other sex crimes.
Philadelphia police had come under fire for similar failures in the past, but by the 2010s had managed to reduce its unusually high percent of sex crime complaints judged unfounded and thus kept off the crime statistics books to a figure closer to the national average. In 2013, it was among cities praised by Human Rights Watch for a victim-centered approach as opposed to one that emphasizes quickly closing cases.
A Baltimore Sun investigation in 2010 found major undercounting in that city too. The city has for the past four years recorded the highest percentage of rape cases that officers conclude are false or baseless of any city in the country, with more than 30 percent of the cases investigated by detectives each year deemed unfounded, the paper reported. Additionally, In four of 10 emergency calls that come to police for rapes, officers conclude that there is no need for a further review, so the case never makes it to detectives. A follow-up audit presented to the city council found that half the discarded cases were misclassified and should have been pursued by investigators. By 2016, the Sun reported, the number of unfounded cases had dropped dramatically, but that didnt always translate into them being investigated let alone prosecuted and across Maryland, the percent of cases deemed unfounded remained above the national average.
Nationally, the fraction of rape cases cleared by police was 36.5 percent in 2016, according to the FBI. That doesnt mean the cases in question resulted in a conviction or guilty plea only that the police, in most instances, made an arrest and handed the case over to prosecutors.
In Los Angeles, a 2012 Justice Department-funded study found a low prosecution rate and that the vast majority of allegations of rape reported to police did not end with the conviction of a defendant.
We found that there is substantial attrition in sexual assault cases presented to the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Sherriffs Department, the report concluded. Among cases reported to the LAPD, only one in nine was cleared by arrest, fewer than one in ten resulted in the filing of charges, and only one in thirteen resulted in a conviction.
When it comes to sexual assault overall, the most reliable academic estimates of prosecution rates indicate that 14 percent to 18 percent of all reported sexual assaults get prosecuted, the 2016 research report for D.C. concluded after surveying the data. That includes everything from misdemeanor assaults to felony rapes.
The most easily prosecuted cases, in D.C. and around the country, are stranger rapes involving weapons, injuries, and the rapid reporting of the assault to police. Cases of groping and non-penetrative sexual assault involving people who know each other especially when they are not reported immediately to police are less likely to be resolved by the legal system, except in the favor of the accused when police or prosecutors decline to act.
In California, its sexual battery if its touching of the buttocks or sexual organs or breasts, Los Angeles lawyer Karl Gerber, an experienced sexual-harassment litigator, told New York magazines Vulture site, discussing the Weinstein cases. So that kind of stuff, somebody could be criminally prosecuted for. But its very, very rare that they go after these people criminally. Ive had a lot of oral copulation cases, rape cases. Ive never seen them get prosecuted. Ive represented a lot of women that have been raped and they dont even pursue that if its a workplace thing.
In her experience with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez met a justice system that rarely takes up complaints like the one she put forward in 2015 against Weinstein. Her experience in going to the police with a complaint that she was sexually assaulted and then having her case stall is more the rule than the exception.
If we could have prosecuted Harvey Weinstein in 2015, we would have, said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, the chief assistant district attorney for Manhattan, in a statement. She blamed the New York Police Department for failing to involve the Sex Crimes Unit in setting up the meeting between Weinstein and the model, who was recording him, so that prosecutors could obtain what was necessary to capture in order to prove a misdemeanor sex crime.
While the recording is horrifying to listen to, what emerged from the recording was insufficient to prove a crime under New York law, she said.
Meanwhile, Gutierrezs name and face were splashed on the cover of the New York Post and her reputation dragged through the mud.
Most rapes and sexual assaults against females were not reported to the police, concluded the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics in an analysis of the question. Thirty-six percent of rapes, 34 percent of attempted rapes, and 26 percent of sexual assaults were reported to police, 1992-2000.
Those numbers have varied some over the years. The percentage of rape or sexual assault victimizations reported to police increased to a high of 59 percent in 2003 before declining to 32 percent in 2009 and 2010, according to a 2013 Bureau of Justice Statistics report. Overall, 36 percent of rape or sexual assault victimizations were reported to police between 2005 and 2010, and the percentage of reported incidents that were followed by an arrest decreased from 47 percent in 1994-98 to 31 percent in 2005-10.
Fear of retaliation and lack of faith in the police were the top two reasons women gave for not reporting their assaults, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, a prominent anti-sexual violence advocacy organization.
Its no wonder that alternative and effectively private justice systems are proliferating.
One well-known and much discussed private justice system involves universities, which, following Obama administration guidelines, controversially began to adjudicate cases involving students using a different standard of proof the preponderance of the evidence rather than following the practice of the legal system, which requires finding guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The Trump Education Department has rescinded the Obama rule and offered colleges the option of using the more stringent standard of clear and convincing evidence.
Another is the elaborate system of payoffs and nondisclosure agreements that Weinstein entered into to keep accusations out of the public eye.
Actress Rose McGowan in 1997 entered into a $100,000 settlement with Weinstein after an incident in a hotel room in Sundance when she was 23 years old. This week, she broke whatever nondisclosure agreement she may have signed and openly accused Weinstein of rape on Twitter. She is one of at least four women to accuse him of rape in the past week, as the number accusing him of all types of sexual assaults has grown by the day.
Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein, a spokesperson for Weinstein said.
As the number of women telling stories about Weinstein has mushroomed, the court of public opinion has turned decisively against him. He was fired from the company he built and helmed, and expelled from the Oscar-selecting Motion Picture Academy. As one-time collaborators and allies flee from any project hes associated with, the future existence of the Weinstein Company itself looks uncertain.
At the same time, its early days of the scandal, and many men who have been accused of sexual assaults or improprieties with underlings in recent decades have been able to make comebacks or gone on to success in new arenas after disappearing from the public eye for a period.
Sen. Bob Packwood was drummed out of office in 1995, more than two years after 24 women accused him of making unwanted advances or other sexual misconduct; Politico reported he found redemption and success as a Washington lobbyist. Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor of California despite a 2003 Los Angeles Times report that he groped at least six women. Clarence Thomas was confirmed as justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1991 after allegations he sexually harassed Anita Hill, covered at the time as a he said, she said story. Bill Clinton was able to rally Democrats in the 1998 midterm elections after his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public, and amid a sexual harassment suit from Paula Jones that was a major news story during the election year. He eventually settled the case for $850,000, and in 2014 ranked as the most admired president of the past 25 years. Donald Trump was elected president of the United States after videotape surfaced showing him boasting about grabbing women by the p****, along with accusations of inappropriate sexual contact by more than a dozen women speaking on the record.
Sen. Bob Packwood, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Clarence Thomas. (Photos: Getty Images)
Former top Hillary Clinton aide Philippe Reines told Yahoo News that the Clinton campaign had considered running ads against Trumps Access Hollywood comments, but found they didnt move the needle.
The campaign tested an Access Hollywood ad, like, a few weeks after [the story broke], and they focus-grouped it and most of the room didnt know what it was referring to, he said in September. Now that could have been a function of the ad being too subtle. But it was probably subtle because you didnt think you had to be in your face with something like that. It was a warning sign.
There is a lot of talk among Democrats these days about the normalization of the abnormal or abhorrent under President Trump, but when it comes to allegations of sexual assault, the norms deeply embedded in the legal system and the culture long predate the present moment.
And even men who are drummed out of public life and find their reputations in tatters on because of the breadth and extent of charges publicly made against them, like Cosby, they can nonetheless successfully fight it out in the formal legal system. When he was brought before a jury on an accusation of aggravated indecent assault in 2017, Cosbys case ended not with a guilty verdict but with a jury so deadlocked the judge had to declare a mistrial. The accuser in the case, Andrea Constant, had initially filed a police complaint against Cosby in 2005, but her case was one of many prosecutors did not go forward with that year.
There was insufficient, admissible, and reliable evidence upon which to base a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. Thats prosecutors speak for I think he did it but theres just not enough here to prosecute, Bruce Castor, a former district attorney in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, said in 2014, explaining his decision to not pursue a case against Cosby on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting Constant a decade ago. A new trial date has yet to be set.
Police in New York and London say they are reviewing their case files for additional reports about Weinstein, and the NYPD is reportedly looking into a just-filed complaint from a former actress and college student that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004. But given how few sexual assault cases ever lead to convictions not to mention Weinsteins formidable resources, likely top-notch legal team and the length of time that has elapsed since the incidents the American criminal justice system is likely to be the least of Weinsteins problems in the months ahead.
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Harvey Weinstein, one of the most prolific modern Oscar influencers, has been ousted from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors met today to discuss the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, and has voted well in excess of the required two-thirds majority to immediately expel him from the Academy, the organization said in a statement on Saturday. We do so not simply to separate ourselves from someone who does not merit the respect of his colleagues but also to send a message that the era of willful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment in our industry is over.
Whats at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society, they continued. The Board continues to work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all Academy members will be expected to exemplify.
The decision to remove the mega-producer came during a special meeting of the Academy Board to discuss Weinsteins fate with the group.
The Academy issued a statement Wednesday addressing the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, which came to light in an Oct. 5 New York Times expose and were compounded by a subsequent investigation by the New Yorker.
The Academy finds the conduct described in the allegations against Harvey Weinstein to be repugnant, abhorrent, and antithetical to the high standards of the Academy and the creative community it represents, the group said in a statement. The Board of Governors will be holding a special meeting on Saturday, October 14, to discuss the allegations against Weinstein and any actions warranted by the Academy.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (aka BAFTA, the U.K.s equivalent to the Academy) has already suspended Weinsteins membership, saying the organization considers the reported alleged behavior completely unacceptable and incompatible with BAFTAs values, and that it hopes the announcement sends a clear message that such behavior has absolutely no place in our industry.
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Also on Saturday, the French government announced that they were going to explore revoking Weinsteins Legion dHonneur, the countrys highest civilian distinction. The producer was awarded the status in 2012 under former French president Nicolas Sarkozy after the Oscar success of The Artist.
Weinstein is only the second member to be expelled from the 8,427-member Oscars group, joining Carmine Caridi, an actor with small roles in The Godfather series, who was removed in 2004 after violating an agreement not to share advanced copies of films.
Over the last two decades, Weinstein has distributed five Best Picture winners through Miramax or the Weinstein Co.: 1996s The English Patient, 1998s Shakespeare in Love, 2002s Chicago, 2010s The Kings Speech, and 2011s The Artist. His productions have also scored numerous nominations and/or wins for actors, including Cate Blanchett (Carol), Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love, Philomena, Mrs. Brown), Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds), Nicole Kidman (Lion), and Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady).
Streep, Dench, and a slew of other stars have spoken out against Weinstein in recent days, with Streep calling his alleged behavior inexcusable, but the abuse of power familiar. Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Cara Delevingne are among those who have come forward with their own allegations of misconduct by Weinstein.
Following the initial report, Weinstein said in a statement that he was working with therapists and planned to deal with this issue head-on. He has since been fired from his powerhouse studio, the Weinstein Company, and his wife, Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman, has announced shes leaving him.
In response to the lengthy allegations made against Weinstein in the New Yorker piece, a spokesperson for Weinstein said, Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein.
Weinstein spoke to cameras on Wednesday while leaving his daughters Los Angeles house, saying he was not doing okay and hoping for a second chance amid the allegations.
A source confirmed to PEOPLE that the 65-year-old had flown out of Los Angeles to a luxury resort.
Hillary Clinton did not hold back from criticizing President Donald Trump as she took the stage of Londons Southbank Centre in the final leg of her U.K. book tour Sunday evening, where she received a standing ovation from a decidedly partisan crowd.
Speaking as part of the London Literature Festival as she promoted her recently-published memoir, What Happened, Clinton described the U.S. president as someone with a psychological need to dominate and demean people whom she fears could launch a nuclear strike in a moment of pique.
The interviewer, journalist and broadcaster Jim Naughtie, asked Clinton what it was like to call Trump to admit defeat early on the morning of Nov. 9. It was really terrible, she said. [The call] didnt last long. There wasnt much to say. He was surprised and going out to claim victory and I wanted to reach him before he did that. He sounded stunned but ecstatic I never thought Id be making the call and he never thought hed be receiving it. It was one of those surreal moments that you get through.
When Naughtie asked Clinton what she thought Trump thought of her, she responded: I think he only thinks about himself. Anyone who challenges or contradicts him or raises questions about him becomes his adversary.
Hilary Clinton (R) shakes hands with broadcaster James Naughtie (L) following her talk at the London Literary Festival at The Royal Festival Hall on October 15, 2017 in London, England.
Sticking to her well-rehearsed explanation of what went wrong in the election, the 69-year-old described her use of a private email server while serving as U.S. Secretary of State as a very dumb mistake and an even dumber scandal. She added that former FBI director James Comeys decision to announce he was examining newly-discovered emails of hers just 11 days before the vote was inexplicable.
Repeating comments she had made at the U.K.s Cheltenham Literary Festival earlier that day, Clinton said she believed the email scandal was the principal reason why she lost the U.S. election last November. We were beginning, I thought, to make our closing argument, she said. But then the Comey letter happened and it critically stopped my momentum with white women voters I immediately started dropping [in the polls] after the Comey letter because a lot of women were really unsettled by that.
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Clinton continued on the subject, claiming that she would have been more than happy to have given the FBI permission to look at her emails. [But] the objective was to throw this big monkey wrench, she said. The reason why its so hard to understand is at the same time, the FBI was conducting an investigation into the Trump campaigns association with the Russians but did not say a word to anybody.
Then, in a comment which received a gasp from the audience, the former Democratic presidential candidate added: And when he was later asked by members of Congress, Comey said he didnt think he could talk about the Russian investigation because it was too close to the election.
Asked whether, with hindsight, she wished it had been someone else representing the Democratic Party in the presidential election, Clinton smiled. Oh absolutely not, she replied. I just wish I had won.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, a Maltese journalist who was killed in a car blast on Monday - TIMES OF MALTA
Maltas prime minister has appealed for national unity following the murder of a campaigning journalist who had accused his government of corruption.
Daphne Caruana Galizia, 53, achieved fame and notoriety for investigative reporting laced with scathing commentary about allegedly corrupt officials and businessmen. She was killed on Monday when a powerful bomb blew up her car.
Forensic experts on the scene of the explosion which killed investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in Bidnija, Malta Credit: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters
Police said the bomb went off while she was driving near the village of Bidnija in northern Malta on Monday afternoon.
Joseph Muscat, the Maltese Prime Minister, denounced her murder as a "barbaric attack on press freedom".
"I will not rest until I see justice done in this case. Our country deserves justice," he said in a televised statement.
Caruna Galizias blog, Running Commentary, was one the most widely read websites on Malta and led the investigation of corruption allegations stemming from revelations in the so-called Panama Papers leak.
This is a spiteful attack on a citizen and freedom of expression. I will not rest until justice is done. The country deserves justice -JM Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) 16 October 2017
It was famed for a relentless pursuit of cases of apparent corruption and incendiary, sometimes highly personal, comments that saw her embroiled in frequent legal battles.
Earlier this year Politico magazine listed her as one of the 28 men and women making and shaking Europe for her unrelenting crusade against what she saw as Maltas culture of cronyism and opaque government.
Ambulance parked on the road where a car bomb killed Daphne Caruana Galizia Credit: Rene Rossignaud/AP
In 2016 she reported Konrad Mizzi, the then energy Minister, and Keith Schembri, Mr Muscats chief of staff, were named in the Panama Papers leak as owners of off shore companies.
Both men denied wrong doing.
Earlier this year Caruna Galizia claimed documents from a small Malta-based bank showed that Mr Muscats wife was the beneficial owner of a company in Panama, and that large sums of money had been moved between the company and bank accounts in Azerbaijan.
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The couple denied the accusation. Mr Muscat called - and won - early elections in June as a vote of confidence to counter Caruana Galizia's allegations of corruption.
In her last blog post, published just hours before she died, she bemoaned the lack of progress in prosecuting alleged corruption cases.
There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate, she wrote in the last line.
By Chris Scicluna VALLETTA (Reuters) - Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta's best-known investigative journalist, was killed on Monday when a powerful bomb blew up her car, police said, in a case that stunned the small Mediterranean island. Caruana Galizia, 53, ran a hugely popular blog in which she relentlessly highlighted cases of alleged high-level corruption targeting politicians from across party lines. "There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate," she wrote in a blog published on her site just half an hour before an explosion tore into her car. Locals said Caruana Galizia had just left her house and was on a road near the village of Bidnija in northern Malta when the bomb detonated, sending her car flying into an adjacent field. Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who faced accusations of wrong-doing by Caruana Galizia earlier this year, denounced her killing, calling it a "barbaric attack on press freedom". He announced that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had agreed to help local police investigate the killing and was flying experts to the island as soon as possible. "I will not rest until I see justice done in this case," he said in a statement, calling for national unity. Around 3,000 people held a silent, candle-lit vigil on Tuesday evening in Sliema, just outside Valletta. The hashtag Je Suis Daphne circulated widely among social media users on the island of 400,000 people, the European Union's smallest state. "Everyone knows Caruana Galizia was a harsh critic of mine, both politically and personally, but nobody can justify this barbaric act in any way," Muscat said. "The only remedy for anyone who felt slandered was through the courts." Muscat sued Caruana Galizia after she wrote blogs earlier this year saying his wife was the beneficial owner of a company in Panama, and that large sums of money had been moved between the company and bank accounts in Azerbaijan. Both Muscat and his wife denied the accusations. Looking for a vote of confidence to counter the allegations, Muscat called snap elections in June which he easily won. Recently, Caruana Galizia's outspoken blog had turned its fire on opposition politicians. Malta Television reported that Caruana Galizia had filed a complaint to the police two weeks ago to say she had received threats. It gave no further information. "POLITICAL MURDER" Opposition leader Adrian Delia said the blogger was the victim of a "political murder". "Caruana Galizia revealed the Panama Papers and was the government's strongest critic," he said, calling for a independent probe of her killing. "We will not accept an investigation by the Commissioner of Police, the Army commander or the duty magistrate, all of whom were at the heart of criticism by Caruana Galizia," he said. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he would offer a 20,000 euro ($23,578.00) reward for information leading to the conviction of Caruana Galizia's killers, and European politicians expressed dismay at her death. Frans Timmermans, first vice president of the European Commission, tweeted that he was "shocked and outraged", adding that "if journalists are silenced our freedom is lost". Manfred Weber, head of the conservative bloc in the European Parliament, said the killing marked "a dark day for democracy". Caruana Galizia took aim at politicians and senior officials from across Malta, seeing the island as a hotbed of corruption. "Malta's public life is afflicted with dangerously unstable men with no principles or scruples," she wrote last year. Her family asked that the magistrate assigned to investigate the case, Consuelo Scerri Herrera, be substituted because of an alleged conflict of interest, court documents showed. Herrera had sought libel damages after Caruana Galizia attacked her in her blog. (Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Brussels and Gavin Jones in Rome,; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Tehran (AFP) - Iranians responded with anger and mockery on Saturday to the bellicose speech against their country by US President Donald Trump and his threats to tear up the landmark nuclear deal.
"I was so angry last night," said Layla, 42, who runs an artisan shop in Tehran.
"This person hates Iran so much that even if we don't support the ideas of the regime, we find ourselves supporting them and the Revolutionary Guards."
Like millions of other Iranians, she spent Friday night watching Trump reel off a list of grievances committed by the "Iranian dictatorship, its sponsorship of terrorism, and its continuing aggression in the Middle East and all around the world".
He threatened to "terminate" the 2015 nuclear deal signed between Iran and six world powers unless Congress passed stringent new sanctions.
But for many, Trump's biggest insult was the use of the term "Arabian Gulf" rather than "Persian Gulf" -- a big no-no in a country with a fierce nationalistic streak.
"Everyone knew Trump's friendship was for sale to the highest bidder. We now know that his geography is too," wrote Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Twitter, referring to the US alliance with Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia.
Most countries and international bodies still use "Persian Gulf" as the conventional name for the region's waterway, despite pressure to change it from the Arab Gulf monarchies.
- 'In Iran's favour' -
"Trump's statements are so ridiculous that it actually works in Iran's favour. Speaking about the 'Arabian Gulf' is taken very badly by people here," said Abbas, a 40-year-old banker on his way to work.
"The reaction of the Europeans shows that the United States is isolated, and only Saudi Arabia and Israel have supported Trump," he added.
The other signatories to the nuclear deal -- Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- have called for its preservation, saying that Iran is clearly sticking to its commitments.
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In an interview with the US television channel CBS News, Zarif said Trump's assault on the nuclear deal sealed under his predecessor Barack Obama had served to undermine US credibility on the international front.
"Nobody else will trust any US administration to engage in any long-term negotiation because the length of any commitment, the duration of any commitment from now on with any US administration would be the remainder of the term of that president," Zarif said.
Trump's efforts to reach out to ordinary Iranians, who he referred to as the "longest-suffering victims" of the Islamic regime, also appeared to have fallen on deaf ears, with many recalling the travel ban he slapped on them earlier this year.
His Instagram page was inundated by more than a million comments, mostly from jeering Iranians.
"Trump stopped Iranians going to the US. How can he say he's on our side?" said Layla.
For all the bluster, Trump's strategy was not as tough as many had predicted.
It placed new sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guards, but did not designate them a foreign terrorist organisation as trailed in the run-up to the speech.
- 'We will stand together' -
The hardline Kayhan newspaper spun this as a victory, saying Trump had not "dared" to do so after the Guards warned the US would have to move its regional bases out of reach of Iranian missiles.
President Hassan Rouhani had pushed back against the Revolutionary Guards' deep involvement in the economy after winning re-election earlier this year.
But Trump's threats have brought a new solidarity among Iran's often bitterly divided institutions.
"We have dissatisfactions, for example there are economic problems," said Bahram Siavoshi, 36, as he walked to work at a private finance firm in Tehran.
"But if it comes to it, we will stand together to the end, and will defend even the Guards. Their efforts cannot be ignored. If it wasn't for them we would be like Syria or Yemen."
Rouhani took to the airwaves shortly after Trump's speech on Friday night, dismissing it as "nothing but the repetition of baseless accusations and swear words".
"He has not studied international law. Can a president annul a multilateral international treaty on his own?" Rouhani said.
Nonetheless, the deal's future hangs in the balance as the US Congress has 60 days to decide how to tighten sanctions, or possibly introduce new red lines that would trigger a US response.
"If the Congress goes ahead with new sanctions, then the deal is dead and Iran will restart its nuclear programme and move forward full-steam ahead in all fields," Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran, told AFP.
"Iran will probably invest even more than before in order to show the Americans that they can't get away with destroying the agreement."
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government accused Kurdish authorities on Sunday of bringing fighters from Turkey's separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk, and said it considered the move a "declaration of war." Vahal Ali, a media assistant to Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani, denied the accusation. "This is false, there are no PKK in Kirkuk, only Peshmerga," he told Reuters, referring to KRG military forces. In a statement published after a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad, and attended by top military and security commanders, the government said it would seek to impose its authority over Kirkuk and other disputed areas. Iraq's Kurdish leadership rejected on Sunday a demand by the Iraqi government to cancel the outcome of an independence referendum as a precondition for talks to resolve the dispute. Barzani and other Kurdish leaders, who met to discuss the crisis in the town of Dokan, renewed their offer to "resolve peacefully" the crisis with Baghdad. They rejected what they described as "military threats" from Iraqi forces against Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, and pledged to defend Kurdish-held territory in the event of an attack. The KRG and the Shi'ite-led central government in Baghdad have been at loggerheads since the Sept. 25 referendum and its loud call for Kurdish independence. Tensions between the two parties have flared around the multi-ethnic oil city of Kirkuk, which Peshmerga forces took in 2014 when Iraqi security forces collapsed in the face of an Islamic State onslaught. The Peshmerga deployment prevented Kirkuk's oilfields from falling into jihadist hands. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Catherine Evans and Mark Potter)
By Maher Chmaytelli and Mustafa Mahmoud
BAGHDAD/KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi government forces captured the major Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk on Monday, responding to a Kurdish referendum on independence with a bold lightning strike that transforms the balance of power in the country.
A convoy of armoured vehicles from Iraq's elite U.S.-trained Counter-Terrorism Force seized Kirkuk's provincial government headquarters less than a day after the operation began, a Reuters reporter in Kirkuk said.
Neither side gave a casualty toll for the operation. But an aid organisation working in Kirkuk said several Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and members of the Iraqi forces had been killed in an overnight clash south of Kirkuk - the only serious fighting reported.
As Iraqi forces advanced, Kurdish operators briefly shut some 350,000 barrels per day of oil output at two large Kirkuk fields, citing security concerns, oil ministry sources on both sides said. But production resumed shortly thereafter following an Iraqi threat to seize fields under Kurdish management if they did not do so, according to the sources.
It was not immediately clear whether or when the Iraqi government would seek to retake control of all Kirkuk oilfields, a vital source of revenue for the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
The short suspension in production helped push up world oil prices as the shutdown represented more than half of total Kurdish output.[O/R]
Fighting between Baghdad and the Kurds could open an entirely new front in Iraq's 14-year-old civil war and potentially draw in regional powers such as Turkey and Iran.
President Donald Trump said the United States would not take sides in the clash but expressed disappointment the two sides were in conflict.
The U.S. military said its commanders in Iraq were urging Iraqi and Kurdish forces to avoid escalation and played down reports of fighting.
"We support the peaceful exercise of joint administration by the central and regional governments, consistent with the Iraqi constitution, in all disputed areas," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
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Trump told reporters at the White House: "We don't like the fact that they're clashing. We're not taking sides."
"We've had for many years a very good relationship with the Kurds as you know and we've also been on the side of Iraq, even though we should have never been there in the first place," he said.
Washington arms and trains both Iraqi federal forces and the Peshmerga to fight Islamic State militants.
THOUSANDS OF KURDS FLEE
A dozen Iraqi armoured vehicles arrived at the provincial government headquarters in Kirkuk and took up positions nearby, alongside local police. They pulled down the Kurdish flag and left the Iraqi flag flying.
Thousands of Kurdish civilians fled the city of 1 million people for fear of reprisals. A Kurdish father of four who was driving out of Kirkuk towards the Kurdish regional capital Erbil to the north said: "We no longer feel safe. We hope to return to our home but right now we feel it's dangerous for us to stay."
Crowds of ethnic Turkmen who opposed Kurdish control of the city were celebrating. Some drove in convoys with Iraqi flags and fired shots in the air.
"This day should become a holiday, we're so happy to have gotten rid of Barzani's party," said a man celebrating on a motorbike, waving the blue-and-white flag of Iraq's Turkmen, referring to the Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani.
The Iraqi government considers the Sept. 25 Kurdish independence referendum illegal, especially as it was held not just in the autonomous KRG region but in Kirkuk and other adjacent areas that Kurdish Peshmerga forces occupied after driving out Islamic State militants in 2014.
The Peshmerga moved in after Iraqi government forces collapsed in the face of a rapid onslaught by Islamic State, preventing the jihadists from seizing the oilfields.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered the national flag hoisted over Kirkuk and other disputed areas.
Baghdad described its army's advance as largely unopposed, and urged the Peshmerga to cooperate in keeping the peace.
The Peshmerga said Baghdad would be made to pay "a heavy price" for triggering "war on the Kurdistan people".
MOVE AGAINST KURDISH SECESSION
The overnight advance was the most decisive step Baghdad has taken yet to block the independence bid of the Kurds, who have long governed an autonomous tract of northern Iraq and voted three weeks ago to secede.
Kirkuk, one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse cities in Iraq, is located just outside the autonomous Kurdish zone. Kurds consider it the heart of their homeland; they say it was cleansed of Kurds and settled with Arabs under former President Saddam Hussein to secure control of the oil.
U.S. Defense Department spokesman Colonel Robert Manning declined to speculate on whether Washington might cut off military aid and training to Iraqi forces in the event of a major conflict.
SECESSION OPPOSED BY NEIGHBOURS
The Kurdish secession bid was strongly opposed by neighbours Iran and Turkey. Washington, allied with the Kurds for decades, pleaded in vain for them to halt a vote that could break up Iraq.
There were signs of internal strife among the Kurds, who have been divided for decades into two main factions, the KDP of regional government leader Barzani and the PUK of his late rival Jalal Talabani.
Both parties control their own Peshmerga units. While Barzani's KDP strongly supported the independence referendum, some PUK figures were more circumspect.
Monday's Peshmerga statement accused a group within the PUK of "treason" for allegedly assisting Baghdad's advance. "We regret that some PUK officials helped in this plot," it said.
Talabani's widow, Hero, said the Iraqi operation was carried out with international consent and the PUK was not able to prevent it through talks. "This heroic city was facing an international plan," she said in a statement.
Although Iraqi officials portrayed the Kurds as retreating without a fight, Kurdish officials said Peshmerga had clashed with the "Popular Mobilisation" - Shi'ite Muslim forces trained and armed by Iran that operate alongside regular Iraqi troops.
Turkey, which had developed a good working relationship with the Iraqi Kurds and let the landlocked region export oil through its pipes, has swung behind Baghdad, furious at a secession move that might ignite similar demands from its own Kurds.
Turkey said it would close its airspace to KRG territory and work to hand control of the main border crossing into the region to the Iraqi central government.
(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Dmitry Zhdannikov in London, Phil Stewart in Washington, and Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Alistair Bell and James Dalgleish)
Dublin (AFP) - Ireland was hit by what officials called an "unprecedented storm" on Monday that left three people dead, more than 300,000 customers without power and shut down schools as well as government offices.
A police spokesman said one woman in her 50s was killed outside the village of Aglish, near the south coast, when a tree fell on her car. A female passenger in her 70s suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
One man died in an accident while he was clearing a fallen tree with a chainsaw near the town of Cahir, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) further inland.
And the third victim was a man killed on the roads by a falling tree north of Dundalk in the northeast, close to the border with Northern Ireland, police said in a statement.
Ophelia, the largest hurricane ever recorded so far east in the Atlantic Ocean and the furthest north since 1939, was downgraded to a storm before it hit the Irish coast but nonetheless wrought havoc.
"It will still however bring violent and destructive winds for a time," Met Eireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, said on Monday.
Flooding was also expected "due to either heavy thundery downpours or storm surges in coastal areas," the service said after issuing a red alert for the whole country.
Winds reached 191 kilometres (119 miles) per hour at Fastnet Rock, Ireland's southernmost point, while the strongest winds recorded onshore were 156 kph (97 mph) at the entrance to Cork Harbour in the southwest.
Seventeen millimetres of rain fell at Valentia on the southwest coast, including nine millimetres (third of an inch) in one hour.
The Electricity Supply Board said 330,000 customers were without power, due to more than 3,200 individual faults on the network.
- PM says stay indoors -
"We can predict that it will take a number of days to restore power to all customers. Five to 10 per cent of this number will be without power for up to 10 days," it said.
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Dublin Airport scrapped 180 flights while Cork Airport cancelled most flights in what it said was the worst storm seen in its 56-year history. Meanwhile several services to and from Shannon, the third-biggest airport, were also grounded.
Across the border in Northern Ireland, Belfast airport also saw extensive delays and cancellations.
Power cuts affected 18,000 customers in Northern Ireland, after power lines and poles came down due to strong winds and flying debris, supplier NIE Networks said.
"Stay indoors wherever you are until the storm has passed," Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said in comments to reporters.
"I don't want anyone to think that this is anything other than a national emergency and a red alert."
The Department of Education closed all schools, colleges and other education institutions on Monday due to the "unprecedented storm", with minister Richard Burton saying schools would remain closed on Tuesday.
Government offices were also shut.
Ireland's top football team Cork City were hit when their stadium roof collapsed, the day before they hoped to seal the league title at their Turners Cross ground.
The eye of the storm is forecast to track across Northern Ireland and then Scotland.
Though it will weaken as it goes, gusts are expected to reach 80 mph (129 kph) in the UK.
Britain's Met Office issued amber severe weather warnings for Northern Ireland, Wales, and southern Scotland, saying power cuts, transport disruption, flying debris and large waves were likely.
"This leads to the potential for injuries and danger to life," the national weather service said.
The fringes of the storm turned the hitherto sunny afternoon skies over London a murky shade of brown-orange, due to the southerly warm winds bringing dust from the Sahara Desert.
Ophelia came 30 years to the day after the Great Storm, which ravaged southern England in the early hours of October 16, 1987, leaving 18 people dead.
- Hurricane season -
Ophelia is the 15th named storm of the 2017 Atlantic season, which is expected to last until the end of November.
Three major hurricanes -- Harvey, Irma and Maria -- caused catastrophic damage in the Caribbean and the US Gulf Coast.
Ophelia was classed Category 3 on Saturday as it passed near Portugal's Azores islands, which means it packed winds of at least 178 kilometres per hour.
Though seven of the nine islands in the Azores were on high alert, the storm did not cause major damage.
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel on Monday approved permits for 31 settler homes in Hebron, the first such green light for the flashpoint West Bank city since 2002 and part of a major increase in settlement activity, an NGO said.
An Israeli committee approved construction permits for the 31 units, Anat Ben Nun of the Peace Now NGO told AFP, in a move harshly condemned by Palestinians.
Several hundred Israeli settlers live in the heart of Hebron under heavy military guard among some 200,000 Palestinians.
The approvals are part of nearly 4,000 settler home plans to be advanced in the occupied West Bank under a push to greatly boost settlement growth, an Israeli official has said.
Peace Now, which closely monitors settlement construction, said a planning council meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday is expected to have more than 2,000 units on the agenda.
The Hebron units are to be built on Shuhada Street, formerly an important market street leading to a holy site where the biblical Abraham is believed to have been buried.
The street is now largely closed off to Palestinians.
Peace Now said in a statement that the Hebron settlement represented "the occupation in its most ugly" form.
"In order to protect a small group of settlers, tens of thousands of Palestinians had been forced to move from their homes, and roads and shops had been closed," it said.
"The permits approved today would increase the number of settlers in Hebron by 20 percent, and they required significant legal acrobatics that might not stand the test of the High Court of Justice."
Jews living in Hebron describe the settlement homes in the city as an extension of a history of 4,000 years of Jewish presence there.
Settlement building in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem is considered illegal under international law.
It is also seen as a major obstacle to peace as the settlements are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.
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- 'The heart of Hebron' -
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition government leans heavily on settlers and their supporters to maintain its thin parliamentary majority.
Israel faced heavy criticism of settlement construction from US president Barack Obama's administration, but that has not been the case with his successor Donald Trump.
Israeli officials say a total of some 12,000 housing units will be given various stages of approval this year, four times the amount in 2016.
Hebron is holy to both Muslims and Jews, with Old Testament figures including Abraham believed to be buried there.
The 1994 massacre of 29 Muslim worshippers in Hebron by Israeli-American Baruch Goldstein led to an agreement three years later giving the Palestinian Authority control over 80 percent of the city.
The settlers and about 30,000 Palestinians living adjacent to them fall under Israeli military rule.
Last month, Israel gave the settlers there the authority to manage their own municipal affairs in what critics denounced as reminiscent of "apartheid".
The land where the new Hebron units are to be built was seized by Israel for military purposes in the 1980s, Peace Now said.
"Instead of expelling settlers and reopening the closed streets and shops, they are confiscating a very vital and important area that used to be the main bus station in the heart of Hebron," Palestinian activist Issa Amro, head of the Hebron-based Youth Against Settlements group, told AFP.
About 430,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.6 million Palestinians in the West Bank, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli air force attacked a Syrian anti-aircraft battery on Monday that Israel said had fired a missile at its planes while they were on a reconnaissance mission over neighboring Lebanon. No Israeli planes were hit, Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said. The counter-strike took place two hours later and "incapacitated" the anti-aircraft unit located 50 km (30 miles) east of Damascus, he said. "We know according to our intelligence it was a battery controlled by the Syrian regime and we hold the Syrian regime responsible for the fire," Conricus said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later issued a statement saying Israel would not hesitate to defend itself. "Today there was an attempt to harm our aircraft -- this is unacceptable to us. The air force acted quickly and accurately to destroy what needed to be destroyed," Netanyahu said. "Our policy is clear. Whoever tries to harm us, we will strike at him. We will continue to act in the region as is required in order to defend Israel." But the Syrian army said it struck an Israeli warplane that had breached its air space at the Syria-Lebanon border. "The Israeli enemy this morning violated our air space... Our air defense mediums confronted it, hit one of its planes directly and forced it to flee," the Syrian military statement said. "GRAVE CONSEQUENCES" Over two hours later, Israel launched several missiles that hit a military position in the Damascus countryside and only caused material damage, it said. Syria's army warned Israel against the "grave consequences of repeated aggressive attempts". Syria and Israel, while old enemies, have rarely traded blows directly since a 1974 ceasefire ended their last conventional war. Monday's incident was additionally unusual given its publication by Israel, which rarely gives details on its air force activities over Lebanon and Syria to foil suspected arms transfers to Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters. Such missions in Syria have increased dramatically during the country's six-and-a-half-year-old civil war, Israeli officials say. All efforts, they say, are made to avoid accidental clashes with Russian forces helping Damascus beat back insurgents. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu began a visit to Israel later on Monday but did not mention the air strike during public remarks at the start of a meeting in Tel Aviv with his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman. "I would like to talk about the things related to Syria. The operation there is close to the end. There are several problems which require urgent solution and the prospects of further development of the situation in Syria require discussion," Shoigu said. Conricus said the Israeli military had informed Russia of its Syria strike "in real time or immediately before" it took place, and would brief Shoigu. The Lebanese army says Israeli aircraft regularly violate Lebanon's air space. Conricus said a Syrian attack on Israeli air force planes over Lebanon was unprecedented. Syrian anti-aircraft missiles were launched at Israeli warplanes over Syria in March. They were unscathed but one of the missiles, on its descent, was intercepted by Israel's Arrow air defense system. According to Conricus, the Syrian battery struck on Monday had carried out the launch against the Israeli planes in March. (Additional reporting by Ellen Francis in Beirut, writing by Dan Williams, Miriam Berger and Ori Lewis,; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Gareth Jones)
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's military carried out an air strike on an anti-aircraft battery in Syria on Monday after it fired at its planes, while vowing it sought no further escalation in the war-torn country.
Israeli planes were on what the military described as a "routine reconnaissance mission" over neighbouring Lebanon when an anti-aircraft missile was fired in their direction, a military spokesman said.
The planes returned safely, according to the spokesman, adding it believed the anti-aircraft battery in Syria was destroyed.
Syria's military said Israel's air force had violated the country's air space, causing it to respond with its air defences.
It claimed one of the Israeli planes was hit, "forcing it to flee".
Israel then "launched several missiles... on one of our military positions in the Damascus region, causing only material damage," Syrian state television quoted the military as saying.
Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists: "We hold the Syrian regime responsible for the anti-aircraft fire and any attack originating from Syria."
Syria's military, for its part, said it "warns against the dangerous consequences of repeated attempts at aggression by Israel".
Conricus did not specify how many Israeli planes were involved in the mission over Lebanon, but said they were "in proximity to the Syrian border".
The battery targeted was located some 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of Damascus, he said.
It was believed to be the first time since Syria's civil war began in 2011 that Israeli planes were targeted while in Lebanese airspace, said Conricus.
However, he said Israel had "no intention to destabilise the situation".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said: "We will continue to act in the region when it is required to ensure Israel's security...
"Our policy is clear: Those who wish to attack us will be attacked by us."
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- Russian visit -
Israel has sought to avoid becoming more directly involved in the six-year civil war in Syria, though it acknowledges carrying out dozens of air strikes to stop what it calls advanced arms deliveries to Hezbollah.
The Lebanese Shiite group, against which Israel fought a devastating 2006 war, is militarily backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the conflict.
In March, Israeli warplanes struck several targets in Syria, drawing retaliatory missile fire, in the most serious incident between the two countries since the start of the war.
At the time, Netanyahu said the air strikes targeted weapons bound for Hezbollah.
Syria's military had said it launched anti-aircraft missiles at the aircraft, claiming it had downed an Israeli plane and hit another as they carried out pre-dawn strikes near the desert city of Palmyra.
Israel denied any of its aircraft was hit.
During the sortie, Israel fired its Arrow interceptor to take out what was believed to have been a Russian-made SA 5 missile.
In the aftermath, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to destroy Syrian air defence systems "without the slightest hesitation" if they fired on Israeli planes in future.
Monday's strike came ahead of the start of a visit to Israel later the same day by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu whose country is a key backer of the Assad regime and carries out frequent air strikes.
Russia and Israel have established a hotline to avoid accidental clashes in Syria.
"The Russians were notified in real time," Conricus said of the strike.
Shoigu and Lieberman were expected to discuss Syria and Iran's presence there.
Iran, Israel's main enemy, also backs Assad and Israel is concerned that Tehran will establish a permanent military presence along its border.
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James Corden is under fire after delivering number of jokes about Harvey Weinstein while hosting the amfAR Gala, an AIDS research benefit, in Los Angeles on Friday. Yep. He made rape jokes at an AIDS benefit.
"This is a beautiful room. Its a beautiful night here in L.A. So beautiful, Harvey Weinstein has already asked tonight up to his hotel to give him a massage," Corden said.
SEE ALSO: Lin-Manuel Miranda tweets out about Harvey Weinstein allegations
Some accusing Weinstein of abuse claimed that he asked them to give him a massage.
"It has been weird this week though, watching Harvey Weinstein in hot water. Ask any of the women who watched him take a bath," said Corden.
Corden also made reference to an accusation that Weinstein masturbated into a potted plant in front of journalist Lauren Sivan.
"Harvey Weinstein wanted to come tonight, but sadly hell settle for whatever potted plant is closest,"Corden joked.
The jokes were met with criticism online. Actor Rose McGowan slammed Corden early Sunday morning, calling him a "motherfucking piglet" on Twitter.
YOU MOTHERFUCKING PIGLET https://t.co/UU9LitO9zJ rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) October 15, 2017
McGowan has been one of the most vocal figures against sexual abuse in Hollywood after allegations against big shot producer Harvey Weinstein broke earlier this month. Since then, multiple woman have come forward to allege abuse, and an audio recording from the NYPD was made public.
This is quite shameful. .@JKCorden -what utter disrespect you show to all those women.
Jokes perpetuate widespread denial of what happened. https://t.co/LWVoJLSO60 Dr Lauren Gavaghan (@DancingTheMind) October 15, 2017
James Corden has benefitted from, and appears to have a friendship with, Weinstein. He chose to make jokes instead of publicly condemn him. Rossalyn Warren (@RossalynWarren) October 15, 2017
I know its a joke but this and Cordens dreary Weinstein quips are yet more proof that men really do NOT fucking get it at all. Justin Myers (@theguyliner) October 15, 2017
Corden has been friendly with Weinstein in the past, making the jokes seem even worse. Instead of speaking out against Weinstein, this makes it look like Corden is making light of the whole thing.
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In 2012, Corden and Weinstein were captured posing for photos at the GQ Men of the Year Awards. In 2013, the late night host starred Weinstein's film One Chance. In an interview before the release of the film, Weinstein claimed he sought out James for the role.
"I really wouldn't make the movie without him. There were much more famous Americans willing to take the movie, but I just wanted to work with James," Weinstein said at the time.
Corden addressed the backlash to his amfAR jokes in a pair of contrite tweets on Sunday afternoon.
To be clear, sexual assault is no laughing matter. I was not trying to make light of Harveys inexcusable behavior, (1/2) James Corden (@JKCorden) October 15, 2017
but to shame him, the abuser, not his victims. I am truly sorry for anyone offended, that was never my intention. (2/2) James Corden (@JKCorden) October 15, 2017
UPDATED Oct. 15 at 3:47 p.m. ET with Corden's response to the outcry over his Harvey Weinstein jokes.
By Joseph Akwiri
MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who withdrew from a presidential election re-run set for Oct. 26 saying it should only take place once wide-ranging reforms are undertaken, urged his supporters on Sunday to hold protests.
Authorities have banned protests in central Nairobi and other hotspots in a bid to keep a lid on mounting political turmoil in the build-up to the repeat vote, in which Odinga had been set to challenge President Uhuru Kenyatta once again.
The Supreme Court nullified Kenyatta's victory in the original election on Aug. 8, citing procedural irregularities.
On Friday, Odinga said his withdrawal meant the poll had been "cancelled" and that there should be fresh nominations for a new vote.
"Come out in large numbers tomorrow like you have done today and fear no-one. This is your country and you have the right to protest," he told a crowd in the coastal city of Mombasa.
The election board has said the vote will go ahead, with Kenyatta facing six other candidates, none of whom polled more than 1 percent in August.
During a trip to London last week, Odinga told Reuters that he might consider returning to the Supreme Court for clarification on whether the Oct. 26 poll was legal.
"I went to tell our friends in London the truth of what was happening here. Jubilee should know that we are not interested in a coalition government," he said, referring to Kenyatta's party.
Despite the ban, protests have taken place in the East African country -- a regional and trade gateway which is the region's richest economy and an important Western ally in the fight against militant Islamists.
On Friday, Kenyan police shot dead two people and wounded a third when a crowd tried to storm a police station in the town of Bondo in the southwest county of Siaya during a rally.
Police also used teargas to break up small demonstrations in Kenya's three main cities -- Kisumu, the capital and the port of Mombasa -- the same day, defying the ban on rallies in city centres. Hospital authorities said 20 people were injured in Kisumu, an opposition stronghold.
"I am ready to die for change in Kenya," James Orengo, an opposition senator and lawyer who led Odinga's successful petition at the Supreme Court, told the crowd in Mombasa, which numbered in the thousands.
(Writing by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Caracas (AFP) - The United States condemned closely watched regional elections in Venezuela as neither free nor fair Monday, as European countries weighed imposing sanctions, leaving President Nicolas Maduro increasingly isolated after declaring a landslide win.
Maduro's opponents cried foul after official results said his socialist party won governorships in 17 of the troubled oil producer's 23 states in Sunday's elections, defying opinion polls.
Experts said Venezuela's punishing political and economic crisis will only deepen. But it is unclear what moves are now open to the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), which rejected any talks with the government without a full recount.
Washington -- which has imposed sanctions on Maduro and his inner circle over what it calls Venezuela's slide into dictatorship -- said the lack of outside observers, last-minute changes to polling station locations and other irregularities meant the vote was not credible.
"We condemn the lack of free and fair elections yesterday in Venezuela. The voice of the Venezuelan people was not heard," said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.
The European Union's chief diplomat, Federica Mogherini, called the results "surprising" and said it was necessary to "find out what really happened."
France said it was "worried" about the "serious irregularities" reported by the opposition, while Spain said the EU had renewed discussions on possible sanctions.
- 'Going to get ugly' -
The results were a crushing blow for the MUD, which had characterized the elections as a referendum on Maduro after months of deadly street protests earlier this year failed to unseat him.
The MUD took five states, with one still undecided. But opinion polls had put it ahead in as many as 18.
"We've asked our candidates to plan to take to the streets in demand of a full recount," said opposition campaign chief Gerardo Blyde.
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The MUD ruled out further talks on ending the country's crisis without a recount.
"We will not take part in any exploratory talks or negotiations unless (the authorities) agree to a recount," said MUD coordinator Angel Oropeza.
But the fractious coalition had no clear strategy to deal with its surprise defeat.
In the weeks leading up to the vote, there had been something of a truce in Venezuela, after months of violent protests that left some 125 people dead from April to July.
Now, the question is what comes next for the troubled country, which is in the grips of a punishing recession marked by food and medicine shortages.
"We are entering a very delicate situation, one that presages more confrontation," political analyst Luis Salamanca told AFP.
Whatever is coming, it "won't be good," said 47-year-old public employee Atacho Stalin.
"This is going to get ugly. I think we're in for more protests," he said.
Others were unsure.
"Taking to the streets got us nothing," said Blanca, 33, a disillusioned protest veteran.
- Inaugural boycott looms -
International powers accuse Maduro of dismantling democracy by taking over state institutions in the wake of an economic collapse caused by a fall in the price of oil, its main source of revenue.
Maduro and his allies held 20 outgoing governorships, but had been widely expected to lose many more.
Sunday's elections were the first contested by the opposition since a legislative vote in 2015 that gave it an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly.
The MUD has denounced Maduro's moves to tighten his grip on power since then.
He has formed a Constituent Assembly packed with his own allies and wrested legislative power away from the National Assembly.
The all-powerful Constituent Assembly will swear in the incoming governors on Tuesday. The opposition insisted its governors would not be sworn in before the assembly, which it considers illegitimate.
Political analyst Diego Moya-Ocampos said more international sanctions were now in store, including by the EU, and "greater isolation."
Maduro "will now depend more on China and Russia," he said.
China praised the vote as "calm," and leftist regional allies Bolivia and Cuba congratulated Maduro on what Cuban President Raul Castro called "another great lesson in peace and democracy."
But the head of the Organization of American States, bitter Maduro critic Luis Almagro, said the vote "cannot be recognized."
Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya arrived at a June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. armed with a set of talking points arguing American officials were hoodwinked into slapping human rights sanctions on Russia in 2012 and that efforts to expand those measures would hurt relations between Washington and Moscow.
According to her talking points, obtained by Foreign Policy, Veselnitskaya made the case that the American businessman Bill Browder perpetrated a massive scheme of tax fraud against the Russian state and then launched a global campaign claiming that his companies had in fact been defrauded by Russian officials and that they had killed the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in order to cover it up.
That June 2016 meeting has landed in the crosshairs of investigators examining whether aides to Donald Trump conspired with Kremlin operatives in their alleged effort to boost the real estate moguls campaign by hacking into Democratic Party computer systems and leaking stolen documents online.
White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended the meeting with the Kremlin-connected lawyer Veselnitskaya, who brought with her a Russian-American lobbyist, Rinat Akhmetshin, with ties to Russian intelligence. The meeting was organized with the help of Rob Goldstone, a British publicist, who emailed Trump Jr. ahead of the gathering to tell him that his Russian contacts were in possession of sensitive information supplied by the Kremlin on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
If its what you say I love it, Trump Jr. wrote back.
Trumps critics have seized on the meeting as evidence that his lieutenants conspired with Russian operatives, but Veselnitskayas talking points provide scant mention of Clinton or her rivals. An English-language copy of the memo was provided to FP by News Front, a pro-Russian news organization based in Crimea, which has touted exclusive access to Veselnitskaya.
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In a phone interview with FP, Veselnitskaya confirmed that the document was an English-language translation she had prepared to take to the meeting. I prepared it not only for the meeting with Trump but for anyone I met in the United States to discuss these issues, she said.
Veselnitskaya said when it became clear the meeting wasnt what Trump Jr. expected, the document never changed hands.
The memos existence was previously reported by CNN, which quoted from a section of it. FP is publishing it in full.
A lawyer for Trump Jr. did not respond to questions from FP.
Only one line of the memo refers to Clinton, and even that ties back to Veselnitskayas primary obsession, Browder. According to Veselnitskayas talking points, Browders work in Russia was bankrolled by Ziff Brothers Investments, an American firm that she describes as having deep ties to Democrats. It cannot be ruled out that they also financed [the] Hillary Clinton campaign, she writes in the document.
Though the meeting was set up under the pretense of providing damaging information on Trumps Democratic rival, the memos passing reference to Clinton appears to demonstrate just how limited Veselnitskayas interest was in Clinton.
When contacted by FP, Michael Freitag, a spokesman for Ziff Brothers Investments, declined to comment on the allegations in the memo.
Veselnitskayas memo describes her message to Trump campaign officials as firmly focused on attacking Browder, and advocating for the repeal of the Magnitsky Act, which sanctions Russian officials accused of humans rights violations. But Trump Jr.s explanation of the meeting shifted once it was made public.
After the gathering was revealed, according to the Washington Post, President Trump personally dictated a statement in his sons name, saying the meeting primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children an issue that Veselnitskayas talking points mention only briefly. (The adoption of Russian children by Americans was banned in response to the passage of the Magnitsky Act in 2012.)
The statement allegedly dictated by the president has become a centerpiece of the probe into whether Trump and those around him attempted to obstruct the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
According to Scott Balber, a lawyer for the Russian real estate mogul Aras Agalarov and his son, Emin, who helped arrange the meeting, Veselnitskayas message became muddled as it was passed along. Veselnitskaya passed her talking points to Yuri Chaika, Russias prosecutor general, Balber said, but as that information passed to Goldstone through the Agalarovs, the message became that Veselnitskaya had information from the Russian government.
And that was the message Goldstone emailed to Trump Jr. that the material came from the Russian government.
Theres a bit of a game of telephone here, Balber said.
Goldstone did not answer emailed questions from FP.
When Trump Jr. and Veselnitskaya met in June 2016, each appeared to think the meeting was about something different. Trump Jr. thought he was getting damaging information on Clinton, possibly from the Russian government, and Veselnitskaya believed she was being given an opportunity to make her case for the repeal of the Magnitsky Act.
At the time of the meeting, pending legislation dubbed the Global Magnitsky Act and since signed into law would expand the presidents authority to slap sanctions on government officials responsible for human rights abuses around the world. According to her memo, this legislation was being pushed in Congress to prevent the new Administration from revising the interstate relations between the United States and Russia.
Veselnitskayas claims about Browder have not gained much traction in the United States, where officials have described the seizure of his investment firm Hermitage Capital Management as one of the better-documented cases of Russian kleptocracy. Browder alleges $230 million was funneled from his firm to Russian bureaucrats.
Thanks to Browders advocacy, Magnitsky emerged as a cause celebre for critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and a sweeping 2012 sanctions bill bears the lawyers name. That measure, the so-called Magnitsky Act, allows American officials to seize assets belonging to Russian officials implicated in human rights abuses and bars their entry into the United States.
Browder did not respond to questions about the memo, but in a July interview with FP the American financier said Veselnitskayas June 2016 meeting was one of fifteen different angles used by the Kremlin to get to Trump.
They wanted the Magnitsky Act repealed, and who knows what they got up to in order to get this carried out, Browder added.
Veselnitskaya has orchestrated a yearslong lobbying campaign against the Magnitsky Act, and former American intelligence officials argue that she could not have done so without at least tacit approval from the Kremlin.
But if Veselnitskaya was dispatched to New York to suss out whether Trump operatives were receptive to help from the Kremlin, she would arguably have been an odd choice. Veselnitskaya remains far from Putins inner circle and does not speak English.
While Trump Jr.s description of the meeting has evolved, Veselnitskayas version has been relatively consistent. She has portrayed her meetings with Trump supporters and American politicians, which included Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, as opportunities to lobby them on the Magnitsky Act, not elections.
In an email, she disputed what she believes is the nefarious characterization of those meetings in the press, including in FP. Even her meeting with Rohrabacher, a California Republican who has advocated for closer Russian relations, was rather by chance, she wrote in an email to FP.
Neither the meeting with Donald Trump Jr., nor with anybody else in the US had [anything] to do with the elections, she wrote.
Amie Ferris-Rotman and Sharon Weinberger contributed reporting to this article.
Vice President Mike Pence listens as President Trump speaks to members of the media at the White House in July. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Last week at the Values Voter Summit, an annual gathering of Christian conservatives in Washington, D.C., President Trump pledged to stop all attacks on Judeo-Christian values.
But behind closed doors, Trump has been known to mock Vice President Mike Pences evangelical values, the New Yorker magazine reports in a lengthy profile of Pence published Monday. Pences office later rejected many of the articles claims as untrue and offensive.
A Trump campaign staffer told the magazine that after people met with Pence, Trump would ask them, Did Mike make you pray? (Since arriving at the White House, Pence has been hosting a regular Bible study group for members of Trumps Cabinet.)
Trump also taunted Pence about his views on abortion and homosexuality, according to the magazine:
During a meeting with a legal scholar, Trump belittled Pences determination to overturn Roe v. Wade. The legal scholar had said that, if the Supreme Court did so, many states would likely legalize abortion on their own. You see? Trump asked Pence. Youve wasted all this time and energy on it, and its not going to end abortion anyway. When the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump motioned toward Pence and joked, Dont ask that guy he wants to hang them all!
The profile also recounts some of the behind-the-scenes drama that preceded Trumps selection of Pence to be his running mate.
Paul Manafort, who was Trumps campaign chairman at that point, arranged for Trump to meet Pence, and urged Trump to pick him. Pence was seen as a bridge to Christian conservatives, an asset in the Midwest, and a connection to the powerful Koch network. Kellyanne Conway, who had done polling work for the Kochs, pushed for Pence, too, as did Stephen Bannon Still, Trump remained wary. According to a former campaign aide, he was disapproving when he learned how little money Pence had. In 2004, the oil firm that Pences father had partly owned had filed for bankruptcy. Mike Pences shares of the companys stock, which he had valued at up to a quarter of a million dollars, became worthless. In 2016, according to a campaign-finance disclosure form, Pence had one bank account, which held less than fifteen thousand dollars.
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Trump was reportedly torn between Pence and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. And according to the magazine, Trump came closer to picking Christie than is generally known:
At dawn on July 13th, Ivanka and Don, Jr., flew to Indianapolis to join their father for breakfast with the Pences at the governors mansion. The Times soon reported that Trump had asked Pence if he would accept the job, and that Pence had responded, In a heartbeat. But the next night, according to someone familiar with the details, Trump called Christie and said, Ive got a question for you. Are you ready? Ready for what? Christie responded. Ready to do this with me, Trump said. Are you offering? Christie said. Im asking you but youve got to make sure youre ready, Trump said. Im as tough as they come, Christie said. O.K., Trump said. Im making the decision tomorrow. Stay by your phone.
But Christie was left hanging for the next three days. He suspected that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner had intervened and turned Trump against him, because years earlier, as a U.S. Attorney, he had prosecuted Kushners father for tax fraud and other crimes. Conway told me that this theory was wrong, but acknowledged, It truly was a tiealmost a jump ball.
Lingering concerns over Christies role in the Bridgegate scandal broke the tie, the magazine said. That, and Pence also looked the part.
Theyre telling me I have to pick him, Trump purportedly explained to Christie before announcing the Pence pick. Its central casting. He looks like a Vice-President.
Reached for comment, Pence spokeswoman Alyssa Farah told Yahoo News: Articles like this are why the American people have lost so much faith in the press. The New Yorker piece is filled with unsubstantiated, unsourced claims that are untrue and offensive.
Trump speaks to reporters with Pence at his side in August. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Read more from Yahoo News:
CAIRO (Reuters) - Three policemen, one security guard and a civilian were killed and a number of other people injured in an attack by militants in Egypt's North Sinai province on Monday, the interior ministry said. The militants attacked a security post securing a National Bank of Egypt branch in Arish, the provincial capital, with explosives and guns, a statement said. Egypt is fighting an insurgency against militants affiliated with Islamic State in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula where hundreds of security forces have been killed since 2013. Attacks on security forces have been common since Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was ousted in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. The militants raided the bank branch and stole an amount that had yet to be valued, the statement said. Forces were searching the area for the perpetrators and had defused some explosives. Security sources told Reuters that three Egyptian policemen, one security guard and three civilians were killed and 22 others were injured in the attack. Witnesses said armed militants in five cars fired on security forces near a church and the NBE branch before fleeing the scene. "The militants fired shots randomly in the street as if they were celebrating, with some of them raising their black flags (of Islamic State). They roamed the streets for about 20 minutes then disappeared," said Alaa Lotfy, a shop owner in the area who witnessed the clashes. At least 24 militants and six soldiers were killed on Sunday in attacks on military outposts in North Sinai. (Reporting by Omar Fahmy and Ahmed Mohamed Hassan; Writing by Arwa Gaballa; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
The U.S. military will practice evacuating noncombatant Americans out of South Korea as tensions escalate over Pyongyangs nuclear and missile programs.
The annual drills, which will take place on Oct 23-27, aims to prepare service members and their families to respond to a wide range of crisis management events such as noncombatant evacuation and natural or man-made disasters, the U.S. military said in a statement Monday.
The U.S. military stressed in the statement that the exercise was a routinely scheduled drill and was not tied to current events.
Although not directly tied to current geopolitical events, our forces must be ready in all areas, General Vincent K. Brooks, commander of United States Forces Korea, said. This training is as important to readiness as our other routine events such as tank gunnery and fighter wing exercises.
South Korea has repeatedly warned against a military solution to North Koreas rising belligerence, fearing that any escalation could lead to a full-blown war. But U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have been trading insults and threats over the past few months. Trump threatened to totally destroy North Korea during a September speech to the United Nations, while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told CNN Sunday that diplomatic efforts would continue until the first bomb drops.
Mondays announcement comes as the U.S. and South Korea start a 10-day joint naval exercise in the waters on the east and west of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea sees military drills of this sort as rehearsals for invasion and its officials yet again threatened to launch missiles around the waters of Guam.
BERLIN Daimler AG is recalling more than 1 million Mercedes-Benz cars and sport utility vehicles worldwide to address potential unintended airbag deployments, the German automaker said on Monday.
The safety recall covers 495,000 vehicles in the United States, 400,000 in Britain, 76,000 in Canada and a few hundred thousand in Germany, company officials said. The German automaker did not immediately have a complete worldwide total.
An electrostatic discharge, coupled with a broken clock spring and insufficient grounding of steering components, can lead to inadvertent deployment of the driver-side front airbag in vehicles subject to the recall, the company said.
As part of the fix, it said dealers would add new grounding to the steering components.
A Mercedes-Benz spokeswoman in the United States said there had been "a handful of instances where drivers suffered minor abrasions or bruises" due to the airbag problem.
No deaths have been reported, and the issue is not related to the massive recall of Takata airbag inflators worldwide.
The recalls covers some 2012-2018 model year A, B, C, and E-Class models and CLA, GLA and GLC vehicles.
Reporting by Andreas Cremer and David Shepardson
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Harvey Weinstein at the 89th Academy Awards in 2017 - REUTERS
The Scotland Yard inquiry into Harvey Weinstein intensified on Sunday with detectives now investigating a further four allegations of rape and sexual assault against the disgraced Hollywood producer.
The latest investigations relate to allegations of assault in London in 1992, 2010, 2011 and 2015.
The announcement came after two more women accused Weinstein of raping them.
Lysette Anthony, the British actress, said he had attacked her in her London home in the late Eighties. A second, unidentified woman said she was raped in 1992.
Weinstein, 65, has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
More than two dozen women, including Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, have come forward with allegations of unwanted advances, lewd behaviour or sexual assault.
The scandal has exposed an industry in which young women, starting out in their careers, have had little choice but to keep quiet about harassment.
On Saturday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists said its board had voted well in excess of the required two thirds majority to expel Weinstein.
The era of wilful ignorance and shameful complicity in sexually predatory behaviour and workplace harassment in our industry is over, it said as it effectively banned from Hollywood a man whose productions garnered more than 300 Oscar nominations and 81 wins.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday said he has begun the process of revoking Weinstein's Legion of Honor award.
Police in New York have asked anyone with a complaint to come forward, and detectives in London confirmed they were looking into a total of five allegations made by three complainants.
Lysette Anthony has reported an alleged attack to police
A Met spokesman said: Officers from the Mets Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command are investigating the allegations. There has been no arrest at this stage.
Anthony, who stars in the television soap Hollyoaks, told The Sunday Times she had told the Metropolitan Police about an attack in the Eighties.
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It happened after she had got to know the producer when she starred in the 1982 film Krull.
She said it was a pathetic, revolting attack that had left her disgusted and embarrassed.
More than two dozen women have levelled allegations at Weinstein Credit: EPA
On Wednesday Anthony tweeted that she had just reported a historical crime, adding feel sick so sad.
A second woman told the Mail On Sunday she was raped by Weinstein in 1992 when she was working at his film company offices in West London.
The woman, who described how she wore old clothes and chewed raw garlic to keep Weinstein away, said she had only confided in her husband about the attack within the past few days.
Even after all these years, I can still wake up screaming, she said. I wanted the opportunity to speak out, but I just couldnt see how.
Woody Allen with Weinstein Credit: Getty Images
Meanwhile, Woody Allen said he felt sad for Weinstein as well as the women who suffered from his attentions.
The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved, he told the BBC. Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up.
Theres no winners in that, its just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that."
President Donald Trump crossed a line last week and finally went rogue, said Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). She blasted him for taking a blowtorch to health care, equal protection for women and the Iran nuclear deal.
This week, the week of Friday the 13th, is the week that President Trump went rogue, Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, said in an interview Sunday on ABCs This Week. He went rogue on womens health in particular, the Affordable Care Act, the Iran decision that he made. And he continues his war on the middle class with his unfair tax plan.
Pelosi focused her remarks on Obamacare, Trump jettisoned the Obama administration mandate requiring employers to provide birth control coverage in workers health insurance plans. He issued a new rule that allows employers to refuse to do so on religious or moral grounds.
On Thursday, Trump announced he was ending federal subsidies to insurers serving the lowest-income Americans on Obamacare insurance exchanges. Almost 6 million people qualified for the subsidies when they enrolled this year, according to government data. Trump also weakened requirements that insurance plans cover pre-existing conditions and essentials like maternity care, and opened the door for insurance companies to sell plans across state lines. The changes are likely to roil the market with major impacts on costs and benefits.
Its going to hurt kids. Its going to hurt families. Its going to hurt individuals. Its going to hurt people with mental health issues. Its going to hurt veterans, said Pelosi. Its going to hurt everybody.
The changes in Obamacare, which face court challenges, appeared to be in part an attempt by Trump to force Congress including Democrats to succumb to his demands to scuttle the Affordable Care Act or drastically pare it down. Trump tweeted that Dems must get smart and deal!
Money pouring into Insurance Companies profits, under the guise of ObamaCare, is over. They have made a fortune.
Dems must get smart & deal! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2017
Asked if Democrats were ready to negotiate with Trump, Pelosi responded: I think were a little far down the road for that. Trump says repeal and replace, Pelosi said. Where is the replace? We havent seen anything.
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She slammed the wholesale chaos that hes inflicting on the system and said Trump either doesnt know the havoc hes wreaking or he doesnt care.
What hes doing is hurting the American people, she added. This isnt about policy or politics. Its about the American people.
Trumps former White House strategist Steve Bannon said Saturday that Trump cut Obamacare subsidies to deliberately destroy the health care program.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Berlin (AFP) - A German court on Monday sentenced an 88-year-old "Nazi grandma" to six months in jail, the fifth in a string of similar convictions for the repeat Holocaust denier.
Ursula Haverbeck has often denied the mass murder of millions of Jews by the Nazis, which constitutes incitement of racial hatred under German law.
And although she has been convicted on several occasions, she has not served any jail time, as the cases are all still under appeal.
During a public event at the end of January, Haverbeck repeated her claims, saying it was "not true" that there were gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp.
She also disputed the fact that 1.1 million people were killed at the concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
During her trial, Haverbeck argued that she was only quoting from a book that she was presenting at the event.
She also filed an immediate appeal against Monday's ruling.
Dubbed the "Nazi grandma" by German media, Haverbeck is a notorious extremist who was once chairwoman of a far-right training centre shut down in 2008 for spreading Nazi propaganda.
She had also appeared on television to declare that "the Holocaust is the biggest and most sustainable lie in history".
A court spokeswoman said that Haverbeck would only be imprisoned if an appeal fails and if she is deemed fit to serve time in prison.
Baghdad (AFP) - Nearly 700,000 Iraqis from the former jihadist stronghold of Mosul and nearby areas are still displaced despite the city's recapture in July, the Norwegian Refugee Council said Sunday.
"One year since the start of the battle to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group (IS), some 673,000 Iraqis from the city and its surroundings remain displaced and unable to go back to their destroyed neighbourhoods," it said.
"More than half of them may have lost their official civil documents -- from birth certificates to property deeds -- which will make rebuilding their lives even harder," added the humanitarian group, which operates in Iraq.
Mosul was seized by the jihadists in 2014 during an offensive that saw them take control of large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
The nine-month offensive to recapture Iraq's second city left many neighbourhoods in ruins.
"The battle of Mosul is over, but for hundreds of thousands who fled the city, their suffering and despair continues," said the NRC's Iraq country director Heidi Diedrich.
"People we work with are still missing some of the most basic necessities and have no idea if they will ever be able to go back to their homes."
She called on the international community "to stand in solidarity" with the displaced Iraqis and for the government to ensure their rights "are at the forefront" of reconstruction efforts.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus ruling government is attempting to pass a law that would make sitting prime ministers immune from some forms of criminal investigation.
Although the final wording and list of crimes in the legislation are still in flux, the basics of the bill are that a head of government would be allowed to serve out his or her term before police could look into whether the prime minister broke the law. A committee of Cabinet ministers will review the bill this week before deciding whether to advance it to Parliament.
If it passes, however, the immunity bill would not immediately shield Netanyahu from the many corruption probes that have been circling his administration for months. In its current form, the legislation would not apply to investigations that are already open, although Israels Haaretz reports that calling for new elections may provide Netanyahu a loophole.
The pressure on Netanyahu has increased in recent months as authorities have ramped up their investigations, which included the announcement of fraud charges against his wife, Sara, in early September. She is accused of misusing $100,000 in public funds.
The investigations heated up in August, when Netanyahus former chief of staff Ari Harow turned states witness in order to avoid jail time in his own fraud case.
Harow is thought to be a witness in one of the two major corruption investigations into Netanyahus personal dealings. In the case known as File 1000, police are looking into whether the prime minister and his family improperly accepted lavish gifts from billionaire backers.
The other major case, File 2000, concerns whether Netanyahu attempted to negotiate with the owner of one of Israels largest newspapers to gain positive media coverage. In exchange for the favorable press, he allegedly offered to damage a rival publication.
Minister of Parliament David Amsalem, from Netanyahus Likud party, first proposed the bill last year but denied it was related to any of the investigations of the prime minister. In January, Israels justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, said she backed the bill.
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The Ministerial Committee for Legislation will debate the immunity bill on Sunday, after which its chances of actually passing will become clearer. Past attempts at immunity bills for prime ministers have been voted down, including one while Ehud Olmert was prime minister.
Olmert was found guilty of fraud and bribery after leaving office. He was released from prison in July after serving 16 months of a 27-month sentence.
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Paris (AFP) - "Truly a eureka moment", "Everything I ever hoped for", "A dream come true" -- Normally restrained scientists reached for the stars Monday to describe the feelings that accompany a "once-in-a-lifetime" event.
The trigger for this meteor shower of superlatives was the smash-up of two unimaginably dense neutron stars 130 million years ago, when T-rex still lorded over our planet.
Evidence of this cosmic clash hurtled through space and reached Earth on August 17 at exactly 12:41 GMT, setting in motion a secret, sleepless, weeks-long blitzkrieg of star-gazing and number-crunching involving hundreds of telescopes and thousands of astronomers and astrophysicists around the world.
It was as if a dormant network of super-spies simultaneously sprung into action.
The stellar smash-up made itself known in two ways: it created ripples called gravitational waves in Einstein's time-space continuum, and lit up the entire electromagnetic spectrum of light, from gamma rays to radio waves.
Scientists had detected gravitational waves four times before, a feat acknowledged with a Nobel Physics Prize earlier this month.
But each of those events, generated by the collision of black holes, lasted just a few seconds, and remained invisible to Earth- and space-based telescopes.
The neutron star collision was different.
It generated gravitational waves -- picked up by two US-based observatories known as LIGO, and another one in Italy called Virgo -- that lasted an astounding 100 seconds. Less than two seconds later, a NASA satellite recorded a burst of gamma rays.
- A true 'eureka' moment -
This set off a mad dash to locate what was almost certainly the single source for both.
"It is the first time that we've observed a cataclysmic astrophysical event in both gravitational and electromagnetic waves," said LIGO executive director David Reitze, a professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena
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Initial calculations had narrowed the zone to a patch of sky in the southern hemisphere spanning five or six galaxies, but frustrated astronomers had to wait for nightfall to continue the search.
Finally, at around 2200 GMT, a telescope array in the northern desert of Chile nailed it: the stellar merger had taken place in a galaxy known as NGC 4993.
Stephen Smartt, who led observations for the European Space Observatory's New Technology Telescope, was gobsmacked when the spectrum lit up his screens. "I had never seen anything like it," he recalled.
Scientists everywhere were stunned.
"This event was truly a eureka moment," said Bangalore Sathyaprakash, head of the Gravitational Physics Group at Cardiff University. "The 12 hours that followed are inarguably the most exciting of my scientific life."
"There are rare occasions when a scientist has the chance to witness a new era at its beginning -- this is one such time," said Elena Pian, an astronomer at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome.
LIGO-affiliated astronomers at Caltech had spent decades preparing for the off chance -- calculated at 80,000-to-one odds -- of witnessing a neutron star merger.
- Don't tell your friends -
"On that morning, all of our dreams came true," said Alan Weinstein, head of astrophysical data analysis for LIGO at Caltech.
"This discovery was everything I always hoped for, packed into a single event," added Francesco Pannarale, an astrophysicist at Cardiff University in Wales.
For these and thousands of other scientists, GW170817 -- the neutron star burst's tag -- will become a "do you remember where you were?" kind of moment.
"I was sitting in my dentist's chair when I got the text message," said Benoit Mours, an astrophysicist at France's National Centre for Research and the French coordinator for Virgo. "I jumped up and rushed to my lab."
Patrick Sutton, head of the gravitational physics group at Cardiff and a member of the LIGO team, was stuck on a long-haul bus, struggling to download hundreds of emails crowding his inbox.
Rumours swirled within and beyond the astronomy community as scientists hastened to prepare initial findings for publication Monday in a dozen articles spread across several of the world's leading journals.
"There have been quite a few pints and glasses of wine or bubbly -- privately, of course, because we haven't been allowed to tell anyone," Sutton told AFP.
But he couldn't resist telling his 12-year-old son, an aspiring physicist.
"He's sworn to secrecy though. He's not allowed to tell his friends."
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United Nations (United States) (AFP) - North Korea on Monday told the United Nations that it will never negotiate the dismantling of its nuclear weapons unless the United States reverses its "hostile" policy.
Deputy UN Ambassador Kim In Ryong told the General Assembly's committee on disarmament that the situation on the Korean peninsula "has reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment."
"Unless the hostile policy and the nuclear threat of the US is thoroughly eradicated, we will never put our nuclear weapons and ballistic rockets on the negotiation table under any circumstance," he said.
President Donald Trump has engaged in an escalating war of words with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, trading personal insults and threatening to "totally destroy" North Korea if it threatens the United States.
But US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that Trump wanted to avoid war, even though the president said on Twitter that Tillerson was "wasting his time" with diplomacy.
"He's not seeking to go to war," Tillerson told CNN, adding ominously that efforts would "continue until the first bomb drops."
Following a series of missile launches and a sixth nuclear test, Kim said his country "had passed the final gate" toward becoming a full-fledged nuclear power, with the means to deliver a nuclear strike.
"The entire US mainland is within our firing range and if the US dares to invade our sacred territory, even an inch, it will not escape our severe punishment in any part of the globe," said the North Korean diplomat.
The United States and South Korea on Monday began a 10-day joint naval exercise in a fresh show of force against the North, with a US aircraft carrier and two US destroyers taking part.
Kim said North Korea will not target any country that does not join a US-led military campaign.
"As long as one does not take part in the US military actions against the DPRK, we have no intention to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against any other country," he said.
The United States led a drive at the Security Council to impose two new sets of tough sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear test and intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
By Gary McWilliams
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The search continued for a worker missing from an oil production platform in Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain that exploded and caught fire late Sunday, sending six others to hospital with injuries, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Coast Guard rescue crews were battling 4 foot to 5 foot (1.2-1.5 meter) waves on the lake and a helicopter joined the search at daybreak after an overnight effort failed to locate the worker, officials said at a briefing on Monday.
Names of the missing and injured were not disclosed.
Three workers remain in hospital for blast and burn treatment, some in critical condition, Mike Guillot, emergency medical services director at East Jefferson General Hospital, said during a news briefing on Monday. Four others were released overnight.
Firefighters managed to turn off a valve that was feeding natural gas to the platform and feeding the blaze, Dave Tibbetts, chief of the East Bank Consolidated Fire Department, said at the same briefing. He said the fire would eventually burn itself out as the gas stopped flowing.
"We feel confident from the fire fighters aspect that we have control of the situation at the present time," Tibbetts said.
The platform is operated by Clovelly Oil Co, Donald Mackenroth, a Clovelly vice president reached by phone, said. Details of what happened on the platform are still to be determined, he said on Monday.
There were at least eight people on the platform and on a nearby supply vessel at the time, officials said. An investigation into the explosion and fire is starting, they said.
There was no sign of an oil sheen or other environmental damage on Monday, but officials said they were still evaluating the site. The platform is used to transfer and store oil and natural gas from nearby wells, the officials said.
Police were notified of a loud explosion about 7:18 p.m. local time by residents, and soon after received a call from the platform that a boat carrying injured was on its way to shore, said Kenner, Louisiana, police Lieutenant Brian McGregor.
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East Jefferson General Hospital, which received some of the injured, declined to comment on the number of treated or on the type or extent of their injuries.
Clovelly is the only oil company operating in Lake Pontchartrain, according to its former president, Harald Werner. It has two or three active oil and gas wells at the site, he said.
(Reporting by Apeksha Nair in Bengaluru, India, Peter Szekely in New York and Gary McWilliams in Houston.; Editing by Michael Perry, Jacqueline Wong and Susan Thomas)
By Neil Jerome Morales and Manuel Mogato
MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines' military chief vowed no letup on Monday in hunting down and destroying extremist groups loyal to Islamic State, saying Marawi City would be retaken within days after the pivotal killing of two top rebel commanders.
General Eduardo Ano said the successful operation to take out the two leaders was a "triumph of good over evil" and urged the 30 militants remaining in a shrinking combat zone to surrender and free hostages as troops stepped up their fight.
"It will be just a matter of days before it will finally be declared that Marawi has been liberated from the clutches of terrorists," Ano told a televised news conference.
"There will be no let up. It's about time to end these terrorists."
Isnilon Hapilon, Islamic State's anointed "emir" in Southeast Asia, was shot in the head by a sniper and Omarkhayam Maute, one of two Middle East-educated "Khalifas" at the helm of the militant alliance, died of a chest wound in a targeted operation during the night, officials said.
The mission came after a freed hostage disclosed the leaders' location. Ano said the bodies had been recovered and identified by experts and by captured rebels.
The deaths of Hapilon and Maute is a major win for a military criticised for its slow progress in retaking Marawi and the ease with which rebels laid siege to it on May 23, before holding the heart of the city for nearly five months.
The United States has for years offered a bounty of up to $5 million for the elusive Hapilon over his activities as a faction leader of Abu Sayyaf, a group notorious for kidnapping, piracy and for beheading hostages, including foreigners.
Experts say Hapilon was an Islamist ideologue who took fighters from his faction to join forces with the Maute clan, a well-funded extremist group on the island of Mindanao that emerged only last year.
Abdullah Maute, the alliance's military commander, was reported killed in August, though no body was found.
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Ano said another key operative, Malaysian Mahmud Ahmad, was believed to be in the battle zone.
The leaders have been central to rebels regrouping, re-arming and recruiting after previous clashes over the past two years, growing stronger each time.
The alliance, Dawla Islamiya, has been bolstered by fighters from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Middle East, among other countries. Experts say foreigners have aided funding and recruiting, preying on vulnerable youth, as shown by the presence of teenagers and child soldiers in Marawi.
CRUMBLING ALLIANCE
The military will target the destruction of all groups tied to Islamic State by the end of the year, Ano said.
"There will be no let-up. It's about time to end these terrorists in Mindanao. The resistance, or what's left of it, the terrorists, will crumble. It is a dead end, there is nowhere else to go."
Rommel Banlaoi, head of the Philippine Institute for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, warned of retaliatory attacks from leaders' deputies, who would assume control.
He described Monday's operation as a "tremendous setback" to Islamic State loyalists, but said security forces should avoid complacency, boost intelligence and tackle recruitment.
"We have seen many times in the past, the death of key leaders will not prevent the terrorist organisations from wreaking havoc," Banlaoi told news channel ANC.
More than 300,000 Filipinos have been displaced by the fighting, which authorities say has killed 824 rebels, 47 civilians and 162 military.
The occupation has been the biggest internal security crisis in the Catholic-majority Philippines for years, compounding fears that Islamic State's extremist agenda and its advanced recruitment methods are more widespread than previously thought.
Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said defence chiefs would assess whether to lift martial law in Mindanao. He said all cities on the island of 22 million people were vulnerable to attack, but authorities were vigilant.
(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez)
Firefighters are still battling to bring 16 remaining fires under control: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty
California's firefighters have been struggling for a week now to put out the wildfires which have swept through the state.
Images of exhausted firefighters sleeping on the ground, using rocks as pillows and facing raging fires have been widely shared as the blazes take their toll.
At least 40 people have been killed and hundreds are still missing after six days of wildfires which have swept across the countryside and destroyed thousands of homes.
More than 100,000 people have been displaced in what Californias governor, Jerry Brown, has described as one of the greatest tragedies to ever affect the state, according to the BBC.
On Saturday powerful winds picked up overnight in the central Napa Valley causing the fires to spread and leading to residents being evacuated in Sonoma.
Despite emergency services working around the clock to contain the blazes more than 10,000 firefighters are still battling to put out 16 remaining fires.
A firefighter using a hand tool as he monitors a firing operation while a fire near Calistoga, California (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The standard practice for firefighters in a California wildfire is to work for a 24-hour shift and then have 24 hours off, however, in this instance many have had no chance to rest for days, instead catching a few hours sleep when they get the chance, according to the New York Times.
One group of residents left behind cookies for fire crews with signs which read: Please save our home!
Exhausted firefighters try to get some rest on the ground using rocks as pillows (Sebastopol Fire Department/Facebook)
Since igniting last Sunday in spots across eight counties the blazes have ripped through 220,000 acres and destroyed at least 5,700 homes and businesses.
Prisoners have been brought in to help firefighters combat the blazes (DAVID MCNEW/AFP/Getty Images)
Thousands of prisoners have also been brought in to fight the raging fires, with around 3,900 prisoners enrolled in the programme to join firefighters in combating the inferno.
Those involved get extra time off their sentences and earn $2 (1) a day and $1 (75p) for each hour of active duty.
Additional reporting by The Associated Press.
Ankara (AFP) - People wounded in the weekend's massive bombing in Somalia -- the deadliest ever attack to hit the conflict-torn nation -- were flown to Turkey on Monday for treatment, an AFP photographer said.
The Turkish military plane carrying 35 wounded Somalis landed at an Ankara airport, where ambulances were at the ready to rush the victims to hospital.
Turkey strongly condemned Saturday's bombing in Mogadishu which killed at least 276 people and left 300 injured.
The blast occurred at a junction in Hodan, a bustling commercial district of the capital Mogadishu which has many shops, hotels and businesses.
Turkey sent planes with medical supplies in the wake of the attack, and Health Minister Ahmet Demircan was in Mogadishu on Monday to coordinate the transfer of the injured.
Turkey is a leading donor and investor in Somalia.
In September, it inaugurated the largest foreign-run military training centre in Somalia, where local troops are due to take over the protection of a nation threatened by Shabaab jihadists.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Shabaab, a militant group aligned with Al-Qaeda, has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in its bid to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government.
By Olga Dzyubenko BISHKEK (Reuters) - A protege of outgoing pro-Russian leader Almazbek Atambayev looked set for a surprise outright victory in Kyrgyzstan's presidential election on Sunday, despite polls having predicted a close runoff between him and an opposition leader. According to preliminary data published by the central election commission, former prime minister and Atambayev ally Sooronbai Jeenbekov had secured 54.22 percent of the vote based on a count from 97 percent of the polling stations. His main opponent, oil tycoon Omurbek Babanov, trailed well behind with 33.47 percent, according to the same early data. A close ally of Moscow and host to a Russian military base, Kyrgyzstan helps its former Soviet overlord project power across a region where China and the United States also vie for influence. In contrast to other Central Asian states, which are mostly run by autocrats, Kyrgyzstan is a boisterous democracy that produces sometimes chaotic changes of leadership. After its first two presidents were ousted by riots, the country restyled itself as a parliamentary republic where presidential powers are mostly limited to foreign policy and security matters. But Atambayev strengthened executive powers last year. Constitutionally barred from seeking a second six-year term, he backed Jeenbekov, 58, an experienced apparatchik who served as prime minister until August. In Sunday's election, observers, citing pre-election polls, saw none of the candidates clearing the 50 percent threshold for outright victory, with Jeenbekov and Babanov then competing in a runoff. Babanov's campaign office declined to comment on the preliminary results but said it would do so on Monday. Babanov's next move will be closely watched because allegations of electoral fraud were among the main factors behind violent protests which toppled two Kyrgyz presidents in 2005 and 2010. Atambayev - likely to remain a powerful figure if his preferred candidate Jeenbekov does win - warned on Sunday he would use any violence as an opportunity to "cleanse" the country. STIFF OPPOSITION Atambayev and Jeenbekov's Social Democratic party is the biggest in parliament and dominates the coalition cabinet. But they faced stiff opposition from Babanov, 47, whose Respublika-Ata Zhurt (Fatherland) party has the second-biggest parliamentary faction and whose poll numbers had suggested he and Jeenbekov would compete in a tight runoff. Babanov, also a former prime minister, has accused the government of abusing its powers to ensure Jeenbekov's victory after the authorities charged some of his campaign supporters with plotting a coup and planning to bribe voters. Babanov has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the charges against his supporters as dirty election tactics. Atambayev and his cabinet have also accused Kazakhstan, a bigger and wealthier neighbor, of backing Babanov - which both Babanov and the Kazakh government deny. "What they (the authorities) are doing is outrageous," Babanov told reporters on Sunday, adding some of his campaign staff and a reporter for a TV station owned by Babanov had been attacked by unidentified men on the day of the vote. Atambayev on Sunday warned opponents against trying to stage violent protests after the vote. "In fact, if there is unrest, it's going to be a good thing, I would like to cleanse (the country of) them all completely," he told reporters after casting his ballot. Both Jeenbekov and Babanov have said they consider Russia - where hundreds of thousands of Kyrgyz migrant laborers work - a strategic partner. According to preliminary data, voter turnout was 55.93 percent. (Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Kisumu (Kenya) (AFP) - A young man was shot dead in western Kenya on Monday as hundreds of opposition supporters again took to the streets demanding reforms ahead of a presidential election, witnesses told AFP.
Police teargassed a large crowd of protesters in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu, who set tyres alight, blocked roads and pelted policemen with rocks as they kicked off daily protests just 10 days ahead of the election.
One protester, Michael Odiambo, 21, said he had seen police gun down a young man, whose body was also seen by an AFP photographer.
"He was running to hide himself from police. A policeman just pointed a gun at him and shot him from a distance. He was shot in the neck," he said.
The boy's mother Caroline Okello said her son, Michael, was only 18 and was not involved in the protest.
"He had gone to buy ice cream when he was hit by a bullet," she said. Some witnesses said they believed he was selling ice cream, rather than buying it.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said police had allowed protesters to rally in the centre of Kisumu, despite this being banned last week.
"And when they realized police are not intervening, they started throwing stones at the police. What do you expect of that. Aren't police allowed to also protect themselves?"
On Friday two protesters were shot dead by police in the town of Bondo, the rural home of opposition leader Raila Odinga some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Kisumu. In Nairobi, a small crowd of protesters was swiftly dispersed.
A local human rights group said 37 people died in the immediate aftermath of the August 8 election that was later annulled by the Supreme Court which ordered a re-run.
A joint report by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released Monday said it had confirmed 33 deaths at the hands of police.
Kenya's police chief Joseph Boinnet said this report was "totally misleading and based on falsehoods", adding police were only aware of 12 deaths which they were investigating.
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The latest protests come as Kenya is mired in confusion over a presidential election that is due to take place on October 26.
Odinga last week announced his withdrawal from the race, arguing that this legally forces the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to begin the whole election from scratch.
He is hoping to win more time for reforms, after the Supreme Court annulled the first election for irregularities in the counting process and mismanagement by the IEBC.
But the IEBC appears to be pushing forward with plans for the vote, saying only that Odinga had yet to submit the required form to officially pull out of the race.
Odinga is hoping to maintain pressure from the street, increasing protests from three times a week to every day.
Rex Tillerson and President Trump - REUTERS
Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, says diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear stand-off with North Korea will continue until the first bomb drops.
For weeks President Donald Trump has hinted he is ready to take military action while aiming subtle and not-so-subtle digs at his chief diplomat, saying on one occasion that Mr Tillerson was wasting his time trying to negotiate with Pyongyang.
The mixed messaging has raised fears the world was inching towards war by raising the chance for miscalculation of misunderstanding with North Korea
On Sunday Mr Tillerson insisted there was no confusion or division within the administration.
The president has also made clear to me that he wants this solved diplomatically. He is not seeking to go to war, he told CNN.
...Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017
He has made it clear to me to continue our diplomatic efforts which we are. As Ive told others, those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops.
North Korea has made no secret that its weapons programme is focused on building inter-continental ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload to the US mainland.
That threat has brought several sets of new sanctions in recent weeks and frantic diplomatic activity.
Sec. Tillerson did not answer CNN's question on whether he called President Trump a "moron." pic.twitter.com/xccF47vK16 Axios (@axios) October 15, 2017
European ministers meeting in Luxembourg are expected on Monday to agree a fresh round designed to cut off sources off cash that prop up Kim Jong-uns regime and its missile programme.
The proposals extend a ban on EU investment in the rogue state and exports of European oil will be ended. More names will be added to the list of regime officials and companies that are hit by asset freezes and travel bans.
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A review of the banned luxury goods lists will be carried out and the cap on personal payments sent to North Korea reduced from 15,000 to 5,000 euro.
The efforts stand in contrast to Mr Trump who has frequently talked up the military options at his disposal ranging from regime change to pinpoint strikes to take out nuclear missiles before launch.
The contrast in approaches has led to speculation that Mr Tillerson and his diplomatic efforts have been sidelined within the administration.
During the interview with Jake Tapper on State of the Union, Mr Tillerson was also quizzed on his relationship with Mr Trump, amid reports that he called the President a moron and growing divisions among the national security team on Iran.
Im not playing, he answered, as he added that he believed remaining in the Iran nuclear deal was in Americas best interests as did the President.
Lets see if we cannot address the flaws within the [Iran] agreement by staying within the agreement, working with the other signatories, he said.
On Friday, Mr Trump signalled a major break with the foreign policy of Barack Obama by refusing to re-certify the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
However, he has stopped short of abandoning it altogether by passing it to Congress, which now has 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions in a move that would signal American withdrawal from the deal.
Although Mr Trump is still threatening to withdraw, the decision represents a compromise of sorts. The President is able to talk tough on Iran while allowing the deal to live on, marrying his campaign rhetoric describing the agreement as the worst deal in American history with the geo-political reality.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has sent a civil rights attorney from the Justice Department to help argue a murder case against the accused killer of a gender fluid teen in Iowa, The New York Times reported.
Sessions personally initiated the plan to have Justice Department attorney Christopher Perras, a hate-crimes expert, serve as a county prosecutor, the Times reported. Perras will help press the case against accused killer Jorge Lumni Sanders-Galvez, according to court documents filed Friday and reported by both the Times and the Des Moines Register.
Sanders-Galvez, 22, was charged with first-degree murder in the March 2016 shooting death of 16-year-old Kedarie Johnson. Johnson, who identified as both female and male, was characterized as gender fluid rather than transgender by the Des Moines Register.
Des Moines County Attorney Amy Beavers told the Iowa newspaper that federal authorities are investigating the case as a potential federal hate crime. They want a representative for seamless prosecution, should an indictment in federal court be handed down, she said.
Sessions, a former Alabama senator, has a reputation as a die-hard conservative and has battled against LGBTQ rights. The attorney general sparked the ire of the LGBTQ community and supporters earlier this month when he said transgender workers are not protected from discrimination under federal law, and religious employers can refuse to hire workers whose behavior is contrary to their faith. The Justice Department also rolled back the Obama administration policy encouraging public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity.
Despite his controversial stances, Sessions told federal prosecutors at a hate-crimes meeting held by the Justice Department in June that he was concerned about a spate of murders around the country of transgender individuals. He said he had directed his Civil Rights Division to identify ways the department can support state and local law enforcement authorities investigating these incidents.
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Sessions added: We have and will continue to enforce hate crime laws aggressively and appropriately where transgendered individuals are victims.
Justice Department spokesman Devin OMalley told the Times that sending a federal prosecutor to Iowa was just one example of the attorney generals commitment to enforcing the laws enacted by Congress and to protecting the civil rights of all individuals.
Sharon McGowan, Lambda Legal director of strategy, called Sessions move a publicity stunt and the height of cynicism.
No one in the Trump administration has done more to harm LGBT people, and especially transgender people, than Jeff Sessions and in a government chock full of anti-LGBT appointees, that is saying a lot, McGowan said in a statement. She added: For Sessions now to seek credit for helping prosecute hate crimes against transgender people is akin to him handing out gasoline and matches and then looking for a pat on the back when he prosecutes someone for committing arson.
The Iowa murder trial is set to begin Oct. 24 in Henry County District Court in Mount Pleasant.
This article has been updated to include Sharon McGowans comments.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
The head of the Islamic State group in Southeast Asia, who figures on the US "most wanted terrorists" list, was killed on Monday in the battle to reclaim a militant-held Philippines city, officials said.
Isnilon Hapilon's reported death came during a final push to end the nearly five-month siege of Marawi, a battle that has claimed more than 1,000 lives and raised fears that IS was seeking to set up a regional base in the southern Philippines.
President Rodrigo Duterte and security analysts say Hapilon has been a key figure in the jihadist outfit's drive to establish a Southeast Asian caliphate as they suffer battlefield defeats in Iraq and Syria.
The military said the long-haired leader was killed in a dawn offensive alongside Omarkhayam Maute, one of two brothers who allied with Hapilon to plot the takeover of the city.
"It's a big deal for us that they were killed," Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters, adding that Hapilon's death was a symbolic blow to regional militancy because he had been declared the local emir of the Islamic State group.
Philippine military chief of staff General Eduardo Ano showed reporters a photo of what he said was Hapilon's bloodied face.
The US government had offered a $5 million bounty for information leading to Hapilon's arrest, describing the 51-year-old as a senior leader of the southern Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf group, which the US considers a "foreign terrorist organisation".
Ano said Philippine ground forces launched an assault before dawn, sparking a four-hour gun battle that lead to the two leaders' deaths.
DNA tests will be carried out on the two bodies because of the reward offer from the US and Philippine governments, Lorenzana said.
"The Marawi incident is almost over and we may announce the termination of hostilities in a couple of days," Lorenzana said.
Philippine authorities have made several previous announcements on the imminent end of the conflict, but observers believe this time the forecast is likely to be accurate.
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Pro-IS gunmen occupied parts of Marawi, the Islamic capital of the mainly Catholic Philippines, on May 23 following a foiled attempt by security forces to arrest Hapilon, authorities said.
Since then more than 1,000 people have been killed and 400,000 residents displaced.
Duterte has imposed martial law across the southern third of the Philippines to quell the militant threat.
- 'Centre of gravity' -
The insurgents have withstood a relentless US-backed bombing campaign and intense ground battles with troops that have left large parts of Marawi in ruins.
Defence chiefs last month said other Philippine militant leaders had been killed in the battle for Marawi.
Troops were still pursuing dozens of fighters in the battle zone including Indonesians and Malaysians, Ano said, after rescuing 20 hostages over the weekend with a two-month-old baby among them.
Malaysian militant leader Mahmud Ahmad was still in Marawi, with authorities describing him as the "conduit" between IS and local militant groups.
There were still 22 hostages left along with 39 relatives of the militants, they added.
The restive south of the mainly Catholic Philippines is home to a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency and to extremist gangs that have declared allegiance to IS including the Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups.
Hapilon is believed to have been involved in the 2001 kidnappings of three Americans, two of whom were later killed.
Hapilon was based in Basilan island in the strife-torn south but authorities said in January that he had moved to the Mautes' base in Lanao del Sur province, 300 kilometres (180 miles) east, to create an alliance and to establish an IS presence there.
Marawi is Lanao del Sur's capital and largest city.
The deaths of Hapilon and Maute signal the end of the militant groups, Ano said.
"This means their centre of gravity has crumbled," he told reporters.
"We just needed to get these two (leaders) to make sure the leadership, the centre of gravity falls, and elsewhere even the Maute-ISIS (fighters) in other areas would also crumble."
However an analyst said the deaths of the leaders would likely prompt retaliatory attacks from their followers and allies, with young leaders seeking to take their place.
"Terrorism will take a new form in the post-Marawi period because these terrorist groups linked to ISIS continue to innovate and their actions are evolving," Rommel Banlaoi, chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, told AFP.
"It's going to be a new battle."
Madrid (AFP) - Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Monday that arsonists were to blame for most of the deadly wildfires raging in northwestern Spain which have so far killed three people and injured dozens.
"What we are experiencing here does not happen by chance, this was provoked," he said after observing a minute of silence for victims in the town of Pazos de Borben.
Rajoy, who is from Galicia, said a major fire broke out near the town in the early hours of Sunday in five different locations at the same time.
At one point Sunday there were over 125 wildfires raging across Galicia, compared with the previous record of 50 simultaneous blazes back in August, when temperatures were much higher, Rajoy said.
Two women died on Sunday when their van was engulfed by flames as they were trying to escape near Nigran, outside Vigo, Galicia's biggest city, and an elderly man died in an animal shed near his house in Carballeda de Avia.
Five people were treated for burns and 14 for respiratory problems at Vigo's Povisa Hospital, the hospital said in a Twitter post.
Five fires raged near Vigo on Sunday, forcing the evacuation of a shopping mall and a PSA Peugeot Citroen factory on the outskirts of the city, though workers were able to return to the factory on Monday.
Hundreds of firefighters backed by water-dropping helicopters and planes were battling 19 major fires in Galicia on Monday, the regional government said in a statement.
Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the regional government, said "terrorist arsonists" were behind the wildfires.
"Galicia is not burning alone. Galicia is being burned," he said.
Feijoo described the situation as "critical", though light rain was aiding the battle against the flames after the highly dangerous confluence of strong winds from Hurricane Ophelia and high temperatures after a period of drought.
Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said earlier in a tweet that "several people have been identified in connection to the fires in Galicia".
Across the border in Portugal at least 27 people have died in fires which have ravaged forests in the north and centre of the country over the past 24 hours.
Desperate Journey
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
Getty Images
The Rohingya flee Myanmar
Photographs and text by KEVIN FRAYER
The boats usually arrive at night because its safer in the dark.
Occasionally they come during the day, when a situation is urgent enough to risk fire from Myanmar border guards, or a window for safe passage opens up. The majority arrive at the southern tip of Shah Porir Dwip, an island where the Naf River meets the Bay of Bengal. The water can be rough, but when a boat capsizes there is no search party or rescue effort, just a wait for the bodies to wash up on shore. The anonymity of it is tragic.
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
A woman arrives on the Bangladesh side of the Naf River on Oct. 1. Getty Images
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
Refugees make their way through the water after crossing the river to Bangladesh on Nov. 1. Getty Images
2017 Getty Images
Rohingya carry their belongings after fleeing from Myanmar on Nov. 1. Getty Images
When boats make it, there is a scramble to get people out. Babies are handed off to make sure they dont get dropped in the water; the elderly are lifted and carried, and often people are so weak and exhausted and overwhelmed that they just collapse. Whats striking is that its so quiet. There may be someone sobbing or a baby crying, but usually the moment they arrive is almost silent.
I first arrived in Bangladesh in mid-September, a few weeks into the newest phase of the crisis named for the people on the boats: the Rohingya are fleeing their homes in neighboring Myanmar, seeking safety across the boundary river that widens into the Bay of Bengal. I had been moved by the images and stories from colleaguesan exodus of some 600,000 people with no rights, who spoke of being burned, raped and driven from their homes.
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
A man and woman carry their children on an embankment after crossing the river on Nov. 2. Getty Images
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
Rohingya carry their belongings after crossing the river on Oct. 2. Getty Images
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
Rohingya who walked for more than a week to cross the river wait to proceed to camps on Nov. 2. Getty Images
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The Rohingya are Muslim, and the rest of Myanmar, which is heavily Buddhist, has never accepted them as citizens. The constant friction flared into conflagration in August, when a militant Rohingya group attacked police and military posts. The government replied with a campaign that scorched the earthsatellite imagery shows hundreds of Rohingya villages burned to the ground. The U.N. termed it a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, and Myanmars de facto leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has been pilloried for defending the government, which claims it is targeting insurgents.
In the text of the last speech on his Asia trip, President Donald Trump supported efforts to ensure accountability for the atrocities committed. Meanwhile, the exodus continues.
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
Rohingya who walked for more than a week to cross the river wait to proceed to camps on Nov. 2. Getty Images
Typically, new arrivals sit on the beach and just rest. A few locals may be around, but there is no coordinated reception. The refugees walk on their own toward the village and madrasahs, or religious schools, where they are given shelter and food and a bit of money by local charities. They will spend at most a day there before crossing to the mainland and climbing onto trucks for the journey north to Coxs Bazar. Once known for its resorts, the area is now home to more than half a million refugees.
Once new arrivals find a space, they get bamboo poles and tarpaulin to build a shelter. Aid organizations construct latrines and dig wells for clean water, but the sheer number of people makes it a challenge to maintain sanitation and stave off disease. The monsoon rains are heavy and frequent, and the ground is incredibly wet and muddy.
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
A local NGO distributes food near the Balukhali camp on Sept. 20. Getty Images
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
A woman collapses from exhaustion after crossing the river on Sept. 25. Getty Images
Still the makeshift camps are becoming a permanent part of the landscape. When I visited in late October, there was far more aid than a month earlier, and more international agencies to help. But the flow of people persists, and the camps grow at a staggering ratesome days by a few hundred, other days by thousands.
One afternoon in September, I went to an area where a crowd of people were looking for aid. I could feel the anxiety as the crowd shifted. I was struggling to work, so I wanted to get above it. As I climbed on a truck, women were shouting and people were distraught, since they were obviously exhausted and hungry.
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
A woman uses a candle to light her tent at the Palong Khali camp on Oct. 1. Getty Images
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Refugees build a new mosque at the Balukhali camp on Oct. 2. Getty Images
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
Malnourished children cry at a shelter at the Balukhali camp on Sept. 27. Getty Images
Thats when I saw this small boy to the left of my view. He had pulled himself up onto the truck and was weeping. I couldnt hear much because the scene was so loud, but at one point the boy reached out his hand and tapped the leg of the man standing over the food.
He then wrapped his arms around the mans leg, begging with tears rolling down his cheeks. I was struck by it: this vulnerable child in a massive crowd had clawed his way onto the truck in complete desperation. It is hard to compare that magnitude of sadness to anything else I have seen.
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
A family rests after crossing the river on Oct. 2. Getty Images
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
A woman suffering from malnutrition and diarrhea lays at a hospital on Oct. 2. Getty Images
Leaving was not easy. I had gone with the hope of making a contribution to telling the story, yet you always feel like you never photograph enough. Or see enough. Or hear enough. If the picturesno matter how fleetingcan cause people to be moved to care in some way, then it is worth it.
For this kind of story, the more photographs, the better.
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
A woman cradles the body of a boy before burial on Sept. 29. Getty Images
Kevin FrayerGetty Images
Men pray at sunset on the site where a new mosque was being built at the Balukhali camp on Oct. 22. Getty Images
Originally published: Oct. 15, 2017 | Updated: Nov. 17
Kevin Frayer is a Getty Images photographer based in Beijing. Follow him on Instagram @kevinfrayer.
Andrew Katz, who edited this photo essay, is TIMEs Senior Multimedia Editor. Follow him on Twitter @katz.
Microsoft may have won its fight to protect overseas data from American search warrants, but it can't rest easy. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Department of Justice's petition to review the case, virtually guaranteeing that the case will set the basis for how US law enforcement can access data abroad. We don't have a court date as of this writing, but the arguments on both sides are already well-established.
A New York district court and the DOJ contend that companies, not users, own data stored abroad -- in this case, email held in an Irish data center. As such, any warrant targeting an American company would be considered a domestic request and wouldn't have to face extra scrutiny.
Both Microsoft and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (which ruled in favor of Microsoft last year) see it very differently. They don't believe that laws like the Electronic Communications Privacy Act were intended to reach beyond American borders, and that this creates conflicts with privacy laws in Europe and other corners of the world. Microsoft also sees this as a Pandora's box. If you don't own your data, then that theoretically means you lose your right to privacy the moment you step online. And if the US can use a warrant to take any data so long as it's held by an American company, doesn't that invite foreign governments to do the same thing?
Whether that's a valid concern or irrational fear, Microsoft is upbeat about the Supreme Court challenge. Even if it loses, it knows that there are bills in progress (such as the Senate's International Communications Privacy Act) that could restrict access to overseas data. The DOJ may get what it wants and still have to limit the scope of law enforcement's data collection.
Tamika Mallory, one of the activists behind the Women's March. (Photo: Lucas Jackson / Reuters)
Activist Tamika D. Mallory said Sunday that she was unfairly kicked off of an American Airlines flight over a seating dispute.
Mallory, known for her work as national co-chair of the Womens March movement, was on a flight from Miami to New York when the incident occurred. According to the activist, she spoke with a gate agent who was nasty and disrespectful about an issue with her seat assignment.
During the exchange, Mallory said the pilot of the flight came over to scold her behavior and told her that she was going to get a one-way ticket off this plane.
After Mallory eventually boarded the flight, she said the pilot made an announcement asking her to come to the front of the plane. He then allegedly pointed toward her and said, Her, off.
It definitely was white male aggression. I was singled out, I was disrespected, and he was trying to intimidate me, Mallory told the New York Daily News on Monday. I was discriminated against.
No one on the flight crew gave Mallory an explanation for why she was removed from the flight, despite her asking numerous times. Mallory later tweeted about the incident, writing that no matter how hard black women fight, white men are allowed to treat [us] like shit.
Doesn't matter how much we do and how hard we fight, white men are allowed to treat black women like shit .@AmericanAir Tamika D. Mallory (@TamikaDMallory) October 15, 2017
Every @AmericanAir rep I've talked to told me the pilot mishandled the situation. He had no business getting involved in a seat dispute Tamika D. Mallory (@TamikaDMallory) October 15, 2017
The @AmericanAir pilot, before kicking me off the plane, asked me "are you gonna behave?" As if I'm not a grown woman worthy of respect... Tamika D. Mallory (@TamikaDMallory) October 15, 2017
Only reason this pilot got involved was to assert his white male power over who he thought was just some uppity black girl. That's it. Tamika D. Mallory (@TamikaDMallory) October 15, 2017
American Airlines has since issued a statement addressing Mallorys treatment.
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Our team does not tolerate discrimination of any kind, a representative for the airline said on Monday. We take these allegations seriously, and we are in the process of reaching out to our colleagues in Miami, as well as Ms. Mallory, to obtain additional information on what transpired during the boarding process.
Read more of Mallorys account at the New York Daily News.
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Deborah Drahus Capo knew shed have to leave Puerto Rico the moment she emerged from the bathroom where she had holed up throughout Hurricane Maria last month.
For eight hours straight, the San Juan-based attorney had listened to the wind howling like a monster, waiting for the windows in her apartment to break. When the storm subsided, the streets in her neighborhood were blocked with debris and the supermarkets were empty. Her daughters house nearby had been flooded. There was no electricity or running water.
Ten days after the storm devastated the island, Drahus Capo boarded a flight to Florida with her daughter and granddaughter in tow. For now, theyre staying at a friends home in Miami.
Its like they pulled the rug out from under me: I had my life, my clients, and all of a sudden Im on plane to Miami, she told HuffPost last week. What do I plan on doing? I dont know.
Since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico almost one month ago, thousands of residents have left the U.S. territory. Many are like Drahus Capo not knowing when, or if, theyll return.
The storm, which killed at least 48 people, has cut power for most of the 3.4 million residents of the island and deprived more than a quarter of residents of access to clean drinking water. Most of the recovery seen on the island so far has been concentrated around the capital of San Juan. Entire areas inland remain inaccessible, many supermarkets still dont carry fresh produce or meat, and many hospitals and clinics are without electricity, leading them to depend on unreliable generators to provide care to the most vulnerable patients.
Life on the island has become a daily struggle, forcing thousands to consider whether a better future lies ahead outside of its borders.
Deborah Drahus Capo (right) with (from bottom) her granddaughter, daughter and niece at the airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Photo: Deborah Drahus Capo)
Its hard to know the exact number of Puerto Ricans who have fled the island, or how many of those will eventually return, said Edwin Melendez, economist and director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College in New York.
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Puerto Rican news outlet El Nuevo Dia estimates tens of thousands of residents have left, and The New York Times reported Florida alone has braced for as many as 100,000 arrivals.
Melendez and his colleagues, who have analyzed previous migration numbers for Puerto Rico, as well as evacuation patterns from New Orleans after 2005s Hurricane Katrina, estimate that between 114,000 and 213,000 Puerto Ricans will eventually depart.
Being able to leave and find a place to live elsewhere takes resources, and connections. Flights were difficult to come by after the hurricane, as hundreds of people were stranded at the islands largest airport in San Juan, which was damaged and closed for days.
Nobody decides to leave everything just because, and hop on a plane with a load of clothes and whatever else you can fit in a bag, Drahus Capo said. I have privilege: I have friends [in the mainland], I have savings in place. But thats not the case for a lot of people.
Drahus Capos mother still lives on the island she is bedridden and would need special, and costly, flight accommodations.
A neighborhood in Canovanas, Puerto Rico, damaged by Hurricane Maria. (Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
Before the hurricane, Drahus Capo had never considered moving away from her native San Juan but that is now a possibility for her and her family.
It was not my plan to come to the mainland, it was never in my options, she said. Her move was a minute-to-minute decision, but one that might turn out out to be a lifelong one.
Drahus Capos granddaughter now hopes to enroll in school in Florida, and the attorney may take the bar exam in February, so she can continue practicing law.
Once steps like new jobs and childrens schooling are put into motion, it can be hard to move back, especially to an island that will certainly still be in recovery mode for a long time to come.
What do I plan on doing? I dont know, Drahus Capo said. But I cant sit here and do nothing, and in Puerto Rico theres not much you can do the uncertainty is very bad.
For those who have left, the question becomes when living conditions on the island have returned close enough to normal for them to return or whether it will even make sense for them to do so, if theyve started to build a new life on the mainland.
In some parts of the island, the recovery has barely begun.
Our people are dying, Dennis Flores, a human resources administrator based in New York, told HuffPost in tears over the phone. Flores has been in Jagueyes, a small town in the islands central region, for the past few days checking on his mom, aunts and cousins.
They are proud people, this is where theyre from, theyre never going to leave, he said. This is all they know. They want to rebuild. All I see is people working hard where government is failing them.
Flores said that as of Monday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency still hasnt yet reached the town, one of many areas far from San Juan that government officials werent able to communicate with for days after the hurricane. Flores said there remains no running water in his familys community, and when people go to the supermarket there is little food available. They often are able to only purchase one gallon of water and perhaps a small amount of gasoline for a generator. The house he had been building for his mother was also destroyed in the storm, he said.
The familys struggles are unlikely to disappear anytime soon.
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The U.S. House approved $36.5 billion in emergency relief for Puerto Rico and other areas hit by recent disasters last Thursday. But Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rossello estimated there is $95 billion worth of damage on the island.
Puerto Rican officials have pleaded with the government for more help, and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz has harshly criticized the Trump administration for its slow response.
Damn it, we are dying, Mayor Yulin Cruz said in a recent video interview with HuffPost. This is not getting better as days go by.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump who last month referred to the San Juan Mayor as nasty after she called out the governments slow response recently threatened to pull out FEMA aid.
The humanitarian crisis is still unfolding its all beyond description, its apocalyptic, Melendez, the Hunter College professor, said. Is the U.S. going to abandon its citizens of Puerto Rico in a time of great need? Por favor!
Yanira Rios collects spring water for use in her house last week in Utuado, Puerto Rico. Most of the municipality has been without running water or electricity since Hurricane Maria hit the island on Sept. 20. (Photo: Mario Tama via Getty Images)
Puerto Ricos exodus comes after the island has already seen its population drop by about 400,000 over the past decade because of a crippling economic recession. With the island more than $70 billion in debt and with an unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent in the last year more than twice the national rate many had been fleeing to the mainland for better job opportunities before the hurricane.
The new departures will further hinder the recovery efforts.
As an economist, my assessment is this economy is in the tank right now, Melendez told HuffPost. How many people want to vacation and see devastation? The tourism season is lost, this winter is lost, [employers] wont call people to work. Its going to be a while before you get some normalcy.
With infrastructure like electricity slow to come back, major industries such as pharmaceuticals, tourism and agriculture will take a big hit, and unemployment will spike as working-age people especially those with children leave, he predicted.
Stranded tourists and Puerto Ricans line up at the International Airport in San Juan on Sept. 25 as they try to leave after Hurricane Maria devastated power and communications across the island. (Photo: Alvin Baez / Reuters)
Some residents believe that precisely because of the myriad challenges, and the governments failure to address them adequately in the past, it is important to stay and help the island rebuild.
Dayani Centeno Torres, a communications professional and native Puerto Rican, has been working with local nonprofits in the town of Humacao, which was hit hard by the storm.
She said she doesnt judge anyone who wants to move the current conditions are tough for vulnerable groups like senior citizens and small children. But Centeno Torres and her husband, an attorney, want to help make sure the island rebuilds with a more sustainable, cooperative future in mind.
Theres a lot of injustice, a lot of poor people a lot of things that were not caused by the hurricanes, but by a system that didnt work, she told HuffPost. It shouldnt be rebuilt in the same way.
Centeno Torres has been working with local groups providing emergency relief, such as distributing canned food and water. Shes also been organizing workshops that focus on long-term recovery, such as how to construct houses with solar panels and how to form a community food bank.
Community members with nonprofit P.E.C.E.S. in Humacao, Puerto Rico, help provide aid after the hurricane -- and look toward building a more sustainable future (Photo: Dayani Centeno Torres)
Puerto Ricans are not waiting for others to come fix this theyre stepping up every day, going outside their doors with saws, cutting trees out of the roads, said Ward Osborne, a Louisiana-born consultant who has been living in Puerto Rico with his ex-wife and two children for the past five years.
Osborne and his family left the island in the first days after the storm, but plan to return around January, once he can rely on computer service to work.
Puerto Rico is very community-oriented, and our neighborhood is doing the best we can to rebuild, Ward told HuffPost, calling from Lake Texoma, Texas, where he and his kids have relocated to his parents house in the interim. Every person I know in Puerto Rico is working every day, all day to make it better.
Also on HuffPost
A woman reacts while looking at the damage to her house after the area was hit by Hurricane Maria in Guayama, Puerto Rico.
Toys are seen in a damaged house in Guayama.
Lightposts lay on the ground after being damaged in San Juan.
Fishing boats with severe damage at Club Nautico in the San Juan Bay.
A damaged supermarket in Guayama.
A mattress, that fell from the third floor lays at ground level surrounded with debris from neighboring apartments at Ciudadela complex in Santurce.
A man runs on the street next to debris and damaged in Guayama.
A woman reacts while she looks at the damages in the house of her mother in Guayama.
A damaged banana plantation in Guayama.
A car is viewed stuck in a flooded street in Santurce, in San Juan.
A gas station is damaged in San Juan.
Trees block the streets at Escambron Beach in San Juan.
An uprooted tree in San Juan.
Residents of San Juan, Puerto Rico, deal with damage to their homes on Sept. 20, 2017, as Hurricane Maria batters the island.
Damage is seen in Guayama, Puerto Rico.
Maria slammed into Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, 2017, cutting power on most of the U.S. territory as residents hunkered down in the face of the island's worst storm in living memory.
Rescue workers help people after the area was hit by Hurricane Maria.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Tiffany Trump is feelin' 24!
Donald Trump's youngest daughter celebrated her 24th birthday on Friday evening in New York City surrounded by friends, family and, of course, the paparazzi. The daughter of President Trump and ex-wife Marla Maples partied at Manhattan restaurant Urbani Truffles on the city's Upper West Side.
While President Trump and first lady Melania Trump were not in attendance, the first daughter celebrated with other members of her family, including Donald Trump Jr. Tiffany's longtime boyfriend, Ross Mechanic, was noticeably missing from the bash. Breakup rumors have surrounded the couple since he put his Instagram on private in late September.
The Georgetown University law school student looked stunning in a double-breasted white blazer dress and some black pumps. The blonde beauty wore her tresses in a low bun and sported some heavy eye makeup, appropriate for the nighttime bash.
Several snapshots were shared on Instagram and Snapchat, including an adorable photo of Tiffany with Trump Jr.'s son Tristan:
Instagram
While Tiffany has remained the most out of the spotlight in comparison to her older siblings, the law student has made controversial headlines in the past few weeks. The internet slammed the 24-year-old for posting a 'tone-deaf' photo amid the Puerto Rico crisis, while her inheritance has also been questioned.
For more on Tiffany, watch the video above.
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday minimized tensions with his boss, President Donald Trump, and brushed aside comments from an influential lawmaker, who compared Trump's undermining of his top diplomat to a public castration. "I am fully committed to his objectives. I agree with his objectives. I agree with what he is trying to do," Tillerson said of Trump on CNN's 'State of the Union' program. Tillerson's tenure as secretary of state has been dogged by rumors about rifts with Trump over policy. Earlier this month, Trump undercut Tillerson in a Twitter message, saying the secretary of state was wasting his time trying to negotiate with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said Trump's comments were the equivalent of castrating the secretary in public. "I checked. I'm fully intact," Tillerson said when asked about Corker's comments on CNN. Tillerson repeatedly declined to answer a question about a report by NBC News that said the secretary of state had called Trump a "moron" during a private meeting in July with U.S. officials. The secretary of state accused CNN moderator Jake Tapper of trying "make a game" out of pressing him on the "moron" comment. "I'm not playing," Tillerson said. Tillerson has often found himself at odds with the president on a range of issues, from withdrawing from the Paris agreement on climate change to North Korea and, at times, Iran, according to current and former U.S. officials and news media reports. Signs of tensions between Trump and Tillerson have raised questions among in foreign capitals about whether the secretary of state speaks for the administration. Tillerson has batted away rumors that he might resign. Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has been mentioned as a possible replacement to Tillerson should he step down. She said she was happy being in New York, where the United Nations is based, and said that from what she has observed Trump and Tillerson have a constructive relationship. "The secretary puts out as many options for the president as he can. He makes a decision, there's a mutual respect, and they go forward. And so everything that I have witnessed, all was fine," she said. Tillerson acknowledged in a separate appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that he and the president "don't agree on everything." "Sometimes he changes his mind," Tillerson said. "I will work as hard as I can to implement his decisions successfully." (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump said Monday that a "total termination" of the Iran nuclear deal remains possible, after refusing to certify the 2015 accord and leaving its fate to Congress.
His comments came as the EU announced it was sending its chief diplomat to Washington next month to try to save the agreement that saw Tehran dramatically scale back its nuclear ambitions in return for an end to punishing sanctions.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting, he said: "I feel strongly about what I did. I'm tired of being taken advantage of.
"It might be total termination, that's a real possibility, some would say that's a greater possibility."
But he also appeared to leave the door open for a new deal, while praising the negotiation skills of his Iranian counterparts.
"It also could turn out to be very positive. We'll see what happens," he said.
"I thought the tone of the Iranian leaders was very modified and I was happy to see that but I don't know if that means anything.
"They're great negotiators, they negotiated a phenomenal deal for themselves, but a horrible deal for the United States."
Trump alarmed allies across the Atlantic with a belligerent speech on Friday in which he stopped short of pulling out of the agreement but warned he could do so at any time, restating his belief the deal was letting Iran off the hook.
EU ministers have warned that ditching the deal when Iran has repeatedly been certified as keeping up its end of the bargain would send a signal to North Korea that negotiating with the international community is a waste of time.
Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy head, said Monday she would "be in Washington in early November" to urge US lawmakers not to pull out of the deal, known as the JCPOA, which was negotiated with Iran by the US, Britain, France, China, Germany and Russia.
There is broad support among US lawmakers for fresh pressure on Iran over its continued missile development and subversive activities in the region -- factors that Trump says violate the "spirit" of the agreement.
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Western diplomats say European powers share some of these concerns but believe they should be dealt with in other forums and warn it would be a mistake to sacrifice the nuclear deal.
Tehran has warned such action would mean Washington had broken its end of the bargain, and thus likely signal the end of their own compliance.
Trump's Iran statement on came four months after he moved to pull out of the 196-nation Paris agreement on climate change, signaling a widening gulf between Washington and its closest European allies.
President Donald Trumps decision to halt a series of payments to health insurers could eventually affect millions of Americans who buy coverage through one of the Affordable Care Acts exchanges or on their own, directly from insurers.
But for now, at least, the decision is likely to affect one group in particular. And its not the group you might expect.
The payments, known as cost-sharing reductions, or CSRs, reimburse insurers for special plans they offer to low-income consumers. Those payments, worth $7 billion this year alone, have been the subject of an ongoing legal dispute over whether the federal government has authority to spend that money.
A federal district judge issued an initial ruling blocking the payments in 2015, but an appeal on the case is pending and in the meantime, the president basically gets to decide whether to make the payments. President Barack Obama said yes. Now Trump is saying no.
Because low-income consumers are the primary beneficiaries of the payments Trump just stopped, many politicians and pundits are saying its low-income consumers who will have to pay more for their coverage. Thats not correct. For the time being, the people who end up paying more will tend to be middle- or upper-middle-class consumers.
Thats because, by eliminating those insurance payments, Trump will trigger an increase in another form of financial subsidy that the Affordable Care Act created. And that leads to some counterintuitive results.
How the system is supposed to work
Health insurers selling through one of the Affordable Care Acts exchanges, whether its healthcare.gov or one of the state exchanges like Covered California, offer plans in four different tiers: bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Bronze is the least generous. Its basically a catastrophic plan where, except for three routine doctor visits per year, beneficiaries pay every medical bill until they hit a high deductible. Platinum plans look like a really generous employer plan, with low co-pays and deductibles.
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These plans are available to anyone buying health care on the exchanges. People whose incomes are below 400 percent of the poverty line ($98,400 for a family of four) qualify for tax credits that discount some or all of the premiums. The tax credits get bigger as premiums do, in the hopes of keeping insurance affordable. The formula for determining those tax credits uses the premiums for a typical plan which, for each market, the law defines as the second-cheapest silver plan on the exchanges.
These insurers sell other plans, too among them, a special set of silver plans that come with lower deductibles and co-payments. These are available only to people with incomes below 250 percent of the poverty line, or $61,500 for a family of four. The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to offer these plans, which are more expensive to provide because they cover more. The CSR funds are supposed to reimburse the carriers for that extra cost.
Theres one more kind of plan insurers offer: plans that they sell directly to consumers, through their own websites, or through insurance brokers. On paper, many of these plans look like the ones insurers sell through the exchanges, with one critical difference: People who buy them cant get the tax credits that discount premiums. They will pay the full sticker price, however high it gets. Not surprisingly, most of the people buying coverage this way make too much to qualify for tax credits anyway.
How the system will work now
Thats how everything is supposed to work. But now, thanks to Trump stopping the CSRs, insurers have a problem. By law, they still have to offer those special silver plans with low deductibles and low co-pays to the people who qualify for them. And without the CSRs, they are going to lose money on these plans.
In response, insurers are raising premiums, but not necessarily on all plans. Working with state regulators, the majority of insurers have decided to increase only the prices of their silver plans and in many cases only those plans they sell through the exchanges. (At the moment, nobody has a reliable count of exactly how many.) The tax credits increase right along with the premiums for the silver plans, so people buying them wont have to pay more. Prices for the other plans arent changing.
And heres the truly bizarre part: People who qualify for the premium tax credits can use those tax credits to buy any plan they want. With much bigger tax credits, some of them will discover that a more-generous gold plan costs less than they would pay for a less-generous silver plan.
This setup, which some analysts are calling the silver switcharoo, sounds like a great deal except, perhaps, for taxpayers, because the new federal spending on larger tax credits is likely to exceed any savings from cutting off CSRs. But theres a lot more to the story.
Not every insurer and state is approaching the problem this way. In places where insurers raise premiums on all plans, consumers at higher income levels will certainly end up paying more for equivalent plans and many of them already pay extremely high premiums for their coverage.
The long-term damage Trumps decision could have
To be clear, insurers dont seem particularly happy about this situation. They are losing CSR payments for October, November and December of this year and its too late to increase premiums in response. The big carriers can absorb that pretty easily. They can even sue the government, because the law entitles them to the payments even if Congress never appropriated the funds. But smaller insurers will have a harder time with the losses, and they cant wait two years or more for a case to work its way through the courts.
Regardless, Trumps decision has gotten their attention and not in a good way. Its the clearest signal yet that he has zero interest in making the newly reformed insurance markets work and that, as former White House adviser Steve Bannon admitted over the weekend, Trump is actively trying to blow up the markets.
Providing insurance through the Affordable Care Act has not been an easy endeavor. Healthy people arent enrolling in the numbers everybody had hoped, making it difficult to balance the books. Officials in many states have been uncooperative or downright hostile. And, at the behest of congressional Republicans, the federal government failed to make another set of payments that insurers were supposed to get.
A critical mass of insurers has remained in the program because, as of this year, their financials were finally improving and they could see the makings of the stable, profitable market that the laws architects always envisioned. But that future was dependent on an administration that wanted the program to succeed. The Trump administration feels differently, and insurers will be thinking about that, hard, in the spring when they make their decisions about whether to stay in the program for 2019 and beyond.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
President Donald Trump speaks to the media with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at his side in the White House's Rose Garden on Oct. 16, 2017. (Photo: Yuri Gripas / Reuters)
President Donald Trump on Monday said were not getting the job done a failure that he promptly laid at the feet of his partys lawmakers.
Despite what the press writes, I have great relationships with, actually, many senators, but, in particular, with most Republican senators, Trump told reporters. But were not getting the job done. And Im not going to blame myself. Ill be honest, they are not getting the job done.
As a HuffPost/YouGov survey from mid-September shows, the public has a somewhat different assessment on both those points.
In that poll, just 9 percent of Americans said they believed that Trump had already lived up to his campaign promises, with another 29 percent saying he was eventually likely to do so. The plurality, 43 percent, thought he was unlikely to fulfill the promises.
Of those who didnt expect Trump to meet expectations, two-thirds said it was primarily his fault for being unable to do so. Just 13 percent blamed Congress.
Among all those surveyed, many expressed little faith in the presidents ability to live up to some of the key planks of his campaign: just a quarter thought that Trump already had or would eventually drain the swamp in Washington, with 28 percent believing he had or would succeed at building a border wall and making Mexico pay for it, and barely over a third saying the same about repealing the Affordable Care Act.
A majority, however, credited him with following through on naming a new Supreme Court justice, enacting a travel ban, and allowing the Keystone XL pipeline to proceed. Americans also were likelier than not to think that Trump had or would renegotiate trade deals, bring manufacturing jobs back to the states, and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
Trumps supporters, of course, took a more positive view of his accomplishments. Twenty-two percent believed the president had already lived up to his promises, and 63 percent said that he was still likely to do so. Just a tenth didnt have faith in his ability to follow through with what he promised as a candidate.
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A majority of Trump voters said they had faith that the president had or would live up to all 10 of the specific campaign pledges asked about in the survey, although they were less confident in his ability to drain the swamp, build a wall, deport undocumented immigrants or repeal the ACA than about other promises, such as restoring jobs or making America great again.
Use the widget below to further explore the results of the HuffPost/YouGov survey, using the menu at the top to select survey questions and the buttons at the bottom to filter the data by subgroups:
Despite Trumps claim to have great relationships with GOP legislators, the U.S. public perceives things as more fraught. A second September HuffPost/YouGov poll found that just 42 percent of Trump voters believed most or all congressional Republicans supported the president, down 16 points since mid-July.
More recently, a CBS/YouGov poll found that just 15 percent of Americans and 18 percent of Trump voters agreed that congressional Republicans like Donald Trump and want to help him. Most Americans thought that congressional Republicans were pretending to like Trump to get their agenda across, while a near-majority of Trump voters said that these lawmakers were actively attempting to undermine him.
The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted Sept. 16-17 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGovs opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.
HuffPost has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGovs nationally representative opinion polling. More details on the polls methodology are available here.
Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some, but not all, potential survey errors. YouGovs reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate. Click here for a more detailed explanation of the model-based margin of error.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
It looks like President Donald Trump did not wish the youngest daughter of the Trump family a happy birthday.
Tiffany Trump turned 24 years old on Friday, but the commander-in-chief and the rest of the family did not send best wishes to the birthday girl on social media, despite their regular use of Twitter to share moments from their public and private lives. The Georgetown University law student is the president's only child from his marriage from Marla Maples, his second wife. It's unclear how close she is to sister Ivanka Trump, daughter of Ivana Trump, the president's first wife, or her stepmother, Melania Trump, the president's third wife, but Tiffany Trump did wish her father a happy birthday with an Instagram picture in June.
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Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
While its possible the president wished his daughter a happy birthday in a more personal announcement, he has sent birthday messages to other family members, as well as government entities, on Twitter since moving into the White House. Ivanka, Melania, and Donald Trump Jr. all got birthday wishes via Twitter from the president. Even the U.S Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force and Army received shout-outs from Donald Trump on their birthdays.
Most recently, the president has been bragging about his new executive order on healthcare. Early Saturday morning, Trump took to Twitter to blame Democrats for Obamacare and the rise of health insurance stocks.
Health Insurance stocks, which have gone through the roof during the ObamaCare years, plunged yesterday after I ended their Dems windfall! the president tweeted.
He then followed with up with how great the new executive order on healthcare will be for Americans, claiming it would benefit millions of people in the U.S.
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Very proud of my Executive Order which will allow greatly expanded access and far lower costs for HealthCare. Millions of people benefit! the president tweeted. The order could end up taking away healthcare insurance from millions of sick people by rolling back some of Obamacares protections and actually raise premiums for the healthy Americans.
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Washington (AFP) - Brick by brick, the demolition job has begun: since taking office less than a year ago, Donald Trump has launched an all-out assault on the legacy of Barack Obama.
Climate, free trade, health care, immigration, foreign policy -- the 45th US president has set about undoing just about everything done by the 44th.
All new presidents, of course, break with their predecessor once in the Oval Office, especially if they come from a rival political party.
But what is striking is how systematic the hammer blows to Obama's legacy have been.
And rather than throw his weight behind new policies or projects, Trump has shown a willful desire to unpick, shred and erase everything his predecessor accomplished.
It's worth noting that each time he buries one of the reforms of the man who sat before him at the "Resolute desk," Trump sounds more like a candidate than a president.
- 'Ridiculous trade deals' -
The Trans-Pacific Partnership? Within days of taking office, Trump signed an order pulling America out of the free trade accord, the fruit of eight years of negotiations between 12 Asia-Pacific countries, from Chile to Canada and Japan.
"We're going to stop the ridiculous trade deals that have taken everybody out of our country and taken companies out of our country, and it's going to be reversed," Trump said.
Paradoxically, in signing off on the project's demise, Trump was aligning himself more with the left wing of the Democratic party than with the Republican mainstream.
The Paris climate accord? Obama played a leading role in attaining that milestone in the effort to combat global warming.
Trump pulled out of the agreement signed by 195 countries, claiming that it "punishes the United States" and declaring: "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris."
What about Obamacare, the signature legislative achievement of Obama's first term? After trying in vain to get Congress to repeal it, Trump is now working to bring about its collapse through the regulatory process.
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And the Iranian nuclear accord? The bid to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon in return for a lifting of sanctions more than any other bore came to represent Obama's approach to world affairs.
"This deal will have my name on it," the Democratic president said shortly before it was concluded. "Nobody has a bigger personal stake in making sure that it delivers on its promise."
While Trump has stopped short of tearing up the Iran deal, as he threatened on the campaign trail, on Friday he warned he could do so "at any time," raising doubts about the fate of an accord born of years of painstaking diplomacy.
- A break at any price -
How to explain the fixation on destroying Obama's legacy at all cost?
Trump has held high his determination to fulfill his campaign promises, and give form to a simple slogan: "America First."
And his team recalls, with reason, that Obama acted by decree many times when thwarted by Congress. What has been decided by the stroke of a pen can be undone by the stroke of a pen.
Historian Jeffrey Engel, however, sees no equivalent in recent decades to Trump's systematic application of the simple principle that "if the other guy liked it, it must be bad."
To Engel, the explanation is that Trump's electoral base "never accepted fully Barack Obama as their president."
"There was a move among Obama's opponents to delegitimize him and to say that this man is not really president and consequently anything that he did, Trump's base is ready to get rid of," said Engel, who heads Southern Methodist University's center for presidential history in Dallas, Texas.
A notable fact: Obama has until now remained largely silent as his legacy is demolished.
American tradition, which is generally respected, holds that a former president should remain above the fray.
But, in thinking about his place in history, Obama is also playing the patience card.
"I think that Obama understands that his legacy ultimately will be defined by how America reacts to Trump in the long term and how Trump's successors act," said Engel.
On November 7, 2016, on the eve of the US elections, Obama warned voters "it all goes out the window" if they were to send Trump to the White House.
That attempt to rally Democratic voters now seems prophetic.
In an attempt to defend his lack of public statements about four soldiers killed in Niger, President Trump falsely claimed that previous presidents did not call the families of dead soldiers name-checking former President Barack Obama specifically as one of those who did not.
Ive written them personal letters, Trump said at a press conference. Theyve been sent or theyre going out tonight, but they were written during the weekend. I will at some point during the period of time call the parents and the families, cause I have done that traditionally.
The traditional way, if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didnt make calls, a lot of them didnt make calls, he added.
Four United States Army Special Forces soldiers were killed and two more were injured in an ambush by Islamic extremists earlier this month. Trumps comments notwithstanding, Obama did call the families of fallen soldiers.
Trump was later pressed on the false claim, but he declined to retract it.
I dont know if he did, Trump said of Obama in particular. No, no no. I was told that he didnt often and a lot of presidents dont, they write letters.
I do a combination of both, he continued, referencing both writing letters and calling. Sometimes its a very difficult thing to do, but I do a combination of both. President Obama, I think probably did sometimes and maybe sometimes he didnt, I dont know, thats what I was told.
All I can do, all I can do is ask my generals. Other presidents did not call, theyd write letters. And some presidents didnt do anything. But I like the combination, I like when I can the combination of a call and also a letter.
A former Obama White House official rejected Trumps claim in a statement, saying, President Trumps claim is wrong. President Obama engaged families of the fallen and wounded warriors throughout his presidency through calls, letters, visits to Section 60 at Arlington, visits to Walter Reed, visits to Dover, and regular meetings with Gold Star Families at the White House and across the country.
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White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders was asked on Oct. 6 why Trump had yet to make any statements about the U.S. troops slain in Niger.
I made a statement on behalf of the administration yesterday in the opening, she said, according to a White House transcript. Obviously, anytime one of the members of our great military are injured, wounded, or killed in action, that is certainly something that we take very seriously. Our thoughts and prayers are with those individuals.
On Monday, former Obama aides Alyssa Mastromonaco and Dan Pfeiffer responded on to Trumps claim, calling him a deranged animal and a deeply disturbed ignoramus who is a pathological liar, respectively. Another former Obama staffer, Ben Rhodes, also condemned the outrageous and disrespectful lie.
that's a fucking lie. to say president obama (or past presidents) didn't call the family members of soldiers KIA he's a deranged animal. Alyssa Mastromonaco (@AlyssaMastro44) October 16, 2017
Trump is a deeply disturbed ignoramus who is a pathological liar, but Mitch McConnell is cool with it cuz tax cuts or something https://t.co/8GwjnD3t9b Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) October 16, 2017
Now hes lying about his own lie https://t.co/P79tUbezq3 Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) October 16, 2017
The President has denied allegations of sexual assault: Reuters / Kevin Lamarque
A woman who says Donald Trump groped her is attempting to get all documents from the Presidents 2016 campaign that mention sexual assault.
Summer Zervos, who publicly accused Mr Trump of forcibly kissing and grabbing her while she was a contestant on The Apprentice, is suing the President and attempting to subpoena any documents mentioning the sexual assault allegations. Subpoenas are legal directives from courts that force compliance with requests.
Ms Zervos came forward with her story about Mr Trump last year just weeks before the election, and following the publication of the infamous Access Hollywood tape. Mr Trump appears to brag about sexually assaulting women in the tape, while speaking about the perks of fame. The Trump campaign denied Ms Zervos claims, and pushed back saying the allegations were untrue.
Ms Zervos then sued the Presidents campaign for defamation, and her lawyers served the Trump campaign a subpoena, asking that they not delete any documents that pertain to Ms Zervos or the many other women who came forward with sexual assault allegations against Mr Trump, Buzzfeed reports.
The subpoena wasnt added to court files until last month, when Ms Zervos lawyers a group that includes Gloria Allred filed the document following a dispute that the subpoena was too broad.
Mr Trump has denied sexually assaulting women last year, and issued a statement denying that anything happened to the women who accused him of assault. His lawyers have sought to have the lawsuit dismissed.
His lawyers will be required to respond to the subpoena before the end of the month.
We are hopeful that the court will deny President Trumps motion to dismiss, so that we may move forward with discovery and obtain relevant documents and testimony. Ms Allred said in a statement.
President Donald Trump joked that Vice President Mike Pence wants to hang all gay people, according to a profile of Pence published in The New Yorker on Monday.
The article, entitled The Danger of President Pence, details various viewpoints held by the socially conservative vice president that clash with Trumps. Two sources told the magazine that Trump has teased Pence about his positions on religion, abortion and the LGBTQ community.
A longtime associate of Trump and Pence was quoted in the article saying that the president likes to let his VP know whos boss and that Trump asks people who stop by Pences office, Did Mike make you pray?
(Photo: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)
After a legal adviser told Trump and Pence that many states would probably legalize abortion if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Trump was said to have turned to Pence:
You see? Trump asked Pence. Youve wasted all this time and energy on it, and its not going to end abortion anyway.
When that meeting shifted to discuss gay rights, according to the article, Trump pointed to Pence and joked, Dont ask that guy he wants to hang them all!
Pences press secretary, Alyssa Farah, told Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson that the New Yorker article was filled with unsubstantiated, unsourced claims that are untrue and offensive. It was unclear whether Farahs statement specifically addressed Trumps joke.
VP office on Trump hang the gays joke:"The New Yorker piece is filled with unsubstantiated, unsourced claims that are untrue and offensive." pic.twitter.com/0QTXlJ3Cvh Chris Johnson (@chrisjohnson82) October 16, 2017
Pences views on equal rights have long stirred concern in the LGBTQ community. As Indiana governor, he signed his states Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2015, which essentially gave businesses the right to refuse to serve gay people. He has supported so-called gay conversion therapy and has been called one of the most anti-LGBT politicians out there.
Story continues
This piece has been updated to include comment from the vice presidents office.
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American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): We will see him in court.
The ACLU fights every day to defend religious freedom, but religious freedom does not mean the right to discriminate against or harm others. If President Trump signs an executive order that attempts to provide a license to discriminate against women or LGBT people, we will see him in court. -- ACLU Deputy Legal Director Louise Melling
GLSEN: It is un-American to make anyones basic rights subject to the personal discretion of others.
This executive order does not increase freedom of religion already protected by our Constitution it creates a license to discriminate against LGBTQ people, women, Muslims, people of color, and other marginalized groups. For at-risk youth, this EO could undermine crucial safeguards against discrimination that create opportunities for them to survive and succeed. It is un-American to make anyones basic rights subject to the personal discretion of others. It also goes against the rule of law and core principle of equal protection and would surely be challenged in the courts. Just 100 days ago, Donald Trump said he would not discriminate against LGBTQ people. Today, hes reportedly on the verge of handing all of our fellow Americans a personal license to ignore our rights." -- GLSEN Executive Director, Dr. Eliza Byard
Human Rights Campaign (HRC): By even considering this discriminatory order he has broken his promise.
Donald Trumps rumored unconstitutional action is nothing more than a license-to-discriminate order that puts millions of LGBTQ people at risk. There is no religious freedom crisis in America today, but there is a crisis of hate and discrimination. At a time when two-thirds of all LGBTQ people report having experienced discrimination, Donald Trump is making the problem worse by giving legal cover to perpetrators. By even considering this discriminatory order he has broken his promise to be a president for all Americans. -- Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin
National LGBTQ Task Force: It trashes the separation of church and state and aims to combine them.
This executive order will be a charter for widespread and divisive discrimination, potentially against LGBTQ people, women, Muslim communities, and other marginalized communities. It is designed to destroy lives and roll-back fundamental rights. It trashes the separation of church and state and aims to combine them. It will have an immediate and chilling impact on every aspect of peoples lives, disproportionately impacting those who are low-income or otherwise marginalized. What will be shocking to millions of people of all faiths and secular people alike is that Trump radically twists freedom of, and freedom from, religion to justify this amoral action. In fact, the research shows that 61 percent of people of faith in America actually support LGBTQ inclusion and 59 percent of those are against religious exemptions." -- National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund Executive Director Rea Carey
Center For American Progress: CAP sees this for what it is: a license to discriminate.
"If media reports are accurate, President Trump isonce againon the verge of signing an executive order to sanction sweeping taxpayer-funded discrimination against LGBT people, women, and their families in blatant violation of Trumps promise to protect our LGBT citizens. If the executive order is anything like the draft leaked in February, it would give for-profit corporations free rein to discriminate, leading to LGBT people and women being fired from their jobs, evicted from their homes, or even denied medical care simply because of who they are. The Trump administration is attempting to disguise this attack in the language of religious liberty, but CAP sees this for what it is: a license to discriminate." -- Executive Vice President for External Affairs at the Center for American Progress Winnie Stachelberg
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
President Trump wants a rematch in 2020.
I was recently asked if Crooked Hillary Clinton is going to run in 2020? Trump tweeted Monday. My answer was, I hope so!
Clinton recently declared that she is done with being a candidate.
Although nearly a year has passed since Election Day, Trump and Clinton still cant seem to resist sniping at one another publicly. Trump was irked by a spate of interviews Clinton gave to promote her book What Happened, which gives an account of the 2016 presidential campaign.
After Trump commented that Clinton blames everybody (and everything) but herself for losing the election, Clinton retorted with an offer to send the commander-in-chief a copy of the childrens version of her book on child-rearing, It Takes a Village.
More recently, on Saturday, Clinton compared Trump to Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood producer accused of sexual harassment and assault. In an interview with the United Kingdoms Channel 4 News, Clinton was asked whether she had heard rumors about Weinstein, a prominent Democratic donor.
Look, we just elected someone who admitted sexual assault to the presidency, Clinton said, referencing the Access Hollywood tape. So theres a lot of other issues that are swirling around these kinds of behaviors that need to be addressed.
At a press conference Monday, Trump was asked about his tweets, as well as Clintons recent contention that professional athletes who demonstrate during the national anthem are not against our anthem or the flag.
Oh, I hope Hillary runs, Trump affirmed. Is she going to run? I hope. Hillary, please run again!
The president added Clintons statement was indicative of why she lost the election.
Thats why she lost the election, Trump said. Honestly, its that thinking, that is the reason she lost the election.
I mean, look, there are a lot of reasons why she didnt win, including the fact that she was not good at what she did, but I will tell you, that is something that I just heard about, and I think that her statement in itself is very disrespectful to our country, he added.
Read more from Yahoo News:
President Donald Trumps decision to end a provision of the Affordable Care Act will most impact the core support that carried him to the presidency, according to new research.
Nearly 70 percent of those affected by Trumps executive order last week ending cost-sharing reduction subsidies live in states that voted for him last November, according to new research by the Associated Press.
The White House announced on Thursday that it was stopping subsidies that were provided by the federal government to help provide medical insurance for low income Americans.
The research shows the political risk being taken by Trump in his bid to end Obamacare, with the president likely to face blame for the move which is expected to sharply increase insurance costs.
Americans Don't Want Donald Trump to Sabotage Obamacare
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
According to research cited by AP by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the provision in the bill ended last week benefited 6 million Americans, with 4 million of them living in the 30 states Trump won in the election.
Of the 10 states that benefit most from the subsidy, all but one voted for Trump. Among those most affected will be Mississippi, Florida and Arkansas.
Some Republicans have expressed concern about the potential impact of the move at the ballot box.
I think the president is ill-advised to take this course of action, because we, at the end of the day, will own this, Republican Congressman Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania said Friday on CNN. We, the Republican Party, will own this.
Trumps bid to fulfill his campaign promise to repeal Obamacare has come unstuck in Congress, with the White House failing to secure the support required in the GOP backed House and Senate. The president had threatened to end the subsidies before acting Thursday.
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Ankara (AFP) - The Turkish government on Monday backed a fifth extension of the state of emergency imposed after last year's failed coup, which critics claim is being used to target opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The emergency was extended by another three months as part of the country's fight against terror organisations, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said.
Bozdag told reporters in Ankara after a cabinet meeting that the decision was taken to protect the country's "democracy, rule of law and rights and freedoms of our citizens".
The extension was a formality after the National Security Council (MGK) meeting chaired by Erdogan at his presidential palace in Ankara recommended the move.
The decision will now go to parliament to be formally ratified.
The emergency first came into force less than a week after the attempted overthrow of Erdogan on July 15, 2016 and has been used to crack down on those suspected of links to the group blamed for the coup bid, but also outlawed Kurdish militants.
Critics say the emergency has also been used to target government opponents including critical journalists as well as pro-Kurdish critics.
Four extensions -- in October 2016, and January, April and July this year -- have all been for a period of three months. The previous extension was due to end on Thursday.
The emergency gives broad powers to the executive, allowing the Turkish president and his cabinet to rule by decree.
More than 50,000 people have been arrested over suspected links to the movement led by US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused by the government of ordering the failed coup.
Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, strongly denies Ankara's claims.
Meanwhile, at least 140,000 people have been sacked or suspended from the public sector including teachers, judges and civil servants through emergency decrees published in the Official Gazette.
Isnilon Hapilon, seen here in an Isil video, was among the FBI's most-wanted terror suspects - APTN
Islamic States emir in Southeast Asia Isnilon Hapilon has been killed in offensive by Philippine troops, the countrys defence secretary claimed on Monday.
His death deals a blow to Isils reported ambition to create a regional base to carry out terrorist activities across Asia.
Minster Delfin Lorenza said Hapilon had been killed alongside Omar Maute, leader of the Isil-linked Maute group, during a final push to retake the southern Muslim city of Marawi, which has been besieged by Islamist militants since May.
We have received a report from AFP ground commanders in Marawi that the operationhas resulted in the death of the last terrorist leaders Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute, and that their bodies have been recovered by our operating units, he said in a statement.
He added that the termination of the five month battle would be confirmed when government forces were sure there were no more terrorist-stragglers and had cleared buildings of IEDs and booby traps. So far 822 militants, 162 troops and 47 civilians have been killed.
FBI wanted poster for Isnilon Hapilon Credit: FBI
Over 360,000 civilians have been forced to flee the fighting, with many currently living in temporary camps across the southern province of Mindanao. Over one third of the cities buildings have been destroyed by fierce fighting and military airstrikes.
Hapilon, 51, rose to prominence when he was endorsed as Isil emir in 2016. He was already the commander of the local Abu Sayyaf terrorist group and wanted for piracy and beheadings.
Abu Sayyaf is responsible for the beheadings of Canadians Robert Hall and John Ridsdel, and of German tourist Jurgen Kanter, 71, who was murdered earlier this year.
Hapilon fought alongside the Isil-inspired Maute group to capture Marawi, with Isil appealing for Muslim brothers in East Asia to join the jihad.
Both Hapilon and Omar Maute have been declared dead before. Maute was reportedly killed in June, but it was later discovered that he had only been injured. Hapilon was said to have died in battle in a battle in Basilan a few years ago, when, in fac,t it was his son.
Meanwhile, the Philippines has announced it will join neighbouring Indonesia and Malaysia in coordinated air patrols to combat the growing threat posed by Islamist militants.
By Jan Wolfe and Michael Erman (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday invalidated patents on Allergan Plc's dry-eye medicine Restasis on grounds that the patents cover ideas that are obvious, sending shares of the pharmaceutical company down 3.5 percent. Judge William Bryson issued the ruling in federal court in Marshall, Texas, in a longstanding dispute between Allergan and generic drugmakers Mylan NV, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Akorn Inc. Bryson said a group of patents Allergan obtained on Restasis, which are set to expire in 2024, should not have been granted because they describe methods of treatment that were obvious in light of earlier patents granted to the company. Allergan said it was disappointed and plans an appeal of the ruling, which would enable the generic drug companies to sell their own versions of Restasis. The drug generated around $1.5 billion in sales for Allergan last year and accounted for more than 10 percent of the company's revenue. Bryson also criticized Allergan's recent deal to transfer the patents to a Native American tribe, which the company has said was an effort to protect them from administrative review by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, not challenges in federal court. "What Allergan seeks is the right to continue to enjoy the considerable benefits of the U.S. patent system without accepting the limits that Congress has placed on those benefits," Bryson wrote of the deal. U.S. lawmakers from both political parties have criticized the drugmaker's maneuver. Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill drafted a bill in response to the move and a U.S. House of Representatives committee is investigating the deal. Allergan said on Sept. 8 that it transferred the patents to New York's Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, which agreed to exclusively license them back to the company in exchange for ongoing payments. The tribe and Allergan argue that the patents are not subject to the patent office's review because of the tribe's sovereign immunity. Bryson said he believed Allergan's deal with the tribe was a "ploy" and that he had "serious concerns" about its legitimacy. After the ruling, Allergan's stock price dropped as much as 6.5 percent to a session low of $192.22. It later pared losses to close at $198.41, down 3.5 percent. Wells Fargo analyst David Maris said he believes the ruling had largely already been priced in to the company's shares as Allergan's market value has dropped around $9 billion since early September due in part to worries about the Restasis patents. He also said he does not expect a generic version of the drug to launch until 2019, because an appeal could take 12 to 18 months and none of the generic drugmakers currently have an approved version ready to launch. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Matthew Lewis)
London (AFP) - British police are investigating allegations that US film mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted a second woman in London, the Press Association news agency reported Sunday.
Scotland Yard, which was already probing one allegation made by one woman against Weinstein, is now looking at three further allegations made by a second woman, PA said, citing sources.
"On October 11, Merseyside Police referred an allegation of sexual assault to the Metropolitan Police Service," Scotland Yard said in a statement received by AFP.
"It is alleged that a man sexually assaulted a woman (victim 1) in the late 1980s in west London.
"On October 14, further allegations were made against the same man. It is alleged that the man sexually assaulted a woman (victim 2) in Westminster in 2010 and 2011, and in Camden in 2015," both areas in London.
"Officers from the Met's Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command are investigating the allegations. There has been no arrest at this stage."
The British police do not name suspects who have not been charged.
An avalanche of claims have surfaced since the publication last week of an explosive report by The New York Times newspaper alleging a history of abusive behaviour by Weinstein dating back decades.
Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
Weinstein's films have received more than 300 Oscar nominations and 81 statuettes, according to The Weinstein Company, which he co-founded after selling Miramax.
Damaged building are pictured during the fighting with Islamic State's fighters in the old city of Raqqa - REUTERS
US-backed forces have commenced their assault on the last Isil-held districts of Raqqa after hundreds of Isil fighters and their families surrendered or fled the group's self-proclaimed capital.
In the hours preceding Sundays final push on Raqqa, some 275 militants and their families surrendered to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition of Arab and Kurdish militias operating with hands-on US support.
A day earlier, under an agreement brokered by local tribesmen and members of the Raqqa Civil Council, a convoy of fighters and civilians left the city for areas still controlled by the jihadi group: parts of Syria's Deir el-Zour province and Iraq's Anbar province, and a scattering of pockets elsewhere.
Both deals aimed to limit the number of casualties in the days to come and reduce the possibility of civilians being used as human shields.
Raqqa, the first Syrian city to fall to Isil, has witnessed some of the jihadist groups most obscene brutality.
The battle for Raqqa
As the self-styled capital of Isils so-called caliphate, it also drew scores of would-be fighters from across the West and the Arab world.
Some of these men are reported to have slipped out of Raqqa in Saturdays convoy, but the SDF and local activists say most of the foreign fighters remain in Raqqa, ready to fight to the end.
They are believed to include a French or Belgian national who planned the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people and injured hundreds more, said Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Mr Abdurrahman said the man was also behind an attack in Belgium in 2016.
The operation to wrest Raqqa from the jihadists grip began in June and coalition planners say they now control all but 10 per cent of the city.
"We still expect there to be difficult fighting," said Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US-led international coalition.
As of last week, an estimated 4,000 civilians were thought to still be inside Isil-controlled Raqqa.
Washington (AFP) - Washington is "not taking sides" following clashes between Iraqi forces and the country's Kurds, US President Donald Trump said Monday, as tensions escalate following the autonomous Kurdish region's independence referendum.
Speaking after Iraqi troops and tanks swept across the northern province capturing oil and military targets from the Kurds and seizing the governor's office in Kirkuk city, Trump made clear he was not going to inject himself into the dispute between two US allies in the fight against the Islamic State group.
"We're not taking sides, but we don't like the fact that they're clashing," Trump told journalists. "We've had for many years a very good relationship with the Kurds.
"We've also been on the side of Iraq," he said, "but we're not taking sides in that battle."
The Kurdish independence referendum last month and the Iraqi backlash follows a long-simmering conflict between the two sides over the Kurds' desire for more autonomy, if not their own state on the border with Turkey.
The State Department said the US is "very concerned" by the violence and urged "all parties to avoid provocations that can be exploited by Iraq's enemies who are interested in fueling ethnic and sectarian conflict," emphasizing in particular the Islamic State group.
In a statement, agency spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US supports "the peaceful exercise of joint administration by the central and regional governments, consistent with the Iraqi Constitution, in all disputed areas."
At the Pentagon, spokesman Colonel Rob Manning told journalists that US forces were neither taking part nor providing support to either side in the Kirkuk standoff.
"While we support a unified Iraq, we do not support both sides going out at each other," he said.
"We oppose violence from any party and urge against destabilizing actions that distract from the fight against ISIS," Manning added, using the usual US abbreviation for IS.
Story continues
He called the decision to hold the referendum "unfortunate" and urged dialogue and actions based on the Iraqi constitution.
"We continue to support a unified Iraq," he said.
Manning confirmed that here were US troops deployed with both sides' armies in the Kirkuk region, but would not say how many.
By Alexandra Ulmer and Deisy Buitrago CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition cried foul on Monday over the ruling socialists' surprise win in gubernatorial elections, raising the prospect of more foreign sanctions against the country as France and the United States both criticized the vote. President Nicolas Maduro's candidates took 17 governorships, versus five for the opposition, in Sunday's nationwide poll, according to the pro-government electoral board. The socialists' strong showing came despite devastating food shortages, triple-digit inflation, and a collapsing currency. Polls had suggested the opposition would easily win a majority. Dismayed leaders of the Democratic Unity coalition decried irregularities, called for street action, and demanded an audit, but they did not offer detailed evidence of fraud. "Neither Venezuelans nor the world will swallow this fiction," said opposition campaign chief Gerardo Blyde. One losing candidate, Carlos Ocariz who ran for Miranda state, alleged a litany of abuses ranging from multiple voting, state food handouts on the day of the poll, forced attendance at gunpoint, and suspicious phone and power outages. Opposition leaders also said the election board skewed the poll by moving several hundred vote centers out of their strongholds, and confused people by keeping the names of opposition candidates eliminated in primaries on the ballot. "The system is totally fraudulent," said Ocariz. Many dispirited opposition supporters now hope foreign pressure will hurt Maduro. The United States on Monday condemned the elections as neither free nor fair and vowed to keep up pressure on Maduro. "As long as the Maduro regime conducts itself as an authoritarian dictatorship, we will work with members of the international community and bring the full weight of American economic and diplomatic power to bear in support of the Venezuelan people as they seek to restore their democracy," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. The Trump administration has already imposed sanctions on Maduro and top officials, including election board head Tibisay Lucena. Washington has also struck at the government's ability to raise more funds via foreign debt. The European Union could also take measures against Maduro, a former bus driver and foreign minister narrowly elected to replace the late leader Hugo Chavez in 2013. France, whose President Emmanuel Macron has also called Venezuela a dictatorship, expressed concern at claims of "serious irregularities" and "lack of transparency". 2018 PRESIDENTIAL VOTE EYED Sunday's disputed results will likely dash opposition hopes the unpopular Maduro can be removed in next year's presidential election, and could worsen disagreements over strategy in the perennially divided opposition coalition. Venezuela's government does retain significant support in poorer, rural settings. And it seems unlikely that supporters of the elite-led opposition, which has struggled to capitalize on discontent over the economy, will return to the streets en masse after months of grueling protests earlier this year. The actions failed to pressure the government into holding an early presidential election, freeing scores of jailed activists or accepting foreign humanitarian aid. At least 125 people died, while thousands were injured and arrested in violence. "Obviously, this was a brutal fraud," said David Osorio, 21, who lost an eye when he was hit by a gas cannister in the clashes. "But I don't know if going back to the streets is best ... because the same will happen and many are simply not willing." Various opposition leaders acknowledged disillusionment and people staying home had played a big role. "We shot ourselves in the foot," legislator Jose Guerra said, noting record turnout of 74 percent in a 2015 congress vote, which the opposition won, versus 61 percent on Sunday. The opposition's electoral setback could further speed a flow of emigrants to other Latin American countries, Spain, and the United States, as many Venezuelans now fear the long-running political crisis will drag on for years. 'WHEN THEY LOSE, THEY CRY FRAUD' Flanked by his powerful wife, soldiers, and red-shirted party members, a jubilant Maduro painted the opposition as sore losers. "When they lose they cry fraud. When they win they shout 'Down with Maduro,'" said Maduro, 54. The opposition pocketed governorships including the turbulent Andean states of Merida and Tachira and the oil-producing region of Zulia. The government, which had previously controlled 20 governorships, took states across Venezuela's languid plains and steamy Caribbean coast. It won back populous Miranda state, which includes part of the capital Caracas, and also won in Barinas, Chavez's home state, where his younger brother retained the top job. Results for one of the 23 states, southern Bolivar, were still not given by Monday afternoon, though on Sunday the board's website briefly gave it to the opposition. The opposition has denounced fraud in past votes, but it has lacked substantial detailed evidence and there were no conventional foreign observer missions for Sunday's election. (Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne, Andreina Aponte, Diego Ore, Eyanir Chinea, Corina Pons, Girish Gupta in Caracas, Isaac Urrutia in Maracaibo and Arshad Mohammed in Washington D.C.; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer and Girish Gupta; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Tom Brown)
Hanging behind the desk of Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian foreign minister who led his party to victory in Sundays elections, there is a massive artwork that dominates the room. It consists of a map of Europe, nearly as big as the wall it hangs on, covered in black sketches of young people lounging around or going for walks in a modern city. Only after staring at the work for a moment does one realize that the map is upside down.
Early this February, when Kurz sat for an interview with TIME at his office at the Foreign Ministry, he left a similar impression on your correspondent. On the surface he seemed like the image of a young, confident and easy-going European. But after listening to him speak, it was clear that he does not shy from turning European politics on its head. Many of my supporters, he told me, They want to change the system, and they are not in favor of the establishment.
It was a fitting description of how Kurz a conservative from one of Europes oldest and stodgiest parties managed to win in an era of ballot-box insurgencies: he styled himself as one of the insurgents. Early results suggested on Monday that his center-right Peoples Party won 31% of the vote, while its most likely coalition partner in the next government, the far-right Freedom Party, got 27%. The outcome caps an incredible rise to power for Kurz, who was only 24 years old when he became a government minister in 2011. Now 31, he is set to be the youngest Chancellor in Austrias history and the youngest elected leader in the world.
One of the qualities that aided his career, he says, is a kind of political flexibility that rejects the old boundaries between the right and the left. Like many of his peers in European politics, he tends to pick his policies based on what works and whats popular, regardless of whether it fits with the standard vision of his party. Its a question of evidence-based politics, he says. If you know that something does not work, you should not keep doing it.
Over the last two years, this approach has sometimes brought him into conflict with the leaders of the E.U., whose authority he has been willing to subvert in the name of getting things done for Austria. His greatest political victory took place early in 2016, when he devised a scheme to close the E.U.s borders to migrants and refugees. Rather than wait for the E.U. to reach consensus on how to deal with the refugee crisis of 2015, Kurz negotiated with several countries outside the E.U. most importantly Macedonia and Serbia in order to close the so-called Balkan route, which more than a million asylum seekers had used to reach Western Europe that year.
As Kurz puts it, I started to cooperate not in the whole E.U. but with our Western Balkan friends. The result was a diplomatic coup for Austria, and its young Foreign Minister was still beaming over it when we met a year later. With a nod to other European statesman and, in particular, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he said: They thought they would follow the right path with the policy of open borders, and they now have to inform people that this was a mistake.
But Kurzs move to close the gates of Europe came with some painful drawbacks. Tens of thousands of migrants, mostly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, wound up stranded in squalid camps in northern Greece once the borders toward Western Europe were shut. It was a major blow to E.U. morale. If these tactics will go on, this will set a fire to the base of the Union, Dimitris Vitsas, the Greek Defense Ministry official who was in charge of dealing with the fallout from the border closures, told me at the time.
In Brussels, too, Kurz did not win many friends with his gambit in the Balkans. The E.U. was trying at the time to negotiate a separate agreement with Turkey, one that would slow the influx of migrants without leaving Greece or any other E.U. members in the lurch. When asked whether Kurz had been helpful on these efforts, the E.U.s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, grew visibly annoyed. Dont go into that conversation, she told me when we spoke in February. I dont like at all the terminology of closing of the borders, because our borders are not closed. We manage the flows. We dont build walls.
But whether she liked it or not, a series of closed borders is exactly what refugees faced when they reached the Balkans early last year. As part of the agreement that Kurz negotiated, Austrian police were even dispatched to Macedonia to help secure those borders. For Kurz, it was one of the defining victories of his tenure, and he has no regrets. Closing the borders was necessary, he says, in order to stop an endless flow of migrants from risking their lives on the flimsy boats they use to reach European shores. As for the question of E.U. solidarity, he says it was already in tatters by the time he set out to close the borders. For most E.U. countries [the refugee crisis] was not a problem, Kurz said. Most of them said that its a problem for Austria, Germany, Sweden, but not for us.
Thats why he decided to go it alone, and in the process he set an important precedent. He showed that when the E.U. fails to build consensus within its ranks, some of its members might simply decide to go rogue, forming ad hoc alliances that ignore the interests of their fellow E.U. nations. This approach seemed to do wonders for the young diplomats popularity at home. It allowed him to show that regardless of the pressure he might face from Brussels, he is willing to act unilaterally on the global stage guided only by what he perceives to be Austrias interests.
Tomato plants, Tang, and dehydrated ice cream (or maybe not) all come to mind when thinking of the unlikely things NASA has blasted into Earth's orbit over the decades.
But a fidget spinner?
Watch: Jimmy Carter Actually Filed a UFO Report with NASA Before Becoming President
Apparently even the amusingly useless trend toy can serve a scientific purpose in the right situation.
And that situation was aboard the International Space Station, where American astronaut Randolph Bresnick recorded a video of the spinner as it spun... and spun and spun and spun.
So when did it stop? Unclear, Bresnick said.
"A fidget spinner in space! How long does it spin? I'm not sure, but its a great way to experiment with Newtons laws of motion!" the astronaut wrote in a Twitter post that accompanied the video.
Other ISP residents got in on the action, even spinning themselves in zero gravity along with the NASA-branded toy.
When not conducting space walks or other scientific endeavors, Bresnick has found time for fun before.
Watch: NASA Scientists Reveal Water Has Been Found on Mars
Not long after posting the fidget spinner video, he posted a photo of himself eating "Astro Banana Pudding with a smattering of space dark chocolate sauce!"
Back in September, Bresnick showed off to followers some balloon animals he created while in orbit. "What do you do when your 7 and 11 year-old children ask you if you have pets in space?... you make them of course!" he wrote at the time.
Watch: Trump, Obama and NASA Mourn John Glenn as Footage of His Final Public Appearance Emerges
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COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Wild elephants trampled sleeping Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in the early hours of Saturday, killing three children and a woman in the second such incident since the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Myanmar in just a few weeks. Many trees on the forested hills of Balukhali in southern Bangladesh, where the incident took place, have been chopped down to house the massive influx of Rohingya Muslims escaping violence in neighboring Myanmar. Tarpaulin and bamboo shelters have been built on elephant walkways in some areas, sparking environmental concerns, as the country struggles to accommodate an unprecedented number of people. Besides those killed, four refugees from neighboring tents were injured and were in critical condition at Sadar Hospital in Cox's Bazar, the town's additional superintendent of police Afrujul Hoque Totul told Reuters. At the refugee camp, cooking utensils the family had brought from Myanmar lay crushed under a jumble of bamboo sticks and clothes. Abdul Sukoor, 30, whose tent on the edge of the camp was also trampled, said he and his family managed to escape when they heard the screams of other refugees as the elephants approached. He is now moving to a tent further inside the camp, but said he was still worried. "We have to be constantly alert at night," he said. More than 530,000 refugees from Myanmar have fled to Bangladesh over the last two months since attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts triggered a Myanmar army operation that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing. (Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui and Nurul Islam in Cox's Bazar; Editing by Ros Russell)
Woody Allen has publicly weighed in on the sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein, calling the reports sad for all who have been impacted including the embattled Hollywood producer.
The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved, Allen told the BBC. Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that [his] life is so messed up.Theres no winners in that, its just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that.
Allen did, however, express reservations that Weinsteins behavior could lead to a witch hunt of sorts. You also dont want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a woman is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. Thats not right either, he said.
Earlier this month, the New York Times published an explosive report detailing three decades of sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein, causing his company to terminate him three days later. Shortly after, the Times published more reports of sexual harassment against Weinstein, this time from high-profile figures like Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow. That same day, the New Yorker published its own report, with three women claiming Weinstein had raped them. A spokesperson for Weinstein denied any allegations of non-consensual sex in response to both reports.
Allen has a connection to this story that stems beyond his work with Weinstein in Hollywood his son, Ronan Farrow, authored and reported the story in the New Yorker. Nearly three decades ago, Allen was accused of sexually molesting Ronans sibling Dylan, who spoke out about the situation in 2014. Allen always denied the claims and was never charged.
Allen also told the BBC that, while rumors always percolate in Hollywood, he had never heard anything about Weinstein like the allegations that have emerged. No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness, he told the BBC. And they wouldnt, because you are not interested in it. You are interested in making your movie.
Woody Allen says he feels 'sad' for Harvey Weinstein - Getty Images North America
Woody Allen says he feels sad for messed up film producer Harvey Weinstein over the numerous sex assault allegations he faces.
The American filmmaker told the BBC theres no winners from the allegations, adding it was sad for everybody involved.
Weinstein, who has been sacked by his own company and expelled by the Oscars board, also faces several allegations of rape, all of which he has strenuously denied.
Allen, who has worked with Weinstein on a number of films, said he had heard rumours about the producer, but added: No one ever came to me or told me horror stories with any real seriousness.
And they wouldn't because you are not interested in it. You are interested in making a movie.
But you do hear some fanciful rumours all the time. And some turn out to be true and some - many - are just stories about this actress, or that actor.
Harvey Weinstein faces numerous sexual assault allegations Credit: Reuters
He continued: The whole Harvey Weinstein thing is very sad for everybody involved.
Tragic for the poor women that were involved, sad for Harvey that his life is so messed up.
Theres no winners in that, its just very, very sad and tragic for those poor women that had to go through that.
Allen said he hoped the revelations would lead to "some amelioration", but added: You don't want it to lead to a witch hunt atmosphere, a Salem atmosphere, where every guy in an office who winks at a women is suddenly having to call a lawyer to defend himself. Thats not right either.
But sure, you hope that something like this could be transformed into a benefit for people rather than just a sad or tragic situation.
Paris (AFP) - World leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada and France on Sunday strongly condemned the weekend suicide bombing in Somalia, the worst attack in the country to date with at least 137 deaths.
Saturday's blast occurred at a junction in Hodan, a bustling commercial district of the capital Mogadishu which has many shops, hotels and businesses. Hundreds of people had been in the area at the time of the blast.
The United States condemned the bombing "in the strongest terms" in a statement released by the State Department.
Washington "will continue to stand with the Somali government, its people, and our international allies to combat terrorism and support their efforts to achieve peace, security, and prosperity," the statement added.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said his country "condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly attacks in Mogadishu, which have claimed so many innocent lives".
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: "Solidarity with Somalia. Support to the African Union against Islamist terrorist groups. France stands by your side".
"The attacks in Somalia are horrifying & Canada condemns them strongly. We mourn with the Canadian Somali community today," Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission asked the government "to show renewed unity at this critical time and overcome divisions, to rebuild cohesion at all levels of the federal institutions."
It said the pan-African body, which has deployed a peacekeeping mission in the east African country, would "continue its support to the Somali government and people in their efforts to achieve sustainable peace and security."
Police official Ibrahim Mohamed told AFP that the death toll could rise further "because there are more than 300 wounded, some of them seriously".
He described the bombing as "the deadliest attack ever."
Story continues
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara was sending planes "with medical supplies", adding that the wounded would be flown to Turkey and treated there.
He did not specify numbers.
Turkey is a leading donor and investor in Somalia. In September, it inaugurated the largest foreign-run military training centre in Somalia, where local troops are due to take over the protection of a nation threatened by Shabaab jihadists.
There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Shabaab, a militant group aligned with Al-Qaeda, has carried out dozens of suicide bombings in its bid to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government.
The fragile government and institutions, including its national army, are backed by the African Union's 22,000-strong AMISOM force and powers like the United States.
But the gradual withdrawal of the AMISOM troops is due to start in October 2018 and doubts persist over the readiness of Somali forces to confront the Qaeda-aligned Shabaab.
burs-ach/su/pvh/ceb
(Reuters) - A New Jersey man was found guilty by a federal jury in New York on Monday of planting two bombs in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood in September 2016, one of which exploded and wounded 30 people.
Ahmad Khan Rahimi, a 29-year-old U.S. citizen who was born in Afghanistan, faces a mandatory life sentence in prison after his conviction on charges including using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a public place.
(Reporting by Anthony Lin; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
DETROIT - In an auto industry race to develop electric vehicle batteries that charge faster and are cheaper and safer than lithium-ion cells, startup Zap&Go will do all that with its carbon-ion alternative 'within a few years', a company executive said. Oxford, England-based Zap&Go will begin production of its carbon-ion battery in 2018, in partnership with Chinese lithium-ion battery maker Li-Fun Technology Co Ltd. Its first application - an electric scooter that charges in five minutes - is also due to launch next year.
But, like other startups and universities exploring faster charging, more stable alternatives, Zap&Go's technology doesn't yet quite match up to the performance of lithium-ion.
"Today it's a developing technology, so it's not as good," Zap&Go's chief executive Stephen Voller told Reuters on Monday. "But our plan over the next few years is to meet or exceed lithium-ion."
Policymakers in China and elsewhere are pushing a shift to electric cars over the next two to three decades. Automakers from General Motors to Toyota are rushing to develop them, but the time required to charge vehicles remains an issue for consumers.
Electric vehicle makers have cut lithium-ion charging time to 30 minutes for a partial charge, but Voller said his firm's batteries - made using a nanocarbon - are being designed to fully charge in five minutes. That would allow consumers to refuel as quickly as they fill cars up with gasoline.
Other companies are also chasing lithium-ion alternatives. Last month, Israel's StoreDot raised $60 million in a third round of financing led by German automaker Daimler AG's truck division. StoreDot says its batteries - using nanomaterials and proprietary organic compounds - can fully charge any electric vehicle in five minutes.
But auto industry executives are wary of breakthrough battery claims. Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk said on the luxury electric carmaker's second-quarter earnings call that there are "some interesting things on the horizon, but ... it's not like it suddenly pops out of nowhere."
Zap&Go, which licensed its original patents from the University of Oxford, has raised $13 million in funding, much of it from high-net worth individuals. More funds are being raised via crowdsourcing, said Voller, who hopes to attract institutional investors.
The company is also developing a system of energy storage, which would allow fueling stations to draw energy from the grid overnight for motorists to charge up during the day without impacting too hard on the power supply. (Reporting By Nick Carey, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
Related Video:
Zap&Go's nanocarbon batteries could hit the market 'within a few years' originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 16 Oct 2017 18:19:00 EDT.
Lets start with the obvious. The two people heading Israels law enforcement system are Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit.
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Both of them were appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Neither of them came from the circles of the Petah Tikva protestors. Neither was ever a leftist or associated with the Left. Neither belongs to the government workers who occasionally try out the Yes Minister games. On the contrary, they were political appointments to all intents and purposes. Netanyahu got exactly who he wanted.
So who the hell is the prime minister trying to blame for the investigations against him? He opened his statement Saturday evening with a declaration that, upon taking office, Alsheikh had made the right decision to stop the leaks. Hes right. And Alsheikh isnt the only one. Theres hardly a single body which hasnt made decisions of this kind. Benjamin Netanyahu himself has repeatedly made similar decisions. Has it helped? No, it was a wasted effort. There are leaks not only from the government, but even from the prime ministers bureau. A shower of leaks.
Netanyahu (R) and Alsheikh. The prime minister doesn't want us to believe the two people he appointed himself (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
Most importantly, its unclear what the prime minister was so angry about. After all, the way he puts it, there was nothing. Just a Channel 2 report that the investigation is about to be resumed and that Netanyahu will be questioned again. It wasnt even a leak; it was simply an update on the obvious, nothing more.
But Netanyahu, who was just looking for an excuse to launch a war, eagerly seized the opportunity, trying to explain that the source of the report was a guy called Lior Horev, who was hired as an external advisor to the police. Hes the problem? Is Netanyahu serious? The prime minister has no interest in Horev. Hes not even a pawn and he likely has no clue about the actual investigation, just like Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has no clue.
So whats changed? Theres no stain that can be placed on Alsheikh. After all, he was appointed by Netanyahu. So theres no choice but to stain him through a manipulation on his advisor.
Lets hope that all the suspicions against Netanyahu are refuted, that he provides an explanation for every allegation and that hes as clean as a whistle. But one thing is clear: The investigations arent being run by Meni Naftali or Eldad Yaniv; theyre being run by two of his personal appointments. And when he tries, directly or indirectly, to attack the media and now some media advisorhe is basically attacking Alsheikh and Mandelblit. And perhaps, even worse, hes threatening them. He doesnt want us to believe the two people he appointed himself.
Hes in the middle of a delusional, dangerous campaign aimed at undermining the publics trust in the police chief and in the attorney general. Its already working in some circles. Regardless of the conclusions the police reach and regardless of the decision the attorney general makes, the delegitimization is already underway.
Remember what Sara Netanyahu once said about the post-Bibi era? This country can burn. Its unclear whether Netanyahu has started doing that, but hes clearly playing with fire.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has sent words of condolence to the family and relatives of the late Emmanuel Aboagye Didieye.
The deceased is a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Affram Plains North in the Eastern Region, as well as strong member of the NDC.
The late Emmanuel Aboagye Didieye
Hon Aboagye Didieye passed on in the late hours of Saturday at the SSNIT Hospital in Accra.
READ ALSO: CID boss, Bright Oduro sacked?
His demise is a big loss for the NDC fraternity, having served for two terms in Parliament.
In a statement, the NDC, through its Eastern Regional Secretariat said it was saddened to hear of the demise of such a "caliber of person" in the party.
Sections of the statement reads: " As a party, we are deeply saddened by this bad news considering the caliber of person involved and our impending reorganization exercise which aims to bring on board all former appointees, executives and MPs. We are indeed in total shock.
"Hon. Aboagye Didieye was a true party man who stood by his convictions even if they were not popular and demonstrated his independence of mind. He served in Parliament representing the people of Afram Plains North with dedication for 8years."
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The NDC therefore extend words of condolence and commiseration to the family of the bereaved.
Read the full statement below:
The Eastern Regional Executive Committee and the entire National Democratic Congress fraternity in the region have received with shock, the demise of our former Member of Parliament for Afram Plains North Constituency, Hon. Emmanuel Aboagye Didieye.
His sudden death as reported by family members, occurred in the late hours of Saturday October 14, 2017 at the SSNIT Hospital in Accra.
As a party, we are deeply saddened by this bad news considering the caliber of person involved and our impending reorganization exercise which aims to bring on board all former appointees, executives and MPs. We are indeed in total shock. Hon. Aboagye Didieye was a true party man who stood by his convictions even if they were not popular and demonstrated his independence of mind. He served in Parliament representing the people of Afram Plains North with dedication for 8years.
We extend our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family and the entire constituents of Afram Plains North especially his wife and children.
The party will accordingly, fully partake in all the preparations concerning our late MP's final funeral rites as customs demand.
May God keep the gentle soul of our fallen comrade and may he rest in Perfect Peace.
SIGNED
Kevor Mark-Oliver
Eastern Regional Secretary, NDC
Source: YEN.com.gh
SECURITY forces have yet to neutralize eight foreign terrorists, including the Malaysian financier, recruiter and architect of the attack on Marawi City, Armed Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Ano said Monday.
In a briefing in Marawi City hours after the death of Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute, Ano said government troops were still hunting Mahmud Ahmad, a former lecturer at University Malaya who was believed to have financed and planned the Marawi City siege.
Aside from Mahmud, several Malaysian and Indonesian jihadists are still holed up inside the main battle area, Ano said.
We counted maybe less that eight. Based on the information we gathered, one of the prominent terrorists is Mahmud, a Malaysian who is still in the main battle area, Ano said, noting that the remnants were no longer as aggressive as they were before. We are very optimistic that we will get all of them.
In the early stages of the siege, the military reported killing seven foreign terrorists.
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Mahmud reportedly lured bandits with huge amounts of money to join the terrorist group headed by Hapilon and Maute.
Mahmud was among the five prominent Malaysian terrorists with links to IS who left their country in 2014 after the Malaysia launched a crackdown on Islamic militants.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Ano. AFP
Malaysian Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Hamidi said the five militants were associated with Daulah Islamiya Asia Tenggara, a Southeast Asian terror network with links to IS.
Reports said Mahmud channeled millions of dollars to Mindanao to finance the Marawi attack.
Lorenzana said Mahmud was still hiding in one of the structures within the main battle area.
An expert on terrorism from Singapores S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Kumar Ramakrishna, said Hapilons death was a significant operational and sympolic blow to IS-linked groups, but warned that it was far from the end of IS in Southeast Asia.
Just because the Marawi siege is coming to an end does not mean the threat is over. IS-linked militants there will regroup and lay low for a while, while rebuilding their strength, he said.
He said Mahmud would, if he is still alive, likely rise up to lead the IS-linked fighters in Mindanao and stay in contact with the jihadists in the Middle East.
It is not clear how many IS-supporting militants there are in Southeast Asia, a region of more than 600 million people, but many local militant outfits have pledged allegiance to the group.
Hundreds of militants are believed to have flocked to the Middle East to fight with IS particularly from Indonesia, which has the worlds biggest Muslim population, and the Philippines.
Sidney Jones, head of Jakarta-based security think-tank the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, warned authorities now faced a growing threat of battle-hardened fighters returning to Southeast Asia as the noose closes on IS in the Middle East, with their former stronghold of Raqa close to being captured.
Authorities have been particularly concerned about a Southeast Asian unit of IS fighters in Syria, Khatibah Nusantara.
I think the attention is going to shift back again to the return of fighters from Syria and Iraq, she said.
AFP
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Head of the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar said over the weekend his army was in control of almost all the entire North Africa country except some tiny swathes of land to be conquered pretty soon.
The size of Libya is 1,760,000 square km. The army is currently in control of 1,730,000 square km. Theres only a little left, he told a gathering of LNA commanders.
Haftar backed by foreign countries such as Egypt, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Russia and the countrys internationally recognized parliament in Tobruk has led opposition against the UN-backed Presidency Council (PC) and its associated Government of National Accord (GNA).
The field marshal in the name of the fight against terrorism has been waging war on several sides in the oil-rich North African country. Earlier this year, he took control of Benghazi and its districts after three years of fighting against Islamists.
Haftar who never hid his intent to rule Libya also noted that the city of Zawia, 30 km west of the capital Tripoli, would be under his control in matter of few days.
If Zawia falls, Tripoli, seat of the PC and the GNA, will also answer to the former Muammar Gaddafis military aid.
Haftar who believes that Tripoli is awash with Islamists, in December called for the liberation of the Libyan capital.
The PC, which has no regular army, has been relying on alliances with militias for its protection.
Haftar is said to have contacts with some Tripoli militias.
The Gabonese government on Saturday, unveiled a $300 million port as the central African nation seeks to modernize the existing Port of Owendo.
The new port was constructed in partnership with Olam group from Singapore and will be partly managed by French logistics company, Bollore.
The project will allow the country to revive the economy and also reduce prices for goods passing through the port, officials said.
According to the port operator, the extension will boost its container handling capacity to about 3 million tons annually.
The International Monetary Fund earlier this year said Gabons economy is expected to grow by about 1 percent in 2017, down from 2.1 percent last year, largely due to weakness in the oil sector its main source of income and a recession in the commercial and service sectors.
The African Development Bank last month disbursed $1.5 billion to help boost economic recovery in Gabon between 2017 and 2019.
In June, the International Monetary Fund approved a $642 million loan to Libreville geared towards supporting its medium term recovery program.
Georgia earns $116m by exporting 53m bottles of wine
Georgia exported 52.7 million bottles of wine to 45 countries from January to September 2017, adding $116 million to the economy.Revenue increased by 55 percent from the same period in 2016, while the volume of exports increased by 63 percent, said the Georgian National Wine Agency.The top five countries that imported Georgian wine in January-September 2017 were Russia, China, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Poland.Wine exports also increased to the European Union (EU), China and other traditional export markets for Georgia, said the Georgian National Wine Agency.Georgian wine export grew to the following countries:Russia 95 percent (33,243,157 bottles)Ukraine 54 percent (5,322,683 bottles)China 44 percent (5,537,261 bottles)Latvia 36 percent (1,141,778 bottles)Poland 14 percent (869,852 bottles)Meanwhile, Georgia exported 11,354,403 bottles of Georgian brandy to 22 countries in the first nine months of 2017. This was a 89 percent increase year-over-year (y/y).So far this year, Georgia has generated $25 million from the sale of brandy abroad.Georgia also exported 147,000 bottles of Chacha 131 percent more compared to the same period of last year. By selling Chacha abroad Georgia generated $439,300, which was 83 percent increase y/y.In total, Georgia has sold $194 million worth of alcoholic beverages in January-September 2017, including wine, brandy, chacha and others.
Gazprom agrees to open office in Azerbaijan
Gazprom Board of Directors agreed to open an office in Azerbaijan, AzVision.az reports citing Interfax.Gazprom exported gas to Azerbaijan in 2000-2006. However, due to launch of Shahdeniz field, the gas export to Azerbaijan has stopped since 2006.Azerbaijan has been exporting gas to Russia since 2010, which is used for the supply of Dagestan with blue fuel. In 2013 and 2014, the transportation was suspended due to repair works. In 2015 no transportation was carried out. In the same year, AzMECo wanted to import gas from Russia. The negotiations were held between Gazprom and SOCAR.
Ruling party dismisses political tasks being given to kindergarten heads
By Messenger Staff
The Georgian Dream ruling party has released a statement in which the party denies giving any political tasks to kindergarten principles.The party stressed that Georgian Dream has refused the usage of any administrative resources as well as primary and secondary education staff for the party interests.Georgian Dream stated that involving schools and kindergartens staff in the election process was characteristic for the United National Movement leadership but not for the Georgian Dream authorities.Studio Monitor, an investigate journalism platform, has carried out a journalistic investigation, which allegedly revealed the facts of public servants engagement in the pre-election campaign.Namely, the journalists of the Studio Monitor called the principals of the kindergartens acting as if they were from the Kindergarten Management Agency.The conversation shows that the principals confirmed information about gathering supporters for the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party and then presenting the list to the Kindergarten Agency.Later, the same principals rejected the conversation touched upon the elections and GD supporters.There were several facts regarding this, namely when the TV journalists caught a group of kindergarten teachers rushing to the meeting with the Georgian Dream representatives participating in the upcoming local elections.The fact that the issue of giving political tasks to the school and kindergarten employees has been publicized is already negative.Of course, compared to the United National Movement, the Georgian Dream addresses such measures less frequently, but, as it appears, the Georgian leading political forces cannot totally refuse a potential breach.This does not bode well for GD, as the countrys main party must be focused on the present and future and not on the past.
The News in Brief
OSCE Media Freedom Representative Concludes Country Visit to Georgia
OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir was on his two-day visit to Georgia on October 3-4 and met with Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze, Deputy Parliamentary Chairperson Tamar Chugoshvili, Public Defender Ucha Nanuashvili and representatives of media and civil society organizations to discuss media freedom developments in the country and the areas where his Office can assist.
According to the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Desir welcomed the amendments to Georgias Constitution, which grant citizens the right to access and freely use the internet, and also enhance the right to access to information and the independence of the public service broadcaster.
Recognition of the growing importance of the internet and the potential of genuine public service broadcasting in the countrys fundamental law represent an important step forward for freedom of expression and media freedom in Georgia, he said, adding that the protection of these rights should continuously remain high on the agenda of authorities and civil society as a means of promoting diversity, access to information and quality journalism.
The Representative also discussed the ongoing efforts to reform the Georgian Public Broadcaster, including the change of the TV programming and the process of GPB-related legislative amendments. The reform process, affecting the important role of Georgian public service media, should be held in a transparent and inclusive manner, not to jeopardize its independence, accountability and reflection of a diversity of opinions, he said.
Furthermore, he noted the ongoing process regarding the ownership of the private television channel Rustavi 2 in the European Court of Human Rights and reiterated the need for the channel to enjoy editorial independence, and to be able to fulfill its professional activity in the interest of the Georgian public.
The Representative also discussed the comments commissioned by his Office on the initiative of the Prime Minister of Georgia about establishing the Media Ombudsmans Office. It is essential to have wide-ranging discussions on this initiative with all stakeholders to ensure a common understanding and to look at different models and solutions, Desir said. My Office stands ready to continue consultations with the authorities on the issue and facilitate expert recommendations.
In his discussions with the authorities, the Representative also emphasized the need to ensure the safety of journalists, and raised in particular the case of Afgan Mukhtarli. His abduction is of major concern for me as Georgia has provided a safe environment for journalists. I urge the authorities to complete their investigation in a transparent manner soon, Desir said.
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media observes media developments in 57 OSCE participating States, provides early warning on violations of freedom of expression and media freedom and promotes full compliance with OSCE media freedom commitments.
(Civil.ge)
Georgia and Lithuania discuss prospects for deeper military cooperation
Georgias Minister of Defence Levan Izoria has met the head of Lithuanias Armed Forces Lieutenant General Jonas Vytautas Zukas in Tbilisi .
Existing ties in the defence field and prospects for deeper military cooperation were discussed at the meeting.
The officials stressed the importance of sharing Lithuanias experience in the process of drafting Georgias National Defence Plan.
Izoria and Zukas also spoke about Georgian and Lithuanian soldiers joint participation in military exercises and cooperation for military education.
The Lithuanian delegation with the defence official has already completed its visit in Georgia.
The Lithuanian defence delegation arrived to Georgia on October 7.
Vytautas Zukas held his first meeting with his Georgian counterpart Vladimer Chachibaia.
Chachibaia stressed Georgian-Lithuania close cooperation in the defence field and thanked Lithuania for Georgias political and practical support.
The same day the Lithuania delegation put a wreath at the memorial of the Georgian heroes fallen for territorial integrity.
(Agenda.ge)
@alextdaugherty
Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo outraised his main Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in the latest federal fundraising quarter.
Curbelo raised $431,580 from July 1 to September 30 while Mucarsel-Powell raised $177,048, according to Federal Election Commission records. The latest quarter is Mucarsel-Powell's first fundraising total since announcing her bid for Curbelo's Miami-to-Key West seat in August.
Curbelo's fundraising numbers were down this quarter, as many South Florida politicians chose to suspend fundraising for weeks due to Hurricane Irma. Last quarter, Curbelo raised $705,026. His campaign has raised over $1.7 million in the 2018 cycle so far, putting him 21st nationally among all House incumbents and challengers.
The Miami-to-Key West district is one of the most Democratic-leaning in the country currently represented by a Republican in Congress, but Curbelo, a second-term Republican, has garnered financial support from some local Democrats and is one of his party's leading voices on climate change.
Mucarsel-Powell has $161,762 cash on hand while Curbelo has $1.3 million.
In a statement, Mucarsel-Powell blasted Curbelo's vote for legislation that would repeal and replace Obamacare.
"This race comes down to a choice: Carlos Curbelo and Washington Republicans have spent years trying to strip millions of Americans of their healthcare coverage," Mucarsel-Powell said. "I've spent my career working to expand access to those who need it the most in our communities, I know we must improve on what is working and fix what is broken not abandon those who need health care access the most."
Three other Democrats have filed to run for Curbelo's seat, though none of them have reported any fundraising totals as of October 16. Curbelo does not have any announced primary challengers.
In a statement, Scott said: We live in a country where everyone has the right to voice their opinion. However, we have zero tolerance for violence and public safety is always our number one priority. I have been in constant contact with Sheriff Darnell who has requested this Executive Order to ensure that county and local law enforcement have every needed resource. This executive order is an additional step to ensure that the University of Florida and the entire community is prepared so everyone can stay safe.
If the set for "Lovesong" resembles a house, it's because it is one.
From the kitchen cabinets to the hardwood floors, the set for this upcoming dance-theater piece is the real thing. Bare Bait Dance, a local contemporary modern company, decided to give audiences an "immersive" experience to start off its sixth season, said co-director Kelly Bouma. It turns out that her house in the Slant Streets neighborhood would make a readymade set.
Now that rehearsals are underway, the rooms on the open-plan ground floor have been cleared out. There's space for some 25 audience members to sit on chairs and cushions, with a view of the kitchen. Partway through the show, they'll get up and move to the other half of the house, where a bedroom set has been arranged. For some scenes, the cast will be in the backyard.
"Bringing this particular house to life has been a huge part of the process," said Bernadette Sweeney, the show's guest collaborative director.
**
Celebrated British playwright Abi Morgan's "Lovesong" is indeed a love story, one that traverses "life and death and memory and loss," Bouma said. It's set in the present, when the couple is in their late 60s and coping with serious circumstances and choices. Through the husband's memories, viewers meet the couple in their 20s and follow their relationship through its struggles and happier moments.
Two sets of actors portray the couple and often appear onstage simultaneously.
"There are lovely moments of overlap between the two worlds," said Sweeney, a doctorate-holding UM theater professor from Ireland. She directed Rep's touring production of "The Miracle Worker" in 2014, and last year's UM production of "Romeo and Juliet."
Bouma and Sweeney have admired the script since it premiered in 2012, particularly for a unique melange of sound, movement and text that "hasn't been replicated since," Bouma said.
Once they decided to stage it for Bare Bait, they sought out a guest cast of professional actors for roles that are "challenging physically and emotionally."
Bouma and Colton Swibold play the couple in their youth. Their older incarnations are portrayed by Mark Metcalf and Pamyla Stiehl.
Almost everyone has a UM affiliation: Swibold is a theater graduate who's toured with the Montana Repertory Theatre. Bouma is a theater instructor and MFA graduate. Stiehl is a new assistant professor of theater.
Metcalf moved to Missoula after his son enrolled at UM. He played the nemesis, Niedermeyer, in "Animal House," "The Maestro" on "Seinfeld," and The Master on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
Sweeney and scenic designer Mike Fink designed the set. Peter Musante, a visiting artist last year, designed the sound, following up on his work on Bare Bait productions "Hysteria" and "the.humanest."
Morgan developed the play with Frantic Assembly, one of the biggest companies behind the devised theater movement in the United Kingdom, Sweeney said. Because of its emphasis on movement, it's often called "physical theater," although Sweeney said it's something of a misnomer, since all theater is technically physical.
Bouma said there's no outright dancing, instead there "choreographic moments." The script is heavy on stage directions, but they developed much of it to suit the cast and its unconventional space.
In one unique aspect of the production, there's no real "off stage" instead there's a bathroom that separates the two main spaces plus stairs.
No complete estimate of David Quammens writings can be made without the recognition of certain dominating forces always at work behind Quammens pen, namely the stubborn, self-aware approach he has brought to all of his creative efforts.
Quammen has forever owned a passion for text. As a young man, he could think about nothing else much; the natural world and writing.
Forty-some years ago, Quammen was a hungry young writer who spent his days and nights as a bartender and bar manager at the Depot in Missoula. About that time, he wrote a short story titled Walking Out the tale of a boy and a father and a hunting trip gone terribly amiss. The boy, who arrived in rural Montana for his annual visit, is as unfamiliar and alien to the rugged lands as he is to his father. Initially this story was part of a larger novel, which would have been his second, but that novel never established publication.
It was a time when it was still hard to be published as an author for me, said Quammen, who now calls Bozeman home. I was starting over and paying my dues and starting over again between book one (published in 1973) and book two ("The Soul of Vicktor Trunko," published in 1987), which, in his words, sank like a hot pistol tossed into the Potomac, and I was working menial jobs as a bartender. I wrote a long, complicated novel and no one wanted it; it was about fathers and sons and it had that storytelling impulse within, and there were stories within the stories of that larger novel. One of them was "Walking Out" and that story came out of that novel and it became a fresh, standalone story (first published in 1980), and, well, a mere 43 years later, its been turned into a movie.
Quammen on writing: Stubbornness, disciplined required
Writing provided Quammen with the opportunity to enjoy the usual pleasures of life with its mixture of both sorrow and joys, and perhaps most importantly, a lesson in humility and originality of expression.
I believe that being stubborn and being disciplined are parts of it (a writers success), said Quammen. I really believe that I had to be a writer, or Id be nothing, and ever since age 11, Id been interested in writing and the natural world. I had great English teachers in high school and a great university experience with a great English department. But I was on the fence, leaning toward a life as a biology teacher. Between the time of the publication of my first book and my graduate work in biology, I continued to be a writer. Between the first book and the second book, 13 years passed, and that was pretty lonely, and I wont say that it was miserable. I will say that I was paying my dues and working various jobs.
Since those halcyon days of being unheard of, Quammen has made a vibrant career in science journalism. A contributing writer for National Geographic and an author whose books include "The Song of the Dodo" (1996), "The Reluctant Mr. Darwin" (2006), "Spillover" (2012), about the science, history, and human impact of emerging diseases, "Ebola" (2014), and his latest book, "Yellowstone: A Journey through Americas Wild Heart" (2016), Quammens curiosity explores the natural world and how humans are linked to that world. Among other endeavors, Quammen has traveled to the Russian Arctic with groups of Russian and American biologists, to the jungles of Indonesia with park rangers who pursue Komodo dragons, to biosafety level 4 labs where virologists study Ebola and other dangerous pathogens.
I still tell people that it all started with the self-knowledge that I was either going to be a writer or a night clerk at a cheap hotel. There were three things that kept it going: talent, discipline and luck. If you have talent but no discipline, thats not enough. Luck is when you find someone to trust you or to give you a break. Luck is probably the least important of the three. I think that if you are stubborn enough, and you stay with it, then that strike of luck will come along.
History of 'Walking Out'
Prior to "Walking Out," Big Sky-born filmmakers Alex and Andrew Smith represented Montanas disposition twice on the big screen ("The Slaughter Rule," "Winter in the Blood").
"Walking Out" is the story of a father (Cal, played by Matt Bomer) and son (David, played by Josh Wiggins) reunited on an annual hunting trip. Cal takes his young son, who he sees only once a year, on a moose hunting trip in Montanas Crazy Mountains. Along the way, the father hopes to pass on to the son lessons about both hunting and life.
The idea to make a film out of "Walking Out" was writer-director Rodrigo Garcias. The Smith Brothers first met Garcia at the Sundance Lab in 1988, and knowing of the Smiths Montana origins, he asked if they wanted to write the script.
The Smiths had not only heard of the story, William Kittredge, the significant other of their mother, Annick Smith, had edited it when it first appeared in the magazine TriQuarterly when the boys were in high school. (Garcia exited out of the project because of other commitments.)
There had been some other feelers sent out and some inquiries across the years, said Quammen. At one point Ed Harris was interested and I met with him and we had a good meeting and he wanted to act in it, but he had no producer and director attached to it. There were queries from others who either had no funding or werent professional enough. I knew Alex and Andrew Smith through their mother and her relationship with Kittredge. I liked the Smith Brothers and trusted them. I said, I will give you the rights to this, and this will always be my story, but it will always be your movie, and that I can be involved in the movie if you want. I didnt want to write a screenplay. I read theirs and gave them feedback and read the backstory and I knew about the parts in the film that were not included in the story, and we had productive conversations about them, and it was a good experience.
Quammen respects the Smith brothers creative and personal integrity as well as their translation of his story, which allows us to peer deeper visually into the heart of the writers aim and intent.
They are terrific fellas and filmmakers, said Quammen. Its very close to the spirit and the vision I had in my head, and theyve added things that are very cool. There is a certain scene when he (David) is carrying his father and his father is getting worse, shivering by this little campfire, and the boy is wearing a knit cap, and the boy takes off the knit cap and switches it with his father. That addition (in the film) signals the basic idea of coming of age and the reversal of roles. The father was the dominant one, the caretaker, the teacher, and now the boy is becoming the man, and the man is becoming dependent on the boy, and they (the Smith brothers) express this reversal beautifully by a change of caps.
Quammen said that the story is laced with inspiration thats entrenched in Roman mythology, specifically the life of Aeneas, the founder of Rome, and ancestor to its peoples, who while fleeing Troy, carried his father, Anchises, on his own shoulders.
There are a number of places in the story that were influenced by friends and their relationships with their fathers, said Quammen. There are also bits from a lot of different places, including the myth of Aeneas, who carried his father out of the burning ruins of Troy on his back. Its an ancient, archetypal act of keeping faith with your ancestors, and thats what the story, Walking Out, is about.
"Walking Out" is currently being shown in theaters statewide, with many special screenings which include the cast members, the directors and even the author, Quammen.
There has been an effort made to offer this movie back to Montana, to the great people, and to share the amazing landscape that allowed us to do this film, and it was done with the idea that we want you (the people of Montana) to see it first.
Cinematography singled out
Reviews of Walking Out, filmed entirely in Montana around Bozeman and Livingston, have been largely favorable, with most reviewers consistently singling out the nuanced, stylish eye of cinematographer Todd McMullen.
The New York Times wrote, Even when its plot starts to sag, 'Walking Out' remains beautiful to watch. The biggest stars here are the Montana locations. They are catnip to the cinematographer, Todd McMullen, who rarely misses a chance to frame the landscape at ground level and from above.
Cinematographer Todd McMullen added a cinematic and visible quality to the film and he was able to express what Alex and Andrew saw in the story, said Quammen. The cinematography has beautiful textures, beautiful light and beautiful images in it.
In some ways, the film version of his short story has allowed Quammen to reclaim a part of his past. Peering back, he realizes that his overall code of the road hasnt changed. Words fill his life. The movie is like the cherry on top of the whipped cream.
Someone asked me the other day if I felt vindicated as a writer after the movie was released. I told them that I felt vindicated after the book went into printing, and after one person read it and they told me that they liked it I am delighted with (the film version) and proud of it.
Books are Quammens kids
Much has passed since Quammen was paying his dues as a struggling young writer, waiting tables, then tending bar. As a respected, prolific author, Quammens unique body of work is now in the hands of the Great Spirit; he is determined to further write about our lands, and, with one eye toward posterity, he wishes to leave his bones, belief and breath upon them. For the loyal and intelligent writers such as Quammen, the dividend is not only the awesome sense of text transformed into art but also the keen realization that he and his journey are part of the larger shared experience.
My books are my kids, said Quammen, 69. We all would like to extend ourselves in time in one way or another. I decided not to have children. My books and my articles are my children, my offspring, and are what Ill leave behind, and when Im dead, people can still read me, whether its my wife or a stranger who can say, thats Davids voice, hes still talking to us. Thats a great constellation to the hard reality of mortality. As writers, we have the enviable opportunity to preserve our voice and that voice wont disappear, whether its on the paper or on the screen.
Senior center in TB serves lunch
TWIN BRIDGES Lunch is served every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the Twin Bridges Senior and Community Center. The menu through Oct. 23 is listed below:
Wednesday, Oct. 18 Spare ribs, mashed potatoes, rolls, fruit, and cupcakes.
Friday, Oct 20 Goulash, mixed vegetables, fruit, and dessert.
Monday, Oct. 23 Hamburgers, onion rings, potato salad, and pumpkin cheesecake.
Also, a representative from Southwest Montana Aging and Disability Services will be available to help beneficiaries review Medicare prescription and health programs to make sure your current drug or Medicare Advantage plan is still the best for you. This is by appointment only, and the toll-free number to call is 406-551-3191.
If you have any questions, send an email to loiss@3Rivers.net.
Patriotic Rosary planned for Nov. 8
A public recitation of the Patriotic Rosary will be Wednesday, Nov. 8, at Holy Spirit Church, 4201 Continental Dr. in Butte. Led by members of the Living Word Prayer Group, it will begin at 7:30 p.m.
This version of the Rosary keeps the traditional format but is interspersed with quotes from the Founding Fathers and also with patriotic songs. Details: Sue Walsh at 406-593-1218 or Gert Downey at 406-723-6805.
Sunrise Kiwanis installs new officers
Cheryl Peterslie was installed as president of the Sunrise Kiwanis Club during the clubs installation dinner on Friday, Oct. 13, at Lydias Supper Club. The incoming officers are president-elect Ray Petersen, and the continuing officers are treasurer Bill Hughes and secretary Kristel Callahan.
In addition, the following members will serve on the clubs board of directors: Katlyn Pokorny, Mitzi Daily, and Jon Sando.
Hunters breakfast Saturday in Anaconda
ANACONDA Anaconda American Legion Post 21 will host an Early Morning Hunters Breakfast at the post, Cedar and Third, on opening day of general rifle season, Saturday, Oct. 21, from 4 a.m. to noon.
Everyone including non-hunters are welcome to partake in a hot breakfast of eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, bacon and sausage, and burritos. And, "to go" orders will be available. Cost is $8.
Plans underway for Christmas Stroll
Mainstreet Uptown Butte is seeking nominations for outstanding members of the business community to serve as grand marshal of the 2017 Children's Light Parade and Tree Lighting Ceremony on Friday, Dec. 1.
Nominees should be community-minded residents and individuals in the business community who have had a positive impact on Uptown Butte in 2017.
To nominate a person, submit a letter that highlights the characteristics and community involvement of the nominee to Mainstreet Uptown Butte, P.O. Box 696, Butte, MT 59703.
Also, nominations can be emailed to geverett@montana.com. The deadline is Friday, Nov. 24.
Also, the Children's Light Parade welcomes decorated entries, emergency vehicles, classic cars, walking entries, musical entries, and others to join the parade. Entries are welcome to apply to participate in the parade by submitting a detailed vehicle/entry description to geverett@montana.com no later than Nov. 24.
Any questions, email geverett@montana.com or call 406-565-2249.
Americas northern border with Canada doesnt get nearly the same level of congressional attention as its southern border with Mexico. Exhibit A is a major border bill currently snaking its way through Congress.
H.R. 3548, the Border Security for America Act, was introduced in July by Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security. Earlier this month, after surviving a slew of amendments, it was passed out of the committee on a party-line vote.
The bill is now poised to become the first significant action on border matters since the House approved $790 billion in spending for the military, including construction of a wall along the Mexican border. That vote, taken this past summer, completely ignored the spending caps required by the Budget Control Act of 2011, and thus stands little chance of approval in the Senate. What it did accomplish was to send a strong message about a willingness to invest in the nations international borders.
Montana has a special interest in making sure any investments are made wisely.
The states border with Canada is 545 miles long. Thats quite a stretch, and nearly all of it is relatively rural and remote, making it especially challenging to make efficient use of public resources. The state does not see waves of foreigners trying to enter the U.S. illegally, but its 14 crossing stations do catch their fair share of drug smugglers and human traffickers.
The massive Border Security for America Act specifically authorizes a border wall, providing a whopping $10 billion for tactical infrastructure and technology. Another $5 billion would be directed toward ports of entry for improvements and modernization. No less than 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents and another 5,000 Customs officers would be hired in addition to the nearly 20,000 currently employed by Border Patrol and nearly 23,000 employed by Customs. And it would double the amount of funding, at $110 million, for grants to state and local law enforcement agencies to help fight crime along the border.
The legislation also addresses the visa system and use of National Guard resources by states, among a long list of other projects.
But what has raised red flags for government watchdogs are the bills efforts to give U.S. Customs and Border Patrol greatly expanded authority to operate on lands under its jurisdiction which includes all land located within 100 miles of the border.
The act would prohibit other federal agencies from impeding, prohibiting, or restricting the agencys activities. Such activities include patrols, investigations and apprehensions, as well as construction and maintenance of infrastructure. And this authority includes the ability to undertake such operations without regard to a host of other federal laws, from the Endangered Species Act to the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act.
The original version of the bill even sought to exempt the agency from federal Freedom of Information Act laws, which would have allowed U.S. Customs to essentially act in near-total secrecy. Fortunately, an amendment pushed by Arizona Rep. Martha McSally, chair of the Border and Maritime Subcommittee, and agreed to by the larger committee, requires the agency to abide by FOIA precepts.
This means that, should this act eventually become law, Montanans and other citizens of the United States will continue to have access to important public records concerning the costs and results of border activities, including the number and type of incidents at the border as well as any planned projects that may run afoul of federal law or individual rights. Given the mind-boggling scope of powers this bill would grant to a single agency, such public oversight would be critical.
Another well-aimed amendment forwarded by Rep. Will Hurd of Texas blocks any plans to build a border wall in rugged and remote areas such as national parks, where natural terrain features, natural barriers, or the remoteness of such area would make deployment ineffective. This amendment was approved on a 17-11 vote in the committee, with one member voting present. Unfortunately, it still leaves the authority for determining which areas are not suitable for a border wall up to the secretary of Homeland Security.
If this legislation is approved by the House, and indications are very strong that it will receive a floor vote before the end of the year, and if it eventually becomes law, the head of Homeland Security could very well deem it appropriate to build a wall in Glacier National Park.
If that idea seems too far-fetched to seriously consider, remember that very real discussions are currently taking place about building walls in similar places located along the southern border, including Big Bend National Park in Texas.
A big, beautiful border wall dividing the United States from Mexico was a central feature of President Trumps campaign and remains a frequent policy talking point. The effectiveness of building a physical barrier to prevent people from crossing the border illegally is debatable; what isnt is the fact that U.S. taxpayers will foot the full costs of any construction.
Before spending vast amounts of public dollars on new border security measures, it should be made obvious to the nations lawmakers that the security needs of the nations northern border are very different from that of its southern border. Unfortunately, Congress appears ready to apply the same provisions to both of them.
Montana doesn't need a border wall and it most certainly doesn't need to see any one federal agency granted impunity from following important laws. It does need sufficient resources to not only ensure the safety of its international border, but also to allow law-abiding Montana residents and visitors from Canada to pass through without undue hassle or delay. As representatives from one of only 13 states to share an international border, Montana's congressional delegates must work together to ensure the states unique interests are protected in Congress.
-- The Missoulian
Mugshots.com Writing Staff. Washington, D.C. Abderraouf Jdey is wanted by U.S. authorities. Under its Rewards for Justice Program, the U.S. Department of State is offering reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his capture.
Abderraouf Jdey has extensive connections to radical Islamic extremism. In fact, he is an associate of Tunisian terror suspect Faker Boussora, and the two may have traveled together in the past. Jdey is an al-Qaida operative who has declared intentions of becoming a martyr for jihad via both a suicide letter and a martyrdom video that was found in the rubble of al-Qaida leader Mohammed Atef's house in Afghanistan.
Jdey reportedly left his native Tunisia in 1991. He immigrated to Montreal, Canada and became a Canadian citizen in 1995. While living in Canada, he studied biology at the University of Montreal and attended the Assunna Mosque. In 1999, he left Canada to receive combat training and experience from al-Qaida in Afghanistan. There he associated with some of the 9-11 hijackers. Later, Jdey engaged in fighting against the Afghan Northern Alliance.
Jdey has been involved in plans for conducting hijacking/terrorist operations. Authorities are concerned that he may plan or participate in a terrorist attack in Canada or the U.S.
Jdey is described as an olive complexioned naturalized Canadian of Tunisian descent. He was born on May 30, 1965 in Tunisia. He is 60 tall and weighs approximately 209 pounds. He has brown hair and brown eyes.
His known aliases include: Abd Al-Rauf Bin Al-Habib Bin Yousef Al-Jiddi, Abderraouf Dey, A. Raouf Jdey, Abdal Ra'Of Bin Muhammed Bin Yousef Al-Jadi, Farouq Al-Tunisi, and Abderraouf Ben Habib Jeday. His current whereabouts are unknown, although he may have been seen in Turkey in 2002.
Authorities warn that he should be Considered Armed and Dangerous. Do not attempt to capture him if spotted. If you spot him or have any information about Abderraouf Jdey or his whereabouts, you are urged to contact the Rewards for Justice Program at 1-800-877-3927 or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.
Carolyn will be deeply missed by her friends and family; one son, Brett (Mary Grace) Gardner of Forest Hills, Tennessee; two daughters, Sherri (Paul) Eagle and Cindy (Bruce) Miller, from Riverside Iowa; one brother, Bob (Beth) Babcock of Orland Park, Illinois; and six grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Ed, and parents.
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
Patsy Ann (Hannah) Taylor passed away Tuesday, October 10 at home in Napa. She was born in Quanah, Texas on June 19,1935 to Wyatt and Pauline Hannah. At age four, Patsy and her two-year-old brother Larry along with her mother and father moved to West Los Angeles. Patsy graduated from University High School and Santa Monica City College.
Patsy met her to-be husband Lee in high school and it was love at first sight. They married on February 19,1956. Their son Pete was born April of 1957 and daughter Lynn was born in January 1959. Pete died in 1995, the result of an auto accident.
Patsy was born a writer and passed away a writer. She was a published writer of childrens books, mysteries, and poetry. Active in many writers organizations, she was admired by fellow writers and poets.
Patsy was loved by so many and will be greatly missed. She loved her family, her friends, bocce, life, loving and being loved. She leaves behind her best friend and husband, Lee, daughter Lynn Brown (David), her grandchildren Hannah Franks (John), Paul Gaytan, Rudy Gaytan, Ryan Brown, David Brown, and Gina Panelli (Paul), great-grandchildren Aidin, Riley and Zoe, and many extended grandchildren who called her Nana.
Her final advise was to love, be loved, and read a book.
Gratitude to the Hospice Program, their help and service made it possible for Patsy to remain at home, nurse Elizabeth in particular, daughter Lynn, granddaughter Hannah and husband Lee from beginning to end.
Service will be held on Saturday October 21, 2:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 1330 Third Street, Napa California.
Firefighters have come to Napa County from far and wide to battle three conflagrations that have threatened the wine country for a week. On Sunday, a group of local chefs, together with Justin-Siena High School, showed their thanks in the best way they knew: with food and messages of gratitude.
The Catholic school on Maher Street played host to Feed the Firsts, a banquet put together on barely three days notice as a treat to fire and law enforcement personnel arrayed against the Atlas, Nuns and Tubbs fires in the North Bay.
In place of 30-hour shifts cutting firebreaks and saving houses from flames, there was a buffet line of tri-tip beef, burgers, chicken and salad. While first responders in their uniforms chowed down, volunteers came by with greeting cards hand-drawn by local children, thanking them for their work protecting their hometowns.
Dom Moreci, a co-organizer of the banquet, said Napa resident Gabe Meyers and other planners began discussing the idea at midweek before getting use of a Justin-Siena gym for five hours on Sunday. After gaining the donated time of various chefs and about $15,000 in donations, planners started preparing food on Saturday ahead of the banquet, at which guests were encouraged to take boxed meals packed by Justin-Siena students back to their comrades still on duty in fire zones or at roadblocks.
Kitchen volunteers planned on serving between 400 and 800 meals for safety personnel at the event and in the field, said Greg Cole, founding chef-owner of Coles Chop House in downtown Napa.
Everybody wants to do something to help, he said. I live in Old Town, never lost power, and I felt kind of guilty, wondering what I could do. This is great.
The thankfulness for Feed the Firsts guests ran even deeper for others in the kitchen like George Velazquez of The Charter Oak in St. Helena, who fled at 2 a.m. Monday with his dogs and cat as the Atlas Fire neared his Montecito home.
They finally let me in on Friday after five days, said Velazquez, who that same day was asked to pitch in at the first responders banquet. A lot of this has to do with giving back to the people who are helping us. I would help for more days if I could.
At a banquet table, a boy holding a hand-drawn card approached four firemen from Gresham, Oregon as they tucked into their lunches, and handed the card to Lt. Michael Snodgrass, who with his comrades had been assigned to keeping the Nuns Fire away from the Veterans Home in Yountville and various houses west of Highway 29.
This is incredible, a huge outpouring from the community, said Snodgrass, who began his firefighting career 25 years ago with Cal Fire in Riverside County. Were no heroes we happened to be the guys fighting the fires. To get a heros welcome makes us all blush.
That heros welcome had included not only the feast they were enjoying, but even what had come before a friendly gauntlet of Justin-Siena teenagers greeting them curbside at Solano and Trower avenues, pointing the way to campus with signs and sandwich boards of encouragement.
The North Bay wildfires also had struck at some of Snodgrasss aunts and uncles, who took flight from Santa Rosa and did not yet know whether their homes had survived a blaze that devastated whole neighborhoods and killed at least 40 people.
Its one thing for people to lose their homes, he said, but its staggering for us to that some people never even had an opportunity to escape.
In a news release, Raiders owner Mark Davis said, Santa Rosa and Napa have served as the Raiders summer home for over 40 years. During that time, we have built long lasting relationships with the people and businesses of those communities. In this time of need ... we will be there for you ... as you have been there for us.
For Ned Roscoe, the second time was not the charm.
In June, 2008, Roscoe stayed up all night battling to save his home above Wild Horse Valley Road from a wildfire that would end up consuming 3,500 acres.
Using a chainsaw, a pole saw and lopping shears, he beat back two waves of flames that came at him through wild grasses, then the tree canopy.
Come dawn, he was very lucky, Roscoe said in a Register news story recounting the drama of that night. Hed broken every piece of equipment he had at about the time the fire lost its punch and the wind diminished.
This time was different.
Roscoe, who works for a vineyard management company, said he knew things were bad last Monday, the first day of the Atlas Fire, when the fierce wind began knocking over microbins of grapes weighing nearly 100 pounds in the Rutherford area.
That night when he drove up Coombsville and Wild Horse Valley roads on his way home, the smoke from the approaching Atlas Fire smelled different than the fire he remembered from 2008, he said.
At 8 p.m., he got a call from his landlord in Houston who had just received a Nixle alert that the Atlas Fire was close to overrunning his cabin. He said, You got to get! Roscoe recounted.
Knowing of the devastation that the Atlas Fire had already caused in the Soda Canyon and Silverado areas, Roscoe said he decided not be a hero a second time.
I picked up the dog, I got in the car and I went to Sacramento, said Roscoe, whose wife was out of the state when all of this came down.
Ned got the word at weeks end from his father John who managed to make it back to the house. His dad didnt waste words: You have a chimney and your dog has a watering dish, Roscoe said his father told him.
As another fire victim told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter, Roscoe said he also had a lifetime supply of biochar.
Roscoe said he always knew he was living in a high-risk rural area. The 2008 fire convinced him of that.
Yet his home had gone 80 years prior to that without a wildfire. He figured that the 2008 fire, by clearing the landscape, had bought him many decades of peace of mind.
I guess I was wrong about that, he said.
Roscoe and his wife Jane, who have three children out of the home, are now living with friends in Napa and have a lead on a cottage in town.
He said hes trying to be philosophical about the loss of their home and personal possessions.
Its freeing to me to be free of this stuff. People meditate to be free like that, Roscoe said with only a trace of humor.
Jane was capable of deadpan humor herself. You know all that stuff you have in storage? he said she told him. I wish youd have kept it in the house.
Roscoe said his dad and his mother, Marilyn, were also made homeless by the fire. They occupied a nearby, ultra-modern hilltop house of glass walls on Twin Sisters Road that overlooked Fairfield. That house is no more, he said.
Roscoe said he is working to not have this experience cast a pall over his family. People have the experience they want to have, he said.
He and his wife escaped the fire without injury, theyve found refuge in the town they love among the people they love, he said.
And another thing. The Roscoe cat was picked up by firefighters and returned to them, he said.
Joseph Schmitt, who helped develop the spacesuits worn by the nations first astronauts, and who helped secure the straps, boots and helmets of John Glenn, Neil Armstrong and other astronauts just before their history-making flights, died Sept. 25 at a nursing home in Friendswood, Texas. He was 101.
A granddaughter, Susan Alexander, confirmed his death, but she did not know the specific cause.
Schmitt, who began his career as an airplane mechanic and instrument technician, was present at many of the momentous events in aeronautical history. He helped install and monitor the instruments of the Bell X-1 rocket plane, in which Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on Oct. 14, 1947.
During the 1930s, when Schmitt was in the old Army Air Corps, he had helped rig parachutes and repair flight suits. Later, when he worked for NASAs predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, that early experience prepared him for a job that had never existed before.
They saw I had done a little work in aircraft clothing repair and asked if I wanted to work on spacesuits, Schmitt told author Billy Watkins in the 2006 book Apollo Moon Missions: The Unsung Heroes. I said sure.
When NASA was formed in 1958, Schmitt became the agencys chief spacesuit technician. He worked with engineers at the B.F. Goodrich tire company in Ohio to create a pressurized suit that could withstand extreme temperatures and a weightless environment.
A spacesuit would have to include devices to monitor an astronauts health and to allow him to breathe in an oxygen-free environment. Cool air would have to flow under the layers of aluminum-coated nylon, yet it had to allow freedom of movement.
Because even the slightest hole could have life-threatening consequences, a spacesuit had to be strong enough not to rip.
One time, Schmitt increased the pressure inside a spacesuit to five pounds per square inch.
And the thing blew, he said in Watkinss book. Sounded like a shotgun went off. We wrapped it up and sent it back to the factory.
And, yes, Schmitt also helped invent a necessary item officially known as a urine collection device.
He accompanied the astronauts to the launchpad and was among the last people to see them before liftoff, as he secured their air hoses and buckled them into the space capsule.
He helped Alan Shepard into his spacesuit for the countrys first space flight in May 1961. Nine months later, on Feb. 20, 1962, Schmitt tightened Glenns helmet, gloves and boots and put the astronaut in the capsule of the Friendship 7 spacecraft in which Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.
In 1969, Schmitt needed an entirely new kind of suit for Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, as they stepped out of the spacecraft to walk on the moon.
The 28-layer spacesuit, costing $100,000 apiece, had to be able to resist ultraviolet radiation and withstand a 500-degree temperature range, from minus-250 degrees Fahrenheit to 310 degrees above zero. The boots needed to be tough enough to walk on the lunar surface, yet the arms and legs of the suit had to allow enough freedom of motion for the astronauts to collect rocks and plant the American flag on the moon.
In a NASA oral history, Schmitt recalled boarding the elevator with the astronauts and riding up with them more than 320 feet, to the hatch of Apollo 11.
My work station for ingress was just inside the spacecraft hatch just above the center seat, which means I had to get out each time the next crewman got in, he said. Before getting out of the spacecraft, I always made a quick check of everyones equipment, asking them if everything was okay and wish[ing] them good luck.
Joseph William Schmitt was born Jan. 2, 1916, in OFallon, Illinois. Less than three months later, his father, a police officer, was shot and killed in the line of duty.
His mother took in laundry, and Schmitt worked shining shoes and cleaning spittoons at his brother-in-laws barbershop.
Schmitt had a strong mechanical aptitude as a young man and took up taxidermy as a hobby. Because there were few jobs available during the Depression, he entered the Army Air Corps after high school and learned airplane mechanics.
He left the military in 1939 to join NACA, the early aeronautics research branch, and helped develop flight instrumentation for military aircraft during World War II.
After the war, Schmitt worked at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where early advances in the space program were made. He moved to Texas in 1963 to work at NASAs Johnson Space Center.
Schmitt continued to refine spacesuits through the Gemini and Apollo space programs and on into the days of the space shuttle before retiring in 1983.
He appeared on an episode of the television game show Whats My Line? in 1963. The panel guessed that he worked in the space program but could not pin down his exact job.
His wife of 69 years, the former Elizabeth Rayfield, died in 2008. Survivors include two children, six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
In 1964, Schmitt drove to artist Norman Rockwells studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, taking a couple of spacesuits with him.
The reason I had to go up, he said in the NASA oral history, was because the Gemini spacesuits at that time were classified. So they couldnt just put them in the mail and ship them.
Rockwell portrayed Schmitt in two paintings, as he helped the astronauts fit into their spacesuits. When Schmitt asked why the artist included him, Rockwell replied, Because you were always there.
It is time to stop giving the gun industry special protections that are not accorded to other businesses. In 2005, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which prevents gun companies from being sued by the victims of gun violence.
The NRA got it right when it called this "the most significant piece of pro-gun legislation in twenty years." No other industry enjoys this special treatment.
The massacre in Las Vegas occurred because gun companies make semi-automatic weapons that are easily converted into automatic weapons that can kill large numbers of people in a short amount of time. Gun manufacturers take automatic military weapons like the M-16 and modify them into legal, semi-automatic weapons, like the AR-15.
They can be turned back into automatic weapons, whether through bump stocks or other techniques that are described on many websites. Ammunition magazines with large capacity are manufactured that serve no purpose for hunting or sport.
If gun companies could be held liable in the way that all other manufacturers can be sued, they either would not make such products or they would do far more to ensure that the weapons could not be used for mass killings. But the 2005 Act dismissed all pending claims against gun manufacturers in both federal and state courts and preempted all future claims.
The Act could not be clearer in stating its purpose: "To prohibit causes of action against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms or ammunition products, and their trade associations, for the harm caused solely by the criminal or unlawful misuse of firearm products or ammunition products by others when the product functioned as designed and intended."
There are some narrow exceptions where liability is allowed, such as for actions against transferors of firearms who knew the firearm would be used in drug trafficking. But otherwise gun companies are totally immune from any liability.
In October 2016, a Connecticut Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the families of some victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting against the manufacturer, the wholesale distributor, and the retailer of the semi-automatic rifle used in the shooting. Adam Lanza used an AR-15 rifle, a weapon initially made for the military, to kill 20 schoolchildren and their teachers in a small town in Connecticut in 2012.
Judge Barbara Bellis dismissed the suit by the families of the victims and said that it "falls squarely within the broad immunity" provided to gun manufacturers and dealers by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
Congress should repeal this unfair law and allow the victims of gun violence to have their day in court. Today, gun companies are allowed to design weapons that can be easily converted into weapons of mass destruction and distribute them freely without having to worry about the destructive consequences of the weapons they put on the streets.
Before the passage of the gun industry protections, courts could hold gun companies responsible for the safety of their products. In March 2000, Smith & Wesson, one of the nation's largest gun manufacturers, adopted a robust set of safety controls on their handguns as part of a settlement to a major lawsuit brought by a coalition of mayors. If those injured can bring lawsuits against the gun companies, these businesses will make safer products and be more careful about how they distribute them.
Tort liability exists to spread the costs of a product among all of its users and also to create incentives to make the product safer. The 2005 Act undermines this by providing gun companies sweeping immunity from liability.
During her campaign for President, Hillary Clinton urged a repeal of this law and she made a point during the primaries of noting that Bernie Sanders had voted for it. Among the other yes votes were a number of California representatives still in Congress, including Democrats Mike Thompson and Jim Costa, and Republicans Devin Nunes, Ed Royce, Ken Calvert, Dana Rohrabacher, Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter.
How many more tragedies and how many more deaths will it take before politicians are willing to stand up to the gun lobby and take meaningful action to get rid of weapons that serve no purpose but to kill many people quickly?
Until this happens, at the very least, Congress should end the special immunity that only gun manufacturers have been granted.
SANFORD, Florida Jury selection will begin on Monday in the criminal case involving former Brevard County Clerk of Court Mitch Needelman, lobbyist William Matthew Dupree, and BlueWare CEO Rose Harr.
Brevard Times investigative coverage of the alleged scandal over the last two years leading up to the arrests. The case was transferred from Brevard County to Seminole County due to, in most part investigative coverage of the alleged scandal over the last two years leading up to the arrests.
BlueWare Scandal Timeline
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In March 2012, Needelman and Dupree met with Geaney at Needelmans residence and allegedly told him Brevard County would enter into the scanning contract with BlueWare if a portion of the money paid to BlueWare would be diverted back to Dupree for Needelmans 2012 reelection campaign. According to Florida State Attorney Phil Archer, the investigation shows that a portion of the BlueWare payments was allegedly funneled back to Dupree for Needelmans 2012 reelection campaign.
In April 2012, BlueWare allegedly assisted in drafting the invitation to negotiate (ITN) for Brevard County Clerk of Court for the scanning contract and subsequently responded to the ITN.
The ITN was posted on May 4, 2012, and records indicate questions from other bidders were sent to a county employees personal email account and then forwarded to Harr and Geaney to write responses. The responses were then emailed back to the bidders using the county email system.
On May 23, 2012, a payment of $500,000 was wired to BlueWare even though the contract had not been signed. The actual contract was signed June 29, 2012, and on that day, the first monthly payment of $90,000 was sent to BlueWare.
Brevard Times On July 10, 2012, raised questions regarding the propriety of the bidding, payment and contract procedures.
Also in July 2012, the FDLE began a criminal investigation after it received information alleging Needelman approved Brevard County Clerk of Court contracts with BlueWare in exchange for personal financial gain for himself and Dupree.
On August 12, 2012, Needelman submitted a letter to the editor contending that the alleged improprieties were made up by a disgruntled former BlueWare employee, Nick Geaney, who was merely trying to shake down BlueWare for money.
In August 2012, Needelman lost his bid for re-election for Brevard County Clerk of Court to Scott Ellis in the Republican primary. Before leaving office, in October 2012, Needelman entered into a loan with Hewlett-Packard Financial Services for $5.6 million dollars where BlueWare received the loan proceeds although Brevard County was obligated to repay the loan.
In August 2013, Needelman, Harr, and Dupree are arrested
CSUF News Service
CSUF Scientists Contribute to First Detection of Gravitational Waves From Colliding Neutron Stars
Jocelyn Read
assistant professor of physics
Read is an astrophysicist who studies neutron stars the remnant cores of dead stars that didn't quite have enough mass to end up as black holes. A leading binary neutron star expert, she focuses on how matter behaves at the extremely high densities inside neutron stars and how this might be measured from astronomical observations of X-rays, gamma-ray bursts and gravitational waves. Read and her students work to understand and model how neutron stars interact, collide and radiate energy to learn more about their structure and composition.
Read joined Cal State Fullerton in 2012 and has received numerous grants for her research. Most recently, she was awarded nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to lead a project to recruit and support underrepresented students, in particular Latino students, in gravitational-wave science. The grant supports CSUF and Citrus College students engaged in undergraduate research, as well as CSUF alumni in the doctoral program in gravitational-wave astrophysics at Syracuse University.
A native of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Read earned her doctorate in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She completed postdoctoral work at the Albert Einstein Institute in Germany and at the University of Mississippi. Read, a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, serves as associate director of CSUF's Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy Center. She is the recipient of the 2017 "Women of the Year" award in the category of science and technology from state Sen. Josh Newman.
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Joshua Smith
associate professor of physics
Smith is the inaugural Dan Black Director of Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy who leads a team of faculty and student researchers at Cal State Fullerton's Gravitational-Wave Physics and Astronomy Center. The researchers were key contributors to the first detection of gravitational waves from colliding black holes in 2015, as well as three more confirmed detections that have since been announced.
Since joining Cal State Fullerton in 2010, Smith has secured more than $3.4 million in grant funding for his gravitational-wave research efforts, including a $450,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development Program award in 2013, given to young faculty scholars for early career research and teaching.
Most recently, Smith was awarded a $634,000 NSF grant for "Data Handling and Analysis Infrastructure for Gravitational-wave Astronomy," in which he and his students are assisting the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in its ongoing exploration of the universe to detect gravitational waves from various sources. He also is co-leading a nearly $1 million NSF grant project to recruit and support the number of underrepresented students, in particular Latino students, in gravitational-wave science.
A member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Smith chaired the LIGO Characterization group from 2011 to 2015, which monitors and assesses the data quality of the LIGO instruments. In 2015, the Research Corporation for Science Advancement named him a Cottrell Scholar, and last year, the Orange County Register chose him as one of the county's "Most Influential."
Smith, a native of Indian Lake, New York, holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Syracuse University and earned his doctorate in physics from Leibniz Universitat in Hannover, Germany. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Germany's Albert Einstein Institute, and a postdoctoral associate at Syracuse University, where he worked on optical technology and detector characterization for LIGO.
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Geoffrey Lovelace
associate professor of physics
Lovelace is a theorist specializing in numerical relativity. His research focuses on modeling sources of gravitational waves, such as merging black holes and colliding neutron stars, using supercomputer simulations.
Earlier this year, he received the National Science Foundations (NSF) prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, given to support faculty members early in their careers who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. He was awarded $400,000 for his five-year project "CAREER: Computational Gravitational-Wave Science and Education in the Era of First Observations." He also is co-leading a nearly $1 million NSF grant project to recruit and support the number of underrepresented students, in particular Latino students, in gravitational-wave science.
Lovelace, who grew up in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, is a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) collaboration. He earned his doctorate in physics from Caltech and his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Oklahoma. Lovelace worked for five years as a research associate at Cornell University before joining Cal State Fullerton's faculty in 2012
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